Feat Meghan Cuniff - P Diddy Case Update , Meghan The Stallion And Tory Lane Witness Update - ITS UP THERE PODCAST W/LOONEY

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get more updates and developments into one of these
major stories we were following today.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
If you haven't heard by now, this is what we know.
Two properties belonging to the rapper Sean Diddy Cummbs. We
are losing our germs, we are losing our jurors. I
look over there at them, and they are trying their best.
They are trying their artists. Often they are taking notes,
but other times they have just tuned out.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Today we have Megan Qunif aka Megan the reporter who
became the main person covering the Tory laz trial directly
from the LA Courthouse now.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
In Hollywood and some celebrity drama that has now led
to millions of tweets and getting lots of attention this afternoon.
Joining us live now is our legal affairs journalist, Megan Qniff.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
TMZ is strong out in LA.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Like, yeah, yeah, Herbie Weinstein is powerful, but he wasn't
nearly as famous as did has that fame that I'm like,
when's the last time there was a criminal investigation into
an entertainer like this?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I mean, because even though they signed the NDA, it
just seems like it's null and void. It's like people
don't they sign it and it doesn't mean nothing in
a couple of years, like who cares I signed the
DA Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
There was an example of that with Stormy Daniels and
Donald Trump.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
About Gunner's plea, what do you have about that?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I kind of think the defense could call him as
their own witness because they could go over the same
questions that they went over with Tick, where basically showed
that he had all these different reasons for pleading guilty
or taking an Alfred plea, and that he's not actually
guilty and he doesn't want to testify and he thinks
the case is bullshit too.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
That is a good conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Want, though I bet he doesn't testify it.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, but that's a good conversation. Can Gunner redeem hisself
by going in and testifying for though, because he's tooking
a culture hit to lure me to death? Exactly? My man, Lord,
my loans old loan Okay, okay, Ops, munch is up

(02:11):
there and stuck that n when it's up there, Man,
it's stuck there. Shut up. This episode is brought to
you by Prize Picks, the fantasy sports platform is changing
the game for people like us with prize picks. You
can test your knowledge with picking over and under for
your favorite player stats across a wide variety of sports.

(02:31):
Thank football, baseball, basketball, and beyond. So why wait, jump
in the prize picks right now and bring more excitement
to game day whether you're cheering from the stands of
the couch. Prize picks ask that extra layl fund for
sports excitement again my slogan, why would you put something
on the game when you could put something on the name.

(02:52):
Let's get into those picks and start winning with prize
picks today. I U TP Cole. Let's get back to
the show. Yo, yo yo, Welcome to us up there podcast.
I am your host for another episode of the Fashion
Going podcast on the market right now. Listen for everyone

(03:13):
that's out in the culture, I know you see all
of these things happening. There's a lot going on. Ins
and outs have not been explained to us in a
way that's digestible. So today I got someone that I
know is definitely in the loop as it pertains to
what is going on. I have Meghan kind of how

(03:34):
are you doing today? Good?

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Good, Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
No problem, no problem. I actually when I reached out
to you and I was gonna talk to you, I
was gonna really talk about thugs trial a lot, and
I'm sure we're gonna still get into it. But the
Diddy thing happened.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, No, that is big. That's just been dominating everything
else like we did.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, how will you about what's going on? And for
anyone that's catching it's not sure when you'll catch this.
But we're in the early stages of rapper mogul ceo
Sean Diddy Combs being investigated for human trafficking. He's in
a position where the Feds have raided I think three
of his homes and we're going to speak about that.

(04:20):
What's your feelings on it? What do you have information updates,
something to let the coach you notice going on?

Speaker 1 (04:25):
You'll think, yeah, obviously this is a really big deal.
I mean, when the lawsuits came out against him, especially
the first lawsuit that Cassie filed back in November, his
ex that had all that stuff in there, I was like, Okay,
this seems really serious. You know, is there a criminal investigation?
So the searches were the first confirmation we had that
there was. But what's kind of struck me about it
is there's actually really not a lot of information out

(04:47):
there about it. I mean, you can it's been connected
through anonymous sources that this is a sex trafficking investigation,
and you can kind of surmise that from the fact
that it's Homeland Security investigating, because they're the ones who
do extrafficking investigations. But other than that, there just really
isn't that much information out there. But everybody is so
interested in it, and like, as a journalist, it kind

(05:09):
of puts me in a weird spot because some people
have just straight up asked me. They're like, so, can
you speculate on when he might be charged with a crime,
And it feels like kind of irresponsible to do that
because on the one hand, it's like, look, it seems
unlikely that they would do something like this and then
he's not going to get charged with a crime, but
you just you can't say for sure, because if he
was going to be if they had enough to charge
him with a crime, they would just charge him with

(05:30):
a crime instead of searching his homes. It's like, it
seems like we might be kind of early in the
process right now, But then the way things are like
you know, within the culture. If I say something like
that on Twitter, people are like, so, why are you
defending him? I'm not. I'm just trying to be fair.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Here, you know, right, right, And and it's I mean,
I think we have a responsibility to be fair. And
that's why I typically term my comments off on social
media because I don't really like to be affected by
this stuff because they're effective.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Now yeah yeah, oh yeah, and it's just everywhere and
it's deemed analysis. But you know, I saw some people
they just did a whole thing speculating about whether the
drug mule who was arrested will flip on them or not. Right, Like,
there's just so little information, but people are so interested
in it that we don't really have much to go on.
So I thought it was kind of funny how his

(06:19):
lawyers they came out against the military style raids, which
that's like a common complaint in America. But then they're like, yeah,
you know, a media court coordinated presence there, basically saying
that the media was in cahoots with investigators here. But really,
investigators haven't leaked like hardly anything on this. I mean,
we really actually haven't had barely any leaks on this

(06:40):
investigation at all. So it's going to be interesting to
see like how long it takes and when we find
out more, if we find.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Out more, Yeah, no, I think finding out more is
definitely gonna happen. Now. I do think media is broken
into tears, right, So the media you kind of represent
is more of that traditional media. Yeah, you kind of,
but you you also it's something about your style that
kind of transcends that. But usually there's a cutoff, you

(07:09):
know with media where it's like you're either part of
the CNN, MSNBC style thing or you part of the
other side. A lot of what I see with Diddy
me being from this cult is like driven by black media.
It's like a lot of the Twitter communities, the Reddit communities,
they have given them names and nicknames, and it's just

(07:31):
been very weird. I'm saying, Wow, this is crazy.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, I'm definitely like, you know, paying attention and exposed
to just all the gossip and all the stuff about them.
So I know that there's just been you know, tons
of stuff swirling around about them. But these these lawsuits also,
I mean those have some pretty serious allegations in there.
But I was saying last night in an interview that
we're seeing so much conflating now, like people are so

(07:57):
desperate for information about the criminal investigation that a lot
of agencies are just looking at these civil lawsuits. And
I think it's important for to remember people to remember that,
like everything that's in these civil lawsuits might not necessarily
be part of the criminal case. There's definitely, you know,
but especially this one particular lawsuit, it just seems like
people are kind of coming out of the woodworks to

(08:18):
like take issue with some of the allegations in there.
And it doesn't mean that overall there's not some serious
issues there. It's just like, hope everyone kind of calms
down a little bit, just realizes that, like we don't
know everything that's going on in the criminal case, but
works that's yeah, you have to not to think it's
super serious. So I mean, obviously you know.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
It's like, no, there is serious. But I do think
it's interesting to see how people are taking these civil things.
And if you just mentioning, oh, well, she's a sex worker,
now that's just what it is. It's like whoa, whoa,
whoa yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Whoa yeah, whoa And you know, because I saw a
news headline say, you know, Cuba Gooding Junior is now
part of the Diddy criminal sex trafficking investigations. Like, no,
he was named in the civil lawsuit, and to just
put a headline up saying that he's now part of
this criminal investigation, it's pretty irresponsible.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Yeah, And so do you take issue with that as
a journalist? Do you take issue with media framing those things?
I mean, I'm in media. You and media we both
eat from this thing. So I feel as though and
see that business is behind a lot of those moves.
So you it's lucrative. But how do you feel about that?

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, I mean I think you're right. People are just
they see so much interest in and it's what's driving clicks.
It's what everyone everyone is searching for right now. So
it's kind of just catering to that search, you know,
clickbait journalism where I'm just worried that it's just going
to become everything we do that like as we move
away more and more from the traditional media outlets and
get into the kind of uh digital digital news and consumption,

(09:53):
like we're moving away from like traditional values that I
think are still important. Like there's a lot to be
said about the problems in traditional media, but just like
the approach that they bring to different areas and the
level of fairness I think is something that I still
hope we can like translate to in new in new media.
And that's kind of what I've been dealing with. It's
just like, you know, the rise of making the reporter.

(10:14):
It's like, how do I, how do I do something
good with this?

Speaker 3 (10:17):
You know right right? Me too? And also, you know,
I think with the digital space, the responsibility is so
spread out, so I think that kind of leads to
also when you don't have someone to say no, NBC
done that and CNN said that. You know, it's like
some of these people have faceless youtubes and you just

(10:39):
did want a new era of this thing, and it's tooking,
it's taking a mean turn.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah. So much of it is just speculation and gossip,
you know, and it's just like, what are you actually contributing?
And that's why I've kind of reminded myself because you know,
I've got a YouTube channel and I'm doing some lives
and I did a short live on the Diddy thing.
But I'm just like, what am I actually contributing here?
In terms of like reporting. I kind of feel like
my skills are better used instead of doing like commentary
all the time, just like do reporting, like real stories,

(11:06):
writing stories. I think, try to stick to my background.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Right right. But I think also coming in these realms
is good because you have more information and once you
you got to place that in this arena. You may
not have to live over here and wrestle and squabble
with it. But it's always good to say, oh, Megan's
over here. That's people will listen to this. People are
gonna say, that's Meghan. She knows what she's doing, she's

(11:31):
in there, she's a journalist, and you have a respectable name.
So I think it's important also to dance over here,
just not live over here, especially for someone like you.
That's so important. On the other side, yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
That's good to hear because I want it because I
get so much you know, I have so many followers
from from the area. Of course, I was getting, you know,
tons of hits about Dinny. People want me to cover it.
I'm definitely committed to covering it. It's just like kind
of a balance of like do I just you know,
I want to stick to the facts here, and you
might kind of feel like you're leaving some people high
and drive because they want like updates every hour about

(12:05):
the Diddy investigation, even though there's not really anything to say.
So you might kind of lose out to some people
who are being a little more sensational in their coverage
and like just focusing on those civil lawsuits and kind
of trying to pass them off as part of the
criminal case. But it's like, that's what happens. That's what happens,
you know.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
But if we're being honest, I do believe in particular,
the Cassie lawsuit did lead to the criminal investigation, So
there is some inner integration there.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, no, for for sure. I mean we don't
have like Doug Wiggor's firm. Her lawyers haven't come out
and confirmed, but when you just look at his background
as a lawyer and all the other cases they've done,
and then the overlap that they've had between civil and
criminal cases like the Harvey Weinstein case and everything, it's like, yeah,
that law firm is definitely positioned where if they had

(12:52):
a client like Cassie come to them, they could initiate
some kind of investigation like put her in touch with
the right authorities and all of a sudden going so
much more so than the guy who represents Jones, Rodney Jones,
the producer. And that's not to say that Rodney Jones
doesn't have legitimate claims. It's just the lawyers for Cassie
are like much more like stacked than Rodney.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, and we'll get into the Rodney thing, but let's
back up some so the it was it an overreach
for the government in your opinion to attack those houses
in that way or is it just kind of standard
for them?

Speaker 1 (13:29):
It's definitely standard, but I mean just stripping away who
it was, I would say, yeah, I mean, they do
that everywhere, and it's more understandable with somebody like Diddy
just because he has so many resources. He probably has
his own security team and that kind of thing. But
they do that with just everyday people. I mean, there
was a public corruption investigation into a bunch of scandals

(13:53):
going on with like the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power in the City Attorney's office, So the FEDS
served a bunch of search warrants a couple of years ago,
and it was crazy like it was with Didty's house.
You know, armed people, you know, dogs, they're dismantling cameras,
guns in the kids' faces, that kind of thing. And
one of the guys, one of the lawyers who got raided,
actually has a lawsuit and about it. So, like the

(14:15):
militarization of police is a legitimate complaint in this country.
It's just everyone should remember that that absolutely was not
original to Ditty's house, and if anything, it's more understandable
that they would use for us on that with somebody
like Ditty other than just some regular dude in a
house and you know, some neighborhood in Los Angeles or something.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
What about the coordination, I mean, three at a time,
three different jurisdictions. How hard is it. I mean it
had to be a reach for them to get that done.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yeah, I think with just because it's a Southern District
of New York investigation, but they're going into a different area,
it would be natural for them to have other agencies
help and then have Los Angeles Police Department help. So
I think that's like probably kind of standard for them
to do. But it kind of says something about the
fact that there weren't that many leaks. I mean, I
haven't had any confirmation that the TV cameras were tipped off.

(15:09):
And if a TV camera was tipped off, it was
probably somebody within LA PD that has a relationship with
somebody within the TV stations and told him about it
ahead of time, because we really don't see those kind
of tip offs from the FEDS a lot, but having
the kind of local coordination is is pretty common for that.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
And you're in LA right, yeah, yeah, so because TMZ
is strong out in LA Like yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, they pay, I mean they like, I learned this
pretty well covering. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you
off here.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
No, no, no, no, we love this this podcast. So's cool.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
We're the Kobe Bryant's Kobe Bryant scandal where Vanessa sued
the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for distributing photos of
his body, his remains and other human remains at the
crash site. There was like a whole TMZ aspect to
that where TMZ is the one that I mean they
break every the story of everyone's death, but they broke

(16:10):
the story of his death and the substation where the
Sheriff's up station where that all happened, where they investigated
that and the photos originated that got out kind of
has a long standing relationship with TMZ, so TMZ pays,
you know, they have relationships and all these kind of
celebrity places and they pay for tips and can get

(16:32):
stuff like that, and that's why they get so many
tips like that. I mean, it's probably likely that, like,
didn't they have the footage of people somebody going into
Ditty's house after the search, Yes, came from seemed like
it came from somebody in his camp. But it's just
hard just for to tell. But there's just kind of
like this. They break a lot of news, but they
don't have the same like journalism approach like that because

(16:53):
most journalists would not pay for information like that because
it's just but because they're able to pay, they get
also to access.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
See I'm willing to pay, so it's more than just paying.
It's something happening. And also I want to know because
you're in LA what about the ecosystem makes that possible.
It's more than money Because I'm in media, I would
love to break some cases. So I'm not necessarily having
a traditional approach as it pertains to getting the information.

(17:23):
You know, I want to be truthful and stick to
the facts in my speaking about the information, but no,
I'll pay. But I just think, La, there's something happening
out there.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
It's like, yeah, fame ego, that kind of thing. Because
one thing with the Kobe Bryant thing was that one
of the fire guys who was showing the photos around
and testified in court and everything, was actually the public
information officer for the fire department, so it was said
that he had There were other people in media who

(17:53):
had seen those photos or known about those photos, and
one theory has always been that those sheriff steput these
like hyped up to the crash site to take photos
because I mean, they probably had dollar signs in their
eyes and we're hoping to sell them to TMZ. But
fortunately even TMZ is not just going to publish photos
like that for the world to z. But there's definitely

(18:13):
you know, it's money, but I think it's also the
glory of just like being able to get involved in
something like that, or you know, I guess I'm not
really sure what it is. There's like a whole human
psychology to it of kind of the celebrity chasing and
getting caught up in the celebrityism, and you know, kind
of maybe losing track of your morals a little bit
while you do it.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Do have you heard of anything about Diddy or Diddy
parties being a journalist out that way that's that hasn't
been reported or that makes this make more sense that's
happening just.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Everything that I've been reading now, I hadn't really been
interested or heard anything about it before the Cassie lawsuit
was filed. But when the Cassie lossuits filed, it's like,
oh my god. And then you kind of, you know,
start to listen to the word on the streets, and
you kind of realize that people this kind of like
stuff has been going on about Diddy for a long time.
People have been kind of whispering about stuff. I mean,

(19:10):
and as a journalist, I'm hesitate to even bring this up.
But we always hear his name mentioned in the Tupac
investigation and everything. It just seems like there's a lot
of like bad energy and kind of bad stuff swirling
around him at all times. But I have not ever
had any kind of like personal experience with like hearing
about anything at you know, his parties and stuff. But
also just being like kind of more you know, court

(19:32):
focused law focus that kind of thing. It's like, there's
such an interesting disconnect between those worlds in LA you.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Know, right right, Yeah, that's funny. What about his uh,
because we've been hearing a lot about ditties in DA's
what makes that? Is? That? Is that? What makes that NDA?
What super sedes that NDA? And have you laid eyes
on it to know if it's that strict or how
strict is the NDA? I have not.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
I've never heard any specifics about is non disclosure agreement,
but I can imagine It's like, don't they all have that?
I mean, the celebrity once you get into like a
certain level of fame, you know, it just seems like
you'd be kind of remiss not to have that. It's like,
and that's kind of a world that I don't have
all that much experience with. But I mean, I guess
just hearing that he makes people sign non disclosure agreements,

(20:19):
I'm like, well, that seems common, but you just it's
just interesting to hear about a criminal investigation into somebody
of this size because I mean, I'm trying to think
of well, Harvey Weinstein obviously, but Harvey Weinstein is powerful,
but he wasn't nearly as famous as did he did.
He has that fame that I'm like, when's the last
time there was a criminal investigation into an entertainer like

(20:41):
this of that maybe missing obvious Well, Michael Jackson and.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
They which one R Kelly?

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Oh yeah, R R Kelly. Yeah, that's a pretty big
one too.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Did you cover Kelly R Kelly at all?

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I didn't, only from the standpoint of remember Michael Evanatti,
how he tried to wade into that thing, the lawyer
who represented Stormy Daniels, and he tried to he was
representing some supposed victims of R. Kelly and was like
going over to court and doing press conferences. He was
a lawyer from California, and he had all these like
shady bankruptcy things going on. When I was working at

(21:19):
the legal newspaper out here, so I was covering Evannaughty,
so I would kind of keep an eye on his R.
Kelly stuff. But the R Kelly case specifically, No, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Cover, Okay, Okay, yeah. So I'm wondering. I mean, because
even though they signed in the NDA, it just seems
like it's null and void. It's like people don't they
sign it and it doesn't mean that in a couple
of years, like who cares I signed the DA.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, there was an example of that with Stormy Daniels
and Donald Trump had that whole non disclosure agreement where
she was gonna talk about their affair, and I think
that all went out the window. Yes, but there's like
any consequences to her doing that, or maybe you know
if there should be, It's just I don't know. It's like,
especially when you get into the world of how how
much money did he has? Because as as bad as

(22:05):
his those lawsuits were, it was like other than just
reputational ruin, like, what are the consequences for him this?
I mean financially he was losing business and that kind
of thing, but like it wasn't It's not like he
was at risk of being homeless or something. It was
always just like the only real consequences, it seems like,
could be criminal And now we have that.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
So yeah, and I wonder because I also think that
the government takes personal that they keep trying to present
it like they're doing this for no reason, like they're
they're bothering us for no reason. It's like someone in
the office is saying, bro, this isn't for no reason.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Exactly, and unfortunately we don't have access to this and
we probably won't for maybe ever. But they had to
have like affidavits to support the search warrants, and they
you know, who knows what those affidavits say, but it's
they had to show some judge that there was probable
to believe a crime was committed and that there was
reason to believe they could get information from the homes.

(23:05):
And then another thing to remember is the reason we
know about those search warrants is because it was like
a huge military style raid and there were like TV
helicopters doing the whole thing. But they could also serve
search warrants for like his bank accounts, his email accounts
and all that stuff too, like Yahoo dot com or
Google and everything. They could get all that stuff, and
we're not ever going to hear about it unless less did.

(23:27):
He's PR team decides to issue a press release about
the military style raid on their Yahoo account.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Do we know if they if they took anything out
of the properties of any of those homes.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
I mean they had to have and actually I haven't
looked at the footage enough to see if there was
footage of people taking stuff out of there, But freaking
hope so those if those TV cameras were doing their jobs,
they should have just stayed up there all night and
hopefully we see stuff like that, because I've seen the
footage of the Suns being detained and them like going

(24:01):
in there with all the guns. I mean, the cops
really are I think, kind of out of control in
this country. I think did he searches the wrong one
for everyone to like get outraged about and be like
the military style. I mean, there's way worse things that
happen with the militarization of police, but it is just
kind of crazy to see see that footage. But I
haven't seen any footage of them bringing stuff out of there,

(24:22):
but I'd be shocked if they didn't take a.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
Bunch of stuff. Yeah, yeah, me too. And also I'll
be shocked if that's why I'm saying, I think Diddy's
in a very slippery place, you know, because now you
know this is my opinion. With a house that big,
I'm sure there's some secret departments and panic rooms and
things like that. I'm also sure that on his phone

(24:46):
and certain electronic devices that everything is just not crispy
clean Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
They are interesting to see how complicated it must be
in all the different areas because this is homeland security
and sex traffic and investigation. But they also have to
have some cyber experts on it, because I mean the
idea that did he just has like Ayahu account that
he uses or something, you know, it's like, no, this
is way different than that. And if somebody has like

(25:13):
their own email server set up, how do you get
a search warrant for that? You know, I don't even know.
There's there's gotta be a way, but there's there's probably
all sorts of stuff going on that we're not We
don't know, right, he reported. They have, you know, anonymous
sources saying that some some of his businesses have started
to get subpoenas where they're required to hand over documents

(25:34):
right US Money's office. So I'm like, yeah, this is
getting pretty serious. And the I's never going to get charged.
It's like, yeah, he does a huge fuck up by
the investigator.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, I believe he'll be charged at some point, even
if you know, the Hamma doesn't come down in regards
to prison. But I do believe he'll be charged at
some point. It's too much in on it. It's just
it's too much, too much going on, you know, yeah,
different addictions and things like that. No, they're coming, you know,
and I think he knows they're coming. And the drug mule?

(26:05):
Got how do you label someone a drug mule? What
I mean, have we Well?

Speaker 1 (26:10):
And that's another thing where didn't that alligate? Doesn't that
come from the Rodney Jones lawsuit, Which that's a lawsuit
where it's like, Okay, there's a lot of stuff in
here that I mean is claim yeah, but then there's
a lot of stuff in here that's just kind of
thrown in there, and like people are threatened to assume
him for defamation and stuff. So but then, I mean,
he was arrested at the airport with drugs, like going

(26:31):
into Ditty's jets. So I'm like it's kind of some
confirmation here. But that, to me, it was like the
biggest sign that they are definitely watching him. Like they
have no authority to arrest him right now or stop
his movement, but they're they're keeping a close eye on him.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
They own him. Man, if he wasn't worth the amount
of money he's worth, he would be probably in jail
already or or at least arrested at this point. It's
just they have to make sure we do this one right.
He's just worth a lot of money. This can go left.
So But but you know, I was interested in the
labeling of drug mule, Like you said, maybe that comes
out of the lawsuit, But has that solidified to now

(27:08):
just be thrown around like Diddy's rolling around with a
drug mule and sex workers. It's just it's getting nasty. Man.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Yeah. Yeah, there is just like so much to his
background that I wasn't even really really aware of. I mean,
just the stuff that people have been bringing up. Like
there's that video of Justin Bieber when he was like twelve,
like hanging out with him. He's like gonna drive Ditty's
cars for the day and stuff, and it's just like
there's just so much stuff people are bringing up now

(27:38):
that you know, hindsight's always twenty twenty. But you're like,
all this stuff is just kind of weird. But no
celebrity life, I guess.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
How would you How do you find that kind of stuff?
I mean, I know about everything because I'm I grew
up in it, right, But how does someone from outside
of this and from a journalistic standpoint, how do you
find that stuff?

Speaker 1 (27:58):
It's hard to know what's real and what's not, Like
what's just a coordinated PR stunt because everything is so manufactured,
and what what it's actually like in real life? You know,
when the cameras are off, what are they actually doing?
Kind of thing? For me, it's hard to distinguish that,
And it's hard not to think that when the cameras
are on, the stuff that we're seeing is just fake

(28:19):
and staged. You know that that's what That's how I see.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
It right right right now? What do you what do
we know if anything about the drug mule? His name
is what I think his name was.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Brendan Brendan Paul Syracuse or something, stories about like who
is this like ex Syracuse University basketball player who's now
hanging out with with Diddy. But they, you know, a
big company like that, I mean, how do how do
they even hire employees like put up like Craigslist ads?
You know, Yeah, we don't know that much about him.

(28:53):
And it looks like because I was looking in federal court,
I think because it's Florida, they have really good public records,
so I actually should be able to just go into
the arrest, like find the agency that arrested them, and
you can usually get his mug shot. We've seen the
body camera footage from when he was arrested. I think
all that stuff should be releasable. It's just the bigger

(29:14):
question of like is this going to be tied into Diddy?
And as people are speculating, like is he gonna give
the cops information on Ditty? You know, we just don't know.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
I mean, for them to have an arrest with him
with drugs and I knowed helps this overall case that
they're doing. I know they're saying, all right, we got
one piece of this for sure locked in in regards
to call them with drugs with Diddy, there's no it's
kind of hard to wig a lout of that one,
you know.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure for sure. And and the
idea with it being a federal investigation, it's like we
do see leaks sometimes from federal investigations, but a lot
of the times it's like when it's a political case,
like something involving Trump or something, somebody will be able
to get some kind of leak, and it's somebody within
the Department of Justice or something who's like you know,
thinks they're they're trying to save the country and do

(30:01):
something good here. But with it just being a celebrity,
it's like we don't really have the political aspect it's
gonna like drive some real investigative reporting on it, So
we might just be kind of screwed for a lot.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
I wonder how did he can try to add that in,
because he's gonna have to add something in this formula
just to keep saying that they're messing with me. That's
not gonna You're gonna have to add some Trumpsism into
this some kind of way and grab hold to something
out out there and make make your case or get
some help. We even saw Trump get his search warned

(30:35):
a federal and that's pretty hard to do. This episode
is brought to you by Prize Picks, the fantasy sports
platform is changing the game for people like us. With
Prize Picks, you can test your knowledge with picking over
and under for your favorite player stats across a wide
variety of sports thank football, baseball, basketball, and beyond. So
why wait, Jump in the prize picks right now and

(30:57):
bring more excitement to game day. What you cheering from
the stands of the couch. Prize Picks asked that extra
layer fund for sports excitement. Again my slogan, why would
you put some on the game when you could put
some on the name. Let's get into those picks and
start winning with prize picks today. I utp Cole, Let's
get back to the show. Drug mule, like you said,

(31:24):
maybe that comes out of the lawsuit, but has that
solidified to now just be thrown around like Diddy's rolling
around with a drug mule and sex workers. It's just
it's getting nasty.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Man.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, there is just like so much of his background
that I wasn't even really really aware of. I mean,
just the stuff that people have been bringing up. Like
there's that video of Justin Bieber when he was like twelve,
like hanging out with him. He's like gonna drive Ditty's
cars for the day and stuff, and it's just like
there's just so much stuff people are bringing up now

(31:57):
that you know, hindsight's always twenty twenty. But you're like,
all this stuff is just kind of weird. But no
celebrity life.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
I guess, how would you how do you find that
kind of stuff? I mean, I know about everything because
I'm I grew up in it, right, But how does
someone from outside of uh this and from a journalistic standpoint,
how do you find that stuff?

Speaker 1 (32:18):
It's hard to know what's real and what's not, Like
what's just a coordinated PR stunt because everything is so manufactured,
and what what it's actually like in real life? You know,
when the cameras are off, what are they actually doing?
Kind of thing? For me, it's hard to distinguish that
And it's hard not to think that when the cameras
are on, the stuff that we're seeing is just fake

(32:38):
and staged. You know that that's what That's how I see.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
It right right right now? What do you what do
we know if anything about the drug mule? His name
is what I think his name was.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Brendan Brendan Paul Syracuse or something. Yes, stories about like
who is this like ex Syracuse University basketball player who's
now hanging out with Diddy? But they, you know, a
big company like that, I mean, how do they even
hire employees like put up like Craigslist ads? You know, Yeah,

(33:12):
we don't know that much about him and looks like
because I was looking in federal court, I think because
it's Florida, they have really good public records laws, so
I actually should be able to just go into the arrest,
like find the agency that arrested them, and you can
usually get his mug shot. We've seen the body camera
footage from when he was arrested. I think all that
stuff should be releasable. It's just the bigger question of

(33:34):
like is this going to be tied into Diddy? And
as people are speculating, like is he gonna give the
cops information on Didty?

Speaker 3 (33:40):
You know, we just don't know. I mean for them
to have an arrest with him with drugs, and I
know that helps this overall case that they're doing. I
know they're saying, all right, we got one piece of
this for sure locked in in regards to call them
with drugs with Diddy, there's no it's kind of hard
to wiggle out of that one, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. And the idea
with it being a federal investigation, it's like we do
see leaks sometimes from federal investigations, but a lot of
the times it's like when it's a political case, like
something involving Trump or something, somebody will be able to
get some kind of leak and it's somebody within the
Department of Justice or something who's like, you know, thinks

(34:19):
they're trying to save the country and do something good here.
But with it just being a celebrity, it's like, we
don't really have the political aspect it's gonna like drive
some real investigative reporting on it, so we might just
be kind of screwed for a while.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
I wonder how did he can try to add that in,
because he's gonna have to add something in this formula
just to keep saying that they're messing with me. That's
not gonna You're gonna have to add some Trumpism into
this some kind of way and grab hold to something
out out there and make make your case or get
some help. We even saw Trump get his search warned

(34:54):
a federal and that's pretty hard to do, you know.
I'm wondering if Diddy can pull those strings.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, there's all this stuff, especially the new lawyer who
had his name on the statement that was released, like
Aaron Dwyer. He's with a big law firm based in
LA And I was told that it's likely that Diddy
probably also has another lawyer with like a background the
same kind of background in Miami because the way the
search warrants were served, you would want to have local

(35:20):
council and both jurisdictions. But then he's probably going to
have a New York City lawyer take over the whole thing.
But Bobby Sternam I think is her last name, that
lawyer that he hired a couple months ago, who was
Julane Maxwell's lawyer. You know, he has to know something's coming.
And another thing is grand jury investigations is what the
US Attorney's Office does. And if they can't arrest someone

(35:42):
on just a complaint like information that they file themselves,
but there's a whole process for that happens after that
where they prefer to obtain an actual indictment from a
grand jury. And when someone is the target of a
grand jury investigation, they get a letter, like the US
Attorney's Office has to sit up so that and those

(36:04):
are the kind of questions that did He's PR team
needs to be asked. It's like, so have you gotten
any target letters? But of course they're not going to
answer any questions about that. But if if there's a
target letter sent out, that's that's how you start knowing,
And then other people would be interviewed by or testify
it before a grand jury, like that's when it all
starts coming out. You know, you haven't yet.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Do you think did he should do an interview or
do some sort of pr run to try to clear
up anything in the public out or do you think
he's just remain quiet.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
I think just from like a criminal defense standpoint, like
just for anybody, he should he should stay quiet. It's
not worth it right now to say anything that could
you know, just just just stay quiet about it. And
I think they need he needs to realize it's like
becoming like such a bigger deal than just his reputation
is on the line. It's like, dude, you could go
to prison for a long time for this.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Like, yeah, quiet, and we've seen what happened though. I
mean sometimes I don't know. I mean, public opinion is
starting to sway things. Man, Like I don't know how
interested I am, And just like Trump isn't quiet because
I think he understands the public opinion sways some of
these things.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Well, especially in the last few years, you know, we
are seeing more like the politicalization. I mean Trump was
doing it with the Department of Justice. It's kind of
scary to think that it could start influencing it more.
But I was kind of making the case for you know,
as citizens in the United States, we should actually maybe
not want there to be leaks about this investigation, Like
the Department of Justice people are like leaking stuff to

(37:40):
the New York Posts, just like the New York Post
can get clicks or something, you know, right may Yeah,
that's fairness for all.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Yeah, but it's that's unrealistic because unfortunately it's a flawed
system that we're in. I mean, we hope for the best,
but this system is already shredded. You know, people are
already giving out information and leaking prominent stuff. Like it's
it's a weird I mean, it's a weird industry.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's for sure. I can see that.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
What about I've been seeing you also covering the young
Thug trial.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, yeah, that's a and that's an interesting one because
it relates so much to tru the Trump case because
it's the same county and the same charge, and somebody
who just watches a lot of trials, I'm like, this
case is kind of screwed up, and that it's so huge.
I mean, they filed something recently, the defense attorneys did
complaining that the rate they're going, with all the evidence

(38:38):
they still have to present, prosecutors are going to be
presenting their case into twenty twenty seven, says the longest
trial imaginable, and it just seems like really mismanaged. And
here he is being held without bail. It's like, this
is I don't know, it's it's kind of scary that
they can.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
Just do that, right because in my opinion, even if
you beat this trial, let's say you beat it, they
still got six seven years out of you of your life.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, seriously, seriously. And the thing that if
I just mentioned to people like who lawyers around here,
that there's this trial in Atlanta that is they're expected
to go to twenty twenty seven, it's like, how are
they going to be able to keep a jury for
that long? And the idea that you know, the jury
is even going to be in place for another six
months because they've just got I think they're down to
like fifteen people and they can get down to twelve.

(39:25):
If they get any less than twelve, they have to
start over with a whole new jury. And it's like, yeah,
these people have been cleared for supposedly a long trial,
but you don't know what's going on in your lives.
You know, something could happen in their lives in three
months and one has to drop out, and so the
idea that they're going to stick around for that. So
I feel like it's almost guaranteed to have a mistrial
because of that. And it's like they're just so they're

(39:45):
going to start over and have to do this all
over again. It's like these people are being held without bail.
These are years of their lives. They're losing.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, And I was told by someone that was involved
in it that they were offering young thug like a
life sentence something is do you is that any substantia?

Speaker 1 (40:03):
I haven't. I haven't heard that, but he's definitely facing
serious amount of time, like at least twenty years or
something if he's convicted. But they've given plea deals to
other people, like his friend from growing up, Tick. He's
been mentioned in some of his songs. The song You
mentions Tick Trontavius Stevens and then also Walter Murphy were

(40:23):
able to take plea deals for Rico conspiracy and just
get out. Both of them are out of jail and
they had to testify. So it's kind of weird that
they would take Thug's co defendant and just let him
out on probation for the next ten years, but not
give Thug the same kind of offer. But I'm assuming
that it's hard to say, and his lawyer, Brian Steele,

(40:45):
wouldn't admit this, but I'd like to think that if
the prosecutors did offer him a plea deal where it's like,
if you just plead guilty, we'll let you out right
now and you can just be on probation for the
next ten years, he'd be kind of stupid not to
take it. So my guess is they haven't offered him
that no am to go for.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yes, that's what they're telling me from the inside of it,
Like some of the guys is actually in the indictment
is saying, man, they're not offering anything that makes sense
for him to take.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah, And it's and it's bullshit how they're using his
lyrics too, because I hate to say that there's just
no case against them, because when you read through the
whole indictment, it's like all these murders and stuff, it
seems like kind of serious, but there's just so much
stuff that doesn't need to be in there, Like the
last four months of the trial. It's where like all
the stuff from twenty thirteen that they're talking about. It
seems why don't they just cut it out?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
You know, let's talk about that. Like I was, I
was looking at it a couple last the last few days.
You got to take to Quinn Bean what about what
was his first name?

Speaker 1 (41:47):
With Adrian Bean?

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Oh man, that witness was up there. I was like, yo,
what is this man?

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yeah? Did you see? Shannon Stillwell's lawyer, Max Shard, tried
to get really, He's like, sir, for the last just
eight days, you have wasted this jurious time. And with Glanville,
Judge Glanville, it was getting into like, okay, this is
non responsive and you need to make the witness answer
the question. When the question is you know two minutes ago,

(42:13):
did you just hear your voice on a recording? And
he goes, I don't recall.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
It's like on man, Yeah, It's like I was saying, yo,
he up there. Then when he said I don't know
how this plays into the court or the trial, but
he said that man, I'm so high, man, I'm almost
finophol with I uptill.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Judge Glambelle was just like, we're gonna take a break soon.
And for some people were like, did he actually say hot?
But it was confirmed it because he could have said
hot with an accent, But it was actually confirmed to
me by one of the defense attorneys in the courtroom
that no, he definitely said high.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
So he didn't want to be that man. Yeah, like
it's that. Then the some of the stuff that he
was saying he had told police stuff. I just don't
know how all this plays into it. Then you have
Brian Steele asked the judge to step down.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Yeah, yeah, and that I don't think there's any chance
that he will, but I'll be interested to see the
motion if he actually files a written motion, because I
think the way it works in that county is it
would be decided by another judge, and I can't imagine
another judge is going to recuse him either. But just
the fact that it's going on makes it kind of interesting.
But it's just it's such a shit show and it's

(43:21):
such a long trial. It's like, how are we not
even close to being done with this trial? You know,
it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
I look at big and and and I'm saying, man,
this is very stray. What about Gunner's plea? What, yeah,
do you have about that?

Speaker 1 (43:37):
So it's different from Tick's plea deal where Tick took
an actual plea agreement that required him to testify. And
same with d K who we've been here hearing about
Walter Murphy, which apparently he's supposed to be testifying soon
and I'm like, oh, that should be that should be good.
But Gunnah's plea is completely different in that he's not
required to testify, and it's actually an Alfred plea, which

(43:58):
is named after like the defendant who first took the plea,
where you it's like a guilty plea, but you're not
actually admitting guilty. You're just admitting that if you took
it to trial, there is enough evidence that you could
be convicted. So it's not the same as just straight
up pleading guilty. So just the fact that he has
an Alfred plea and the fact that he isn't required

(44:19):
to testify, I don't think we're going to see him testify,
And if anything, I kind of think the defense could
call him as their own witness because they could go
over the same questions that they went over with Tick,
where basically show that he had all these different reasons
for pleading guilty or taking an Alfred plea, and that
he's not actually guilty and he doesn't want to testify

(44:39):
and he thinks the case is bullshit too.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
That is a good conversation.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
I won't see him though. I bet he doesn't testify it.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Yeah, but that's a good conversation. Can gonna redeem hisself
by going in and testifying for though, because he's tooking
a culture hit for taking his plea, And I.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Personally think it's a little unfair to him because it's
like they just assume that he's snitching, and like all
the conversation is about whether he's snitching. It's like he
took a police so he could get get out of jail,
and same with Tick. I mean to say, what Tick
did was more snitching than Ghanna, just because he's required
to testify. But it's like, what is he supposed to do?

(45:19):
Just stay in jail for the next like years of
his life and just take one for the team. And
I don't even think he really said that much incriminating
about see.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
What I think the thinking is the thinking behind that
is is that we assumed the government to never do
anything for no reason, so they had to have you
come up there and do that for something. Now, if
it's not the traditional telling, did that help? Is that
going to help them with the Okay? So what the
streets is saying is that they're trying to identify if

(45:52):
this is a gang. And part of the stipulation was
him identifying it as a gang.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yeah, And that was pretty because there is that part
of his plea deal where he's or his agreement where
he says, you know, it became a gang. I'm sorry
I was part of it and it needs to end
or something like that.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Ye.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
So the defense was to put him on the stand.
Of course the prosecutors would be asking him about that,
be like, okay, you you say you were pressured to
take this, but still you set all this bad stuff
in there, right. So I think it's mostly just likely
that he doesn't testify. But I just kind of feel
for these people who are put in this position because
and especially Trontavius Stevens, like you could tell he does

(46:30):
not want to get young Thug in trouble like he has.
He goes way back with Young thug and made a
point of meeting with Brian Steele and you know kind
of you know, telling some tall tales about his gang
tattoos and stuff because he wants to kind of keep
with Thug's story. But the idea that he should just
not take a plea deal and go on trial too,

(46:50):
where Brian Steel did a good job of going over
like all the reasons he took a plea deal, and
it was hugely financial, like his grandma paid like fifty
thousand dollars for some lawyer and they wanted to take
it to trial. But then the lawyer couldn't do the
trial because it's kind of Fulton County's fault for putting
on this crazy long case that like, I mean, lawyers

(47:10):
have to just earn a living and have a business.
So the idea that just one lawyer can just devote
themselves to a trial for three years. So apparently this
guy's wife had cancer or whatever. But Tick didn't even
get all his money back because the lawyer had only
done had already done a bunch of stuff in the case.
So I think he said that his grandma got like
thirty thousand dollars back or twenty and then went and
hired another lawyer who negotiated the plea deal. But you

(47:33):
just kind of feel for the guy. I mean, thug
is able to have Brian Steele and basically have unlimited
resources from I think the record label is helping fund
that too.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
He got a he got a whole, he got a
lot of hell. He's okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah, but Tick was just kind of like screwed. And
they heard Brian Brian Steele ask him about his his
three baby mamas. I mean, imagine being in jail. You
got he has three kids with three women, and two
of them are eight year olds, two different Yeah, And
Brian Steel was like, you know, when you were in jail,
were you able to provide you know, resources to your
kids and their mothers? And he's like no, It's like yeah,

(48:08):
I mean he was. Was he just gonna stay in
there forever? You know?

Speaker 3 (48:11):
But it's something to hang your man's though, like it's
like to help. It's like, man, it's something to go
with that. Now, I'll say this about the Gunner scenario. Yeah,
if it was me, I would have rejected that plea agreement,
and then I would have sent my lawyers back in there.
And says Hey, if he would have signed that paper,

(48:31):
they would have let him out. Can he least get
a bond? Because the day before you sign this paper,
you say he's one of the most dangerous people in
the world. And then the next day I signed the paper,
I get to go home. So yeah, they'll let me
go home, please, Like, so now give me a bond
instead of me signing and saying that.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
That's interesting. If anyone would be in a position to
do that, it would be Gunna, because I mean, yeah,
he has He's not like Tick and you know, relying
on Tick Scramble, on his lawyer. You know, he would
have been able to that he had his lawyer is
actually the same guy who's currently representing Donald Trump, Stephen
Steve Siddoh oh yeah in this case. So but you know,

(49:10):
I mean there are probably just like, is it gonna
get any better than this? Can't get bailed? I don't know.
It's just like it just shows how much power these
prosecutors out.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
I think Gunner has actually felt this though. I think
I think he's I think this has affected him, like
to get out and the way it happened and all
of that. I think this is all on dude, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
But do you think it's affected like his career and
like rap career.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it definitely his his brain has took
a hit. I mean, his sales are doing okay, but
he know, like I know that there's a there's a
there's a stickiness which your reputation in this game, right.
He keeps saying close to you and next to you,
and his has took a hit. He's out there now
only on music. So if that music stops, could in

(50:00):
the slightest he's in trouble. When some people music can
stop connecting, but their brand kind of keeps some moving.
Their reputation keeps some moving because it's not it's not
about even the criminal element of this. It's more so
about the friendship element. You know, it's more so about
thug and him and their friendship element of it. That
people is like, oh my god, bro. Yeah, it's it's heartbreaking.

(50:25):
It's definitely heartbreaking. Like and so Detective Quinn have you
I've seen you posted the uh the thing with Detective
Quinn on your page. What's what's your feelings about him?

Speaker 1 (50:38):
They they're I mean, he's so plain to the cameras
I mean a lot of people in the comments have
called it out. It's like, what does he think this
is an audition or something, you know, And it's just
so like, on the one hand, you can you can
see how a lot of people would really like him,
and he seems cool. I mean, if there's ever like
a cop that you'd want to go get a beer with,
you know, Detective Quinn would be awesome to just like
sit around and like hear all his stories. But just

(50:59):
the way he is, i mean a moonlighting job at
Neiman Marcus when he's a homicide detective. I mean, it's like, dude,
it's you hate to just say this, but it's like
it's hard not to look at him in blasgaz and
be like, dude, those guys.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Are up to something, right, Yeah, just.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
The way he was buttering up Adrian Bean and all
those conversations. And one huge red flag for me is
having covered cops over the years is the fact that
David Quinn started the police union. He's one of the
co founders of the Atlanta Pars Union. In those unions
are hugely powerful and they're a big reason that, like frankly,
some of the cops are kind of out of control

(51:34):
in this country because of the protections that they have.
So the idea that they would have somebody who founded
the police union also out investigating officer involved shootings. It's like, hey,
and maybe he has, you know, found things happen wrong.
But I'm like, has he ever found that any of
these officers involved shootings were not justified?

Speaker 3 (51:52):
Maybe? Yeah, great, that's a great Yeah, it's a great observation.
I didn't know that. That's why you're important over here.
You know that that's so important. Yeah, now you could
tell as soon as he says something, he look over here. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no,
he looked back to the time. I'm like, he's he's
acting up here.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Man in the the prosecutor who's questioning him, Simone Hilton,
you can tell she's like a little star struck by
him too.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
It's like, oh, right, they said he was on first
forty eight or something. I guess that's where he gets claimed.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
The fact is is atl homicide? Like are they all
part of first forty eight? Because all of this Atlanta
police aparma cups seemed to love the limelight. Because that
other one that they had on Summer Benton I guess
she's been on some shows too, like Women of Homicide
and things like that.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
But wow, that's craziness. Like and like you said, working
in Demon Marngus, what I found interesting was that he
those conversations he said he had with Young Thug. He
said he had like three or four different conversations with
Young Thug. Yeah. Yeah, it was interesting for him to
pull him to the side.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
Yo.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
You got being it's like damn, Like well, and.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Is there a will be interested to see Brian Steele's
cross of Quinn because they're trying to get ahead of that,
because I think Steel's whole point is that, I mean,
here Quinn is acting like Thug was involved in this
and he thinks, you know, something was bad, but yet
you're sucking up to him at Neiman Marcus and asking
him for a job or trying to do a job

(53:23):
with him. You know, it's like, I don't know something something.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
And then his sister Dolly said that she never gave
him the number, and he was saying that, Yo, Dolly
came and gave me the number and it's still in
my police issue cell phone. It just seems like he's
a little too in tune with this thing. It's some
it's some going.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Yeah, those guys, and I'm I'm sure all the cases
that they've done, it must they must just have tons
of stories. But I'm sure tons of people have stories
about them too.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Write facts, facts, and so the last case I want
to talk to you about, and I know this is
your this is your baby, Tory Lanes and Meg Megie,
you want to start at all? Right, Yeah, that's what
started it all. Matter of fact, let's talk about that
a little bit. Prior to that that was like, was
that one of your biggest moments yet?

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Yeah, I mean just in terms of like the numbers
that I got from that before. Because when I worked
at the La Daily Journal, it's a newspaper for lawyers.
It's so old fashioned and archaic, you know, they print
and distribute in California to the courts. The judges all
read it, the law firms and stuff. But we had
a social media page, but the reporters were actually like

(54:32):
forbidden from tweeting about the stories that we were covering
because the boss just didn't see any point to it.
So for up until like twenty twenty or so, I
didn't really have much of a social media presence but
when I went to ALM and a lot of calm,
it was able to start using it more so. I
covered Michael of Anadi's trial that like Thieving Lawyer a
few years ago, and I remember, I think I had

(54:54):
like five or six thousand followers when his trial started,
or under that maybe, and I gained like two thousand
followers and thought it was like a really big deal.
I gained like two thousand followers overnight. But then I
went into the Tory Lanez trial with like eleven thousand
followers and came out with seventy seven thousand followers. And

(55:15):
I remember I gained like two thousand followers in an
hour or something on there. It was just I mean,
it was just crazy the numbers. So yeah, that was
it's hard not to say that wasn't my big.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Break, right right? Where are we in that particular case
and are there any updates that the people should know about?

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Yeah, he's got his appeal in his opening brief. Appeal
is in with the Second District Court of Appeals in California,
which is the one that does the LA cases, and
so it's the prosecutors. The Attorney General's office will respond
to that. And I think they were supposed to respond
by the end of the month, but they just got
an extension and I don't know when the new do

(55:53):
date is, but it's pretty common for them to get extensions.
But it's probably like a couple months out. And once
that happens, his lawyers can file a response to the
opposition and then it could get set for oral argument,
like where the attorneys will actually go in before this
court and talk about the case. But that might actually
not happen until next year. Like it's hard to see

(56:15):
what the timeline is, but it could be a while. Dahn.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Wow. Wow, it's the alleged video that we've been hearing
about that it's been circulating. Is there any have you
had any updates on that.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
I've just seen like tweets about that. I'm like, sir,
people just making stuff up because I'm pretty sure if
there was a video there, it would be mentioned in
the appellate briefs. I mean, these appellate briefs haven't said
anything about that. And the new information is all about
the driver. His driver has come forward and said that
he didn't see who fired the shots, which is like, Okay,

(56:49):
what's the point of this, but that he saw the
that he saw Kelsey and Megan fighting, and that Kelsey
had the gun beforehand and Tory tried to wrestle it away,
which is kind of basically what Sean Kelly testified to
in trial. But then he also went on to say
that Tory was filing firing shots but just legally, I mean,
it's his chance of getting any kind of reversal or

(57:12):
getting out is all in this appellate court thing that
he's got filed, and there isn't anything about a video
in there. And I just think the people who are
saying there's a video, first of all, I mean it's
kind of sad, and that they're just making stuff up
because they're desperate for attention. I mean, you see that
on the internet, like all yeah. But I think especially
in this one, this case like just kind of took

(57:32):
on a life of its own with some people and
they've just become like so attached to it, like identity wise,
and it's just kind of a dopamine thing where if
you're just kind of home in your apartment and you're
you know, kind of sad or depressed, it's like, well,
if you write something on the internet that takes off
all of a sudden, you've got all these replies and
likes and people talking to you, so like the temptation

(57:53):
to you know, just bullshit to get clicks is kind
of great.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
And it's important people know that because it's messed up
and rap that the bloggers are really affecting the business
from out of being bored, nothing to do, don't go nowhere,
and now they're shooting that rappers and crashing the business
or messing with the business. It's a wild thing happening
out there.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Yeah, And that's one thing that I've kind of learned
just from covering the Tory Lands case. It's just just
a huge intersection and especially like rapping, hip hop and
and the blogs, like it's all like you know, the
streets and the gossip and the tea and I mean,
you just it's it's such a it's such a weird
cycle of how they all kind of feed off each
other because they need each other. But then there's it's

(58:33):
like a love hate relationship. Yeesh, it's half with the blogs,
you know, It's.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
Right, Yeah, because now I look at Diddy, and in
particular with Diddy, he was one of those guys that
was pro black black this black dead, black jet, black liquor.
I want to black people like and now look at
black media, it's like they're literally I wanted to ask
you this from your reading. Is the term freak off
in any of these lawsuits or what was that? Man?

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Yeah, I think it is. Is it in the Little
Little Rod? It seems like there's it seems like there's
some lawsuits. But yeah, that that that definitely came from
the brother They might be in the Is it in
the CASI? I think it might have been in the
CASI lawsuit too, But yeah, it is definitely. Yeah, I
think that's.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Been Okay, okay, okay, he likes to get down. I
guess yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Yeah. I mean it's like, look, as long as everyone
is over age and consenting, but it sounds like that's
the big issue here. They're not.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
So yeah, And that's the way it is because you know,
when you listen to some of Andrew Tate's rhetoric, he
says that the way that they're framed human trafficking is
that if you fly girl out, pay her, and have
sex with her, that's technically human trafficking. When you get
into the weeds of it, and I have a hard

(59:53):
time imagining that Diddy has never put someone on the
plane and gave them some money and also had sex
with them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Yeah, I know, if they're underage, that's a yeah, not
even age.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
What about of age is that still? I mean people
are saying of age, they're still considered trafficking human trafficking.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Yeah, I mean I wouldn't want to like make make
a legal analysis too, but yeah, and just the transnational
approach of it. And then you know, if these people
are now coming forward and saying that they weren't happy
about it, I mean, the Julane Maxwell case, the Jeffrey
Epstein stuff is a good kind of blueprint to look at,

(01:00:33):
like what might an investigation look into here? And who
who would they be talking to and why? You know,
and you sit with Cassie, it's like, yeah, it sounds
like they have a lot of material here.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, No, Cassie's different. Cassies' I give her credence, Cassie blessings, prayers, right,
but what these other things like, oh, they've now they've
now blurred this thing up. Now this thing they're together,
it's like, oh my god, it's getting dangerous now. Well,
with the toy Relanes case, if I remember correctly the

(01:01:05):
witness that tor Relanes brought up. Did I believe more
damage to tor Relanes? Did they flip the witness?

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Yeah, yeah, Sean Sean Kelly and I remember in the
in the beginning, like the way they talked about that
in the opening statement, I was like, I wonder if
this guy's actually going to like play out to be
the witness that they that they did. But yeah, it
was all about, you know, he's he saw two women fighting.
And I can't remember if if Tory's lawyer said straight
up that, oh he saw Kelsey fire shots, but I

(01:01:34):
mean it did seem to be going Tory's way in
the very beginning, but then his testimony just kind of
turned and as he was questioned more and more, he's
identifying Lanes as the shooter. So his he did seem
to say that that, you know, two girls fighting, He
was pretty unequivocal about that, but then he also identified Lanes.

(01:01:55):
And one important thing of it was, uh, the stuff
about dance bitch, because even in Kelsey's DA's interview, she
is corroborating everything Megan says about the shooting and what
Tory did, but she won't. She says that he did.
He didn't say dance bitch. When they ask her if
anyone says that, she says no. But then with Sean

(01:02:18):
Kelly's testimony, he says that, you know, he saw a
woman on the ground and that the young short guy
was the last to get out of the car, and
he like all these muzzle shots were coming from him
and that he was unleashing a torrent of abuse. So
like he didn't hear exactly what he said from up
in the window, but the torrent of abuse line, I'm like,
doesn't that kind of corroborate what Megan was saying about

(01:02:39):
dance bitch? And it could just be it's not that
Kelsey did hear dance bitch and she just lied to
the prosecutors and said no, It's just she honestly did
not hear that because there was so much going on
at the time. But it just seems like, I don't know,
especially over the last couple of months, I've been like,
I think that case is pretty much over. I mean,
I'm still going to cover his appeal and everything, but

(01:03:02):
it's just like all the dialogue online is so toxic,
and like the people who have these vested interests in it,
and like all the drama and gossip between them, it
just seems like really really hurtful and there's just isn't
much for me to add anymore. You know, I just
kind of want to want to move on, but I'm
definitely still still tracking the appeal and everything.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
Yeah, no, you did your job on it, like you said,
once the information has reached a we've reached a point
where we're regurgitating it or it is just is nothing new,
is nothing to add. You're in the right You're in
the right mindset in my opinion to be like, yo,
I think it's time to move on now. I will
say the idea that a video doesn't exist, it is

(01:03:41):
kind of interesting because we're in that area. Someone has
a ring doorbell camera. There has to be surveillance these
rich people. That's interesting to me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Yeah, yeah, I mean because they had what we had
audio somebody's somebody's video camera caught the audio of it,
and then we had the nine one one calls. But yeah,
there hasn't been. But it seems like, you know, if
if Tory Lanez's camp really had a video that showed
that he wasn't the shooter, I mean, good lord, you

(01:04:13):
think they would have actually released it by instead of
there's some point yeah, yeah, just five five five that
claims there is yes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
And so what they're saying is that there's supposed to
be some anonymous person. And of course I know better
than that because they'll pay top dollar for their video
at this point, like they.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Will, I mean, and then the idea that like if
somebody sent that to me, I would just be all over.
It's just like I would not be this. I mean,
his lawyers would be the one to be like, hey,
we've got this video here that proves that this person
who's in prison doesn't need to be there. I mean,
the appellate court would pay attention to something like that.
It's just what they got right now is Hey, some
guy who didn't testify and trial and clearly could have

(01:04:56):
says that he didn't see who shot the gun. It's like, oh, okay,
I don't think.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
This is enough to get out right, and I don't
think that's enough feed What where does young thugs Trout
intersect with Trump's trial and do they effect one another?

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
Yeah, you know, I mean, I kind of the word
has been that the Fulton County DIA's office, which brought
the Young Thug case in the Trump case, like they
wanted to bring the Young Thug cases kind of like
a test to like get ready for this big Trump case.
It's it's hard to say, but I think all the
stuff going on with the Trump case, with Fannie Willis's
disqualification hearing and all that just shows like how political

(01:05:32):
that office is and just like, frankly, what kind of
a mess it is. So I think they overlap in
that regard, but it doesn't I mean, other than that,
I don't think anything that happens in the Trump case
will like directly affect Young Thug's case. But it's just
kind of a it was an inside look into the
office that's prosecuting Young Thug. It's kind of scary.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
So with Fanny Willis because because Trump would it's almost
like Trump was trying to throw Young Thug elie you
when he would when he would bring up like she's
been sleeping with a gang member, and da da da
da da, It's like it almost feels like that if
you ruin the reputation of Fanny Willis, who started this

(01:06:13):
investigation on Young Thug, how does this investigation not be
tain it as well? I don't know how that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Yeah, it's just it just seems like that was kind
of supported by nothing other than the fact that she
did represent this guy when she was in private.

Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
All that was that supported.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
Yeah, I mean, and it's kind of like a classic
sexism And you see it in the Young Thug trial too,
where I think everybody has a right to criticize the prosecutors.
And if people want to, like criticize Adrian Love the
Chief Deputy DA by name, I mean, there's that's their
right to do. And there's plenty to criticize for her.
But I always cringe when people are like, oh, she
must be sleeping with the judge, because it's sexist to

(01:06:52):
say that about her right. And you kind of see
the same thing with Funny. Chris Funny didn't do herself
any favors by actually sleeping with this special prosecutor. You know,
it just seems like she made a ton of a
ton of bad decisions here.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
So you don't think you don't think there's any truth
to it. I don't think Trump will be out there.
I think he knows something, I mean, or does truth?
Does he around?

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Like the implication is that and it is true that
with her having represented this guy, it might be a
would it be a conflict for her office then to
turn around and prosecute it. But we kind of see
this in prosecutor's offices around the country, Like a lot
of defense attorneys, criminal defense attorneys run for prosecutor and
then get elected, and the idea that then their office

(01:07:35):
that like the prosecutor's office, can no longer prosecute anyone
that they used to represent. I mean, there's just this
kind of implication that the reason she didn't prosecute this
guy is because she was giving him favoritism. But it's like, okay,
how does that affect the other cases? I mean, it's
basically a bunch of criminal defense attorneys whining that some
other guy wasn't charged with a crime. It's like, okay, talk.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
About the Donovan guy that they said she was sleeping with.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
I think Mundo is the guy's name. Thomas was who
I haven't heard, And I feel like that is just
like I haven't seen anything to actually like, I feel
like that does become sexist just because she's a female prosecutor,
any male around her she must be sleeping with.

Speaker 3 (01:08:21):
You know, you only do you only do criminal cases.
What else do you do your journalism about.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
I do cover some civil cases when I can, Like
like lawsuits when they go to trial and federal court
are always interesting to watch. Like actually, Asap Rocky has
a lawsuit because he's got that shooting case that hasn't
gone to trial and it's not scheduled yet, but the
guy that he allegedly shot is suing him for defamation.
So that's kind of one to track like things things

(01:08:50):
like that. But I try to stick to to criminal cases,
Like I just covered one in La federal court that
was a big federal corruption case. Actually, there was this
La City councilman who ran downtown LA for a bunch
of years, and he was completely corrupt, Like if developers
wanted to get any kind of thing built downtown or
get some kind of hotel redeveloped, they had to go

(01:09:12):
through him, and he would make them like you know,
buying prostitutes and stuff. He was going to Las Vegas
with this Chinese billionaire developer and this guy was like
had kind of head diistic tendencies. So they'd go up
to Vegas and go on these gambling trips and you know,
high end gambling like tens of thousands of dollars. He
had all these prostitutes with him, but it was just

(01:09:34):
complete pay for play. And it's actually, I mean, I
think we've gotten so cynical in this country that there
are people who hear about this stuff and don't even realize,
Like as disgusting as it sounds, they don't realize it.
It's actually totally illegal too for public official to be
taking favors like that and having like a pay for
play scheme. So the Feds actually found out that he

(01:09:55):
was going on gambling trips with this billionaire developer and
actually saw photos of them at a gamembling table together.
So they like to get their fancy names for their investigations,
so they called this one operation Casino Loyal. But they
like had like half of the Los Angeles politicos like
wearing wires. It was like classic stuff where they got

(01:10:18):
a bunch of people to flip on the councilman and
record him, and they had there was another the deputy
mayor was involved. The councilman actually took a plee deal
and just got thirteen years in prison. But there was
this deputy mayor who had been working at City Hall.
For like ever, and he was involved in it too.
He was helping facilitate the meetings with the Chinese developers,
and he had this consulting business that he was like

(01:10:40):
packing away a bunch of money and that he was
going to go work in after he left the city.
But he got busted by the Feds and a bunch
of people that he was working with them all flipped
on him and like were wearing wires. So he took
it to trial and just got convicted on all accounts
and he's going to get like ten years.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Yeah, and it's not.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
So weird though, Yeah, only ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
Is like he might get more really, like he faces
twenty years. It's just his sentencing is in June, so
it's kind of hard to know. Like the prosecutors will
do a recommendation, his attorneys will do a recommendation. But
just looking at things like j Jose Wezar is the
councilman who was doing everything and he pleaded guilty, avoided
trial and got thirteen years in prison. And then there

(01:11:23):
was a developer who's actually like a multi millionaire who
lived in some mansion in bel Air and he gave
Weezar a five hundred thousand dollars bribe and then falsified
a bunch of business records when the Feds came knocking.
So and he took it to trial and got convicted,
and the Feds wanted him to get seven years in prison,
and his defense lawyers asked the judge to only give

(01:11:44):
him eighteen months, and the judge gave him six years.
And that guy's a private citizen and it was one bribe,
and this guy that just got convicted of way more
charges than that was a public official, which is like
a bigger deal to the judge. The judges you were held,
you know, should be held to higher standard. So it's
probably not going to get as much as Weezar because
he wasn't quite as involved. But the fact that he

(01:12:06):
took it to trial and like denied it the whole time,
whereas Weezar admitted it said I you know, I don't
think he said I'm sorry, but he said he pleaded guilty.
It's like that's going to be factored into So I
don't think he's going to get more than Wes are.
But if you look at six years for the developer,
thirteen years for Wezar, ten years for this guy sounds.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
About right, right, right, that's a good gauge. Yeah, being
a journalist has it skewed your your mind? Has it
corrupted your mind where you just look at this country
in a way where's like, oh, it's not what it seems,
or I have a little bit more information and I
have a skewed outlook on how things are.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Yeah, I have kind of wonder that, especially my background
in my early twenties, like working at this Spokesman Review
in Spokane and covering the crime beat up there, because
I look back, I'm like, well, I was just on
like the meth head beat for like three or four years,
covering like all these murders and stuff, just kind of
like the lowest of low of society, which is good
to see that. You also kind of have to remind
yourself that you cover a lot of bad shit all

(01:13:04):
the time and that most people aren't like this, like
hopefully you know, and you raise your standard as a
person because for a while it's like, well, as long
as they're not murdering people, they're great people. You know.
It's like no, no, improve your standards a little bit,
like you've been covering the bottom of the barrel, So
try to get up to like the top of the
barrel of society.

Speaker 3 (01:13:21):
You know, and then you see stories where people are
in love and then you know this happens. It's like, uh,
I don't trust love. I've seen what that case that
time I did a deep dive on. It's like, I
wonder how all of that effikes you. It's almost like
an actor that never comes out of the role.

Speaker 1 (01:13:37):
Yeah, yeah, you know, but you got you got to
focus on the good. And that's one thing about crime
is that there's so much horrible stuff that happens with crime,
but then overall there are a lot of good people
like trying to investigate it, like the victim's advocates, you know.
For as much problems and as for as much as
I frankly don't like the cops in this country, there
are good cops, and like we need people to investigate

(01:13:57):
you know, serial killers and murderers and stuff. So I
think there are good things to focus on there, like
the people who are trying to help people. It's like
that mister Rogers quote, like when you see terrible things
on TV, look for the helpers. Look for the people
who are trying to help. I think I think that's important.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Well, you truly are a helper, and I really really
appreciated this conversation. As we get updates and you have time,
I would love to just update the culture time and
you know, whenever you can about things and get some
of your outlook, because again I've really, really really appreciated
the conversation today. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
Absolutely, thank you so much for having me man, I'd
be happy to join you again

All Episodes

Feat Meghan Cuniff - P Diddy Case Update , Meghan The Stallion And Tory Lane Witness Update

Episode Transcript

Host

Looney

Popular Podcasts

United States of Kennedy

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Feat Meghan Cuniff - P Diddy Case Update , Meghan The Stallion And Tory Lane Witness Update