Rory O’Neill, WOR national correspondent Interview

Rory O’Neill speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs getting underway as jury selection begins today.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the Sean Combs aka P Diddy trial begins in
Earnest today. They're going to be selecting a jury. Let's
get the latest from Rory O'Neil, wr National correspondent. Good morning, Rory,
Hey there, Larry, good morning. When you set the scene
for us, just you know what he's being accused of,
the charges, all the all the particulars.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, look, Diddy has been at the Special Housing Unit
in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since he was arrested back
in September. He's now facing five federal charges. That includes
two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to
engage in prostitution, and one count of racketeering. Now just
remember these are federal charges, so no cameras in the courtroom,

(00:44):
no microphones. We'll get that sketch chartist instead. And this
is on top of all of the civil trials that
Diddy is also facing. So this fifty five year old
has a lot of legal problems.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So ahead of them, there has been so much cover
bridge of this case. They have to pick a jury
to find a jury that doesn't know anything about this case.
They can, and it's supposed to it last two months,
is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's roughly the timeline. Six to eight weeks is what
they suspect for some of the testimony here, and finding
that jury is going to be a challenge. You want
someone who you know, they don't want to have. They
shouldn't have an opinion of Diddy. They can be aware
of his music, they can hate it, they can love it, whatever,
but they shouldn't have formed an opinion in this case because, look,

(01:32):
it's impossible just about to find someone who's never heard
of Diddy, and if they did, do you want someone
that ignorant to be on the jury, right?

Speaker 1 (01:41):
And you have to have someone that has to sit
and watch all that filth. I mean there's gonna be
lots of video and lots of graphic testimony. I would
imagine there's some people that are going to say, I
can't I can't take that, I can't stand that well.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
And even during the blair the questioning of the potential jury,
they're going to be asking them what they think about
personal relationships and infidelity and whether or not you know
these group sex events are you know? Are it should
be illegal? Because the defense is essentially that these freak offs,
these events that Ditty is accused of holding they claim

(02:19):
were consensual, that everyone was a willing participant in these
Of course, the prosecutors say otherwise, with allegations that staffers
for Ditty would actually arrange to fly people in pay them.
Some women have claimed that they were threatened. You know,
you either take part in these events or I'm going
to ruin your career.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Now, he was offered a plea deal. Do we know
yet what was in that plea deal?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Haven't heard the details. We know they rejected the deal though,
so this trial is moving forward. I'm sure a lot
of people in Hollywood, I guess in Miami as well,
are eager to have some resolution here so that some
of the nastier details don't become too public. Because, as
you said, after raids were conducted at Didy's homes in
Miami and Los Angeles, apparently an awful lot of video

(03:06):
evidence was seized, and that's a big part of the
prosecution's case.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
I've covered a lot of trials in my life, and
I know going into a trial, the prosecution case is
really basically all you ever hear, so you think, oh,
you know, he did it. That's what you think going
into it. And then when you hear the defense, you
start to go, oh, maybe is that even possible in
this case? Do we know what the defense you mentioned

(03:33):
a little bit of about it, but they have to
have more than just claiming that's true.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, Well the defense is saying that he's not guilty
of federal sex crimes because he was quote, simply engaging
in sexual swinging. Is the line we got from the defense.
O thanksually saying that, yeah, these orgies, everyone was a
willing participant.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, we'll see if that's going to work, because you
have several people going up there, some of whom we
don't even know who they are yet because their identities
have been kept a secret, that are going to get
on that standard. I'm sure they're all going to say, no,
we weren't a willing participant. So it's gonna be a
fascinating trial. I look forward to talking to you again
about it. Rory O'Neil, wr National correspondent, Thanks so much,

(04:18):
Thanks Larry,