Diddy made a sex worker urinate in Cassie's mouth during a "freak off" ... at least according to federal prosecutors, who came out swinging in court.
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00:00The Diddy trial is underway. There have been opening statements and there is now testimony
00:06in the case. And the opening statements kind of predictably laid out the prosecution's case
00:13and Diddy's defense. But what the prosecutors started with a bang, with a statement that
00:22clearly they knew would get a lot of headlines, but more importantly, get the attention of the
00:27jury talking about details, graphic details from the freak-offs. We should warn the people
00:36watching this, this is going to get graphic. Right. There's a reason that they last week
00:42kept saying that to all the prospective jurors, it will be graphic. What was said this morning
00:47by the prosecution, it said that Diddy hired escorts for these freak-offs and that it wasn't
00:55just sex. There were other acts that were going on. The one they said that really got
01:01everyone's attention, they claim that he hired escorts, on one occasion hired an escort and
01:08forced him to urinate on Cassie. And that he forced not only the escort to do this, but
01:18Cassie is the way the government lays it out.
01:20So we talked about this in our morning meeting today, so let's just be real here. This is
01:26shades of R. Kelly. And that-
01:29There's the reason they brought that up first.
01:31I mean, I don't think there's any question that R. Kelly paints a picture that kind of
01:37resonated with everybody. And the prosecution came out of the gate with something that sounded
01:45similar. They want to show him, they want the jury to see him parallel, see Diddy parallel
01:52to R. Kelly, who everyone knows is going to be in prison for almost all the rest of his
01:58life. And so it-
01:59And so if you got him convicted-
02:01Of course.
02:02And that's-
02:03And that's effective.
02:04Yeah.
02:05Also, and I think this is going to become a really important part of this case on both
02:10sides, the prosecution painted Diddy as a violent, jealous man who could not handle any
02:20attention heaped on Cassie by any other man.
02:24Right. And that was part of their argument around the videotape, which obviously they
02:31mentioned as well. They talk about that beating and the government was setting up what- they
02:38know that Diddy's side is going to say this was not about forcing her to stay, this was
02:43an argument about jealousy, about she thought I was, you know, found another phone number.
02:48So the government is trying to rebut that already, right?
02:50Well, yeah. And the defense already came out of the gate in their opening statements addressing
02:56that. And they are saying that, A, Diddy is a violent man. They said that he has a huge
03:05anger issue controlling his temper.
03:08They said there's domestic- Yes. They said, yes, there was domestic violence.
03:11That's the key. That's the key. They are saying that this relationship was heaped, was steeped
03:18in domestic violence. And they're alleging on both sides. It was the nature of their relationship.
03:25Now, domestic violence is a crime, but it's a state crime. He's not being prosecuted for
03:31that. That's not what he's being prosecuted for.
03:32And they also reminded the jury of that. And that's why they're raising it right now.
03:36They're saying, look, we're conceding it. There was a lot of domestic violence, they say,
03:41both sides. But if you want to target Diddy for a domestic violence abuser, guilty as charged.
03:50It's just he's not charged here. This would have been a state crime. It's not your job.
03:55So they're coming out of the gate trying to defuse what they know is coming next, which is the Cassie video.
04:01Right. Yeah. And look, I think that's a pretty sound strategy to basically concede on the issues that they can't really win.
04:07There was some violence that video tells a pretty vivid story, but that's not what he's on trial for.
04:12However, I think the prosecutors have a pretty interesting case. It sounds like they're sort of kink shaming Diddy about his private affairs.
04:19But the further you get away from the norm where you have escorts who are saying that they were maybe ordered to urinate on Cassie,
04:25it starts to look like it can't be consensual. And that's what they want to convince the jury is that no one wants to be urinated on.
04:31So saying these were consensual terms of a relationship gets harder to believe to a juror once you've established that he's doing things so far outside of the norm.
04:38Yeah. And so, you know, the defense said essentially, look, this is his lifestyle. This is his life.
04:48And that they are essentially trying to go inside Diddy's bedroom to prosecute him when they couldn't get him elsewhere.
04:58It's stunning to me that this parallels exactly what one of the lead lawyers, Mark Agnifolo, told us in our documentary, The Downfall of Diddy.
05:09I believe it was the second installment. This is what Agnifolo said. And they presented essentially this to the jury.
05:16Let's switch our focus to the government. In my opinion, I'm just going to say it the way it is.
05:21No, no friend historically of the successful black man. OK, none.
05:27And they start making this case, in my opinion, as a takedown of a successful black man.
05:34Here's a man who has made some of the most important businesses owned by a black man.
05:41Run, owned, created, founded. The vision was that of a black man. What have we done?
05:48We have reduced him, not everyone, but a large amount of our society, to being a monster.
05:55That should make us shake in our boots.
05:58And that's essentially what Tony Garagos said during opening, that this is, that she said the government has no business in his bedroom.
06:07They have no business judging him or trying to charge him with crimes based on how he lives his life consensually in his bedroom.
06:15So there are a couple of, there are three main charges here. There's racketeering.
06:20The difficulty prosecutors have in this case is racketeering is usually an organization.
06:25This one, they're focusing on an individual. The only person charged with racketeering is Diddy.
06:30Right.
06:31And they're saying essentially he ran a crime organization centered around all of this.
06:35The second thing they're arguing is this interstate transportation, which is what we call the Mann Act, which requires force or coercion or duress.
06:47And that's going to be a huge point that the defense is going to raise, namely that did these alleged victims who were ex-girlfriends, most of them, did they do this consensually or were they pressured to do it?
07:05Well, the prosecutors did talk about that, not so much with Cassie, but with another ex-girlfriend who they're referring to as Jane Doe.
07:14And they said that she is going to testify that she was, yes, she was, you know, having sex with these escorts, but she always wanted them to wear condoms and Diddy forbade that.
07:27So they are not going to wear condoms. And she says that she admits taking drugs and she's going to testify to that, but that she is going to say that she only took them to get through it because this was not something she really wanted to do.
07:41And that Diddy was, there's the coercion that the government needs to show the jury.
07:46But the third one is this interstate transportation of a sex worker, which doesn't require fraud, duress, or coercion.
07:55That's the one, in a way.
07:59They kind of got him.
08:00Yeah.
08:00Because he's admitting that.
08:02Well, he's admitting.
08:03But you know what the issue is? The issue is, are these sex workers?
08:07Right.
08:07And that's going to be a big part of this, because if they are sex workers and the jury believes it, and they did cross state lines, he's going to have a tough time with that third charge.
08:20But the argument they're going to make is these people, they were men, were not sex workers.
08:28That's going to, again, this is going to get.
08:31Then the definition of what makes.
08:32Yeah.
08:32What makes somebody a sex worker?
08:34And is that, are one of those sex workers, one of the escorts, going to be testifying for the government saying, yes, I was a sex worker?
08:42If they have that.
08:43Our information is that we know of at least one person who has been subpoenaed, who they say is a sex worker, this guy says he wasn't a sex worker, although concedes that he was in that room having freak offs with Cassie, as did he watch.
09:03So, you know, there are three very different charges here, and, you know, they're all going to be kind of intermingled in terms of the testimony.
09:12But ultimately, the jury is going to be told, look at this, here are the elements, look at this, here are the elements, and look at this, here are the elements.
09:20By the way, just a couple quick things, a little bookkeeping.
09:23The jury that was finally seated this morning, eight men, four women, reportedly the eight men are split evenly, four men of color, and four white men, and the women are all women of color.
09:40So, interesting, we'll see what that is.
09:42And Diddy's, we should also say Diddy's family, his kids were all there.
09:46I don't know if they're going to be there every day, but all of his kids, the twins, his sons were all there.
09:53And before court started today, he was in court reading a Bible.
09:57Yes, and actually, I just saw a report that says that he has been, at every opportunity, reading that Bible while he's in court.
10:06Hi, it's Tasha from Brooklyn, and, I mean, we've moved past the six pack of white women on the jury, and we've arrived at eight men and four women.
10:12So, I still think there's a big bias here, especially if the defense is mounting this narrative that, you know, on some level, boys will be boys.
10:21Like, we can maybe allegedly commit domestic violence, but we also have our kinks, right?
10:26And I think that naturally will lend itself to some more sympathy from the male perspective, if I had to be honest.
10:33But I'm also honestly very surprised that the jury won't be sequestered, given how much information is out there.
10:40You hit on something, because I've got to tell you, I don't know how this jury avoids social media.
10:47You know, you open your Facebook page, and boom, there's a feed.
10:50I don't know how, exactly.
10:51If they go onto social media, they're going to see something about the trial.
10:55The judge has said they are not to watch news or use the Internet.
11:01It is just impossible for a nine-week trial.
11:04That is going to be the biggest hurdle to avoid a mistrial.