Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers say video evidence from the prosecution shows he is innocent. They have been allowed to watch sex videos said to be from the so-called ‘freak-off’ parties ahead of the trial scheduled for May.Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty hears from Criminal Defence Attorney Shaun Kent about the latest on the build-up to the trial.The Diddy on Trial podcast is here to investigate the rumours, confront the theories, and give you the answers that you need.We also want YOU to be part of the conversation. Have you any burning questions about the cases or the upcoming trial? Heard a theory that doesn’t sit right with you? Get in touch now via WhatsApp: 0330 123 555 1.Presenter: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Producer: Laura Jones Sound Design: Richard Hannaford Editor: Clare FordhamCommissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts Assistant Commissioner: Will Drysdale Commissioning Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Assistant Producer: Rechmial Miller
Chapter 1: What are the charges against Sean 'Diddy' Combs?
He's facing charges of transportation for prostitution, sex trafficking and racketeering with conspiracy. He denies all of them. Meanwhile, in the background, his lawyers have been building his defense. Remember, this is the big federal trial expected in May. This is about his freedom, not about his money. We're in the home straight now and we're starting to see how the defense will take shape.
So Diddy's defense team have issued a letter to the judge stating that, quote, contrary to innumerable sensationalistic media reports, the sex tapes that are currently part of the case do not depict sex parties. Quote, there are no secret cameras, no orgies, no other celebrities involved, no underground tunnels, no minors. Joining me today is our resident criminal defense attorney, Sean Kent.
Chapter 2: What is the defense's strategy in Diddy's case?
Hi, Sean. Hey, how are you guys doing? Good. I just want to ask for your followers, everybody who loves you. You still banned on TikTok? Are you back?
I would guess we're 80% back, so we're back on TikTok. We're up, but who knows how long it's going to last. It sounds like we've got at least a 90-day reprieve from the executioner, so we'll see how much longer that lasts. But we're back for now.
The defense, it's shaping up to be exactly what you told us it was going to be, a defense of consent. So it's all about consent. Can you just explain to us a little bit what's gone on with these from what the defense have said?
Chapter 3: How is consent being argued in the trial?
So what the defense has done is they're taking an interesting tack, and I think the legal analysis is becoming fascinating. And they're saying, if you look at these videos, this shows a consensual relationship. The great thing for them, for their defense about that, is that's in the past. All the folks on social media and so forth are saying, well, these people are drugged.
They're saying they're drugged. Don't forget, it's easy to prove the court a public opinion, but when you get into an actual court, the federal government has approved their case beyond a reasonable doubt. And someone just getting on the stand and saying, I was drugged? The defense can ask a very simple question. Where's the drug test? Where's the proof? You just saying it now.
Like, there's a lot that's going to happen. And I understand where the defense is going. There's like, this is consent. And if it is consensual, butt naked baby old freak off parties aren't illegal. What's illegal is the sex trafficking aspect of this case. And they're saying there is no sex trafficking. Always was going to be the defense. Always.
Well, look, we can't say who victim one is as the BBC because the prosecution have not announced who victim one is. The defense have defined them as somebody who had a consensual relationship with Sean Combs and they are still participating. You know, they're giving evidence to the grand jury. They've said it's consensual. I mean, how do you prove that?
Chapter 4: What challenges does the prosecution face in proving their case?
Well, don't forget, here's the great thing about it. We're innocent until proven guilty. It's not how do they prove it, it's how does the government disprove it. So if you're the defense and you're showing the video, they're just like, well, look at the video. The cross-examination is going to be And by that, I mean from the defense.
Because, of course, what's going to happen is the prosecution gets to put their witness on first, whoever it may be. And this female who had the relationship with Mr. Combs is going to get on the stand. I guarantee you she's going to be emotional. She is going to cry. She's going to talk about this relationship.
She's going to talk about the fact that she was forced to do things she didn't want to do. She is going to say this in a very good way. That's evident. The cross-examination is going to be withering. It is going to take this video frame by frame. This is you with a smile on your face. In this video, anywhere whatsoever, do you say no. In this video, you are seen walking in this way.
It doesn't appear that you were on drugs at any point in time. The cross-examination is going to be withering. And so everybody who was just reading, it's one thing to read evidence that we have half and half of it, but it's another thing to have a witness on the stand who is going to talk about the fights in the relationship, the money that she got, the things that she got.
When we define cases, when we do case initiative, what we always say is a witness's credibility takes the stand with them. So this person's credibility is going to take the stand. And so the biggest question I think that's going to happen is the following.
If Mr. Combs is this most disgusting, abhorrent human being, if he is the monster that you and the government has said that he is, why did you stay with him?
Presumably then the prosecution must be preparing that person because that is an awful lot to go through.
They would, and I prosecuted it, and what ends up happening is You have to be careful when you are preparing a witness. There's not a lot of evidence. There's videos and so forth, but the evidence is going to come from the stand from the person's mouth. And so when you are preparing a witness to testify, especially of the government, it is the hardest thing to do. Why?
Because you're not allowed what's called lead. You're not allowed to suggest the answer. So really what you're doing is you're trying to get a witness simply to tell their story. So you would say witness one. Realistically, you say, what happened? And then you say, what happened next? That's how we're taught as prosecutors, as a former prosecutor, to get a witness to tell the story.
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Chapter 5: How does the protective order affect the defense's access to evidence?
Do they prep you for stuff like this in law school? Do they say, you know, you might do a case and you might have to watch hours of pornographic material and comb through it? What's the semester run for this?
Well, you're exactly right. They don't prepare you for that because you understand every case is different. So you read about cases like, I think this Diddy case is going to be studied forever. You know, I think it's going to be studied in law school, but that's the way that we learn is because of what happens with cases is how you learn things that could happen.
Like when I was in law school, we studied the OJ Simpson case because that was a case that had happened. But anybody before OJ wouldn't have known about these cases. We wouldn't have known about court TV and things of that nature because it didn't happen.
Now, we know that they're seeing some of the evidence that the prosecution have, the defense team, and this is going to help them build their defense. Does this mean that they've got a sort of in-depth, we're alleging that he did this at this time on this day. They've got that? Because you spoke about this before. It's called an enterprise letter.
Yeah, they haven't had it yet, but what they have is exactly what you want. Usually what ends up happening is the defense could file what's called a bill of particulars. A bill of particulars in the federal system is exactly what it sounds like. It's basically, here's a bill.
Or, like, if you go into a restaurant and you order food and all of a sudden the waiter gives you a bill and it just has a total on it, $75, like, well, what the heck is this for? Break this down for me because you just gave me a bill. Well, the indictment is just the bill against Diddy. Tell me exactly what I ate and exactly what I paid for to get to this $75.
The bill in particular says federal government break down the charges, the dates, the time, the people, because you've made this allegation And you haven't broken it down. Well, that's why the government said, you don't have to file your bill of particulars, Mr. Combs.
We're going to give you an enterprise letter where we break down our times, our dates, our allegations, who we think is involved, the other parties, all of the people here. That being said, we're not going to give it to you until March or whatever the date is. Here's our letter. Ha ha. You got two months to prepare.
Is that normal?
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Chapter 6: What implications do the sex tapes have for the trial?
Chapter 7: How does the court handle witness preparation in sensitive cases?
Exactly.
Why wouldn't they have one anyway?
And that was weird to me. You're not the only one asking that same question. I'm just like, uh, you already have this via discovery. You already have all of this evidence. So that was something that was wild to me also.
But a lot of times what we have in the federal system is what's called a protective order, which says we will give this evidence to the lawyers, but don't you dare share it or leave a copy. Specifically, don't leave a copy with the defendant. We don't want him to have a copy while he's incarcerated.
And so that might be really what they're saying is we need a tangible copy so we can give Mr. Combs so he can go through it line by line. I'm sorry, frame by frame and go through it in full detail. That's my assumption is that he is not allowed to have a copy because that's usually the protective order or judge rules on these high profile cases or almost all federal cases.
To protect victim one.
Protect any victims, any potential victims. That's usually why they do the protective order, not even to make it that specific. Federal judges are very scared of releasing evidence to protect victims. And that happens a lot, Doc.
So they've essentially now filed this letter, which is public. I mean, it's been written up countless times, talking about evidence that is then going to be used in the trial. Isn't that going to bias the jury, Paul? Or is it normal to talk about evidence beforehand, like openly?
And if you notice, they filed a letter and immediately the prosecution came back and was like, what the heck are you doing? The only reason they filed that letter was to prejudice the pool so that we're doing exactly what we're doing. Everybody on social media are talking about those tapes because clearly the court of public defending is against Diddy. It 100% is.
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Chapter 8: What happens if a witness wants to withdraw from the case?
So then do those people get wrapped up into the trial? They have to get their own lawyers because they've been named?
Yes and no, because here's potentially, and of course, assumption based upon experience, they already know who they are. They've already struck their deals. They're already ready to testify. So they've all already been talked to. They know what's coming. They're not going to be surprised on March 8th. They already know all of this stuff is coming.
And probably a lot of them are going to be witnesses. And so that happens also that these people will get on the stand And they will testify. They'll say, I was there. I was there with Combs. He directed me this. He was doing this, this, this, and this. Now, the cross-examination of them is going to write itself. How much time were you looking at? You were looking at 20 years.
The government came to you. They never listed you in this RICO charge. So this entire time behind the scenes, you were working to save your own life. That's why you're testifying to this now. If you thought this was such a bad crime, if you thought this was so crazy, if you thought this was so intense, How many times did you go to law enforcement? Who did you warn? Who did you help with a lawsuit?
The cross-examination is going to write itself for these people if they knew that these charges were coming and they've done nothing about it. So they all have lawyers already.
Now, look, he's been charged with sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution and racketeering with conspiracy. Sean Diddy Combs denies it all. And I've seen your comments on Sean's TikTok. If you guys don't know, if you don't follow Sean, he's big on TikTok. They call him Professor Kent. They say, I'm early to class. I've said I'm early to class in the comments section.
It's like a little community. And I think now is the time that we need to knuckle down and get our heads around all of this because the trial really is round the corner. And Diddy's defence team are not going to slow down so we can play catch up with what's going on. And we put the questions out there to your followers, to the followers of the podcast. We've sifted through some of them.
But now I think it's time for a new segment on the podcast. We're calling it Classes in Session with Professor Kent. And we've got some of the best questions that came in this week. Please continue to send them through on our WhatsApp, which is 0330 123 5551. The first question today is, what is the best possible outcome for Diddy?
And I'm assuming this means, you know, other than saying, sir, you are completely innocent, you may walk.
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