July 14, 2025 • 36 mins
In this powerful and unfiltered episode, we take a hard look at the rise, reign, and reckoning of Sean “Diddy” Combs. From industry icon to tabloid headline, we unpack it all; the legacy, the lifestyle, and the legal heat he’s facing right now, including the fast-approaching sentencing on October 3rd.
Cari even shares some of her personal experiences that pull back the curtain on Diddy the man, not just the mogul, and the challenge of reconciling the artist with the allegations.
Mona Kosar Abdi, senior correspondent for Extra TV, joins us to help break down the legal details of the trial, the headlines you’ve heard (and the ones you haven’t), and the public’s complicated response; especially with stories like the so-called “freak offs” drawing so much attention.
Now the verdict has been announced, the bigger question remains: “When someone this powerful falls, can they ever really rise again? And should they?”
Connect @CariChampion @mokoab
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all. So what's happening
in women's basketball right now is what we've been trying to.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Get to for almost thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
From the stadiums where athlete to break barriers and set records.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Caitlin Quark broke the all time single game assists record.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. And each episode we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your host, Carrie Champion.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Wow, the veric is in and let's be clear, the
government lost his case.
Speaker 6 (00:58):
Diddy was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking
charges and found guilty of the prostitution charges.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Eventually, he's gonna come home since in guidelines say he'll
probably do around five years, but the judge can go
above or below that.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
It's just a recommendation. But do I think this is
ultimately a win for Diddy and his team? Yeah, he
beat the main charge, the charge that was going to
keep him in custody for the rest of his life,
the rico charge.
Speaker 7 (01:19):
I know he ain't no rico. He might he might
get a freak go CHARGEE Negro's guilty.
Speaker 8 (01:32):
Ultimately, this is a domestic violence case that's ballooned into
a rico and sex trafficking and so forth. What did
he did? The casting that Hallway was absolutely horrible, but
that is not what the trial was about.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Did he made all this money? He gave all these
opportunities that people created, all these jobs, and it all
burned down because of poor habits and lack of discipline,
drug use, violence towards women, and sleeping with prostitutes. You
can't move like that when you are a black man
in the position power that Diddy was in.
Speaker 9 (02:01):
But alone, this black excellence was associated with Ditty's name
and with Diddy's brain. He was one of the faces,
one of the posted children of black excellence. Moving forward,
what do we want black excellence to be associated with
with hey family?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Today's podcast will be about Diddy about the case. How
we arrived at this point, and more specifically, what's going
to happen next. I'm pretty sure many of you have read.
His sentencing is October third. The reason why I wanted
to do this is because I remained fairly quiet throughout
this entire case, even leading up to his arrest and
(02:37):
after he was arrested. I had been asked multiple times
to talk about it on the record, and I just
did not feel comfortable. Because I have worked with Diddy.
I wouldn't say that we're friends, but we are friendly.
I've talked with him, I've exchanged messages, He's hired me
to do different work for him, most recently at a
super Bowl in Arizona, and I felt like I just
(02:59):
could not really talk about it without feeling as if
I was biased, and biased in the sense I have
a hard time, like many people do, reconciling the art
from the artist.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I say that a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Diddy's music truly has narrated very important parts of my life.
I remember in college I used to listen to Diddy
all the time, him and Biggie all the time, NonStop,
and he at that moment that was his height.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
He was featured on everything.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I remember certain songs coming on, like going back to Cali,
And I remember driving around LA and one of my
close friends at the time, her mom just bought her
a new car and we would just drive around La
listening to going.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Back to Cali. I mean, just whatever it could be.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And I remember listening to Ditty and thinking the battle
between him and Sugar at one point, producer versus producer.
I just remember some very significant moments in my life
and for the culture. I mean, let's not deny who
did he is. He introduced us to white parties while
they may have been happening before we really knew about
them as a culture. He put a different twist on
(04:10):
his white parties. He was known for his white parties.
When I was a local reporter, again, moments were did
he helped really inform and ordinarrate parts of my life.
I was a local reporter in Florida and did he
would come every year to.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Mar A Lago.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You all know where mar A Lago is, where Trump lives,
and he and Trump were friends, and he would have
these big parties at Trump's house in mar A Lago.
That's when Trump wanted to be popular and cool, and
he didn't care who he was interacting with, as we
all know, and he and Diddy were friends, and there
were a lot of people who were there with him.
A lot of those people at those parties. And by
(04:46):
the way, this is early two thousands, a lot of
the people at those parties are now canceled. You can't
even mention their names anymore. Russell Simmons canceled. I can
go down a list of people I remember seeing they're canceled,
if you will.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And so when.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
He was arrested, I felt like it was coming. I
wasn't surprised. The stories about Diddy and Hollywood are infamous,
the stories about the alleged abuse between him and Cassie infamous,
and I can't even say alleged because we have a
video that shows it. So I wanted to wait until
this case was all said and done and bring in
(05:22):
someone who actually covered the case from top to bottom.
And my good homegirl, Mona, who works at Extra and
before Extra, she was at ABC News. Mona Colezar has
covered this case from top to bottom, and she even
said it was such a spectacle that the interest in
this case took her TikTok followers from like three hundred
thousand to a million because people were locked in. They
(05:44):
wanted the information day in and day out. And I remember,
throughout the entire case, her and I would communicate, I
communicate with different people covering it, and I would say,
I don't see Rico. I don't know what they're doing
over here. But it doesn't seem to me like did
he did anything wrong besides be a freak. But today,
(06:06):
today Mona takes us inside the courtroom. She explains what
the freak COFs really were. I don't know about you,
but I thought the freak offs were people who were
a bunch of people, ten twenty people sitting in a
room getting it on, all kinds of crazy stuff, baby
oil everywhere. Well some of that might have been true, yes,
(06:27):
but the way in which I envisioned it was not
the way that it was presented in court. So she
talks about that, which I was surprised by, and I'm
sure you will be two. But here is the bigger question,
and I think many people are asking this. He's sentenced
on October third. How much time will he get Dealer's choice?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
No one knows.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Mona talks about legally the time that he could face
because he is a first time offender, which to me,
sadly I was surprised by. And then the second thing
is will society accept him? I know the culture will
take him back. Listen, I am sorry to tell you this.
(07:09):
I know people are disgusted with him because of what
we know he did to Cassie, But didd, he is culture.
He has always been in the zeigeist He has always
been relevant, whether it be through his kids now and
who they are dating, and who are there hanging out
his dating life, who he is dating, who he might
be with. You may not always listen to his music
(07:30):
in terms of his new music, but his old music
is everywhere. You talk about Mary J. Blige, you talk
about Biggie, you talk about one twelve, you talk about Mace.
I mean, the list goes on and on and on
and on and on. Didd, he has had such a
huge influence in ushering in a genre of hip hop
that did not exist, and he will forever be in
(07:54):
the culture. Whether he will be celebrated, that's an individual choice.
But today on Naked we discuss p Diddy, how we
got here and what happens next.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Hope y'all enjoy.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
I'm mona Kosar, Abby's senior correspondent for Extra TV Mona.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. I know
you got busy things to do today. So the ditty
case so important, everyone talked about it.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I need you to do me a favor.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I have a question because I remember just seeing Diddy
hanging out at his house. There were these incidents and
people were suggesting that he was doing things, and next
thing I know, he's in jail. How do we get here?
How do you arrest a mogul like Diddy? He goes
from being this super high flying you know, I guess
to me, bigger than life image, and now he's in jail.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
How did we even get here?
Speaker 6 (08:49):
Yeah, let's take it even further back where he was
getting Lifetime Achievement awards from MTV.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Bet we were celebrating his legacy.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
He was at the Rock New Brunches with other fellow mobils,
and so he was definitely cemented. His legacy was cemented
into not just hip hop history, but also just the
entertainment world. He's a disruptor, He broke barriers. He reached
heights that not many entertainers reach. And I'm talking black
white regardless right, And then right after he gets one
(09:22):
bet I Believe Lifetime Achievement Award, he has an album
that drops in September of twenty twenty three. Then, but
then in November of twenty twenty three, Cassie Ventora files
a lawsuit, a lawsuit that had a trigger warning, and
that is something that's rare, right, because the details were
(09:42):
so disturbing that in the filing they had to put
a trigger warning. And in there she details years and
years of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse at the hands
of Ditty. She says that he forced her to engage
in these freak offs, that's what she referred to them as,
and said that he liked to watch her have sex
(10:03):
with male entertainers, but he did so while she was
under the influence of drugs. He did so while coercing
her into it by holding her career over her head,
by using physical violence, for example.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And she sued him.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
For I believe it was an undisclosed amount. It might
have been thirty million dollars at the time. That was
a number that was being floated around. Now immediately did
he denies everything that is in including the physical abuse
that is detailed in this lawsuit, but then quickly settles,
literally within twenty four hours, settles for an undisclosed amount
that we later found out was for twenty million dollars.
(10:41):
But the damage was already done and that week I
believe she filed it on a Friday, that weekend, Even
though he settled within twenty four hours, it was on
the front page of every single newspaper, every single website.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It was already out there.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
And that lawsuit triggered a federal investigation. Once the Beds
were aware of all the things that he was detailing,
they started looking into him, and I think as early
as December of twenty twenty three they started looking closely
into him. By March of twenty twenty four, they rated
two of his properties, the one on Star Island in
Miami and the one in Los Angeles. Federal agents raided
(11:18):
his homes and so that's when Mark Agnifflow, who's his
lead attorney, started going out and you know, basically telling him, listen,
you're going to get arrested. It's not a matter of
if you're going to get arrested, but when you're going
to get arrested, right, And they started preparing for him
to at least be let out on bail. Mark agniflo
says he took his pass or he took the passports
of several of his family members. They just knew an
(11:40):
indictment was coming down. But what we did see in
the media was Diddy riding bikes in Miami, saying hi
to fans, acting like everything was totally fine. Right, But
behind the scenes they are preparing. He is talking to
the woman who we know as Jane, who was dating
him at the time, telling her nothing has happened between us, right,
(12:01):
everything was consensual between us, and we heard those recordings
in court. Behind the scenes, he's getting her an attorney.
He is lawyering up himself, right, making sure that you know.
Mark Agniffilow was going on CNN at the time trying
to say that this was a big nothing burger, that
the federal agents have nothing better to do than to
investigate him.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
But then in May of twenty twenty.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
Four, CNN releases that hotel attack video that we have
all seen of Ditty kicking and hitting Cassie as she's
trying to leave him, and he's in a towel in
a hotel and just visually viciously beating her, and that
changed everything. Carry because even people who were defending Ditty
at the time, who were saying, like, yeah, we don't
(12:45):
you know, these are all allegations that Cassie is making.
He denied all these allegations and this is a smear campaign.
For example, a lot of people were quiet once that
video came out and he was forced to issue an apology.
He posted on his instagm video saying that he is sorry,
that there's no excuse for the violent behavior and I
feel like that video changed the course of a lot
(13:06):
of things. And then in September of twenty twenty four,
he was arrested, and that is where everything started. Obviously,
his child began in May of twenty twenty five, a
few months ago, but that is really when things started
to unfold, was in September of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So you just outlined how he went from receiving lifetime
Achievement awards, being celebrated in the community, to where there
were these instances where people like, I've heard about this
because I got to be honest, you know, behind the scenes.
I've been to a few of Diddy's parties. I've never
been to a freak off, but I do know that
he kept a very tight list of celebrities. I went
(13:45):
to his fiftieth birthday party. There were so many celebrities there,
and not one of them spoke out in his favor.
So I'm really curious, why do you think Because you
explain how we got here, but why do you think
so many people who were considered his friends, his peers,
(14:05):
why were they so silent?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I think for several reasons.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Right, I've thought about this a lot, because this is
somebody who was super famous. Right, We're not talking about
someone who's known in certain circles.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
This is Diddy.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
He's a mobil He's friends with some of the most
powerful people, and nobody came to his defense. Another thing
I noticed is when his trial started, I'm like, where
are the Disney fans? When I saw the Johnny Depp trial,
I saw a lot of Johnny Depp fans holding signs,
people ready to come to his defense.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Here's what I think. I think. Number One, he's someone
who didn't make a lot of friends in the industry.
He is a utrow businessman.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
He's really good at what he does, and I think
he has pissed a lot of people off along the way,
and so there were people that were ready to throw
him under the bus and say that they've worked with
him and he is everything that people are saying he is.
I also think that there were a lot of civil lawsuits.
I think the number is like past sixty at this point.
And in those civil lawsuits, this is even before we
(15:00):
found out what the Feds were investigating, what they were
accusing him of. In those civil lawsuits, people were alleging
some pretty egregious things, right such as such as saying
that he was sexually assaulting people, men and women, that
he was slipping things into people's drinks, that there was
something laced than this baby oil that we keep hearing
so much about, and saying that after these lavish parties,
(15:23):
these A List parties that he threw, there were after
after parties, and some people said that there were a
less celebrities attending these parties, and that there would be
a less celebrities it would come out that were on
these tapes. Right now, I will say, as of today
as we're speaking, a lot of these things have not
been proven. None of this came up in the federal
(15:46):
investigation or the trial as well. But I will say
a lot of people were trying to save their own
behinds and make sure that they weren't associated with him
and associated with the tapes. There were also allegations that
there were miners involved, right, So these are very serious
allegations that I think nobody was willing to put their
neck out on the line for him. And I also
(16:08):
think that that brutal video that came out of him
beating Cassie, it was really hard to come out and
say that you still stood by him and you were
going to defend him without yourself being dragged publicly after
that media.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
But Mona, to your point about why celebrities are trying
to save their their behinds if you will, there were
people who saw this. There's they're allegedly people's stars, famous
who saw how he treated Cassie. She even talked about it.
So what we're witnessing in real time is the power
(16:43):
of a man and his money, you know, silencing a
group of people for to me, lack of a better word,
for all the wrong reasons he had. It appears or
allegedly it appears like he had some sort of power
over them, because to me, silence is complicit, like you
(17:07):
are in agreement if you didn't come out and say, well,
this was wrong.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And I'm just asking, do you know if any of
these major celebrities were asked to testify or asked to
speak out against Diddie? Do you have any information about that?
Was that mentioned in court? While you covered this case.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
There were a lot of celebrities that were name dropped,
a lot like I can't go through the list, right,
some none in the none in relation to any of
the sexual activity that was going on.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Right.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
The only person that was mentioned in an intimate setting
was Kit cutting right because he was dating Cassie.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
There were a lot of level that mentioned.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
We saw Kanye West come through right, and there were
some talk there was rumors that he may have been
involved with in this lifestyle right, that he was the
person that Jane said she attended a similar kind of
freak off party with.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
He showed up the next day.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
In court, right, But I don't think that the I
don't think the government or the prosecutors were trying to
subpoena any of them. I think they wanted Kid Cutti
because he was directly involved. What I realized throughout this
trial is that Cassie and Diddy had their A list friends,
the celebrities that they were seen with, that they were
(18:21):
hanging out with.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Then they had behind the scenes friends.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
These were assistants, hair stylists, stylists, makeup artists that knew
them intimately. Because one thing that I've realized is these freakoffs.
Even though people were saying, oh, this was the after
after party to the white party, this seemed like it
was a really intimate thing between Cassie Diddy or Diddy
and Jane or another girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
And I mean, what do you mean an intimate thing?
What do you mean an intimate thing?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
So you're really want to say, yeah, his parties, his
normal parties that people have heard of that he's known for,
white parties, he invented in a lot of ways, big
huge events. You're telling me these freak offs weren't T's
one of your thirty people. They were intimate events. And
what do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 (19:03):
What I mean by that is, yes, it was probably
three people Max, Cassie Diddy or Diddy and a girlfriend
and a male sex worker.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
This wasn't something that he wanted out.
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Even these tapes, they were only featuring three people, and
they were on his personal devices, they weren't for other
people to see. Whenever a male sex worker said that
you know, there's a tape out there or there was
they got information or win that a tape may have
been leaked, or somebody was holding over their head that
they were going to release a tape, they would pay
(19:36):
the money, They would go through extreme lanes to make
sure these tapes never saw the light of day. So
that's where it's This wasn't a party with multiple people.
This was something intimate that happened on a Wednesday at
eight pm, right, And that is something that I really
wanted people to understand that it wasn't what it was
perceived to be. And I think a lot of people
(19:57):
as they were following the trial were like, wait, what
happened to all the things that were in the media
about minors and.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know, sexual assault and a list celebrities and multiple
people on these tapes. And that's not what came out
during the trial.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
What came out during the trial was that this was
something that he liked to do in his private time
and didn't want people to know about.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Wow, I'm blown away.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
My mind is blown So you mean to tell me
I'm under the impression, just from what I was able
to get from the court that these freak offs to
me sounded like it was just a crazy I mean,
not that of it whatever.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
It sounds as if it was an orgy, thirty forty people.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Uh, baby oil everywhere, drugs everywhere, hotel rooms demolished because
of the freakoffs. You're saying it was an intimate thing
that would happen on a wind today and it was
something that he did just with his significant other.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Is that what you're saying to me, No, so.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Let me clarify, because it was everything that you described
it to be. Drugs everywhere, baby oil everywhere, hotel rooms destroyed.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was wild.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
What I'm say saying, though, is the only participants that
were mentioned at least that came out during the trial
was Ditty, a significant other, and one mail or. There
are times that there were multiple male sex workers, but
that's it, the male escorts, the girlfriend, and Diddy. But
he used to call them debauchery knights, wild king knights,
(21:20):
hotel knights, freak offs. They had all these names to
describe something that was ritualistic.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Right.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
It involved always excess amounts of baby oil. We're talking
ten plus bottles. At one point he had an inflatable
pool where he filled it up with just baby oil.
Hotel rooms so damaged that the Intercontinental built him forty
six thousand dollars to cover the damages. And this was
something that wasn't a one off. Candle wax everywhere, the
(21:46):
drapes doused in baby oil, the sheets destroyed. They would
try to cover the furniture in sheets, Cassie described, because
things would get crazy and they would spend twenty four
thirty six forty eight at one time, she said, seventy
two hours.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
In these hotel rooms.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
And it was something that was possible because they were
doing copious amounts of drugs that they would be able
to do ecstasy to get in the mood, or do
cocaine and other drugs stimulants to stay up for twenty
four plus hours, and then they would have to spend
days recovering.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Okay, So where did the prosecution go wrong? Outside looking in,
I kept saying, where's Rico?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
What is Rico? What is he being charged for?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
All I can hear from the outside looking in, from reports,
from your reporting, from CNN reporting simply was that Diddy
was a freak and he liked to get his freak on,
and that's all I heard.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
And then I.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Would see little bits and pieces about Okay, I can
see how that's sex trafficking, but it sounds to me
like are they making the case? I just heard about
a freaky guy who had a girlfriend who liked to participate.
Eight Where did the prosecution go wrong?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
So the prosecution took about six weeks to outline their case.
They called about thirty four witnesses. They really tried to
flesh out for the jurors.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You know, they were.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Eight men, a panel of eight men and four women.
They really tried to flesh out for them how this
was considered rico under federal law, how this was considered
sex trafficking, both of Cassie and of Jane.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And they really tried to flesh it out.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
Now, I said from the very beginning, the Southern District
of New York has a very high conviction rate. But
if there is anyone that can get off, it is Diddy,
who assembled a powerhouse team of some of the top
defense attorneys in the country. Right they and they tried
their best to poke holes in the prosecution's case. They
tried to make witnesses look less credible through their cross examination,
(23:48):
and this is why we saw his defense team call
no witnesses and take thirty minutes to present their case,
and that is it before they rested. And the reason
being is because throughout the cross examine they were presenting
their case. They set the stage during opening statements saying,
you know what, we're not going to even defend it, Dy.
We're not defending the fact that he is a violent person.
(24:10):
You'll see the tape for yourself. We are not saying
that he is not abusive. We are not saying that
you actually this is a stand up guy. Verbatim, Tenny
Gerago sells a jury during her opening statement, she says,
you may by the end of this you may not
like him. You're gonna think he's a jerk. You're gonna
think he's a mean person. But he is not charged
with being a mean person. He is not charged with
(24:31):
being a jerk. And they also said he's not charged
with domestic violence, which is what this is. This was
a mutually toxic relationship between two people who were in
a decade plus relationship. There was violence involved, and they
say there were you know, there was violence both ways,
and they tried to show that as well, and I
think that was in the back of the jurors minds
(24:54):
throughout this process and what I think they were going
through and what was challenging for the prosecutors was to
show that sex trafficking how we usually see it as
a lay person sees it as someone who has maybe
like grabbed off the street, a pimp and prostitute kind
of relationship is not the only definition of.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Sex trafficking that there are.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
That you can be in a relationship, a committed relationship
with someone and still traffic them.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And I also think that what the prosecution didn't do.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
This is my opinion. I would say, I don't think
they connected with the jurors. I think they threw a
lot of information, a lot of facts in the jurors.
But during closing arguments, the assistant US Attorney, Christy Slavic,
stood at the lectern right in front of the jury
and she had her head down the entire time, reading
off her papers, and she put a PowerPoint presentation that
(25:50):
I can only describe as like a nineteen ninety nine
PowerPoint presentation.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
There was like no graphics.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
They had pictures that you know, it does help us
if you're a visual learner like me, to see the
this is who his security is, this is his chief
of staff, this is his right hand woman.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
But it was.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
Very complex, drawn out, and she didn't look up once
at the jurors.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
She didn't really make an effort to connect with them.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
Then you have marc Agniffolo, who's Diddy's lead attorney, and
during these closing arguments, he said, I'm not going to
show you text messages. I'm not going to show you
a PowerPoint presentation. I'm just going to talk to you.
And he was pacing back and forth and he even
made the jurors laugh a few times. And I think
that connection and he took a risk as well, because
some of the things he was saying. I was like,
this is borderline and it might rub the jurors a
(26:39):
long way, including saying for the first time throughout the trial,
Cassie is not a victim. Cassie is Ditty's match. She
played him, she played kid Cutti. This is a woman
who is nobody's fool, right, And.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I was thinking, Okay, this is bold, because they.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
Have been teetering that line throughout this trial to not
Cassie took the stand which was halfman's pregnant and gave
some of the most compelling testimony that we heard. So
to go after her and attack her so directly, I
thought was a risk.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
But I do think he got a laugh out of
the jurors.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
He poked fun at the prosecution's case, and eventually I
think it came down to they were able to connect
with the jurors and that the jurors couldn't find beyond
a reasonable doubt that he was guilty of sex trafficking
and a rico.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
At the end of the day October third, he will
be sentenced. Can you explain to everyone what he was
convicted of and what's the maximum to minimum, minimum to
maximum amount of time he could possibly face in jail.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes. So one thing I do want to clarify is
that he's still a convicted felon.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
This is his first time offends, but he is a
convicted felon, and that he was facing five counts. So
he was acquitted of the reco charge, He was acquitted
of sex trafficking charge of Cassie and Jane, but he
was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution two counts
of transportation. That is a man act and that I mean,
(28:07):
it's still a federal charge, and it still comes with
a hefty sentence, maximum of ten years in prison.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Because he's a first time offender.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
He may be looking at the according to the defense,
he may be looking at twenty one to twenty seven months, right,
So that's a little over or under two years.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
He does get time served.
Speaker 6 (28:26):
By the time we get to sentencing hearing, he would
have been in jail for a year, maybe thirteen months,
so he will get credit for a year of being
in custody. Wow, But the prosecution says no, given the abuse,
given the drugs, given everything that was involved in the transportation, right,
(28:47):
and everything that was laid out in the case, he's
looking at fifty three to sixty one months or somewhere
around there, somewhere.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Around five years. Right.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
Even then in the grand scheme of things, when he's
looking at life in prison, he was looking at life
in prison. At one point, it seems like this is
a loss for the prosecutors, right, because even if you
get him on five years, if he does four years,
if he's out in three.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
It's not life in prison. The accountability that they.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Were trying to they were trying to hold Ditty to
right to have him in prison for the rest of
his life or at least for several decades.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
I personally think he may get three but then if.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
He is out in two years, if he gets the
time serve and he's out in two years, I think
a lot of the witnesses that testified, a lot of
people that are in circle, will feel disappointed.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
I already spoke with Mala Morales, Cassie's makeup artists, who testified,
and said she witnessed some of the abuse, and she
told me, really, what was that for?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I can't believe this is what happened.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
After we testified, after we went through this, she said
she felt it wasn't worth it.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
At the end of the day, Wow, and what do
you think he's going to get.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
I think he's going to get three years, because, yes,
there are a lot of circumstances, right there was the abuse.
It's not just about transporting escorts across state lines. It's
also about some of the physical abuse that was involved,
the drug use, all of the other factors and everything
that we learned throughout the trial. But I also think
(30:24):
that this is his first time. This is his first
time being convicted.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Of you know, on the record, right, like on the record.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
On record, yes, because if you remember the gun charges
that he was facing back in the early two thousands,
he beat those charges. But I think the big thing
that everybody wants to know is that when he gets out,
whether it's three years, five years, whatever, when he gets out,
is he going to go back to doing what he
was doing? Does this make him feel more untouchable? Or
(30:53):
was this a reality check for Diddy? And I think
only time will tell.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Mona.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I have so many more questions. This is to be continued.
We're going to do part one and part two eventually.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I
think the biggest question is what happens when he gets out.
Will people accept Diddy? And will this be just a
blip on the radar? I think so like I feel
like they love them. I feel like that's my opinion.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
I just feel like they love them.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
These people pouring baby oil on themselves, were you I
mean baby oil?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Why would I be outside the court?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Oh quickly, do you know on the record whether or
not those people outside the court when we're paid?
Speaker 6 (31:29):
No, I think a lot of them were YouTubers. I
think a lot of them were people who saw the
kind of the spectacle that this has turned into. There
were people live streaming every day outside of there, and
that's the people that we saw gathering were people who
were engaging in the spectacle.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It turned out to be all.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Right, Mona, you did a great job. Thank you so
much for covering the case. Thank you for taking the
time to talk to us. I know you got to
jump and go to work. Have a great day, friend,
Thank you friend.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I had so many questions for Mona and not an
time because she had to go to work. However, however,
I think the big question, and again I said this
at the top of the podcast, this is an individual choice.
How you choose to remember Diddy and or celebrate him
and or still listen to his music is the same
way you choose to listen to R. Kelly and or
(32:19):
Michael Jackson and or name the disgraced celebrity. If we
want to go into a genre of music, leave out
of music and go into movies. You know, there are
so many movie stars we know that, or even people
who are in Hollywood in general, that we can't deal
with or we won't watch their movies anymore, or we
can't support them publicly because it's embarrassing. I just don't
(32:42):
want to point to black man, because that's not fair.
I think if Harvey Harvey Weinstein, we still watch his
television show Slash Movies. I may produce a lot of
great films and people are still watching it, and he's
considered persona non grin. I believe Black folks are going
(33:03):
to forgive Diddy. I really do, not all of us,
but I do believe, by and large, his contributions have
been so invaluable to the culture that people will say,
we forgive you your look. I hang around people that
still listen to R. Kelly, whether in public or not.
They still listen to R. Kelly, and he's disgusting. And
that's my opinion. How will this look? Mona said something
(33:28):
really important? Will Diddy change? That's the part that got
me about this case, y'all. If I can be confidential,
and I told you I've worked with him, He's been
nothing but respectful around me, almost to the point where
he's shy, Like every time I've been around him.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
I know this sounds crazy. This man is shy.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Or at least has the appearance of maybe it's doctor Jeckyll,
mister Hyde. But I cannot speak about this man being
rude to me or inappropriate with me. Never happened, and
I've known him for years. But my question is, once
he serves this time and he is free, will he change?
Will he be different? He beat the gun charges, right,
(34:12):
Remember he had gun slash murder charges and he beat
those charges. Remember when he was with j Lo he
beat those everyone reminds us at least Bona did anyway,
and that didn't change them in terms of let me
dis straighten up and fly right.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
I wonder is this the turning point for him?
Speaker 1 (34:36):
His kids heard and saw everything, and while they can
dumb it down to a toxic relationship that was abusive
on both sides, there are things about their father they
now know that I'm pretty sure they didn't want to know.
And I wonder if, being the great marketer that he is,
does he ignore this in his mind and change it
(34:59):
to just a blome on the radar. I was in
a toxic relationship. She got me for money. She was
just as bad as I was. Because I hear people
saying that a lot, and I just have a hard
time with that take. My hope is that it does
change him. You've escaped twice some serious time in jail,
and you've also had public backing and support, at least
(35:22):
from your fans. Maybe not from your peers, but definitely
from your fans. Does this change you? We shall see
sentencing October third. Again, we don't know what the judge
is going to determine as far as his sentencing goes.
You heard Mona say which she thought he'd get three
years with time served, so that might be two years.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
She thinks. I'm hearing that he might do two years
max in prison. That's what we're hearing. Who knows, But
what we do know.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Our superheroes, our stars, are just people, flawed men and women.
And I wonder if the bigger messages no one, no one,
no matter how much money, no matter how much power
you have, no matter how high you are, we all
will be humbled by life. That's my message and that
(36:13):
is my takeaway. Thank y'all for listening to this edition
of Naked Sports. Be back next week. Naked Sports written
and executive produced by me Carrie Champion, produced by Jacques Thomas,
Sound design and mastered by Dwayne Crawford. Naked Sports is
a part of the Black Effect podcast network in iHeartMedia
Welcome to Naked Sports, the podcast where we live at
the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. Our purpose reveal
the common threads that bind them all. So what's happening
in women's basketball right now is what we've been trying to.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Get to for almost thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
From the stadiums where athlete to break barriers and set records.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Caitlin Quark broke the all time single game assists record.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is crazy for rookies to be doing.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Our discussions will uncover the vital connections between these realms
and the community we create. And each episode we'll sit
down with athletes, political analysts, and culture critics because at
the core of it all, how we see one issue
shines the light on all others. Welcome to Naked Sports.
I'm your host, Carrie Champion.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Wow, the veric is in and let's be clear, the
government lost his case.
Speaker 6 (00:58):
Diddy was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking
charges and found guilty of the prostitution charges.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Eventually, he's gonna come home since in guidelines say he'll
probably do around five years, but the judge can go
above or below that.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
It's just a recommendation. But do I think this is
ultimately a win for Diddy and his team? Yeah, he
beat the main charge, the charge that was going to
keep him in custody for the rest of his life,
the rico charge.
Speaker 7 (01:19):
I know he ain't no rico. He might he might
get a freak go CHARGEE Negro's guilty.
Speaker 8 (01:32):
Ultimately, this is a domestic violence case that's ballooned into
a rico and sex trafficking and so forth. What did
he did? The casting that Hallway was absolutely horrible, but
that is not what the trial was about.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Did he made all this money? He gave all these
opportunities that people created, all these jobs, and it all
burned down because of poor habits and lack of discipline,
drug use, violence towards women, and sleeping with prostitutes. You
can't move like that when you are a black man
in the position power that Diddy was in.
Speaker 9 (02:01):
But alone, this black excellence was associated with Ditty's name
and with Diddy's brain. He was one of the faces,
one of the posted children of black excellence. Moving forward,
what do we want black excellence to be associated with
with hey family?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Today's podcast will be about Diddy about the case. How
we arrived at this point, and more specifically, what's going
to happen next. I'm pretty sure many of you have read.
His sentencing is October third. The reason why I wanted
to do this is because I remained fairly quiet throughout
this entire case, even leading up to his arrest and
(02:37):
after he was arrested. I had been asked multiple times
to talk about it on the record, and I just
did not feel comfortable. Because I have worked with Diddy.
I wouldn't say that we're friends, but we are friendly.
I've talked with him, I've exchanged messages, He's hired me
to do different work for him, most recently at a
super Bowl in Arizona, and I felt like I just
(02:59):
could not really talk about it without feeling as if
I was biased, and biased in the sense I have
a hard time, like many people do, reconciling the art
from the artist.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I say that a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Diddy's music truly has narrated very important parts of my life.
I remember in college I used to listen to Diddy
all the time, him and Biggie all the time, NonStop,
and he at that moment that was his height.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
He was featured on everything.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I remember certain songs coming on, like going back to Cali,
And I remember driving around LA and one of my
close friends at the time, her mom just bought her
a new car and we would just drive around La
listening to going.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Back to Cali. I mean, just whatever it could be.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And I remember listening to Ditty and thinking the battle
between him and Sugar at one point, producer versus producer.
I just remember some very significant moments in my life
and for the culture. I mean, let's not deny who
did he is. He introduced us to white parties while
they may have been happening before we really knew about
them as a culture. He put a different twist on
(04:10):
his white parties. He was known for his white parties.
When I was a local reporter, again, moments were did
he helped really inform and ordinarrate parts of my life.
I was a local reporter in Florida and did he
would come every year to.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Mar A Lago.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You all know where mar A Lago is, where Trump lives,
and he and Trump were friends, and he would have
these big parties at Trump's house in mar A Lago.
That's when Trump wanted to be popular and cool, and
he didn't care who he was interacting with, as we
all know, and he and Diddy were friends, and there
were a lot of people who were there with him.
A lot of those people at those parties. And by
(04:46):
the way, this is early two thousands, a lot of
the people at those parties are now canceled. You can't
even mention their names anymore. Russell Simmons canceled. I can
go down a list of people I remember seeing they're canceled,
if you will.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And so when.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
He was arrested, I felt like it was coming. I
wasn't surprised. The stories about Diddy and Hollywood are infamous,
the stories about the alleged abuse between him and Cassie infamous,
and I can't even say alleged because we have a
video that shows it. So I wanted to wait until
this case was all said and done and bring in
(05:22):
someone who actually covered the case from top to bottom.
And my good homegirl, Mona, who works at Extra and
before Extra, she was at ABC News. Mona Colezar has
covered this case from top to bottom, and she even
said it was such a spectacle that the interest in
this case took her TikTok followers from like three hundred
thousand to a million because people were locked in. They
(05:44):
wanted the information day in and day out. And I remember,
throughout the entire case, her and I would communicate, I
communicate with different people covering it, and I would say,
I don't see Rico. I don't know what they're doing
over here. But it doesn't seem to me like did
he did anything wrong besides be a freak. But today,
(06:06):
today Mona takes us inside the courtroom. She explains what
the freak COFs really were. I don't know about you,
but I thought the freak offs were people who were
a bunch of people, ten twenty people sitting in a
room getting it on, all kinds of crazy stuff, baby
oil everywhere. Well some of that might have been true, yes,
(06:27):
but the way in which I envisioned it was not
the way that it was presented in court. So she
talks about that, which I was surprised by, and I'm
sure you will be two. But here is the bigger question,
and I think many people are asking this. He's sentenced
on October third. How much time will he get Dealer's choice?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
No one knows.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Mona talks about legally the time that he could face
because he is a first time offender, which to me,
sadly I was surprised by. And then the second thing
is will society accept him? I know the culture will
take him back. Listen, I am sorry to tell you this.
(07:09):
I know people are disgusted with him because of what
we know he did to Cassie, But didd, he is culture.
He has always been in the zeigeist He has always
been relevant, whether it be through his kids now and
who they are dating, and who are there hanging out
his dating life, who he is dating, who he might
be with. You may not always listen to his music
(07:30):
in terms of his new music, but his old music
is everywhere. You talk about Mary J. Blige, you talk
about Biggie, you talk about one twelve, you talk about Mace.
I mean, the list goes on and on and on
and on and on. Didd, he has had such a
huge influence in ushering in a genre of hip hop
that did not exist, and he will forever be in
(07:54):
the culture. Whether he will be celebrated, that's an individual choice.
But today on Naked we discuss p Diddy, how we
got here and what happens next.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Hope y'all enjoy.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
I'm mona Kosar, Abby's senior correspondent for Extra TV Mona.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. I know
you got busy things to do today. So the ditty
case so important, everyone talked about it.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I need you to do me a favor.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I have a question because I remember just seeing Diddy
hanging out at his house. There were these incidents and
people were suggesting that he was doing things, and next
thing I know, he's in jail. How do we get here?
How do you arrest a mogul like Diddy? He goes
from being this super high flying you know, I guess
to me, bigger than life image, and now he's in jail.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
How did we even get here?
Speaker 6 (08:49):
Yeah, let's take it even further back where he was
getting Lifetime Achievement awards from MTV.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Bet we were celebrating his legacy.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
He was at the Rock New Brunches with other fellow mobils,
and so he was definitely cemented. His legacy was cemented
into not just hip hop history, but also just the
entertainment world. He's a disruptor, He broke barriers. He reached
heights that not many entertainers reach. And I'm talking black
white regardless right, And then right after he gets one
(09:22):
bet I Believe Lifetime Achievement Award, he has an album
that drops in September of twenty twenty three. Then, but
then in November of twenty twenty three, Cassie Ventora files
a lawsuit, a lawsuit that had a trigger warning, and
that is something that's rare, right, because the details were
(09:42):
so disturbing that in the filing they had to put
a trigger warning. And in there she details years and
years of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse at the hands
of Ditty. She says that he forced her to engage
in these freak offs, that's what she referred to them as,
and said that he liked to watch her have sex
(10:03):
with male entertainers, but he did so while she was
under the influence of drugs. He did so while coercing
her into it by holding her career over her head,
by using physical violence, for example.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
And she sued him.
Speaker 6 (10:20):
For I believe it was an undisclosed amount. It might
have been thirty million dollars at the time. That was
a number that was being floated around. Now immediately did
he denies everything that is in including the physical abuse
that is detailed in this lawsuit, but then quickly settles,
literally within twenty four hours, settles for an undisclosed amount
that we later found out was for twenty million dollars.
(10:41):
But the damage was already done and that week I
believe she filed it on a Friday, that weekend, Even
though he settled within twenty four hours, it was on
the front page of every single newspaper, every single website.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It was already out there.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
And that lawsuit triggered a federal investigation. Once the Beds
were aware of all the things that he was detailing,
they started looking into him, and I think as early
as December of twenty twenty three they started looking closely
into him. By March of twenty twenty four, they rated
two of his properties, the one on Star Island in
Miami and the one in Los Angeles. Federal agents raided
(11:18):
his homes and so that's when Mark Agnifflow, who's his
lead attorney, started going out and you know, basically telling him, listen,
you're going to get arrested. It's not a matter of
if you're going to get arrested, but when you're going
to get arrested, right, And they started preparing for him
to at least be let out on bail. Mark agniflo
says he took his pass or he took the passports
of several of his family members. They just knew an
(11:40):
indictment was coming down. But what we did see in
the media was Diddy riding bikes in Miami, saying hi
to fans, acting like everything was totally fine. Right, But
behind the scenes they are preparing. He is talking to
the woman who we know as Jane, who was dating
him at the time, telling her nothing has happened between us, right,
(12:01):
everything was consensual between us, and we heard those recordings
in court. Behind the scenes, he's getting her an attorney.
He is lawyering up himself, right, making sure that you know.
Mark Agniffilow was going on CNN at the time trying
to say that this was a big nothing burger, that
the federal agents have nothing better to do than to
investigate him.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
But then in May of twenty twenty.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
Four, CNN releases that hotel attack video that we have
all seen of Ditty kicking and hitting Cassie as she's
trying to leave him, and he's in a towel in
a hotel and just visually viciously beating her, and that
changed everything. Carry because even people who were defending Ditty
at the time, who were saying, like, yeah, we don't
(12:45):
you know, these are all allegations that Cassie is making.
He denied all these allegations and this is a smear campaign.
For example, a lot of people were quiet once that
video came out and he was forced to issue an apology.
He posted on his instagm video saying that he is sorry,
that there's no excuse for the violent behavior and I
feel like that video changed the course of a lot
(13:06):
of things. And then in September of twenty twenty four,
he was arrested, and that is where everything started. Obviously,
his child began in May of twenty twenty five, a
few months ago, but that is really when things started
to unfold, was in September of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So you just outlined how he went from receiving lifetime
Achievement awards, being celebrated in the community, to where there
were these instances where people like, I've heard about this
because I got to be honest, you know, behind the scenes.
I've been to a few of Diddy's parties. I've never
been to a freak off, but I do know that
he kept a very tight list of celebrities. I went
(13:45):
to his fiftieth birthday party. There were so many celebrities there,
and not one of them spoke out in his favor.
So I'm really curious, why do you think Because you
explain how we got here, but why do you think
so many people who were considered his friends, his peers,
(14:05):
why were they so silent?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I think for several reasons.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Right, I've thought about this a lot, because this is
somebody who was super famous. Right, We're not talking about
someone who's known in certain circles.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
This is Diddy.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
He's a mobil He's friends with some of the most
powerful people, and nobody came to his defense. Another thing
I noticed is when his trial started, I'm like, where
are the Disney fans? When I saw the Johnny Depp trial,
I saw a lot of Johnny Depp fans holding signs,
people ready to come to his defense.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Here's what I think. I think. Number One, he's someone
who didn't make a lot of friends in the industry.
He is a utrow businessman.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
He's really good at what he does, and I think
he has pissed a lot of people off along the way,
and so there were people that were ready to throw
him under the bus and say that they've worked with
him and he is everything that people are saying he is.
I also think that there were a lot of civil lawsuits.
I think the number is like past sixty at this point.
And in those civil lawsuits, this is even before we
(15:00):
found out what the Feds were investigating, what they were
accusing him of. In those civil lawsuits, people were alleging
some pretty egregious things, right such as such as saying
that he was sexually assaulting people, men and women, that
he was slipping things into people's drinks, that there was
something laced than this baby oil that we keep hearing
so much about, and saying that after these lavish parties,
(15:23):
these A List parties that he threw, there were after
after parties, and some people said that there were a
less celebrities attending these parties, and that there would be
a less celebrities it would come out that were on
these tapes. Right now, I will say, as of today
as we're speaking, a lot of these things have not
been proven. None of this came up in the federal
(15:46):
investigation or the trial as well. But I will say
a lot of people were trying to save their own
behinds and make sure that they weren't associated with him
and associated with the tapes. There were also allegations that
there were miners involved, right, So these are very serious
allegations that I think nobody was willing to put their
neck out on the line for him. And I also
(16:08):
think that that brutal video that came out of him
beating Cassie, it was really hard to come out and
say that you still stood by him and you were
going to defend him without yourself being dragged publicly after
that media.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
But Mona, to your point about why celebrities are trying
to save their their behinds if you will, there were
people who saw this. There's they're allegedly people's stars, famous
who saw how he treated Cassie. She even talked about it.
So what we're witnessing in real time is the power
(16:43):
of a man and his money, you know, silencing a
group of people for to me, lack of a better word,
for all the wrong reasons he had. It appears or
allegedly it appears like he had some sort of power
over them, because to me, silence is complicit, like you
(17:07):
are in agreement if you didn't come out and say, well,
this was wrong.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And I'm just asking, do you know if any of
these major celebrities were asked to testify or asked to
speak out against Diddie? Do you have any information about that?
Was that mentioned in court? While you covered this case.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
There were a lot of celebrities that were name dropped,
a lot like I can't go through the list, right,
some none in the none in relation to any of
the sexual activity that was going on.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Right.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
The only person that was mentioned in an intimate setting
was Kit cutting right because he was dating Cassie.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
There were a lot of level that mentioned.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
We saw Kanye West come through right, and there were
some talk there was rumors that he may have been
involved with in this lifestyle right, that he was the
person that Jane said she attended a similar kind of
freak off party with.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
He showed up the next day.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
In court, right, But I don't think that the I
don't think the government or the prosecutors were trying to
subpoena any of them. I think they wanted Kid Cutti
because he was directly involved. What I realized throughout this
trial is that Cassie and Diddy had their A list friends,
the celebrities that they were seen with, that they were
(18:21):
hanging out with.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Then they had behind the scenes friends.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
These were assistants, hair stylists, stylists, makeup artists that knew
them intimately. Because one thing that I've realized is these freakoffs.
Even though people were saying, oh, this was the after
after party to the white party, this seemed like it
was a really intimate thing between Cassie Diddy or Diddy
and Jane or another girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
And I mean, what do you mean an intimate thing?
What do you mean an intimate thing?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
So you're really want to say, yeah, his parties, his
normal parties that people have heard of that he's known for,
white parties, he invented in a lot of ways, big
huge events. You're telling me these freak offs weren't T's
one of your thirty people. They were intimate events. And
what do you mean by that?
Speaker 6 (19:03):
What I mean by that is, yes, it was probably
three people Max, Cassie Diddy or Diddy and a girlfriend
and a male sex worker.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
This wasn't something that he wanted out.
Speaker 6 (19:15):
Even these tapes, they were only featuring three people, and
they were on his personal devices, they weren't for other
people to see. Whenever a male sex worker said that
you know, there's a tape out there or there was
they got information or win that a tape may have
been leaked, or somebody was holding over their head that
they were going to release a tape, they would pay
(19:36):
the money, They would go through extreme lanes to make
sure these tapes never saw the light of day. So
that's where it's This wasn't a party with multiple people.
This was something intimate that happened on a Wednesday at
eight pm, right, And that is something that I really
wanted people to understand that it wasn't what it was
perceived to be. And I think a lot of people
(19:57):
as they were following the trial were like, wait, what
happened to all the things that were in the media
about minors and.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know, sexual assault and a list celebrities and multiple
people on these tapes. And that's not what came out
during the trial.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
What came out during the trial was that this was
something that he liked to do in his private time
and didn't want people to know about.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Wow, I'm blown away.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
My mind is blown So you mean to tell me
I'm under the impression, just from what I was able
to get from the court that these freak offs to
me sounded like it was just a crazy I mean,
not that of it whatever.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
It sounds as if it was an orgy, thirty forty people.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Uh, baby oil everywhere, drugs everywhere, hotel rooms demolished because
of the freakoffs. You're saying it was an intimate thing
that would happen on a wind today and it was
something that he did just with his significant other.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Is that what you're saying to me, No, so.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Let me clarify, because it was everything that you described
it to be. Drugs everywhere, baby oil everywhere, hotel rooms destroyed.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was wild.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
What I'm say saying, though, is the only participants that
were mentioned at least that came out during the trial
was Ditty, a significant other, and one mail or. There
are times that there were multiple male sex workers, but
that's it, the male escorts, the girlfriend, and Diddy. But
he used to call them debauchery knights, wild king knights,
(21:20):
hotel knights, freak offs. They had all these names to
describe something that was ritualistic.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Right.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
It involved always excess amounts of baby oil. We're talking
ten plus bottles. At one point he had an inflatable
pool where he filled it up with just baby oil.
Hotel rooms so damaged that the Intercontinental built him forty
six thousand dollars to cover the damages. And this was
something that wasn't a one off. Candle wax everywhere, the
(21:46):
drapes doused in baby oil, the sheets destroyed. They would
try to cover the furniture in sheets, Cassie described, because
things would get crazy and they would spend twenty four
thirty six forty eight at one time, she said, seventy
two hours.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
In these hotel rooms.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
And it was something that was possible because they were
doing copious amounts of drugs that they would be able
to do ecstasy to get in the mood, or do
cocaine and other drugs stimulants to stay up for twenty
four plus hours, and then they would have to spend
days recovering.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Okay, So where did the prosecution go wrong? Outside looking in,
I kept saying, where's Rico?
Speaker 4 (22:30):
What is Rico? What is he being charged for?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
All I can hear from the outside looking in, from reports,
from your reporting, from CNN reporting simply was that Diddy
was a freak and he liked to get his freak on,
and that's all I heard.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
And then I.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Would see little bits and pieces about Okay, I can
see how that's sex trafficking, but it sounds to me
like are they making the case? I just heard about
a freaky guy who had a girlfriend who liked to participate.
Eight Where did the prosecution go wrong?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
So the prosecution took about six weeks to outline their case.
They called about thirty four witnesses. They really tried to
flesh out for the jurors.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You know, they were.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Eight men, a panel of eight men and four women.
They really tried to flesh out for them how this
was considered rico under federal law, how this was considered
sex trafficking, both of Cassie and of Jane.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And they really tried to flesh it out.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
Now, I said from the very beginning, the Southern District
of New York has a very high conviction rate. But
if there is anyone that can get off, it is Diddy,
who assembled a powerhouse team of some of the top
defense attorneys in the country. Right they and they tried
their best to poke holes in the prosecution's case. They
tried to make witnesses look less credible through their cross examination,
(23:48):
and this is why we saw his defense team call
no witnesses and take thirty minutes to present their case,
and that is it before they rested. And the reason
being is because throughout the cross examine they were presenting
their case. They set the stage during opening statements saying,
you know what, we're not going to even defend it, Dy.
We're not defending the fact that he is a violent person.
(24:10):
You'll see the tape for yourself. We are not saying
that he is not abusive. We are not saying that
you actually this is a stand up guy. Verbatim, Tenny
Gerago sells a jury during her opening statement, she says,
you may by the end of this you may not
like him. You're gonna think he's a jerk. You're gonna
think he's a mean person. But he is not charged
with being a mean person. He is not charged with
(24:31):
being a jerk. And they also said he's not charged
with domestic violence, which is what this is. This was
a mutually toxic relationship between two people who were in
a decade plus relationship. There was violence involved, and they
say there were you know, there was violence both ways,
and they tried to show that as well, and I
think that was in the back of the jurors minds
(24:54):
throughout this process and what I think they were going
through and what was challenging for the prosecutors was to
show that sex trafficking how we usually see it as
a lay person sees it as someone who has maybe
like grabbed off the street, a pimp and prostitute kind
of relationship is not the only definition of.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Sex trafficking that there are.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
That you can be in a relationship, a committed relationship
with someone and still traffic them.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
And I also think that what the prosecution didn't do.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
This is my opinion. I would say, I don't think
they connected with the jurors. I think they threw a
lot of information, a lot of facts in the jurors.
But during closing arguments, the assistant US Attorney, Christy Slavic,
stood at the lectern right in front of the jury
and she had her head down the entire time, reading
off her papers, and she put a PowerPoint presentation that
(25:50):
I can only describe as like a nineteen ninety nine
PowerPoint presentation.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
There was like no graphics.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
They had pictures that you know, it does help us
if you're a visual learner like me, to see the
this is who his security is, this is his chief
of staff, this is his right hand woman.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
But it was.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
Very complex, drawn out, and she didn't look up once
at the jurors.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
She didn't really make an effort to connect with them.
Speaker 6 (26:17):
Then you have marc Agniffolo, who's Diddy's lead attorney, and
during these closing arguments, he said, I'm not going to
show you text messages. I'm not going to show you
a PowerPoint presentation. I'm just going to talk to you.
And he was pacing back and forth and he even
made the jurors laugh a few times. And I think
that connection and he took a risk as well, because
some of the things he was saying. I was like,
this is borderline and it might rub the jurors a
(26:39):
long way, including saying for the first time throughout the trial,
Cassie is not a victim. Cassie is Ditty's match. She
played him, she played kid Cutti. This is a woman
who is nobody's fool, right, And.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
I was thinking, Okay, this is bold, because they.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
Have been teetering that line throughout this trial to not
Cassie took the stand which was halfman's pregnant and gave
some of the most compelling testimony that we heard. So
to go after her and attack her so directly, I
thought was a risk.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
But I do think he got a laugh out of
the jurors.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
He poked fun at the prosecution's case, and eventually I
think it came down to they were able to connect
with the jurors and that the jurors couldn't find beyond
a reasonable doubt that he was guilty of sex trafficking
and a rico.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
At the end of the day October third, he will
be sentenced. Can you explain to everyone what he was
convicted of and what's the maximum to minimum, minimum to
maximum amount of time he could possibly face in jail.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes. So one thing I do want to clarify is
that he's still a convicted felon.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
This is his first time offends, but he is a
convicted felon, and that he was facing five counts. So
he was acquitted of the reco charge, He was acquitted
of sex trafficking charge of Cassie and Jane, but he
was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution two counts
of transportation. That is a man act and that I mean,
(28:07):
it's still a federal charge, and it still comes with
a hefty sentence, maximum of ten years in prison.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Because he's a first time offender.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
He may be looking at the according to the defense,
he may be looking at twenty one to twenty seven months, right,
So that's a little over or under two years.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
He does get time served.
Speaker 6 (28:26):
By the time we get to sentencing hearing, he would
have been in jail for a year, maybe thirteen months,
so he will get credit for a year of being
in custody. Wow, But the prosecution says no, given the abuse,
given the drugs, given everything that was involved in the transportation, right,
(28:47):
and everything that was laid out in the case, he's
looking at fifty three to sixty one months or somewhere
around there, somewhere.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Around five years. Right.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
Even then in the grand scheme of things, when he's
looking at life in prison, he was looking at life
in prison. At one point, it seems like this is
a loss for the prosecutors, right, because even if you
get him on five years, if he does four years,
if he's out in three.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
It's not life in prison. The accountability that they.
Speaker 6 (29:16):
Were trying to they were trying to hold Ditty to
right to have him in prison for the rest of
his life or at least for several decades.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
I personally think he may get three but then if.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
He is out in two years, if he gets the
time serve and he's out in two years, I think
a lot of the witnesses that testified, a lot of
people that are in circle, will feel disappointed.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
I already spoke with Mala Morales, Cassie's makeup artists, who testified,
and said she witnessed some of the abuse, and she
told me, really, what was that for?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I can't believe this is what happened.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
After we testified, after we went through this, she said
she felt it wasn't worth it.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
At the end of the day, Wow, and what do
you think he's going to get.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
I think he's going to get three years, because, yes,
there are a lot of circumstances, right there was the abuse.
It's not just about transporting escorts across state lines. It's
also about some of the physical abuse that was involved,
the drug use, all of the other factors and everything
that we learned throughout the trial. But I also think
(30:24):
that this is his first time. This is his first
time being convicted.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Of you know, on the record, right, like on the record.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
On record, yes, because if you remember the gun charges
that he was facing back in the early two thousands,
he beat those charges. But I think the big thing
that everybody wants to know is that when he gets out,
whether it's three years, five years, whatever, when he gets out,
is he going to go back to doing what he
was doing? Does this make him feel more untouchable? Or
(30:53):
was this a reality check for Diddy? And I think
only time will tell.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Mona.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I have so many more questions. This is to be continued.
We're going to do part one and part two eventually.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I
think the biggest question is what happens when he gets out.
Will people accept Diddy? And will this be just a
blip on the radar? I think so like I feel
like they love them. I feel like that's my opinion.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
I just feel like they love them.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
These people pouring baby oil on themselves, were you I
mean baby oil?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Why would I be outside the court?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Oh quickly, do you know on the record whether or
not those people outside the court when we're paid?
Speaker 6 (31:29):
No, I think a lot of them were YouTubers. I
think a lot of them were people who saw the
kind of the spectacle that this has turned into. There
were people live streaming every day outside of there, and
that's the people that we saw gathering were people who
were engaging in the spectacle.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
It turned out to be all.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Right, Mona, you did a great job. Thank you so
much for covering the case. Thank you for taking the
time to talk to us. I know you got to
jump and go to work. Have a great day, friend,
Thank you friend.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I had so many questions for Mona and not an
time because she had to go to work. However, however,
I think the big question, and again I said this
at the top of the podcast, this is an individual choice.
How you choose to remember Diddy and or celebrate him
and or still listen to his music is the same
way you choose to listen to R. Kelly and or
(32:19):
Michael Jackson and or name the disgraced celebrity. If we
want to go into a genre of music, leave out
of music and go into movies. You know, there are
so many movie stars we know that, or even people
who are in Hollywood in general, that we can't deal
with or we won't watch their movies anymore, or we
can't support them publicly because it's embarrassing. I just don't
(32:42):
want to point to black man, because that's not fair.
I think if Harvey Harvey Weinstein, we still watch his
television show Slash Movies. I may produce a lot of
great films and people are still watching it, and he's
considered persona non grin. I believe Black folks are going
(33:03):
to forgive Diddy. I really do, not all of us,
but I do believe, by and large, his contributions have
been so invaluable to the culture that people will say,
we forgive you your look. I hang around people that
still listen to R. Kelly, whether in public or not.
They still listen to R. Kelly, and he's disgusting. And
that's my opinion. How will this look? Mona said something
(33:28):
really important? Will Diddy change? That's the part that got
me about this case, y'all. If I can be confidential,
and I told you I've worked with him, He's been
nothing but respectful around me, almost to the point where
he's shy, Like every time I've been around him.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
I know this sounds crazy. This man is shy.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Or at least has the appearance of maybe it's doctor Jeckyll,
mister Hyde. But I cannot speak about this man being
rude to me or inappropriate with me. Never happened, and
I've known him for years. But my question is, once
he serves this time and he is free, will he change?
Will he be different? He beat the gun charges, right,
(34:12):
Remember he had gun slash murder charges and he beat
those charges. Remember when he was with j Lo he
beat those everyone reminds us at least Bona did anyway,
and that didn't change them in terms of let me
dis straighten up and fly right.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
I wonder is this the turning point for him?
Speaker 1 (34:36):
His kids heard and saw everything, and while they can
dumb it down to a toxic relationship that was abusive
on both sides, there are things about their father they
now know that I'm pretty sure they didn't want to know.
And I wonder if, being the great marketer that he is,
does he ignore this in his mind and change it
(34:59):
to just a blome on the radar. I was in
a toxic relationship. She got me for money. She was
just as bad as I was. Because I hear people
saying that a lot, and I just have a hard
time with that take. My hope is that it does
change him. You've escaped twice some serious time in jail,
and you've also had public backing and support, at least
(35:22):
from your fans. Maybe not from your peers, but definitely
from your fans. Does this change you? We shall see
sentencing October third. Again, we don't know what the judge
is going to determine as far as his sentencing goes.
You heard Mona say which she thought he'd get three
years with time served, so that might be two years.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
She thinks. I'm hearing that he might do two years
max in prison. That's what we're hearing. Who knows, But
what we do know.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Our superheroes, our stars, are just people, flawed men and women.
And I wonder if the bigger messages no one, no one,
no matter how much money, no matter how much power
you have, no matter how high you are, we all
will be humbled by life. That's my message and that
(36:13):
is my takeaway. Thank y'all for listening to this edition
of Naked Sports. Be back next week. Naked Sports written
and executive produced by me Carrie Champion, produced by Jacques Thomas,
Sound design and mastered by Dwayne Crawford. Naked Sports is
a part of the Black Effect podcast network in iHeartMedia
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