Sean "Diddy" Combs is getting extra guidance in court from famed attorney Mark Geragos, but federal prosecutors ain't having it -- because Geragos doesn't have clearance to participate, and frequently discusses the case on his podcast, "2 Angry Men."
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00:00So jury selection continues in the Diddy case.
00:04We have some fascinating stories to tell you about certain jurors who were booted
00:09and certain jurors who were put through.
00:12But we got to start, ironically, with something that happened here at TMZ.
00:20You went too far.
00:21Well, not you, but your co-host on the Two Angry Men podcast.
00:26He was called out, Mark Garagos, called out by the prosecutors in Diddy's case
00:31because Mark was in court yesterday on day one of jury selection
00:36and the prosecutors said they noticed that he was, the word they used was consulting,
00:43that Diddy's attorneys, he has seven attorneys, actually he added an eighth today.
00:48But his attorneys were turning around in the gallery
00:52and the prosecutors said consulting with Garagos about jury selection.
00:58And the problem for that, what the prosecutors say is,
01:01he can't do this because he's on a podcast where he is talking about this case every week.
01:07So in other words, there's a rule where you can't do both.
01:10Well, what they're saying is, they're saying that he is in some form or fashion
01:16part of the defense team.
01:17And if he's part of the defense team, there's a gag order that requires him not to make these statements.
01:24So they're saying that he's violated the rule, that he is part of the defense team.
01:32Now, I don't know if he's going to say that he's part of the defense team.
01:35And I don't know if the judge is going to say whether he's part of the defense team or not
01:38because I don't know what he was saying or whatever.
01:41The prosecutors wrote a letter to the judge saying, you need to please remind Mr. Garagos of this rule.
01:49Interesting, in the letter, they pointed out a particular thing Garagos said on the podcast.
01:55So the prosecution now, we know, it just came out today, that they have five lawyers on the team,
02:01all of whom are six?
02:04Six.
02:05Now, the ones I know, I know of five, all women, is the sixth a woman?
02:10Yes.
02:10Okay, so six women, all white, all white.
02:14Correct, that's my understanding.
02:16I've only seen a couple of them or know of a couple of them,
02:20but my understanding is you've got a six-pack of white women.
02:23That's not coincidental.
02:26You know, it's very interesting to me, but, you know, when prosecutors try to get too cute,
02:34you referenced O.J. Simpson, sometimes it comes back and backfires.
02:38Interesting. I think they referenced exactly that in this letter to the judge.
02:45Remember, the prosecutors are the ones who wrote the letter to the judge.
02:48I don't know if they would have liked the reference to them as a six-pack.
02:53It sounded like they did not.
02:56And there were other things in the podcast, but they clearly heard the podcast or watched it
03:01and took issue with him talking so openly about the case.
03:07Although I'm sure when they saw it or heard it, they didn't have an issue with it.
03:11It was when he showed up in court and appeared to them to be working.
03:14Now, we don't know what the resolution is, at least at this moment,
03:17whether the judge is saying he's part of the team or not part of the team.
03:20I don't know what they're going to ultimately do.
03:22Well, we don't know.
03:23But remember, Diddy has complained in the past about the prosecutors sort of speaking out in public
03:27and trying this case in the media.
03:29He's had his attorneys complain about these very same things.
03:31So in the letter, the prosecutors say, hey, you didn't want a carnival atmosphere.
03:35You didn't want us making you look guilty before him.
03:37First of all, don't call Two Angry Men a carnival.
03:39Don't do that.
03:41That's the best compliment Two Angry Men has ever gotten.
03:43What, are you kidding me?
03:43And he's saying, look, you can't have a big public mouthpiece and be part of this team.
03:47You've got to pick one or the other.
03:48Okay.
03:49By the way, he also said that he was going to be back next week.
03:53Do we know?
03:54Is he going to be?
03:56If the judge makes him choose, what's Mark going to do?
03:58I'm always last to know.
04:01But let's talk about jury selection because there have been some interesting
04:07interactions between potential jurors, the judge, and the lawyers in the case.
04:12Yeah, there are some jurors, obviously, who have been excluded.
04:16And what's interesting is the ones are being excluded and the ones that aren't being excluded.
04:21There was one man who said that his son had been beaten up while he was a student at
04:27George Washington University.
04:30And the judge said, well, do you know who attacked him?
04:32And he said, I was told it was three young black men.
04:35And they said, well, can you be unbiased?
04:39He said, people are people.
04:41And everybody was cool with that.
04:43Including the defense.
04:44Including the defense.
04:45Which is interesting because when we've done a bunch of documentaries for Tubi on this trial,
04:52and what we were told was they were going to stay clear of any domestic violence or violence,
05:00especially if it relates to a family member.
05:03But they seem to be particularly concerned about women who were alleged victims.
05:08This is a man.
05:09This is a man whose son, yeah.
05:11And they let it through.
05:12Yeah.
05:12Now, there's another one where it sounds to me like this juror was doing somersaults to get out of jury service,
05:20saying, I can't sit through a trial because I have to constantly go to the bathroom.
05:26Yes.
05:26She said that she has stomach aches and that she would need to take a lot of bathroom breaks.
05:33And then the judge said...
05:34She apologized and said, I'm sorry.
05:36I know that's too much information.
05:37But then the judge said, well, can you sit through a movie?
05:40And she had to admit, she's like, yes, I can.
05:42But that's the equivalent of the time before a recess.
05:46Yes.
05:47Right?
05:47Right.
05:48But then she had other things.
05:50Hold on.
05:51I just want to say, that's unfair to say that just because you can sit through a movie, you could sit through...
05:56That's why the judge asked the question.
05:58Yeah, but if you can sit through it, even though you're sitting there,
06:01I just want to put yourself in that woman's shoes, if you will.
06:06If you're sitting there and you really have to go to the bathroom, yes, you can tell yourself, I can hold it.
06:13But you're thinking about that the whole time.
06:14And now you're not focused on the actual case.
06:16I get it.
06:16But then they started asking other questions.
06:18And it sounded like she just did not want to serve as a jury.
06:21Yes, she also said that she had a surgery and that she had COVID and all sorts of medical issues.
06:28She got out.
06:28They actually ended up excluding her.
06:30When you make these excuses, a judge does have to press you because you don't want to signal to other jurors that,
06:34hey, if you say you have a stomach ache or a small bladder, you'll automatically be excused.
06:38They have to press on these issues because ultimately, even though they have almost 600 people sitting there,
06:42they got to have 18 people at the end of the day, the 12 jurors and the six alternates.
06:45So you can't let people walk based on the minor sort of issues that they raise.
06:50My name is Hendo.
06:51I'm from Chicago.
06:52And I just want to say that what did we expect with the jurors, though?
06:57Because when we have a high profile case that's on the media, we have diddy memes going around.
07:03I'm pretty sure we've all seen it.
07:05A lot of these jurors know what they're expecting when they get in that court.
07:09But me personally, if I were to be in that court and I was a juror, I would already know, honestly,
07:14where I would be leaning towards in terms of who I think is right or wrong,
07:18because there was a lot of talks about this case in the media.
07:22So honestly, am I surprised that these jurors are trying to find a way out of this case?
07:27I'm not surprised at all.
07:28I mean, what can I say about it?
07:30By the way, there's another juror who's a lawyer who apparently had been reading about jury selection,
07:37which I was on the train when he was on the train and admitted that, yeah, I was on my phone
07:41and I read about jury selection, even though he's part of jury selection.
07:44And they're not sequestering the jury here.
07:47But the judge told everyone involved, said you are not to watch any news stories.
07:51So that yesterday, the guy did.
07:53So he got the guy did it.