“Diddy” Trial Day 17: ‘Mia’ faces cross-examination

“Diddy” Trial Day 17: ‘Mia’ faces cross-examination

[Music] Hi, I’m Eva Pilgrim. Thanks for streaming with us here on ABC News Live. Week three of the Shaun Diddy Combmes trial has wrapped and we should note this show will contain graphic content from the courtroom today. Five witnesses testified this week. Two former employees, a Los Angeles police officer, fire department investigator, and a celebrity stylist. The latest witness on the stand testifying under the pseudonym Mia, recounting her time as Combmes’s former assistant. Mia alleged working for Combmes was chaotic, toxic, and dependent on his whim. She told the jury she feared she couldn’t tell him no, testifying, “I felt I had to. I obeyed Puff’s orders.” Mia also saying Combmes sexually assaulted her more than once, leaving her feeling terrified and confused and ashamed and scared. Combmes has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His defense team says any sexual encounters were consensual if convicted. Combmes faces the possibility of life in prison. Coming up, our team will break down the legal analysis. But first, the play-by-play details from inside the courtroom. Let’s start in lower Manhattan outside the federal courthouse. That’s where we find Aaron Kurski, our chief investigative correspondent. And Aaron, it has you’ve been in court there every day of this trial. Uh the witness using the pseudonym Mia was back on the stand today for the second day in a row. Today she faced crossexamination. What happened? She faced a tough cross-examination when she was confronted Eva with her own social media posts and they were flattering about Shawn Colmes. They called him everything from legend to her mentor, her inspiration, her rockstar unicorn, whatever that is. uh just entirely flattering. And the defense showed these and then asked, “That’s the guy that traumatized you. That’s the guy you said repeatedly sexually assaulted you.” And and facing those incredulous questions from defense attorney Brian Steel. Eva Mia simply said, “Yes, I was in an abusive relationship.” She explained that she was traumatized and and almost uh sounded like she was leading this double life, concealing what she testified happened to her in this toxic and traumatizing work work experience, but also uh being a good corporate soldier and promoting Combmes when required on social media. Brian Steele, one of Sean Combmes’s attorneys, asked her a lot of questions about November 4th. What’s the significance of that date? That’s Shawn Combmes’s birthday. It’s also the day that Mia testified she was first sexually assaulted by Shawn Combmes. She said it happened at the Plaza Hotel here in New York City when they were in the penthouse. She said Combmes pulled her alone into the kitchen, put uh his hand up her dress and and forcibly kissed her when she did not want him to. And and so defense attorney Brian Steele then questioned why she would send Combmes all of these birthday wishes. Uh there would be these photo collages. There was even one handwritten happy 45th birthday, Huff Daddy, and a long handwritten note uh flattering Shawn Combmes for all that he had accomplished. And and Steele kept coming back to this was a date that stuck in your mind. And Mia resisted a bit. She said, “I knew the date to be Shawn Colmes’s birthday, but she didn’t think about it as the date of her first sexual assault.” Prosecutors asked Mia today about the time she was suspended from her job for Shawn Combmes. Tell us about that. Shan Combmes suspended her on on several occasions, she said. And often it occurred without explanation and the only thing that she could think was that it happened after Combmes was violent with her or she witnessed violence and somehow reacted to it, either ran away or tried to hide. And she told the jury about some of these what she considered to be specious reasons for for being suspended. and and and when she would try to reach out, uh it was almost as if she was getting an eye roll, she showed the jury some messages with Drock, one of Combmes’s bodyguards, after he said, “What happened?” And and she said, “Oh, Sean Colmes just got mad about her not laying out the right workout clothes.” Erin, this is a federal case and the president is able to issue pardons in federal cases. Could he issue one for Shawn Combmes if he’s convicted? Uh, sure he could. And in fact, he was asked about that uh today at the White House. Uh, and and when he was pressed about it, he did not rule out a pardon for Shawn Holmes. Take a listen. I would certainly look at the facts. I know people are thinking about it. I know they’re thinking about it. I think people have been very close to asking. So, if Shawn Combmes is convicted here in federal court, it’s possible he could seek a pardon. It’s possible that Trump would grant it, but we’re only 3 weeks of testimony in Eva. Aaron Kurski at the courthouse for us there. Thank you so much, Aaron. And here to break this down for us is ABC News legal analyst Brian Bucker. You have also been in court all week. It’s been a busy week. What stood out to you? That it has. Well, we’ve had a number of kind of star witnesses in their own rights. Uh starting first with the Capricorn Clark closest to you. She brought in some of those kidnapping allegations, the underlying charges, some of the Rico uh both of herself where she said for five days she was uh subjected to a lie detector test. One of which uh another kidnapping incident she alleged that Shawn Combmes had showed up to her home and woke her up at gunpoint and went to Kid Cuy’s house. And that’s where we’ve got uh LAPD officer Ignasio as well as LA fire arson investigator Jimenez uh talking about that investigation into the incident that involved Kid Cuy as both the alleged burglary and the arson. And then Dante Nash, the stylist Phil of Shawn Combmes and Cassie. Some very explosive and interesting testimony there. And of course, as you said, with Mia, uh testifying about the allegations that not only applied to her, but also corroboring some of what Cassie alleged as well. The defense showed photos from Mia’s social media today. What was the point of showing those photos? So, the idea is to show that Cassie, sorry, that Mia in the same time as these allegations of sexual assault as well as forced labor and this very contentious and and difficult uh working relationship to say the least, that she had these very positive messages from social media, from a scrapbook, from what she described as Shawn Combmes, as Aaron pointed out, the the kind of unicorn, all those other words. But she also explained why she did it. She said she didn’t want her family and friends to know the misery that she was in. That her social media were just the highlights of the very highs that she talked about, but the alleged abuse was a part of those very lows that she also talked about as well. The cross of Mia got pretty tense. How do you think the defense handled that? Yeah. So, Brian Steel is the defense attorney who was cross-examining Mia, as we saw prior to uh Mia where Cassie, the other female alleged victim, she was cross-examined by a female attorney. Instead, it’s a little bit more contentious. Brian Steel as a former public defender like myself turned into a now uh private defense attorney. He’s pushing really hard of saying, “Okay, you were allegedly assaulted and abused here and then you send out this message.” How could you have this type of message and feeling to a person that did this? I think it’s a very dangerous way to cross-examine someone because you don’t know what response you’re going to get. Don’t forget about Dante Nash who asked a very dangerous question as well. And he admitted on the stand that he did participate in crimes under the employment of Shawn Combmes. But so far, not a a dangerous response for Mia, but definitely getting there. You can see some of the questions and responses here. Um, during the lunch break, this was an interesting moment. The defense team tried to bring in a new piece of evidence. The judge denied that. What happened? So, this is very interesting. They tried at the last minute to get in this social media video from 2013 uh where it appears that Mia was celebrating a a party or a birthday of some sorts and they’re trying to show that her demeanor on the stand is very different from this video, but because of the last minute application to bring it in as well as the nature of the video, they denied it. But a very interesting point that came up is they said they found out this video last night. They stumbled upon it, but also people on the internet emailed it to the defense team to try to show this juxtaposition of how Mia’s presenting in the court as opposed to in some of this video. Brian Buckmeer, we’ll have more with you in just a little bit. Thanks for being with us. Every person taking the stand in this case walks up and takes their seat in front of a packed courtroom. The jury, the gallery, the teams of lawyers, and of course, Shawn Diddy Combmes. Our next guest, someone who has spent decades working with witnesses. Judy Saunders is a former prosecutor. She’s not involved in this case, but she now leads the sexual abuse and human trafficking team at a law firm here in New York City. Judy, thank you so much for being here with us. Let’s get right into this. There’s four alleged victims that are a part of this case. We’ve already seen some of them take the stand. How do you prepare someone to take the stand? It takes a lot of preparation. Some of the key things that you’re going to want to do is pull together, gather, and review any prior statements that that witness may have made. You’re also going to want to look very much into an individual’s background because what the defense has to do is they have to attack that individual’s credibility. So, you’re going to want to look into their background. You’re going to want to think about were their prior social media posts. today’s age, we can expect that one witness that we all carry around in our pockets are our cell phones, our social media, and our digital footprint. Every witness that I’m preparing uh to testify, we know everything that we can about what they’ve placed out there on the internet um and online. So, those are just some of the things. And you’re also, especially in these cases that involve sexual violence, sexual abuse, or alleged sexual violence, you’re going to want to prepare that witness for cross-examination. What it will feel like, they will feel attacked. Um, you have to let them know that it’s their time to answer directly. um if they don’t understand a question, you go over all of those things like that, what to say, and you want them just to convey their account of what happened in a way that the jury can understand. So, those are just some of the ways that you prepare a witness. We should note here that Shawn Combmes has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Um, but when someone makes an allegation like the ones that we have heard in this case, as a lawyer, how do you typically vet those claims? It takes a lot of time and we vet those. We analyze those cases. When someone comes in and they’re making these allegations, as a lawyer, you are bound, you’re ethically bound, morally bound to do your due diligence. So, not only are you listening to the accounts, the allegations that a potential client is telling you about, you’re also looking for whether there’s corroborating evidence out there. you’re looking for depending on what they’re saying. Um you’re trying to think is this individual what they’re materially telling you is it staying consistent and it may take more than one interview. Sometimes when you have clients and they’re alleging, you know, different types of abuse, you may have to talk to them more than once. Um and when you’re thinking about that, you’re listening for consistencies and inconsistencies. But if you find that what they’re saying is materially consistent, they may forget what when it happened or dates or what have you, those are the things that you’re going to want to hear and listen to and you know that there’s some consistency and there know that there may be a ring of truth to that. This trial is in federal court so there are no cameras. Do you think cameras make a big difference when it comes to witnesses taking the stand? Um, I know that it it it may not make that much of a difference. I’m I know that as far as transparency, we’re always wanting our court systems to be transparent to the public to know what’s going on in these proceedings. As far as a witness, just being in a courtroom itself can have uh, you know, a very intimidating factor. Um, the addition of cameras, it it could have an impact on how that individual is thinking and processing and listening, but it can be very intimidating to be there in front of a jury, in front of individuals in the gallery, in the audience, the judges sitting next to you. That alone in in of itself is impactful. And so, it’s very likely that adding a camera could add another layer of stress to a witness. Judy Saunders, thank you so much for joining us today. And given the sensitive nature of this week’s testimony, we want to make sure you know what domestic resources are available. If you or someone you know needs to speak with someone, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 247. That number is right there on your screen. Still ahead, our legal team digs deeper into the prosecution and defense’s strategy behind Mia’s testimony. And we take a look at the top five searches today related to the trial against Shawn [Music] Combmes. Welcome back to ABC News Live. A burden of proof, the case against Diddy. Only one witness took the stand today, testifying under the pseudonym Mia. She was a former assistant to Shawn Diddy Combmes and one of the four alleged victims in this case. Let’s break down the key legal strategies we saw playing out in court. We have Brian Buckmeer playing the defense and Bernarda Vilona playing prosecutor. Bernardo, we’re going to start with you. Mia said that she is unable to hold a job since leaving her employment with Combmes. Does that matter or factor in here? So it depends if the jury believes her that the reason that she can’t hold a job is because of the traumatic stress that she’s been put that she was put through while she was working for Colbmes. So in terms of when she was testifying during direct examination and I think the prosecution did an excellent job in a sense of presenting her as someone that is not a strong person, someone that is sensitive, someone that is emotional to the point, Eva, when she testified, she never made eye contact with the prosecutor. She was constantly just looking down and you could clearly tell from her testimony during direct examination that she is a woman that is hurt that is um that has undergone some trauma and she exhibited that to the extent that even doing crossexamination. She even blurted out like look I suffer from complex PTSD even though it was subjected and sustained to but also she brought out that she’s still seeing a therapist and trying to work through what she went through when she was working under combs. Okay, Brian, I have to ask you because they brought all those social media posts in. Do you think that was a good idea for the defense to show those social media posts? Absolutely. And I think the idea here is to contextualize this relationship, and they’ve done that with every witness. What they’re showing is at the same time she’s alleging these uh allegations of forced labor, sexual assault, rape, uh everything. Days later, she’s on social media talking very fondly of Shawn Combmes that at one point in time, his birthday had come up and she said, “What do you get the man who who has everything?” And there’s a scrapbook where she’s cataloging his life, I think, from 1991 to 1999. Now, do I think we understand that someone could allegedly or actually go through these traumatic experiences, but then still go on social media and show a very pleasant and and positive light? Absolutely. But I’m also conscious of the fact that half of this jury is 51 to 74. Five of them are 67 to 74. And at least I know my 65-year-old father has a difficult time of understanding what do you mean? What’s depression? What do you mean therapy? But I think Mia was excellent in the sense of that she said look when the highs were high when the highs what is it the highs were high when the lows were low. So social media was used to express the good times not the bad times at least back then because social media has changed throughout the years. But also, I think she was excellent in the sense of that she was bringing up that look, I didn’t know what I was going through back then. But I will say in terms of the defense, the defense is banking on that this jury forgot the testimony of the expert of Dr. Hughes who testified why people will still engage with their abuser and what and will act the way that doesn’t seem normal um to to to the regular eye. But two things about that. One, the social media. Again, go back to the age of the jurors. I don’t think people who are, and I maybe I’m wrong, but I’m just looking at my father and my mother. People in their 60s, they don’t know or conceive that social media is just a a glamorous highlight of yourself. They could potentially say, “No, this is her life. This is real.” Uh, and then also in terms of the what was the second part that you said, Dr. Hughes testify explaining the she talked about domestic violence and domestic abuse. I’m not sure if the juryy’s gonna make the connection between uh Mia and Shawn Combmes because they weren’t in a domestic relationship. Could they separate that out and say, “Well, doctor, he was talking about Cassie, not about Mia.” And there might be wiggle room between that. The defense really questioned, too, like was she traumatized? Do you could Are you worried as a defense attorney that that could not actually play that well with the jury? I I think they put all their eggs in one basket when they went down this line of questioning because their line of questioning is strictly social media post. They’re not really a they didn’t attack headon anything that she said in terms of what happened that night, the night that she was raped or her working 22 hours or any other of the violence that she witnessed um that was put on Cassie. They just went with social media posts that this is not the way you act if you were really assaulted. Yeah. And I think they did that to the point that I think it begs the question, did it really happen? And that’s what they’re trying to beg the question of it was so good. Did it really happen? And so they’re trying to deny actual sexual sexual assault without saying it. All right, both of you. Always so good to have you here with us. Thank you. Coming up, who is Drock and how many years could Diddy face in prison if he’s found guilty? We answer these questions and more after the [Music] break. Welcome back to Burden of Proof, the case against Diddy. Jurors in the Shawn Combmes trial are heading home for the weekend. Week three of testimony now done. While the courthouse is empty online, the search engines are full of questions. That’s where our segment searched comes in. We’re taking a closer look at the parts of the trial that you want to mo know more about. Let’s bring in Kelly Carter, who covers entertainment for us. She’s joining us this afternoon from Los Angeles. Kelly, so good to have you. First up, everyone wants to know about Mia’s testimony. Yeah, you know, I think people are looking for once again like where the stories align with what Cassie has previously testified to and also if there’s any new information. I think that people just want to know also who Mia is. You know, she is testifying under a pseudo name and I think people are trying to put the pieces together to see if she’s someone that perhaps we’ve seen on a previous reality TV series with Shawn Combmes or or maybe we’ve seen her out and about somewhere. But people are certainly curious about her testimony. Another question that we’re seeing, who is D-Rock? Who is he? Drock. So, he goes way back. He actually is a childhood best friend of Notorious B.I. And once he got out of serving a prison sentence himself, he became Notorious B.I.’s uh security guard, head of security. And after um after Big passed away, he started working for Shan Combmes in a similar capacity and continued to do so clearly up until his arrest uh for these uh recent charges. Suge Knight, that’s a name that just doesn’t seem to be going away. A lot of people want to know about Suge Knight and Shawn Combmes. It is never going away, right? I think people are just looking to see is there any new information or I think probably more specifically is Suge Knight saying something from behind the prison walls about this case and what he might say. Is it giving any insight about who Shawn Combmes was as a businessman or what might he say that would be of interest for this particular trial? The trial is still ongoing. Shawn Combmes has pleaded not guilty, but if he’s convicted, people want to know how many years in prison could he get. If he is convicted of all of these charges, he would serve a life sentence in prison. And I think people just want to know why the why the long sentencing, you know, and they’re trying to investigate and figure out a little bit more about what these charges actually are and why why the severity of the sentencing could be just that, you know, a life in prison. The other thing we’ve heard people talking a lot about today is this idea of a potential pardon for Shawn Combmes. Yeah, absolutely. Because everyone is aware that at one point President Trump and Shawn Combmes were friends, you know, we’ve seen them publicly. We’ve seen images of them publicly. So, is this something that he would step in and deliver a presidential pardon should he be found guilty on these charges? Obviously, all of that remains to be seen. Are you seeing any responses to the idea of a pardon possibly happening? Absolutely. I’m seeing a lot of people weigh in on social media about what that might mean and how they might feel about it. And I think mostly people just want the rest of this court case to play out. And then if it gets there, they’re definitely curious to see what might happen from Washington. like would President Trump actually have something to say about this trial and would he actually free Shan Combmes if he were to be found guilty on these charges? Brian Buckmeer was explaining to us just a short time ago that you can actually issue a pardon at any point after a crime is committed. Yes. So, we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Kelly Carter, thank you so much for joining us this week. Have a great weekend. Thank you. You too. And thank you for joining us. We’ll be back with new episodes every day of the trial. The show streams right here on ABC News Live, Disney Plus, and Hulu, weekdays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. For even more on the Diddy Trial, make sure to follow our podcast, Bad Rap, the Case against Diddy, hosted by our very own Brian Buckmeer on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. I’m Eva Pilgrim in New York. Have a good rest of your day. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music]

Sean Combs’ former assistant “Mia” delivered some of the trial’s most harrowing testimony, saying that working for Combs was “chaotic,” “toxic” and dependent on his whim.

On cross-examination, the defense confronted “Mia” with a series of her social media posts to question whether Sean Combs really traumatized her the way she described on direct examination.

ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katersky has the latest.
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