Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial Day 1: First witnesses take the stand

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial Day 1: First witnesses take the stand

[Music] I’m Eva Pilgrim. Thanks for streaming with us. The highly anticipated trial against Shawn Diddy Combmes is now underway. It was a whirlwind day. A jury was seated. Opening statements were delivered and the first two witnesses, a male escort and a former security guard were called. More on their testimony in a moment. There are no cameras allowed in court, but our ABC News team was inside watching, listening to it all. Prosecutors didn’t hold back, laying out the government’s case against one of the biggest names in entertainment. They say the public knew Shawn Combmes as Puff Daddy or Diddy, a businessman larger than life. But prosecutors argued there was a darker side to him, saying he used his trusted inner circle to run a criminal enterprise for decades, painting a picture of a controlling, manipulative, and violent Combmes, who allegedly forced victims into days long drugfueled sexual encounters that prosecutors called freakoffs or wild king nights. The defense argued Combmes is a complicated man, but said this is not a complicated case. His lawyer pointing to that disturbing video of Combmes dragging and kicking then girlfriend Cassie Ventura, admitting it shows domestic violence, but arguing it is not evidence of sex trafficking. Sitting behind Combmes today, his mother and children, all seen arriving at court, supporting Combmes as he faces five counts, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Combmes faces a potential life sentence. He has denied all of these allegations. A jury of eight men and four women will decide his fate. We’ll break down what we know about each of them. There is a lot to get to after a jam-packed day in court. I want to get right to chief investigative correspondent Aaron Kurski who was in court for this first official day of the trial. Aaron, opening statements began today. Break down these arguments for us. They really set the tone for the ent entire case. You mentioned the kind of Jackal and Hyde portrayal by prosecutors. Someone that the world came to know as Puffy or Puff or Puff Daddy or Diddy or Love. Somebody who was larger than life, who was a mogul in multiple industries and yet who had a darker side. A lot of celebrities have an entourage around the MVA, but Shawn Combmes, according to federal prosecutors in their opening statement, operated as a criminal enterprise with trusted insiders whose goal was to coersse women into these drugfueled sex performances. Some of them, prosecutors said, lasted for days and were referred to by Colmes as freakoffs or wild king nights. And the defense sought to downplay these episodes, calling them the the consensual threesomes of a celebrity who led a swinger’s lifestyle. And though they conceded that Combmes could be violent with women, even women that he loved and was in a relationship with, they said he’s not charged with being violent. He’s not charged with domestic violence, with with assault even. They said he’s charged with sex trafficking in what’s depicted on the video in the Los Angeles hotel from 2016. And in other episodes, they say may show Combmes being violent, but doesn’t show him being a sex trafficker. And they say it wasn’t part of any racketeering conspiracy as alleged. We saw Shan Kob’s family going into court today. Did he interact with them at all? He did right from the start. He came into court, Eva, all smiles as his eyes immediately locked on to his family seated in the in the second row. His sons and daughters, his mom all there to support him. He blew them kisses in court, made gestures across his heart. But once the opening statements began, Combmes was much more dispassionate. At one point, as a a man who says he was paid to have sex with Cassie Ventura, while Shawn Combmes sat on the corner masturbating, Combmes pushed his chair away from the defense table. Uh his arms went down and he crossed his legs, listening impassively to all of this. At that point, when the the male escort was testifying, his daughters left the room. The first witness, former Intercontinental Hotel security guard Israel Flores, testified about responding to that now infamous incident. Speaking with Combmes and his ex-girlfriend, a key witness in this case, Cassie Ventura. How did Flores describe that day? He set the tone by immediately as the first witness taking jurors back to 2016. It was March 5th when Flores said he responded to a call from hotel staff of a woman in distress on the sixth floor. He goes up the elevator. He sees Shawn Combmes sitting in a chair with what he described as a devilish stare and and Cassie Ventura clearly shaken and he walked the jury through hotel security footage. Some of it uh that the the prosecutors played outright. Some of it that Flores had uh captured on his phone. And it shows the the the detail of of what occurred. There is Cassie. She’s in blue pants and a and a hoodie. She’s not wearing any socks. She reaches into a bag at the elevator and as she’s putting on her socks, Colmes comes barreling around the corner, knocks her down from behind, stomps on her, and the episode continues from there. And Aaron, I have to ask you, we are seeing these sketches of Diddy in court. He looks very different than how many may remember him appearing. Tell us how he looks. Well, he’s certainly much grayer. You know, we’ve seen him that way over his last few court appearances, but people who may be, you know, tuning in and seeing him for the first time here at the onset of trial, he’s not allowed to to color his hair in in jail while he’s incarcerated. So, he’s gone gray, both his hair and his beard. He’s thinner than we saw him, certainly than when he was first arrested, much less bloated than he appeared at that September date. uh and and he is right now impassive as prosecutors have control uh describing what they say he did. Aaron Kurski for us there. Aaron, thank you so much. Let’s dig in deeper on who is in this 12person jury that could decide the fate of Shawn Combmes as well as the legal teams involved in this high-profile case. Here to break it all down for us is ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire, who’s worked as a defense attorney here in New York City. You’ve also closely been following this case. You were in the courtroom today. Let’s talk about this jury. Eight men, four women. What do we know about them? So, yeah, we actually know a lot. And as you pointed out, eight men and these are some of them. We know some of their jobs, massage therapist, retired telephone lineman. But aside from gender and employment, the other thing I want to focus on is age. We have a number of individuals who are over the age of 50. Uh, and the one reason I point that out is two things. One, it’s pretty understandable. This is going to be a case that’s going to last for eight weeks. You got to think about who can take that much time off. The other aspect of that as well is too is when you’re talking about consent, we as defense attorneys seem to see a difference between young people in their understanding of consent and older people. So this may benefit the defense to some degree. And of course, we have the women here as well, four of them, and one age 74. Why do you think these jurors were chosen? So sometimes when it comes to choosing a jury, it’s not just choosing who it is on the jury, it’s eliminating those who don’t want to be on the jury. Uh for the defense, I think they believe that these are individuals that are not just going to be uh unbiased, but also maybe lean towards their favor. for the government. They believe that based on the answers that these individuals gave, they going to be able to achieve that conviction. So either side thinks they see someone favorable in this group. Let’s talk about the legal teams here. Let’s start with the defense team. Yeah. So we have some big names that you may know. Mark, you might have known him from the XM defense where he represent Keith Reneer. Uh Tenny Geragos, the last name may be familiar there as well. Mark Geragos’s daughter. Alexander Shapiro is one of the appelllet attorneys. Uh, and then here are some names that you might not know or you may. Brian Steele, a bit of a famous, uh, defense attorney in Georgia, made even more famous in his defense of Young Thug. And Xavier Donaldson, uh, a defense attorney who is very well known within the Southern District of New York here, as well as Manhattan, the Bronx, and and, uh, Brooklyn. Uh, Anna, Jason, and Linda all rounding out the team as well and supporting the defense of Shawn Combmes. Okay. Now, we have to talk about the prosecution. This is the Southern District of New York. I mean, they have a crazy high conviction rate. What can you tell us about this team? So, I know about the Southern District of New York both as a contributor and as a defense attorney. Yes, conviction rate about 90 95%. So, we have the interimm US attorney Jay Clayton. He’s not actually at the defense table, obviously the prosecution table, but he is the head of the Southern District of New York. And then you have other prosecutors as well, but I want to skip down just real quick because you might recognize the name, Moren Comey. She’s actually one of the lead uh government prosecutors in this case, the daughter of James Comey. Uh, and this is an all women’s team here. I don’t think that was an accident, but it seems very powerful when they’re arguing the case when there are so many female alleged victims in this trial. Yeah. And let’s talk about who we heard from today. A male escort, a former security guard. What does this tell you, if anything, about the prosecution’s plan here? Two things. One, they’re laying the foundation for someone very important to testify. They want that video in, and they also want the individual who was allegedly forced to have sex with that male escort to be able to testify as to that event, that being Cassie. We believe or I think it’s probably easy to assume that she’ll be testifying if not first thing tomorrow morning that at some point in time tomorrow. Now that could be in essence to kind of like a strong powerful witness. This is as the prosecutor says victim number one but also could just be logistics because we know that she is pregnant very much so and they might want to just let her get in out and get out as quickly as well. Yeah. Also you can’t travel too late into your pregnancy. One of those things that we all know about. Today Cassie Venture’s husband was actually seen leaving the courthouse. tomorrow, we’re expected to see her possibly taking the stand herself. That’s pretty early in a case, right? So, it it depends on the strategy. I can see why that would be perceived early. This is supposed to be the star witness. Why wouldn’t you want to lay the groundwork for more uh evidence first before you have the major witness? But when it comes to convincing people, convincing a jury, uh oftent times recency, meaning getting that information out there first and frequency, how often you talk about it, is a great way to lock in that information to a jury. And of course, just timing. Life for her means that she has to start sooner rather than later. Brian Buckmire, always helpful. Thank you so much. As Brian mentioned, the 12 New Yorkers selected for this jury will spend weeks in the courtroom hearing evidence from both sides. And joining me right now is Eric Rutish. He’s not part of this trial, but he has spent decades researching juries with attorneys as a jury consultant. Now, we know, Eric, from court records that Diddy’s team is using a jury consultant. When you work on a trial like this one, how much do you really know about these jurors? Well, you try to find out as much as you can. Certainly. So, based on the 12 jurors that the information we have um in addition to gender and age as a jury consultant, we’re also looking at their occupation. So, are they going to approach this case more from an emotional standpoint or an analytical standpoint? And from the based on the 12 jurors occupations, there are several jurors that are good for the prosecution. there there is a social worker, there’s someone who works at a nonprofit, um there’s someone who works at a nursing home, but there are also more analytical jurors who are more likely to scrutinize the uh evidence such as an investment analyst, a logistic analyst, and even a scientist. Let’s drill down into that a little bit more since you were talking about their jobs and the jobs that they have. How do attorneys use that information as they make their arguments to play to these ideas that they have about these jurors? So, it’s a very emotionally charged case and the prosecution is certainly going to use that, you know, emotional element to, you know, help, you know, prosecute their case. Uh, for the defense, they want jurors to separate the emotional aspect of the case. And you saw from up front, the one theme is that whatever you, you know, whatever Sean Combmes’s actions were, it’s separate from the, you know, charges that are being brought forth against him. So you want someone who could separate the emotional aspect from about this case from the you know the you know from the evidence or how they will approach you the charges and whether or not they feel that John Copes is ultimately guilty. Eric Reish, thank you so much for joining us today. Well, still ahead, the defense and prosecution gave an overview of their cases today. What does that reveal about possible strategies and how might they play with the jury? We break down the arguments next. [Music] [Music] back now to the case against Shawn Combmes. ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmeer is back with us. Also joining us, attorney and legal analyst Ebony K. Williams. Brian, let’s start with you because you were in court today. What did you think of the prosecution’s opening statements? Do you think it was compelling for a jury? Oh, very compelling. I think it was good in the sense it was just under an hour, so I don’t think people really drifted away. they were able to stay focused. start off with some good themes and also some good examples talking about a night in which Shawn Combmes heard allegedly that Cassie was with another man uh got an employee up at the middle of the night at gunpoint and a security guard rushes person house broke in and laid out how these intricate examples of Shawn Combmes uh flying off the handle as they seemly described were parts of this racketeer and conspiracy that he had this inner circle that helped facilitate not only every want and need that he wanted including these freakoffs but also how he used them to control individuals around him, marching through each and every one of the elements in this case. It was easy to follow and very compelling. Ebony, what do you think of the defense’s strategy? Yeah, I think the defense did a lot of the things that they needed to do by way of conceding some obvious points, right? You can’t tell this newly sat jury of 12, that you didn’t see what you saw in that tape, that horrific, traumatic, violent tape of Shan Combmes violently attacking Cassie Ventur. So, I think the defense was smart to say, “Hey, if we were here for domestic violence, we wouldn’t be here. He absolutely committed that act. He did some horrible things. He might even be perceived by many of you as a bad person, but it’s not against the law to be a bad person. My client is not being charged with domestic violence in this particular matter. Thus, this is a not-uilty verdict.” That’s their argument. But do you think it’s problematic that they admitted basically that? No, I think they had to, Eva. I think it see preserving credibility is going to be so key for both the prosecution and defense, right? So, they had to try to earn some level of truthtelling points, if you will, with this jury. And I think they were able to do that by admitting the very, very obvious things we know so far. Okay. So, Brian, as a defense attorney, obviously they’re going to be trying to poke holes in the prosecution’s case. Do you think they’re going to lean into that? I think that’s the case as Ebony laid out. You have to admit to some degree to to garner credibility. You can’t go and look at that video and be like, “Well, that’s AI. That’s not really our client doing that.” And I think there’s a strength in saying he is guilty of some things, but he’s not guilty of anything. And I think uh Tenny Garagos, the defense attorney who did the opening statement, a very wellreasoned, wellargued opening statement, said it’s not about whether or not he’s a bad person, it’s whether or not the government or the prosecution has proven their case. and these are the allegations, these are the charges, these are the elements and juxtaposing and saying this is domestic violence, this isn’t coercion going to the heart of what sex trafficking and uh racketeering is. Saying it’s not this, it’s this. This is what he’s charged with, not this. Not guilty. I think it was the only argument that could be made. Okay. The name of the show is called Burden of Proof, Ebony. So, what is the burden here? Yeah, it’s a clear and very very difficult one actually. If you’re the prosecution, they have to prove beyond any reasonable doubt. Keyword, there is a reasonable doubt that Shawn Combmes is guilty of everything Brian laid out from the racketeering, the coercion, the sex trafficking, um, and all of it. And, you know, they’re going to have a lot of elements to meet. And again, the more the defense can convince that this is one private citizen, sexual proclivities that may be out of bounds to us, you and I, common man and woman, but this is within his legal right and it’s not against the law to have these sexual preferences, the more they can make that the the prosecution is further and further from their burden of proof. If, as also Brian said, the prosecution can successfully land the plane of connecting dots, right, between sexual assaultive behavior, physically abusive behavior and individuals. That’s going to be key, right, other individuals working in uh connection and in collaboration with Shawn Colmes to execute that under coercive measures. That is how you get to guilty. Ebony K. Williams, Brian Buckmeer, thank you both so much. Coming up, a music mogul on trial. The cultural impact and public perception as Diddy’s trial begins and his former girlfriend prepares to take the [Music] stand. It’s no surprise there’s extreme public interest around the world in the Diddy trial as testimony gets underway. So, what are people saying? For that, we turn to Kelly Carter, who covers entertainment and pop culture for us. Kelly, we heard it from prosecutors how Combs created this empire and that the public saw him as a larger than-l life cultural icon. Yet, prosecutors say there was this other side to him. He’s pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The interest is crazy, though. We’ve got to talk about the lines outside the federal courthouse this morning. Our Aaron Kurski said it was more than a block long. One guy was in the front of the line trying to scalp his seat for 350 bucks. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I have never heard of such a thing as someone trying to scalp a ticket to go inside of a courtroom. I have seen, and we all have seen fandom, you know, line up with signs and support of people. I remember covering that 2009 Chris Brown assault case out here in Los Angeles, and I was met with just hundreds of fans who were outside with those fans in support with uh, you know, signs in support of Chris Brown. but never someone waiting in line trying to pawn off a ticket as if this is Star Wars. You know, this is something we’ve never seen before. I’m curious, too, when it comes to Diddy’s public image, does the verdict in this trial really matter, or is the damage to his reputation already done? I think the damage is significant and quite frankly, I think that the court of public opinion is ultimately going to weigh so heavily, you know, if if he is found not guilty of these charges. I don’t think that we should all imagine a world where he goes back to business as usual because I think we know too much. And that’s kind of the sentiment I think of a lot of people who’ve been paying attention to today’s testimony and who read anything going into today’s testimony. We know too much and people are going to have very strong feelings about the things that they’ve discovered about him. Kelly Carter, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. And thank you for joining us for this episode of Burden of Proof, the case against. We’ll be back with new episodes every day of the trial, bringing you the latest from the courtroom, plus live analysis from experts and contributors. The show streams right here on ABC News Live, Disney Plus, and Hulu at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. I’m Eva Pilgrim. Have a good night. [Music]

Opening arguments got underway Monday in the highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

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