Rotten Mango
“Is baby oil and lubricant a federal crime? NO”- Diddy’s Defense | Day 1
Tue, 13 May 2025
“The prosecutors already told you about lubricant, and you may know of his love of baby oil. Is that a federal crime? No.""He uses drugs, he is physical... but is that a federal crime? No."“We accept full responsibility for the domestic violence present in this case. However, domestic violence does not equate to sex trafficking.”- Diddy’s Defense Team This is day 1 of Diddy’s trial.
Chapter 1: What are the opening statements in Diddy's trial?
Monday, opening statements for the Diddy trial. There are no cameras allowed in federal courtrooms, so I know you guys often like to watch live streams of trials that you guys are following, but there's no cameras. So I have two Rotten Mango researchers inside the courthouse with me.
We are all individually witnessing and experiencing everything that's happening during the trial, individually taking notes, and then every single night we'll come home and regroup and try to find all of the things that
that we all saw and felt and noted down because I thought that was the best way because sometimes we notice things that the other person doesn't notice and maybe it's like in our heads. We don't know. So these are all the things that we noted on Monday. If you guys are just here for the actual trial and like maybe some of the transcript stuff, Skip ahead.
This is like the energy inside the courtroom. So Monday morning we sit down. The press is sitting on the right side again. So we are behind diagonal Diddy. So like we can see the side profile of his face and the back of his head mainly. So we're sitting there and I feel like the minute The minute that the defense attorneys start walking into the courtroom, it's already so tense.
The energy, everybody expected it to be a lot more tense on Monday because it's the last day of jury selection. They're finalizing a jury. They're going to start opening statements. Two witnesses are going to come to the stand to testify. There's going to be cross examinations.
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Chapter 2: How is the courtroom environment described?
It's going to be tense, but it was it was really tense Brian Steele walks in holding Tenney's bag as well as his own bag and I feel like the minute that Brian walked in we were all taking notes because We have discovered this new thing at Rottenmingo Which is the fact that we can kind of predict what's about to happen in court next based off of Brian Steele's eyeglasses There's something about this man's reading glasses.
You look at his reading glasses if they are on his nose bridge or I feel like whatever is coming next in court is about to be very serious. Or he's reading something. But usually, something very serious is going to happen. When they're off, I feel like he's relaxed. I feel like it's about to be lunch. That's the feeling that we all gathered and they're just staying on his nose.
They're not coming off. He's like buried inside of his papers first thing in the morning. Usually he likes to do his little posing, not posing, but he likes to do his little stance while he greets people. But he's just like buried into the papers. Mark, the lead defense attorney, also stressed.
I feel like he had a very approachable, almost like a teddy bearish quality that just keeps declining rapidly day by day. And we don't really know what's going on, but like seemingly they're very stressed. The whole defense team, they just look like they're cramming for some sort of finals on the other side of the courtroom.
And we're just in the back watching, kind of stalking them is the feeling and like taking notes. And then the prosecution team walks in. This is the team that Mark Garagos, lead attorney, Tenny Garagos' famous celebrity attorney father, has called a six-pack of white women. They walk in.
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Chapter 3: What are the roles of Diddy's defense team?
And I will say, I don't know if it's the fact that we heard him call them a six pack of white women on a podcast or if they just look so cool. They looked so cool. Really? Yeah. The six of them, they walked in together and they are just no business. We one of us wrote down if this was a soundtrack, it would be a very depressing, motivational anthem. They look depressing. So depressing.
They look so powerful and it's so motivating and inspiring. And I'm like, that's the look of justice, right? Question mark. But they all look so sleep deprived. I feel like they're sleeping under their desk. I feel like they're being held hostage inside of the courthouse. They look less tense than the defense attorneys, but they look so sleep deprived.
All three of us wrote down that the lead on this case, which is Maureen Comey, she was the lead on the Maxwell case as well. She was assigned the Epstein case, but he self-exited in jail, said nobody ever, right, debated. But she went to Harvard Law School. She had really intense eye bags on her. And we say that with a lot of respect because those could be the dark circles of justice.
But it is worth noting, by the way, that the prosecution... Yes, maybe it helps us sleep better at night to believe that they are in it for the sole motivating factor of just insatiable hunger for the justice of the people. Clearly, it's a huge stepping stone for a lot of people. Diddy's own successful defense attorneys have worked for the DA's office at one point.
Mark Agnifilo, Alexandra Shapiro, Xavier Donaldson. It's like a pipeline of
Oh, they all worked in the... Is it the same office?
I don't think SDNY. So I know Xavier Donaldson worked in the Bronx. I don't think that... So they were kind of colleagues at one point, right? Oh, Alexandra Shapiro did work SDNY, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes. So they were ex-colleagues or...
But I don't know if their timelines overlapped, but it is a pipeline. So former prosecutors have a lot of knowledge of how evidence is evaluated. Charging decisions are made. I mean, they're pretty good at anticipating the weaknesses in the government's cases. So just having even that relationship with the DA's office is probably successful. Which is very interesting to note.
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Chapter 4: What allegations are being made against Diddy?
Everything reported on in this episode and throughout the trial is public information, but any descriptions or observations regarding the defendant or anybody else in the courtroom are personally noted by myself and my two researchers who are present most of the times in the courtroom. in person seeing all of these things happen in real time with our own eyes.
However, just because we see something and feel something does not mean that our experiences and statements are valid reflections of the truth. Our interpretations of these random things that we see in the courtroom could mean nothing. Like it could be, completely inaccurate.
They have no weight or bearing obviously on the verdict of the trial, but it should also not be a definitive source on how you feel about a defendant, about a victim, a witness, or really just the case in general. And this case right now, Diddy is considered innocent until proven guilty.
The burden of proof is the responsibility of the prosecution and all the crimes that he has been charged with are alleged until a verdict is reached. We did four deep dives into Diddy's case in 2024 after his arrest. So if you want to know the whole, the backstory on everything, it's going to be in four different videos that I'm going to link below.
And now we are on the opening statements of his trial that started Monday, May 12th. We're going to be doing daily updates on Diddy's trial. He is facing one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation across state lines for the purpose of sex work. He's rejected a plea deal. And he is facing a maximum of life imprisonment if found guilty.
This is a federal case. So like I said, no cameras. We can't even bring our phones in. Like we're just taking handwritten notes. So with that being said, let's just get started. The first part of Monday starts with selecting the jury. So both sides still have to get rid of all of their strikes.
Basically, they have a number of strikes that they can get rid of jurors for technically no reason at all. And the minute that these strikes start occurring, I feel like I don't know what's happening. Okay, we were all writing this down. It seems very hectic on the defense side. There's an order in which they have to go.
The order behooves me, but it's like the prosecutors strike one, the defense will strike one or two. There's like a very specific order and there's clearly a pattern that they need to follow and Mark Agnifilo is not following the pattern. He's reminded by prosecutors like, I think you were only supposed to strike one at that point. Linda Moreno, who is the jury consultant for Diddy's team,
She's a little bit more involved today. Like the whole morning, before they even got started, she's been turning around to Diddy, talking more intensely to him. She was a lot more social prior to this. I feel like in the mornings before court really started, she would talk to other attorneys. She did not come to play today. She looks like she's on her game.
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Chapter 5: How do the prosecutors present their case?
But I want to start by saying two things. First, what Combs did to Cassie in that videotape is indefensible. It is horrible. It is dehumanizing. It's violent. It's virtually every bad word you can think of. And while it's dehumanizing and violent and terrible, the second most important thing is that it is not evidence of sex trafficking. It is evidence of domestic violence.
You will see that it's also evidence of the central theme in this case, which is jealousy. That's what the videotape will show you. So the defense states that what Diddy really wanted that day was the phone and that the DV is over the phone and not because of sex trafficking. Further asking, what causes a fight about a phone? We can all use our life experiences to show us that.
Phones keep the secrets of infidelity. And you will hear that there was another fight even later that year, again, about a phone. The defense states that the two of them stayed together for two years after that hotel footage and the real reason that Cassie and Diddy break up, according to the defense, is that they were on and off for years.
Finally they break up because, according to the defense, Cassie was very jealous and broke up with Diddy and then started dating her now husband. And then eventually Kim Porter passes away and the defense states Then in November of 2018, Kim Porter tragically passed away from pneumonia.
Knowing that Combs would be distraught and wanting to be there for him, she did everything she could to be there. She came to his memorial service at his home. She flew to Kim's home state of Georgia to be at the funeral.
Don't lose the sight of the fact that amidst a breakup all the way at the end of 2018, she flew to a funeral service to be there for him and support him and his family during this trying time of their lives.
And at the service, at their home, Combs to a group of loved ones, former employees and others, and to many people who on social media were paying respect said, and I quote, Kim was my soulmate in Cassie's presence for everybody to hear. He said, she was my soulmate. The end of the relationship between Cassie and Combs is important. And I want you to focus on the evidence of how and why it ended.
When Combs publicly stated Kim Porter was his soulmate to all the people around him who were there for the first time, maybe ever Cassie realized that all the things she would not be. I expect many witnesses at this trial to tell you she wanted to be Combs' wife. I expect even she may tell you that.
That is what she spent 11 years trying to get, and in one day it became very clear to Cassie she was never going to be that. And if she was never going to be Combs' wife, if she was never going to be the love of his life, then she would leave. And that is what she did on her terms, her choice, for reasons that for her were the right reasons.
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Chapter 6: What are the reactions of the jurors during the trial?
And as you listen to these witnesses, and there will be many, as the prosecutor told you, who made civil demands against him, I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth have to lie? How many hundreds of thousands of reasons does this witness swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth have to lie?
So in closing, I ask you once again to listen very carefully to all of the evidence. You are not here to judge or impose your moral beliefs onto this man. You are here as a jury of his peers to determine whether the government can meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he has committed these crimes.
So one thing that's very interesting to note is that prior to all of this, like prior to opening statements, Mark Agnifilo and Comey, so the lead prosecutor, they were in the robing room with the judge. So this is not in the courtroom, but it's still on the court transcripts as public record. But Mark is requesting on the record that he...
To summarize it, he wishes and hopes and is requesting that Cassie is already seated at the witness stand before the jurors come in.
They don't want Cassie to walk in front of the jurors?
Yes. This is a quote. Only because of her physical condition. I mean, there are certain things we can't control about a juror who is eight and a half months pregnant. I think he means witness. But I think there is a quality to her walking in front of the jury that I think is easily avoidable. I'm not making an application for any of the other witnesses.
So there was a whole back and forth between the judge. The prosecutor was like, that doesn't even make any sense. Why would we be doing that? The prosecutor says, Your Honor, we would object. If Your Honor is considering it, I would like to be heard on that. I don't think there's any basis to treat any witness differently because of a medical condition, most notably pregnancy.
I think that would be deeply inappropriate. The judge says that he will think about it, but he does think that Ms. Comey makes a very good point. And he says that we wouldn't treat people differently based on any other sort of medical condition or physical impairment or any other attribute, right? Why would we treat this differently? And Mark says there is a prejudicial quality.
Pregnancy is a beautiful and wonderful. It also is a source of potential sympathy. And the judge is just like, they're going to see the witness, you know, like they're going to see the witness. Like, what do you mean? That doesn't make any sense. Like, what are we trying to achieve?
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