Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Sean Combs: An expert witness and an explainer – how many defense lawyers is too many defense lawyers?
22 May 2025
Dr. Dawn Hughes, who's testified as an expert in R. Kelly's sex trafficking trial and the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation proceedings, took the stand on Wednesday to lay out the psychological reasons a victim might stay in an abusive relationship. She was cross-examined by a new addition to the defense team -- this brings Combs's attorney total to nine. NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos joins Andrea and Chloe to talk about what the jury might think looking at Combs's very crowded defense table.If you want to read NBC's coverage of the trial, check out our newsletter, “Diddy On Trial”: NBCNews.com/Diddy
Full Episode
This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning, and it's Wednesday, May 21st. Just a heads up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.
Today, the prosecution's big witness was not, as promised yesterday, a pop star. Kid Cudi has been rescheduled for another day. Instead, their big witness was a forensic psychologist. We'll be right back. Dr. Hughes has never met Sean Combs or Cassie Ventura, but the prosecutor hoped she'd give jurors a crash course on what she considers to be typical behavior of abuse victims.
Why they might stay in abusive relationships or send loving messages to their abusers and why they might take a while to share their experience with other people. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas is outside the federal courthouse to tell us how Dr. Hughes did on the stand. Plus, we'll have a special guest to talk about Combs' ever-expanding defense team. Chloe, hello again. Hey, Andrea.
Let's get right to it. Before Dr. Hughes even took the stand, this big-time witness, there was already some drama.
Absolutely, there was a defense. They had filed a motion last month to block her testimony completely. They said, first of all, she's never interviewed Cassie. She's never met Diddy. So she can only speak in generalities. They said that her testimony is, quote, advocacy masquerading as expertise.
And so one of the things that they really disagree with is the way that Dr. Hughes defines coercion, which we know is a very important part of the sex trafficking charge against Combs. The judge...
of course, let her take the stand, the expert, but he did have some conditions.
The judge had said that she could not use or define the term coercive control, that she cannot offer theories about how an abuser typically acts. And, you know, what we saw is that she gave long answers and the judge kept saying, please keep your answers direct and tight and only answer what's asked of you.
All right, so she doesn't know Sean Combs. She doesn't know Cassie Ventura. So how does Dr. Hughes help the prosecution?
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