Larry and ABC News Investigative Reporter Peter Charalambous look into the sentencing charges in the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from dou Wor Now the WOR
Saturday Morning Show. Here's Larry Minty. Welcome to Saturday Morning.
On this week's show, ABC's Peter Harralamboos has been in
the courtroom from the beginning of the Sean Didty Combs trial,
and he's coming up to tell us how he thinks
sentencing is going to go for Diddy. Let's talk about

(00:23):
the Sean Didty Combs verdict and sentencing with ABC's Peter Harralamboos. Peter,
you nailed it. You kept talking about that it's not
possible to find him guilty on the four other charges
because they're all predicate charges for the racketeering charge. So
something had to give, and it certainly did. It was
a I guess it wasn't that surprising to you because

(00:45):
you seem to see that coming, you know.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I gotta say, though, I was a bit shocked hearing
it read in real I think, you know, a lot
of people have talked about a lot of legal Leno's
talked about this possibility from the start, that you know,
the rocketeering was a bit of a stretch and that
perhaps the jury just kind of only takes those two
lesser counts to prostitution charges because they're kind of the
obvious ones. Those are the low hanging fruit. And that's

(01:10):
basically what we saw just yesterday. Really a roller coaster
ride for Sean Combs. You saw him basically drop to
his knees in open court praying and then getting around
the applause from the gallery. He went from that kind
of epic high to a bit of a low in
the afternoon when he was denied bail and told he
had to report back to prison. While the way it's

(01:30):
his sentencing, nevertheless, he seems like he's relieved. We could
hear him in the gallery gallery basically telling his family, baby,
I'm coming home. He sees this as a total win.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, I think it was. I think it was a
total win for him, even though he's going to spend
probably a couple of years in jail. I know that
the prostitution is asking for five what's the defense asking
for two?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, the defenses suggested that the guidelines are around two years,
and then they'd subtract ten months bas he's already spent
that in prison. They did a bit of victory lap yesterday.
I looked up some statistics and they were kind of
talking about how unlikely it is to beat the Southern
District of New York on racketeering conspiracy charges, and they're right.

(02:16):
Federal prosecuted generally, according to some statistics between the last
five years, win ninety seven percent of racketeering cases that
they that they charge. So this is really one of
the first instances I can think of in which a
defense team has beat those rico charges, which is kind
of a big win for them. That's something they talked
about at press conference outside.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Court, and it validates them not getting up and I
know they did. They offered a defense in the cross examinations,
but it still was kind of unusual that they did
just end and didn't take the time to give more
of a defense. They just after the prosecution rested. They've rested.
I think a lot of people thought, oh, that's taken

(02:55):
a chance. But this validates it, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. I mean, when I
saw defense and then when I heard their closing statement,
it seemed like the kind of thing that was that
wasn't necessarily aiming for an acquittal, but kind of aiming
towards one two jurors who might be skeptical the kind
of closing statement and defense case that's kind of aimed
at getting a hung jury, not necessarily a full acquittal.
But it seems like their strategy completely worked here and

(03:19):
that the jury in this case effectively rejected the prosecution
theory in its entirety. They rejected the idea that this
was coercive, They rejected the idea that this was sex trafficking.
They rejected the idea that this was a racketeering conspiracy
and kind of this organized criminal enterprise. The only thing
that they found was that Sean Combs basically transported people

(03:40):
consensually over state lines for the purposes of sex. That's
basically all you need to do to prove those prostitution counts.
And that's all they got him on.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
You know, even though we saw what an awful person
he is, and we saw some horrific acts, and some
horrific acts were described. He is now a first time offender.
You would think the judge would go low on the
jail sentence, wouldn't you.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, on one hand, you're right on that he is
the first time offender. He doesn't get that enhancement when
it comes to the sentencing. That a prior criminal would get.
But the judge kind of gave some indications of how
he might look at this during yesterday's bail hearing. This
was around five o'clock where he was debating whether or
not to release Combs before his sentencing, and the judge

(04:26):
kind of blamed the sense for the reason why Combs
is still in prison. You know, as you well remember
their theory. Their argument was that Shun Combs was a
violent person, that he engaged in domestic violence. That basically
what you saw on that video where Combs is beating
Cassie Ventura is domestic violence. And they didn't shy from that.

(04:47):
They leaned into it. They acknowledged it was what it was,
but they suggested that isn't, you know, sex trafficking, that
isn't a racketeer and conspiracy, and that strategy worked completely,
it seems like when it came to the defense trying
to convince the jury, but the judge basically pointed to
that exact argument and said, well, your client has a
propensity for violence. I have no reason just to release

(05:09):
him on bail given the fact that you've openly admitted
that throughout this trial.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I get that, and I was bringing up the point
that I thought he would still get he'd just get
the two years because he's a first time offender, and
you came back with that, which was, you know, compelling.
Does that mean you think he's going to get more
than two years?

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I could see the Based on how the judge phrased
things yesterday, I could see him deciding to kind of
punish him a bit more than that. I think one
thing to consider with federal sentencing is that, you know,
while the judge can't consider the allegations for the counsel
on which he was quitted, he can't consider the domestic
violence generally. So you know, the government has suggested he

(05:48):
should get four to five years. They've suggested that could
go upward. Based on how the judge kind of slammed
the combs for this domestic violence, I could see him
kind of siding with the prosecutors and and give a
can be more time, excuse me.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
ABC Investigative reporter Peter Harralamboos. This has been a podcast
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