The judge in the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has warned his lawyers that he may be removed from the courtroom, unless he stops trying to interact with the jury.Judge Subramanian said that he had seen Diddy nodding towards jurors. Meanwhile, one of Diddy’s former girlfriends, who is testifying under the pseudonym ‘Jane’, has started to give evidence. She told the court that they dated between 2021 and 2024.Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty speaks to BBC New York correspondent Nada Tawfik about the week in court and hears analysis from criminal defence attorney Shaun Kent.Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is on trial in New York, facing federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. He denies all the charges.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 questions about the case? Heard a theory that doesn’t sit right with you? Get in touch now via WhatsApp: 0330 123 555 1.Details of organisations in the UK offering information and support with some of the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionlinePresenter: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Series Producer: Laura Jones Sound Design: Mark Burrows Senior Digital Producer: Matthew Pintus Senior Journalist: Chrystal Genesis Production Coordinator: Hattie Valentine Editor: Clare Fordham Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts Assistant Commissioner: Will Drysdale Commissioning Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Assistant Producer: Rechmial Miller
Chapter 1: What are the charges against Diddy?
Before we get into things, a reminder, Diddy is charged with sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution and racketeering with conspiracy, all of which he has consistently denied. Just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of violence and graphic descriptions of sex. Now, this is our roundup episode today.
So you're going to be hearing from our resident criminal defense attorney later, Sean Kent. But first of all, we have the BBC's New York correspondent, Neda Tawfiq, to walk us through what was said in court today and go through what's been said for the rest of the week. Hi, Neda.
Hi, Anoushka.
So let's start with the woman who's testifying under the pseudonym Jane. She took the stand for the first time today. What did we hear?
Chapter 2: Who is Jane and what did her testimony reveal?
Yeah, well, Jane went right to the beginning of when she met Diddy. She said she met him on a girls' trip to Miami and that they didn't get together right away, but eventually they did in 2021. And she talks about how he was extremely charming, how their first date lasted five days. At the end of it, they said started using the L word for love.
And she talks about how she was open with him, that she had a son with someone who he didn't get along with, and that she had also been with somebody who was close to him previously. But that Sean, as she called him, Diddy, said that hadn't bothered him at all. And she said that really it was Diddy who started to introduce drugs more regularly into her life.
having molly, ketamine, ecstasy pretty frequently in their sex life. And there was a moment on the stand where she actually started crying. It was the only moment she started crying and actually dabbed the tears away from her eyes with a tissue. And that's when She spoke about May 2021, and she said that was the first time that Diddy introduced the idea of these fantasies.
Now, they didn't call them freak offs. Again, these kind of drug fueled sex nights with male escorts. They called them debauchery nights or hotel nights. And she said that there was a real pattern to these nights. She would have to be dressed in lingerie. She would have to wear stripper heels. She would have cream colored light nails, her hair would be straight or up in a ponytail.
Again, they would be in mostly hotel rooms with red lights. And the escorts, again, she describes how they came from this company that Diddy had used in the past. She describes the first one being introduced to a man being extremely nervous, actually asking for the escort to use a condom. And while Diddy was reluctant at first, she testified, he eventually did use a condom.
But she said that first night while she was exhilarated by it, she felt it was very taboo and it was exciting. She said it was like opening a Pandora's box after a while because She couldn't shut it. And she said ultimately she didn't want to do it. She started telling Diddy later that she didn't want it. But he was very dismissive of her concerns, she testified.
He would say, fine, we don't have to do it then. You're crazy. Let's not talk about it. And she said, and yet they would still have to do it. And at a certain point, she felt pressure because he was paying her rent at about $10,000 a month.
month so Jane on the stand describing very much the early stages of the relationship how these hotel nights played out with some graphic detail about just even the escorts ejaculating on her at the end and that being something that Diddy would expect before they themselves would be intimate and just how that made her feel especially
with the financial pressures and her saying she could never really get her own job it was a lot of pressure to look a certain way for Didion to be available at his beck and call essentially and they did focus on a specific time frame from May 2021 to October 2023 they have a break in October 2023 but they asked her what percentage of that time was spent doing these hotel nights
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Chapter 3: What warning did the judge give Diddy?
It was his understanding that the woman he spoke to on the phone after the money that was handed over was Cassie, saying that she had a movie premiere. She just wanted this all to go away. And Eddie said he was nervous. He didn't really even get to read through the whole NDA. He just quickly signed it because it had Combs Enterprises at the top.
The defense on cross-examination did point out that the NDA didn't preclude him from speaking to law enforcement. That could be a nod to trying to fight this idea that there was obstruction of justice.
But certainly when you look at this testimony from Eddie Garcia, it is very crucial to the government's case that this was all part of racketeering, that there were others in the company that were instrumental to covering up this alleged crime.
At the beginning of the week, we picked up where we left off last week with Mia, who was still on the stand. She's testifying using a different name to protect her identity. And this was the tail end of her cross-examination. followed a similar pattern to the beginning of the cross-examination?
Yeah, that's right. The end of her cross-examination was again just kind of going over some of her flattering messages to Didi, how she stayed in touch with him and going over why she would do that if he is somebody who had traumatized her, going over a message she sent after she lost her position at Revolt. where she talks about wanting to harm herself, how her life is over.
And she explained on the stand that even though it wasn't a great job, that she has trauma from it, in the moment, it felt like it was her whole world. And that's why it was so upsetting for her. And that's why she reacted that way. But very much the cross-examination, trying to discredit her, digging into all of these messages she had sent to Diddy all along.
Neda, thank you so much for filling us in.
My pleasure. That was the BBC's New York correspondent, Neda Tawfiq. And just a reminder, Diddy denies all the charges. Now, on Wednesday, I caught up with our resident criminal defense attorney, Sean Kent, to go through some of what's happened this week, but also answer your amazing questions. Hi, Sean. Hey, how are you doing? I'm good. Today was interesting. We had Barna on the stand.
You said that nothing that happens in this trial is a shock for anybody, either the prosecution or the defense. And particularly a witness for the prosecution, they should know their temperament, what they're going to say, what they can remember, what they can't. Yep.
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Chapter 4: What did Bonna's testimony include?
Well, I guarantee you they didn't know it. And we've interviewed a lot of people get on a stand, you freeze. Like if you remember the witness before her, Mia, I mean, remember they said they met with her 27 times. And they probably met with her 27 times to make sure they knew how she was going to be.
Because you think you can prep a witness for a stand, but until you get on the stand and you're looking at the person, you freeze. It's sort of like an actor getting stage fright. It's the exact same theory. And you never know what someone's going to do until they testify. So that's probably what happened. But I read that the cross-examination went well.
Not even that the cross-examination went so well that the witness did so poorly. And one bad witness, I've told you, can hurt your entire case.
The other thing I don't get is the prosecution have the same notes that the defence have, i.e. notes that they took in the pre-trial meetings that they have, right? So the defence were drawing out, in the first meeting, you said this happened. In the next meeting, you said you were in a completely different place. In the third time, you said that different people were there.
Just using that as examples. But those are all discrepancies that the prosecution should have picked up on beforehand. But it seemed like this was coming completely out of the blue. And the only thing that she knew what to do was say, I don't remember.
And that's such a big defense. You know how many times I've called it the eight mile defense? Tell everybody the bad stuff about the witness before you let the cross examination happen. You get the bad out. Do you have a criminal record? Have you been in trouble with these things? Tell me, do you do drugs?
You get all that out because it doesn't have the same shock value as it will when the witness is being cross examined. And that's the problem. But my gut reaction is they did not know anything. She was going to either they did not know she was going to do so poorly or they knew she was going to do so poorly.
And it's almost worse if you don't put the witness in because then everyone's like, OK, I wonder why they're not having her testify. Maybe she was lying. So you don't have a choice. You're like, we knew she was going to be bad, but we're putting her on the stand anyway.
With Barna, one of the narratives that was offered a few different times that you might not have picked up on if you weren't doing this as your morning, noon and night job. They've spoken about her before during Kerry Morgan's testimony. When they speak about Barna, they kept saying, oh, and Barna would buy drugs, right? Or supply Cassie with drugs or supply you guys with drugs.
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Chapter 5: What were the key points from the defense's cross-examination?
Well, after a while, you start realizing and there's a little phrase that prosecutors are using that they'll say the devil doesn't hang out with angels. The devil hangs out with devil, that angel. Like, so in other words, these are bad people. So they're going to hang out with other bad people. The defense's standpoint is going to be you cannot trust anything that these folks are saying.
They're drug dealers. They're drug users. They don't have credibility. And so if her credibility is slightly shot from the defense standpoint, it's like you cannot trust her.
Now look we had another big witness for the prosecution which was Mia. What were your reflections on her testimony now that it's come to an end?
I don't know if you saw the filing that came out. The government now wants to recall their expert. They want to recall the doctor as a result of the cross-examination that happened on Mia.
Remember the text messages that came out, the R. Kelly information that came out, all of this stuff that came out about Mia and the fact that the defense is trying to make it seem like she liked him, she enjoyed him, she put stuff about his social media out. Well, they want to call that same expert to explain coercive control.
They sent a filing to the court and said, we want to recall her and explain that this is the reason why she testified this way. And this is the reason why she still loves Puffy and didn't realize it till later, because this is the cycle of abuse that we were talking about, Cassie. And it also has an effect on Mia.
So that's what I thought was interesting is that it's pretty clear that the government is filing this motion because they thought the cross-examination of Mia must have gone well for the defense. And now they want to recall the expert to basically rehabilitate their witness and say this is why she was sending all these loving, adoring text messages back and forth.
Let's talk about Eddie Garcia, because I know you've had a lot of questions about what is bribery, what constitutes bribery and what isn't, and whether Eddie Garcia was speaking to an instance of bribery. Eddie Garcia being the security guard who took the $100,000, hands over the USB stick, we know was not the only copy of the assault on Cassie, but takes the money, hands it over.
Bribery or not bribery? Yes and no.
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Chapter 6: How did the week unfold in court?
Cops usually have somebody who has been bought off to do something in an official act. You go to somebody, you say, I want you to vote for this bill. I want you to pass this legislation. That's bribery generally in the federal sense. It is a predicate act and it's one of the predicate acts that they need to do.
So I went back and looked at the indictment because I'm like, there's some reason why the government is putting this witness on. When you go back and look at the indictment and you look under RICO and you look under the predicate acts, they talk about California state law. They don't just mention federal law. They go under California state law. They specifically mention California Penal Code 137.
In a RICO case, you can also use state law to prove a federal crime. So what they did is they made allegations of crime. state California bribery to prove federal RICO. And why that's important is under the state of California, which is way easier to prove bribery, all they got to prove is if somebody offers you money not to tell something to law enforcement, that's bribery. That's it.
That's a state level bribery claim. And so when I looked it up, I'm like, dang, that makes sense on why they're doing. And even though it's a state level act, It still counts under federal RICO.
We've actually got a lot, a lot of questions. And they're really, really good questions. Why is everyone so smarter than me? I don't like that. Give me dumb questions. Well, we've been coming to class. We're ready to go. So this is from Charlotte in North Yorkshire in the UK. Hi, Charlotte.
If the people who were testifying against Diddy also used to work for him and were involved in the enterprise, how come they are not accused with Diddy?
Yes, all of these individuals are part of the enterprise, okay? And that's the first part of RICO. You must prove a criminal enterprise. Well, here comes the second part. You still got to prove two predicate acts. Just because these people are watching this, what are the predicate acts that they've actually committed? That's why they're able to go with Diddy. Diddy has committed the arson.
Diddy has committed the kidnapping. Diddy has committed the bribery. The other big reason why the federal government is going after all of these charges under RICO is the statute of limitations in California on most of these charges have already passed. So a lot of these people couldn't be convicted of crimes in the states where they occurred.
If I was defending anybody in the Diddy sphere who worked for Combs Enterprise, I would be like, that dude did it. We had nothing to do with that. Because if you remember what Cassie said, how many people were in the freak off? Her and the dude and Diddy. So Christina Cronin's like, I wasn't in no freak off. I didn't get an invitation. I mean, the arson. We don't know who committed the arson.
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Chapter 7: What role does Sean Kent play in this case?
Nobody's testified about anything about minors, anything about children, anything about these allegations. They haven't come up. And until they come up in a courtroom, it doesn't happen. Now, if... Big capital I-F. If Diddy is convicted and if he gets a massive sentence in the federal sentencing guideline range, he is able to then cooperate if he wants to, to get his sentence reduced.
Let's say for argument's sake, he has all this co-conspiracy information about people that they want to know. He can cooperate to get his time cut. That is allowed in the federal system. So if he did have information and got convicted and went to jail for life, he could get his time reduced if he wanted to.
Wouldn't he have to offer up somebody else bigger than him? Because if he was like, oh, this rapper that nobody's ever heard of was doing this, wouldn't they be like, OK, we'll shave off two days?
Love that question. And it is and it usually happens when we're representing individuals who are dealing with drug dealers. OK, and usually what ends up happening is exactly what you said. Somebody gets busted. They're on a conspiracy. They're trafficking drugs all over the United States. They get busted like, well, I want my time cut. I'm looking at 30 years.
And they say, I can give you a bunch of middling small drug dealers. Well, what ends up happening is the federal government says, sure, give us all of those people. We'll take two years off your sentence. For us to cut your time, you need to give us somebody who has more drugs than you got arrested with. So it's the same theory with Diddy. You want a substantial cut?
Give us somebody we care about.
Sean, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. And thank you to everybody sending in these really, really good questions. Thank you so much, Sean. We really appreciate you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. That was Sean Kent, criminal defence attorney from South Carolina. And that's it for this episode of Diddy on Trial from BBC Sounds.
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It's not funny. It's true. Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. Um, Keats, I've got some questions for you. BBC Sounds. Tell me what you've enjoyed about our podcast so far. I like that you've got more and more comfortable in this space and I've watched you show all parts of yourself. We've both cried. Miss Me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. We're just us having a chat.
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