The Trial: Your Questions Asked and Answered

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Speaker 5 It's week two of USA v. Sean Combs.
The prosecution continues to call its witnesses and the pace of the testimony is picking up.

Speaker 5 Last week, Cassie Ventura testified for four long days about intimate details of her relationship with Combs.

Speaker 5 This week, the prosecution is calling witnesses who they say can corroborate portions of Cassie's testimony.

Speaker 5 especially her allegations of physical violence and how Combs allegedly controlled her life financially. That will include Cassie's mom and her former best friend.

Speaker 5 People who used to work for Diddy will also be called to testify, including a former personal assistant and a former personal chef.

Speaker 5 Former Bad Boy artist Don Richard took the stand Friday and Monday morning. We mentioned Richard in one of our earlier episodes of the podcast.

Speaker 5 She was a member of Danny Kane, a music group formed on Diddy's hit TV show, Making the Band. She was also in the group Diddy Dirty Money, so she spent years working under Combs and Bad Boy.

Speaker 5 She's also brought her own civil suit against Combs, making allegations that include claims of sex trafficking and copyright infringement.

Speaker 5 Combs filed a motion to dismiss, saying Richard failed to allege any timely or valid claims.

Speaker 5 But today we're talking about Diddy's criminal trial, where Richard is a witness for the prosecution.

Speaker 5 Combs is facing federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for the purpose of prostitution, and he's pled not guilty.

Speaker 5 On the cross-examination of Richard, Nicole Westmerlin, a member of Combs' defense team, challenged Richard's recollection of events, trying to sow doubt about her testimony.

Speaker 5 She drilled in on an incident in 2009, where Richard said Combs attacked Ventura with a skillet, and pointed out discrepancies in her story.

Speaker 5 whether he hit Ventura with a skillet, whether the pan hit the wall, or whether Combs threw its contents at her. It's been hard for you to keep your story the same, Westmerlin asked.

Speaker 5 I told it to the best of my recollection and as close as I could get it, Rashad responded.

Speaker 5 Cassie's former best friend Carrie Morgan also testified about two violent attacks she said she'd witnessed where Combs pushed, struck, and dragged Cassie.

Speaker 5 Sometimes I would tell her she should leave him, Morgan testified. Ventura answered she couldn't because of her job, her car, her apartment.

Speaker 5 He controlled everything, Morgan recalled Ventura telling her.

Speaker 5 Combs' alleged exertion of control, including leveraging financial support, are elements of the alleged racketeering conspiracy with which Combs is charged. This is Bad Rap, the case against Diddy.

Speaker 5 I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an ABC legal contributor and practicing attorney. Today's episode, asked and answered.

Speaker 5 You have have a lot of questions about this Diddy trial. We've gotten calls from Florida to Los Angeles, Alabama to South Dakota.

Speaker 5 You want to know about everything from domestic violence to consent and even the possibility of a presidential pardon. Today, I'm going to do my best to answer them.

Speaker 5 And if you have a question you'd like me to weigh in on, you can leave a voicemail at 646-504-3221.

Speaker 5 Alexandra from Manhattan asked this question.

Speaker 7 I I have a question regarding the difference between domestic violence and what he's actually being accused of, which is, as you described, a pattern of coercion and violence and fraud, etc.

Speaker 7 What is the criteria or precedent for that?

Speaker 7 Like, is there a certain number of times that they would have to show as a prosecution that Diddy did partake in these same things, hiring people, bringing them across state lines, maybe.

Speaker 7 I don't know. What really counts? Or is it just what the jurors think?

Speaker 5 Great question. So, this is, for the defense, at least, the heart of this case.

Speaker 5 Now, domestic violence is a form of violence or aggressive behavior, typically between intimate partners, spouses, girlfriend, boyfriend, people who have been or are currently in an intimate relationship with one another.

Speaker 5 Sex trafficking is a very specific form of abuse.

Speaker 5 It's the action or practice of transporting people from one area to another or one country to another for the purpose of sexual exploitation to have freak-offs, as the government is arguing here.

Speaker 5 And so are there elements of domestic violence that bleed into sex trafficking? Absolutely. But sex trafficking is not domestic violence.

Speaker 5 Domestic violence is a broader category in some respects than sex trafficking. It's like saying domestic domestic violence is a vehicle and sex trafficking is an SUV.

Speaker 5 The sex trafficking does, in many instances, especially if you're dating the person, have the exact components of domestic violence.

Speaker 5 It's just sex trafficking is a much more exact way of describing what's going on. All right, next question.
Karen from Jacksonville, Florida, asked this question about Cassie.

Speaker 7 A lot of this case boils down to consent,

Speaker 7 and I'm curious as to why the prosecution has not really focused on the fact that she was his employee or that she had an ongoing open record contract with him and how that might have played into

Speaker 7 her participation in, you know, these activities. So I'm just curious to know your thoughts on that.
And was she an employee of his? And how does that play into,

Speaker 7 or could it play into the prosecution's case?

Speaker 5 So Karen, I think that's a very interesting question. I understand why you're saying it's about consent because the defense said if it's domestic violence, it's not trafficking.

Speaker 5 It's only trafficking if X, Y, and Z. And so really the case is predicated on Sean Combs' intent.

Speaker 5 If he intended to harm Cassie simply for the purposes of harming her and not for the purposes of using force, fraud, or coercion to traffic her across state lines, then it's not trafficking.

Speaker 5 I think the consent aspect comes in in terms of was she a willing participant of these freak-offs that are alleged to have been forms of sex trafficking, or was she a victim in it all?

Speaker 5 So I think the reason why the government isn't really talking about the employment aspect of it is because they're focusing on Sean Combs' intent,

Speaker 5 what he

Speaker 5 wanted of Cassie, because she could be an employee who was trafficked. She could not be an employee who was trafficked.
But great question. I like it.

Speaker 5 This next question is from Sandy from Atlanta, Georgia.

Speaker 7 My question is, after this trial, can Diddy still be brought up on charges of domestic violence?

Speaker 7 Since they keep bringing up that point throughout the trial, I'm just curious if he can still be charged later on with that.

Speaker 5 When Sean Combs' attorneys say that he could be guilty of some crimes, but not the ones he's being accused of, they're for the most part pointing to state charges of assault, battery, sexual assault, or things of that nature.

Speaker 5 And so it's unlikely that those charges will be brought against Sean Combs because either, one, the statute of limitations has expired, or two, those are not federal charges those are state charges and that's not the arena that he's in so similar to the intercontinental video where we saw sean combs uh beating and hitting cassie he cannot be charged in the state of california for that because the statute limitations has expired and for most allegations of domestic violence outside of rape in the first degree the statute limitations for those charges are anywhere from two to 10 years.

Speaker 5 Again, depending on what you mean when you say domestic violence.

Speaker 5 So it's highly unlikely that those charges can be brought against Sean Combs, even more so in a federal setting, because there would have to be some sort of interstate commerce or traveling over state lines for the offense to bring those charges.

Speaker 5 Just ahead, more answers to the questions that are top of mind for you and the trial of Sean Tiddy Combs.

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Speaker 5 And we're back with more of your questions.

Speaker 5 We got another question from a fellow attorney by the name of Clint, and he lives in Missouri. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 7 Hey, Brian, in the jurisdictions that I practice, jurors can't request testimony and deliberation.

Speaker 7 So I'm curious if in SDNY or in front of this judge, that's something that they'll be able to do is to request the actual testimony as opposed to having to rely. on their notes.

Speaker 5 Great question, Clint.

Speaker 5 And just to give people some background, when Clint and I talk about testimony, let's say, for example, Cassie's testimony is so early on that by the time jurors start deliberating, they might actually forget what she said.

Speaker 5 Now, they are taking copious notes, but notes are only so good. From my experience and my understanding, I've never argued a trial in front of this judge before.

Speaker 5 But in the SDNY, you are able to not only, one, ask for readbacks. So let's say they say, what did Cassie say about the intercontinental video?

Speaker 5 They could have that testimony read back to them while in court, but I've also seen judges in the Southern District of New York give them the minutes, the typed-out version of what a witness said, and give it to them in the deliberation room to evaluate, or give them the still shots of the freak-offs to evaluate in the deliberation room.

Speaker 5 So both have been done in the Southern District of New York. All right, this next question we have is about the makeup of the jury.

Speaker 7 Hey, Brian, I'm Atiya Brown from Chicago, Illinois. Okay, here's my question.
You told us the gender of the jurors. You even told us their ages, but you didn't tell us their ethnicities.

Speaker 7 What are they? Black, white, Hispanic? I'd love to know.

Speaker 5 So the difficulty about talking about people's race when it comes to jury selection is for the most part, and in this case, people don't self-identify their race.

Speaker 5 At least I've never seen on a jury questionnaire, what is your race? And I know out of the 31 questions on this questionnaire, they did not ask, what is your race?

Speaker 5 They would say, for example, my name is Brian Buckmeyer. I am 36 years old.
I am an attorney who lives in Brooklyn, New York, right? And so those identifiers we can give you.

Speaker 5 Now, it'd probably be very clear to know what my race is based on looking at me. Now, I can speculate who is white or who is Hispanic.

Speaker 5 I can probably tell you who is of Asian descent, but I would say this. Walk onto a New York City subway and you tell me who is Puerto Rican, Dominican, or Irish.
Sometimes it's very clear to tell.

Speaker 5 Other times, based on complexion and the way that they look, it's somewhat difficult. So yeah, that's just some of the difficulties of identifying race in a jury.

Speaker 5 Our last question for today has been on a lot of people's minds. I have seen this one on social media buzzing around, and I'm so happy to be able to tackle it today.

Speaker 7 Hello, you got Chad coming to you from Jupiter, Florida. Got a question from Brian Buckmeyer and the bad rap team.

Speaker 7 So basically, if President Trump feels that this is an inappropriate use of the RICO statute and Puff Diddy Combs was an abuser but not part of a racketeering conspiracy or that he trafficked anyone,

Speaker 7 could Puff Daddy or P. Diddy be pardoned or have his sentence commuted if convicted?

Speaker 5 Great question, Chad, but actually it's much shorter. President Trump doesn't have to give an explanation for it.

Speaker 5 He simply has the power to pardon or commute anyone's sentence, and he doesn't even have to wait wait until after a conviction.

Speaker 5 We theoretically could not have a trial tomorrow if President Trump just said, you know what, I want to pardon him. It's possible.
Commuting the sentence is different than a pardon.

Speaker 5 So let's say Sean Combs is convicted.

Speaker 5 He is set to serve life in prison. President Trump can say, you know what, I only want it to be five years.
I want it to be 10 years. I want it to be released today.

Speaker 5 He can commute the sentence down to whatever he wants. It is a federal prosecution.

Speaker 5 And that's why the President of the United States has that power to do so and hasn't really had to give a justification.

Speaker 5 And while we haven't heard anything official, there is some reporting from Rolling Stone that some within Diddy's camp has sought out the possibility of a pardon from the president.

Speaker 5 As we were recording the podcast, we asked ABC's political team to check with the White House to see what they could find out about the possibility of a pardon.

Speaker 5 They spoke with a source who said that a pardon for Diddy is not being considered.

Speaker 5 All right, that does it for this episode of Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy. Thanks to everyone who's called in with a question.
That number again is 646-504-3221. We also have it in our show notes.

Speaker 5 If you appreciate this podcast, please share it and give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other people find it.

Speaker 5 If you're looking for even more more coverage of the Diddy trial, you can check out Burden of Proof: The Case Against Diddy. The show streams weekdays at 5:30 p.m.
Eastern on ABC News Live.

Speaker 5 You can also find it on Disney Plus, Hulu, or on most of your favorite streaming apps.

Speaker 5 Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, is a production of ABC Audio. I'm Brian Buckmeyer.
Thanks for listening.

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