1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,080
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The

2
00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:08,480
Diddy Diaries. Previously, we looked at things from the government's perspective,

3
00:00:08,919 --> 00:00:12,039
but in these next few episodes, I'm gonna switch hats

4
00:00:12,199 --> 00:00:14,679
and I'm gonna play Devil's advocate and I'm gonna look

5
00:00:14,679 --> 00:00:17,760
at things from Sean diddy COM's perspective. And the reason

6
00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:19,600
that this is going to be longer than the one

7
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,839
we did for the prosecution is because I've been talking

8
00:00:22,839 --> 00:00:26,679
about the prosecution's case and their perspective as the trial

9
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,800
is commenced. Because the prosecution has done a very good

10
00:00:29,879 --> 00:00:33,159
job laying out the case. But it's not all roses

11
00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:36,560
and sunshine for the prosecution, and over the next few episodes,

12
00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:40,280
we're going to explore why. So let's dive in to

13
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:46,840
the defense of Ditty, the false centerpiece of the government's case.

14
00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:50,640
The Rico conspiracy charge is the beating heart of the

15
00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:55,079
government's entire case. Without it, their structure falls apart. Without it,

16
00:00:55,119 --> 00:00:59,159
the other charges sex trafficking, man Act violations and implied

17
00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:05,200
obstruction stand alone as fragmented, difficult to prove, circumstantially thin events.

18
00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:08,680
It's the Rico charge that allows them to tie years

19
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:14,519
of unconnected behavior into one ominous sounding criminal narrative. It

20
00:01:14,599 --> 00:01:17,640
is the Rico charge that gives them the rhetorical license

21
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,480
to use the word enterprise instead of entourage, pattern instead

22
00:01:21,519 --> 00:01:26,640
of coincidence, racketeering instead of recklessness. It is the Rico

23
00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,760
charge that lets them suggest, with no direct evidence, that

24
00:01:29,799 --> 00:01:33,920
Sean was not simply a powerful man in a chaotic world,

25
00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:37,519
but the architect of a criminal empire. But the law

26
00:01:37,799 --> 00:01:40,599
is not theater, and in law, a powerful label is

27
00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:43,840
meaningless unless the elements of the charge are met with

28
00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:47,840
actual proof, and that is where the government's case collapses,

29
00:01:48,159 --> 00:01:53,120
not softly, but fatally. The first legal element the government

30
00:01:53,239 --> 00:01:56,239
must prove to secure a Rico conspiracy conviction is that

31
00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:01,159
an enterprise existed, an organization that had structure, continuity, and

32
00:02:01,239 --> 00:02:05,040
an agreed upon criminal purpose. The statute is clear, and

33
00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,599
enterprise can be formal or informal, but it must exist

34
00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:12,080
in some discernible form beyond the normal associations of life

35
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,560
and business. Here is where the government's case is exposed.

36
00:02:15,719 --> 00:02:19,680
For what it is a narrative of celebrity life passed

37
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:25,159
off as criminal conspiracy. What is the prosecution actually shown

38
00:02:25,199 --> 00:02:28,719
in this regard? They have produced testimony from a revolving

39
00:02:28,759 --> 00:02:34,319
dora of former employees, assistants, lovers, friends, security staff, business associates,

40
00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:39,199
and acquaintances. The connections between these individuals are tenuous at best.

41
00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:42,280
Some of them never even met each other. Some worked

42
00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:45,560
for colms only briefly. Others were not employed at all.

43
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,639
The prosecution has presented them as members of an invisible

44
00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:54,800
criminal organization. But what if they actually proven? Where's the structure,

45
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,039
Who reported to whom, who was in charge of what?

46
00:02:58,039 --> 00:03:00,960
What were the ranks, what were the roles? Who recruited

47
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,800
new members, who disciplined old ones? Were the internal communications

48
00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:10,560
that show organized crime not chaos? None exist? The prosecution

49
00:03:10,759 --> 00:03:14,000
so called enterprise is nothing more than the standard ecosystem

50
00:03:14,039 --> 00:03:18,400
of billionaire entertainer, an ecosystem that is by definition chaotic,

51
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:24,159
fluid and transactional assistance come and go, security is rotated,

52
00:03:24,439 --> 00:03:30,199
Partners change, business associates, move on relationships prey. That is

53
00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,400
not a criminal enterprise. That is celebrity life. More importantly,

54
00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:37,319
where's the evidence that this ever functioned as a criminal

55
00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:41,599
organization with a coordinated plan to commit crimes? Where's the agreement,

56
00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:48,000
the documented policies, the continuity of criminal intent, the government's witnesses,

57
00:03:48,039 --> 00:03:52,960
including Capricorn. Clark failed spectacularly on this point. Under a

58
00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,520
cross examination, Clark could not describe any structure of an enterprise.

59
00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,280
She could not identify members of the alleged conspiracy beyond

60
00:04:00,319 --> 00:04:03,719
the loose circle of known names. She cannot point to

61
00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:07,360
any meetings where criminal objectives were discussed. She cannot produce

62
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,319
any document showing organized planning of illegal acts. She admitted

63
00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:13,879
that the people she work with were often in conflict,

64
00:04:14,159 --> 00:04:18,720
that loyalty shifted constantly, that alliances were fragile and personal,

65
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,439
not institutional. That is opposite of what Rico requires. Well,

66
00:04:23,439 --> 00:04:26,920
the prosecution has done is fundamentally dishonest. They have taken

67
00:04:26,959 --> 00:04:33,759
the inevitable chaos of celebrity life, a life saturated with ego, wealth, power, sex, drugs, betrayal,

68
00:04:33,959 --> 00:04:37,639
and dysfunction, and tried to reframe it as organized crime.

69
00:04:38,199 --> 00:04:42,399
But without structure, without continuity of purpose, without organized action,

70
00:04:42,759 --> 00:04:46,120
there is no enterprise. There is only noise. And in

71
00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:50,000
a court of law, noise is not enough. But even

72
00:04:50,079 --> 00:04:52,920
if for the sake of argument you granted the government

73
00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,399
their imaginary enterprise, they would still face an even higher wall.

74
00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,279
They must prove that John Colmes knowingly and will fully

75
00:05:00,319 --> 00:05:02,879
agreed to participate in it, and that he agreed to

76
00:05:02,879 --> 00:05:06,519
its criminal objectives. This is the most damning weakness in

77
00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:11,000
their case. To prove conspiracy under Rico, the prosecution must

78
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,360
do more than show that a person was present at

79
00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:16,480
events where bad things happened. They must prove that the

80
00:05:16,519 --> 00:05:20,000
defendant knowingly entered into an agreement with others to commit

81
00:05:20,079 --> 00:05:23,600
racketeering acts. They must prove that he intended for those

82
00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,360
acts to occur and was part of the organization's criminal purpose.

83
00:05:28,199 --> 00:05:31,240
Where is the evidence of that agreement? There is none.

84
00:05:31,639 --> 00:05:34,279
Not a single text message, not a single email, not

85
00:05:34,319 --> 00:05:37,680
a single audio recording, not a single document, not a

86
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:41,519
single eyewitness, not even a cooperator from within the supposed

87
00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,560
enterprise who testified that Seawan Colmes brought me into his

88
00:05:44,639 --> 00:05:50,120
criminal operation or coms ordered me to commit crimes. Not one. Instead,

89
00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,439
what do we have? We have isolated stories. We have

90
00:05:53,519 --> 00:05:57,319
former employees and acts partners making after the fact allegations

91
00:05:57,519 --> 00:06:01,199
about individual acts acts A offer cannot tie to Colmb's

92
00:06:01,199 --> 00:06:04,720
direct knowledge, much less is intent to conspire. We have

93
00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,759
events separated by years, cities, and participants. We have vague

94
00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:12,399
references to the way things were an atmosphere, a vibe,

95
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:18,199
a culture. But atmosphere is not agreement. Culture is not conspiracy.

96
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,839
Capricorn Clark, for all of her dramatics on the stand,

97
00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,319
cannot provide a single instance where Combs agree to a

98
00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,160
criminal plan, nor could Wea, nor could any of the

99
00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,839
other so called insiders. The defense repeatedly forced this point

100
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,040
in cross examination. Name the agreement, describe the meeting, produce

101
00:06:37,079 --> 00:06:40,560
the message, Identify the co conspirator who can testify to

102
00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:44,480
an explicit or tacit criminal pack with Combs. Again and

103
00:06:44,519 --> 00:06:50,519
again the answer with silence, evasion, or speculation. But speculation

104
00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,000
is not evidence. The law demands more, and the government

105
00:06:54,079 --> 00:06:58,160
is failed to meet that demand. Even if the government

106
00:06:58,199 --> 00:07:01,439
had managed to prove the existence of an enterprise in

107
00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,759
Comb's agreement to participate, which they have not, they would

108
00:07:04,759 --> 00:07:08,000
still have to prove a pattern of racketeering activity, acts

109
00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:11,360
that are related and continuous, and furtherance of the enterprise

110
00:07:11,439 --> 00:07:16,920
criminal purpose. This is where the prosecution's case dissolves into absurdity.

111
00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:20,680
The events they have cited as predicate acts under Rico

112
00:07:20,959 --> 00:07:24,879
are a scattered, disconnected mess. A sex trafficking allegation from

113
00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,560
twenty eleven, a flight in twenty sixteen, a party in

114
00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,879
Los Angeles in twenty nineteen, a hotel stay in Miami

115
00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:35,600
in twenty twenty, an alleged destruction of evidence in twenty

116
00:07:35,639 --> 00:07:40,319
twenty two, different times, different cities, different alleged victims, different

117
00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:47,319
alleged purposes, different alleged methods, No continuity, no pattern. What

118
00:07:47,399 --> 00:07:49,959
they have produced is not a racketeering scheme. It's a

119
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:55,480
hodgepodge of unproven, inconsistent, and often contradictory allegations thrown into

120
00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:59,199
a timeline and are retroactively branded a pattern. But the

121
00:07:59,279 --> 00:08:02,480
law is clear. RICO requires that the racketeering acts be

122
00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:06,000
part of an established practice, a way of conducting business.

123
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:11,160
The act must demonstrate both continuity and relatedness. The defense

124
00:08:11,199 --> 00:08:15,680
dismantled this element with surgical precision. Through cross examination and

125
00:08:15,759 --> 00:08:19,879
evidentiary challenges, we showed that the events cited involved different

126
00:08:19,879 --> 00:08:23,959
sets of people with no proven criminal coordination, were years apart,

127
00:08:24,319 --> 00:08:28,720
often separated by entirely different phases of colmb's career, were

128
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:31,360
not shown to be directed by Colm's or committed with

129
00:08:31,399 --> 00:08:34,960
his knowledge, were not linked in any document, plan, communication,

130
00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:40,159
or agreement, were consistent in method, target, purpose, and alleged participants.

131
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,919
In short, the prosecution's pattern is no pattern at all.

132
00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:46,600
It is the pattern of a life lived in the

133
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:50,240
public eye, with all its inevitable messiness, not the pattern

134
00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,840
of an organized criminal enterprise. And RICO does not criminalize messiness.

135
00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,440
Let us speak clearly about what the government is really

136
00:08:58,519 --> 00:09:02,120
doing with this RICO charge. They are taking the excess

137
00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,879
of celebrity life, the VIP parties, the sexual promiscuity, the drugs,

138
00:09:06,919 --> 00:09:11,320
the luxury, the NDAs, the entourage culture, and asking the

139
00:09:11,399 --> 00:09:14,519
jury to convict not based on acts proven beyond a

140
00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,720
reasonable doubt, but on their distaste for that world. They

141
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,960
are criminalizing culture. But the law does not permit that.

142
00:09:22,279 --> 00:09:25,879
The constitution does not permit that you don't convict a

143
00:09:25,919 --> 00:09:28,720
man because you don't like how he lives. You convict

144
00:09:28,799 --> 00:09:32,559
only if the government proves that he broke the law deliberately, knowingly,

145
00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:36,720
and in concert with others. And the evidence here shows

146
00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:39,399
none of that. What it shows is a public figure

147
00:09:39,639 --> 00:09:42,480
surrounded by people who made their own choices, some wise,

148
00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:46,440
some foolish, some regrettable, people who stayed when they could

149
00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:50,399
have left, people who took money, gifts, and access when

150
00:09:50,399 --> 00:09:54,039
it suited them, and later cried foul when circumstances changed.

151
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,600
That is not an enterprise, that is not a conspiracy,

152
00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:02,840
that is not racketeering. Throughout the trial, the defense has

153
00:10:02,879 --> 00:10:07,120
attempted to systematically deconstruct the government's reco theory by doing

154
00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:11,120
exactly what the law requires. First, we destroyed the government's

155
00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:14,960
claim of an enterprise by exposing the lack of structure, organization,

156
00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:19,279
and continuity in the so called criminal network, and what

157
00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:22,159
was presented to the jury was a chaotic entourage, not

158
00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:26,639
a crime family. Second, they obliterated the element of agreement

159
00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:31,200
by forcing every witness to admit, either explicitly or implicitly,

160
00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:34,720
that they could not identify a single moment when Chawn

161
00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:39,039
entered into a criminal pact. Third, the defense dismantled the

162
00:10:39,039 --> 00:10:42,360
alleged pattern of racketeering by showing that the acts cited

163
00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:46,879
were disconnected in time, place, method, and participants, and had

164
00:10:46,919 --> 00:10:52,159
no continuity of criminal purpose exists. Finally, the defense contextualized

165
00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:55,279
what the prosecution called a criminal empire as what it

166
00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:01,440
truly was, the dysfunction, volatility, and moral ambiguity of celebrity life,

167
00:11:01,759 --> 00:11:07,000
not a conspiracy and certainly not a crime. The Rico

168
00:11:07,159 --> 00:11:09,919
charge was always the government's lynchpin. Without it, the other

169
00:11:10,039 --> 00:11:14,600
charges stand alone, weakened and disjointed. Without it, the government

170
00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:18,639
loses its ability to weave together on related accusations into

171
00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:23,039
one compelling, if false narrative, and the Rico charge is failed,

172
00:11:23,639 --> 00:11:26,399
the evidence is not met the legal standard. The gaps

173
00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:30,080
are too large, the connections too weak, the motivations to

174
00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:35,360
self serving, the timeline too fragmented, the witnesses too compromised.

175
00:11:36,399 --> 00:11:38,200
At the end of the day, the government has tried

176
00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:41,840
to substitute culture for crime. But in this courtroom, where

177
00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:45,240
the burden of proof matters, where the presumption of innocence matters,

178
00:11:45,519 --> 00:11:50,559
where the law matters, that substitution is unacceptable by every

179
00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:54,679
legal measure. The Rico charge must be rejected, all right.

180
00:11:54,759 --> 00:11:56,600
So that's going to do it for this one. And

181
00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,120
in the next episode we'll keep it rolling as we

182
00:11:59,159 --> 00:12:02,039
take a look at the sex trafficking charge against Ditty

183
00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:07,200
from Ditty's perspective four weeks in. All of the information

184
00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:10,000
that goes with this episode can be found in the

185
00:12:10,039 --> 00:12:13,879
description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode

186
00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:17,360
of the Diddy Diaries. In this episode, we're going to

187
00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:20,519
continue playing Devil's advocate and look at things from Sean

188
00:12:20,519 --> 00:12:24,279
ditty Comb's perspective when it comes to answering these charges.

189
00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:27,559
And in the first episode we were defending Diddy when

190
00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:30,600
it comes to the Rico charges. Now we're moving on

191
00:12:30,639 --> 00:12:35,960
to sex trafficking. Sex trafficking, there is no more powerful

192
00:12:36,039 --> 00:12:40,480
phrase in the prosecution's arsenal. It evokes horror, it evokes outrage.

193
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:44,879
It is intended quite deliberately to bypass reason and drive

194
00:12:44,919 --> 00:12:49,759
a jury straight to condemnation. The prosecution knows this. It's why,

195
00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,840
even though their Rico case is foundational, they have leaned

196
00:12:52,879 --> 00:12:56,240
so heavily on sex trafficking, knowing that jurors, like any

197
00:12:56,279 --> 00:12:59,679
human beings, will feel a moral pull towards protecting the

198
00:12:59,759 --> 00:13:04,679
vulnerable and punishing the predator. But courtrooms are not moral theaters.

199
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,440
They are venues of law, and law does not permit

200
00:13:07,519 --> 00:13:14,200
conviction based on moral disgust. It demands legal proof, precise, specific, rigorous,

201
00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:17,960
and beyond a reasonable doubt. And when we examine the

202
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,039
government's case under that lens, under the lens that matters,

203
00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:24,720
the only lenses courtroom permits, what we see is not

204
00:13:24,759 --> 00:13:27,559
a case of sex trafficking. We see a deliberate effort

205
00:13:27,639 --> 00:13:33,240
to redefine messy, voluntary adult relationships as criminal conduct. This

206
00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:36,320
is dangerous not only for Shawn Calms, but for the

207
00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,919
integrity of the law itself, because if the government can

208
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:44,519
take the complex and often contradictory behaviors of adult women,

209
00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:50,279
including years long relationships, consensual intimacy, and freely chosen participation

210
00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,759
in the orbit of celebrity, and retroactively call that trafficking,

211
00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:58,480
then the boundary between crime and bad memory no longer

212
00:13:58,519 --> 00:14:03,399
exists in this court room. It must before we even

213
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:06,320
address the allegations, we must ground ourselves in the law.

214
00:14:06,799 --> 00:14:09,799
The government has not merely accused Shawn Colms of being

215
00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:14,120
a bad partner, a manipulative lover, or a toxic employer.

216
00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:17,960
They have charged them under US Code eighteen, section fifteen

217
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:22,200
ninety one, the federal sex Trafficking Statute, one of the

218
00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:25,919
most serious crimes in our system, carrying a mandatory minimum

219
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,759
of fifteen years and up to life imprisonment. To convict.

220
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:32,879
Under this statute, the government must prove beyond a reasonable

221
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:39,960
doubt that first Shawn Colms knowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained,

222
00:14:40,279 --> 00:14:44,080
or maintained a person. Second that he knew or recklessly

223
00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:48,519
disregarded that force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion would

224
00:14:48,559 --> 00:14:50,879
be used to cause that person to engage in a

225
00:14:50,919 --> 00:14:55,080
commercial sex act. Third that the person did, in fact

226
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,360
engage in a commercial sex act, and fourth that the

227
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,519
conduct occurred in our affe, interstate, or foreign commerce. Every

228
00:15:03,559 --> 00:15:06,399
one of these elements must be proven, all of them not,

229
00:15:06,519 --> 00:15:10,960
some of them not implied, not presumed proven, and even

230
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:15,000
if one is not proven, the charge must fall. Now

231
00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,279
let us turn to what the government has presented as

232
00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:20,399
evidence of sex trafficking. The core of their case is

233
00:15:20,399 --> 00:15:25,000
a collection of women, former lovers, occasional companions, and accusers

234
00:15:25,159 --> 00:15:27,799
who now claim that their relationships with Calms were not

235
00:15:27,919 --> 00:15:32,279
merely intimate, but coercive and criminal. They claim that they

236
00:15:32,279 --> 00:15:35,600
were lured into these relationships by fame, money and power,

237
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,600
that they were subjected to sexual acts that they did

238
00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,759
not truly consent to, and that they were given gifts,

239
00:15:41,919 --> 00:15:46,000
flown across the country and provided luxury experiences in a

240
00:15:46,039 --> 00:15:49,080
manner that the government argues was part of a sex

241
00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:53,320
trafficking operation. This is the story that they want the

242
00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,360
jury to believe. But here is what the evidence real.

243
00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:00,879
Hard evidence actually shows these women voluntarily enter relationships with

244
00:16:00,919 --> 00:16:04,679
Shawn Colms. Many of these relationships lasted months, even years.

245
00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:09,600
The women traveled freely. They communicated affection, love, and gratitude

246
00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:13,159
to Colmbs both during and after the alleged periods of abuse.

247
00:16:13,639 --> 00:16:17,919
They publicly praised them, posted joyful photographs, accepted gifts, attended

248
00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:22,720
events willingly. They continued contact long after the supposed coercion ended.

249
00:16:23,639 --> 00:16:26,120
Nowhere in this record is their credible evidence of force.

250
00:16:26,399 --> 00:16:29,559
Nowhere is their evidence of fraud is defined by the statute.

251
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:33,360
Nowhere is there evidence of coercion as the law defines

252
00:16:33,399 --> 00:16:37,080
it threats of serious harm, physical restraint, or abuse of

253
00:16:37,159 --> 00:16:41,759
legal process. What we see is something entirely different, the

254
00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:45,720
complexities of adult relationships in a world of wealth and celebrity,

255
00:16:46,559 --> 00:16:51,039
relationships marked by emotional imbalance, perhaps, but not criminal coercion.

256
00:16:52,399 --> 00:16:55,399
Let us begin with force, the clearest and most easily

257
00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:59,000
defined element of the statute. Not one accuser has testified

258
00:16:59,039 --> 00:17:02,159
that they were physically resc strained by Shaan Colmes. Yes,

259
00:17:02,559 --> 00:17:06,240
some witnesses have described verbal arguments, some have described pressure,

260
00:17:06,519 --> 00:17:09,480
But under federal law, force means force. It does not

261
00:17:09,599 --> 00:17:12,680
mean or regret. It does not mean disappointment. It does

262
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:16,680
not mean social or emotional pressure. The defense forced this

263
00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:20,519
point repeatedly during cross examination. When did Colmes lock you

264
00:17:20,559 --> 00:17:22,920
in a room? When did he physically force you to

265
00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,680
do something? When did he restrain you? When did he

266
00:17:25,799 --> 00:17:28,960
use violence to compel sex? Again and again the answer

267
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,759
was the same. He didn't. And because the government cannot

268
00:17:31,799 --> 00:17:36,480
prove force, they must lean on other weaker elements. Next fraud.

269
00:17:36,599 --> 00:17:40,000
To prove trafficking. Under fraud theory, the government must show

270
00:17:40,039 --> 00:17:43,720
that Colms used materially false representations to induce these women

271
00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,720
into commercial sex acts. Not flattery, not vague promises, not

272
00:17:47,799 --> 00:17:52,400
emotional manipulation. Fraud and law is specific, provable lie about

273
00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,960
material facts made with the intent to deceive. And here

274
00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:01,319
the government's evidence falls completely. What have they produced? No

275
00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:05,680
emails offering sex for success arrangements, no contracts applying quid

276
00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:08,519
pro quo, no recordings of sleep with me and I'll

277
00:18:08,519 --> 00:18:12,680
make you famous, no text messages promising anything in exchange

278
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:16,160
for sex. What they have produced is what happens in

279
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:22,079
many asymmetrical relationships. Hope, ambition, desire for proximity to power,

280
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:25,839
expectations is a career benefit, but that is not fraud.

281
00:18:26,319 --> 00:18:28,799
Adults are allowed to hope, they are allowed to believe

282
00:18:28,839 --> 00:18:32,079
in things that later disappoint them. That does not transform

283
00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:36,640
their experience into a federal crime. The defense repeatedly confronted

284
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,440
witnesses on this point. Where were you told explicitly that

285
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:44,279
sex was required for opportunity? Where were you guaranteed advancement

286
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:48,400
in exchange for sex? Whereas the record of that fraud? Again,

287
00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:53,200
no answers. And that's because no such record exists. And

288
00:18:53,279 --> 00:18:56,720
so we come to coercion, the element the government relies

289
00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,279
on most because it's the most elastic, the most subjective,

290
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:04,079
the easiest stretch beyond meaning. But the law is clear.

291
00:19:04,599 --> 00:19:08,880
Coercion under Section fifteen ninety one means threats a serious harm,

292
00:19:09,079 --> 00:19:13,200
physical restraint, or abuse a legal process, or schemes intended

293
00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:15,880
to make the person believe they had no choice. Do

294
00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:19,640
you believe any of the government's witnesses credibly established that

295
00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:23,839
they did not. Instead, what they described under the careful,

296
00:19:24,119 --> 00:19:27,640
relentless cross examination of the defense was a complexity of

297
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:33,400
relationship shaped by wealth, power, and emotional dependency. Women stay

298
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:36,720
with calms for months, even years. They traveled freely, They

299
00:19:36,759 --> 00:19:42,119
communicated with them, affectionately, they expressed loyalty, they accepted gifts,

300
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,640
they returned to his orbit even after alleged abuse, And

301
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,920
when asked why they stayed, why they returned, why they

302
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:54,279
profess love, the answer was invariably emotional dependence, not physical

303
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:58,319
or legal coercion. The prosecution attempted to paper over this

304
00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:02,160
weakness by invoking trauma bonding and by introducing the testimony

305
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,400
of doctor down Hughes, a psychologist whose job was not

306
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,519
the prove facts but to explain away inconvenient ones. And

307
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,200
doctor Hughes was clear in her intent to persuade the

308
00:20:13,279 --> 00:20:17,000
jury that even when witnesses said yes, it wasn't really yes,

309
00:20:17,799 --> 00:20:21,400
That even when they returned they weren't really choosing, that

310
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,759
even when they appeared happy, it was a mask of trauma.

311
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,559
But this is circular logic. It is the opposite of proof.

312
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:32,839
If trauma can explain any behavior, then nothing is disqualifying.

313
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:38,519
Consent disappears entirely. But under our system of laws, consent matters,

314
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:43,480
agency matters. Adults are presumed capable of making choices, even

315
00:20:43,519 --> 00:20:46,960
bad ones, and when no force, fraud, or lawful coercion

316
00:20:47,039 --> 00:20:51,319
is proven, the law requires acquittal. Finally, the government must

317
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,839
prove that sexual acts in question were commercial, that sex

318
00:20:55,039 --> 00:20:58,119
was exchanged for something of value, and that this exchange

319
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:02,119
was arranged or orchestrated by Calmes. Again they fail. Yes,

320
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:05,519
these women received gifts, they flew first class, they stayed

321
00:21:05,519 --> 00:21:08,519
in luxury hotels, but no proof was provided that these

322
00:21:08,559 --> 00:21:12,759
benefits were conditioned on sex. No quid pro quo was documented,

323
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:17,599
No transactional agreement or arrangement was proven. And the men

324
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:20,440
who were flown in that was done because the women

325
00:21:20,759 --> 00:21:24,680
wanted them there. It wasn't Shawn Colmes who was the

326
00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:27,559
one arranging that travel, was it? And the defense made

327
00:21:27,559 --> 00:21:30,599
this point again and again. Did you receive a gift

328
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,519
before or after sex? Were gifts given in the absence

329
00:21:33,519 --> 00:21:36,599
of sexual activity? Did Colms ever state or imply that

330
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:41,559
gifts were compensation for sex. The answers were clear. Gifts

331
00:21:41,599 --> 00:21:45,559
were given in the context of relationships, sometimes sexuals, sometimes not,

332
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:50,720
but never as an explicit exchange. This matters because under

333
00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:55,920
the law, incidental benefit is not commercial trafficking. If it were,

334
00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:00,119
every relationship involving wealth would be criminal. Every boyfriend and

335
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,039
buying a purse would be a trafficker. That is not

336
00:22:03,079 --> 00:22:06,880
what Congress intended, and it is not what the law allows.

337
00:22:08,519 --> 00:22:11,480
Perhaps the most telling collapse of the government sex trafficking

338
00:22:11,519 --> 00:22:15,079
case lies in not what was presented, but and when

339
00:22:15,279 --> 00:22:18,519
and why it was presented. Many of the key allegations

340
00:22:18,519 --> 00:22:21,720
in this trial were not raised contemporaneously. They were not

341
00:22:21,759 --> 00:22:24,440
reported to police. They were not disclosed to therapists or

342
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:28,200
attorneys at the time they allegedly occurred. They were not

343
00:22:28,279 --> 00:22:31,720
even shared with family or friends in a timely manner. Instead,

344
00:22:31,799 --> 00:22:35,720
they arose strikingly and predictably, in the shadow of new

345
00:22:35,799 --> 00:22:40,240
legal opportunity the Adult Survivors Act, a statute designed to

346
00:22:40,279 --> 00:22:43,920
allow civil claims to be filed long after alleged abuse,

347
00:22:44,279 --> 00:22:48,519
and one accompanied by the lure of substantial monetary compensation.

348
00:22:49,799 --> 00:22:53,519
Consider the timeline. For years, these witnesses remained silent. Some

349
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:58,200
maintain friendly relationships with Combs, some publicly praised them, Some

350
00:22:58,279 --> 00:23:01,880
continue to attend his events. Some returned to his orbit

351
00:23:02,279 --> 00:23:06,480
multiple times. Then, with the passing of the Adult Survivors Act,

352
00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:12,759
civil attorneys began openly recruiting claimants. Publicity around the Act surged.

353
00:23:12,839 --> 00:23:16,839
Civil lawsuits against homes were filed in mass settlements were sought,

354
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,079
and it was only in this atmosphere, driven by lawyers,

355
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:25,039
litigation funding, and coordinated media strategies, that these trafficking allegations

356
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:30,200
suddenly surfaced. The defense exposed this sequence with forensic precision

357
00:23:30,519 --> 00:23:35,519
during cross examination. Witnesses admitted they consulted civil attorneys before

358
00:23:35,519 --> 00:23:39,960
approaching law enforcement. Several admitted that the first public disclosures

359
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,519
were made through legal demand letters or in connection with lawsuits,

360
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:48,839
not the police or prosecutors. Some explicitly linked their cooperation

361
00:23:49,319 --> 00:23:52,680
in this criminal case to ongoing civil litigation where millions

362
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:56,119
of dollars are potentially at stake. This is not to

363
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,480
say that the real victims cannot pursue civil justice, but

364
00:23:59,519 --> 00:24:03,119
when the entire case depends on the credibility of witnesses

365
00:24:03,319 --> 00:24:07,359
whose memories emerged only in the context of strategic litigation

366
00:24:07,839 --> 00:24:11,759
after years of inconsistent behavior and under the guidance of

367
00:24:11,799 --> 00:24:16,839
financially incentivized counsel, the jury is entitled, indeed compelled, to

368
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,759
weigh that timing and motive with the utmost skepticism. A

369
00:24:21,839 --> 00:24:24,799
case that rests on testimony shape by profit cannot meet

370
00:24:24,799 --> 00:24:28,839
the standard of proof required in a criminal court. Because

371
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:33,480
the government's trafficking case was fundamentally hollow, lacking force, lacking fraud,

372
00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:38,319
lacking clear coercion, and lacking transactional proof. They turned, as

373
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:42,200
is increasingly common in such prosecutions, to trauma science to

374
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:46,279
fill the gaps. Doctor don Hughes was presented not merely

375
00:24:46,279 --> 00:24:48,759
as an expert in trauma, but as the moral guide

376
00:24:48,799 --> 00:24:51,839
for the jury. Her role was clear to explain away

377
00:24:52,079 --> 00:24:56,359
every inconsistency, every contradiction, every piece of evidence that would

378
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,319
otherwise support a defense verdict. If an accuser that she

379
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:03,839
loved Colmbs, Hughes said, that's trauma. If she sent affection

380
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:07,279
in texts after an alleged assault, hugh said, that's trauma.

381
00:25:07,839 --> 00:25:11,799
If she stayed for years, flew back, voluntarily posted joyful photos,

382
00:25:12,079 --> 00:25:15,640
accepted gifts, trauma. If her memory of key events was

383
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,759
vague or incorrect, you guessed it trauma. If she failed

384
00:25:19,759 --> 00:25:23,960
to report trauma. In effect, Hughes asked the jury to

385
00:25:24,039 --> 00:25:28,599
disregard every normal marker of consent, agency, and voluntary choice,

386
00:25:29,079 --> 00:25:32,000
to presume that all such evidence was not what it appeared,

387
00:25:32,279 --> 00:25:37,240
but was instead the manifestation of a complex psychological wound,

388
00:25:37,319 --> 00:25:41,039
invisible to all but the expert. The defense was unrelenting

389
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:46,160
in its cross examination of use. Her testimony was based

390
00:25:46,559 --> 00:25:50,960
entirely on her interpretation of the accuser's statements, not independent evidence.

391
00:25:51,559 --> 00:25:55,279
She conducted no forensic investigation into their claims. She was

392
00:25:55,319 --> 00:25:59,519
compensated handsomely for her testimony and had appeared almost exclusively

393
00:25:59,559 --> 00:26:03,359
for the proper execution in similar high profile cases. Her

394
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:08,519
methodology cannot reliably distinguish between trauma consistent with actual trafficking

395
00:26:08,839 --> 00:26:13,319
and trauma consistent with a breakdown of a painful, consensual relationship.

396
00:26:14,279 --> 00:26:18,960
Most importantly, the defense exposed the central flaw of her narrative.

397
00:26:19,799 --> 00:26:24,039
It renders the burden of proof meaningless. If every possible

398
00:26:24,079 --> 00:26:29,519
behavior staying, leaving, smiling, crying, speaking, silence, is consistent with trauma,

399
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,079
then no defendant can ever be acquitted, because no evidence

400
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:37,319
can ever be exculpatory. That is antithetical to the principles

401
00:26:37,319 --> 00:26:41,359
of criminal law. Trauma may explain why some victims behave

402
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,960
in ways we might not expect, but it cannot be

403
00:26:44,039 --> 00:26:47,119
used to override the presumption of innocence. It cannot be

404
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,400
used to license conviction when the legal elements of the

405
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:55,920
crime remain unproven, and here they remain unproven. The government

406
00:26:56,039 --> 00:26:59,599
sex trafficking charges against Sean Combs collapse under the very

407
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,759
weight of their ambition. They sought to take the most

408
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:07,480
charged accusation available, trafficking, and retrofit it to the messy,

409
00:27:08,039 --> 00:27:13,160
morally ambiguous, but ultimately legal reality of adult relationships in

410
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,759
the world, the power and fame. They failed. They failed

411
00:27:16,759 --> 00:27:19,599
to prove force. They failed to prove fraud. They failed

412
00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:22,559
to prove coercion. They failed to prove that any sex

413
00:27:22,599 --> 00:27:25,279
act was commercial within the meaning of the law. They

414
00:27:25,279 --> 00:27:29,079
failed to prove that Calms knowingly or intentionally engaged in

415
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,359
trafficking conduct. They failed to prove that the gifts or

416
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,720
flights were given as part of a criminal exchange. They

417
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,519
failed to prove that NDAs and settlements were evidence of

418
00:27:38,519 --> 00:27:41,279
guilt rather than the legal tools of a man whose

419
00:27:41,319 --> 00:27:45,359
reputation and fortune made him a constant target. What they

420
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,839
offered instead was a story, a powerful story designed to

421
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:53,200
move jurors emotionally, a story rooted in the redefinition of consent,

422
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,519
the weaponization of trauma science, and the convenient alignment of

423
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,200
financial motive with delayed accusation. But the jury's role is

424
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,640
not to believe stories. It is to assess proof, and

425
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:09,000
where a proof is required, the government has utterly failed

426
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,240
to meet its burden. Sex trafficking is a heinous crime,

427
00:28:12,559 --> 00:28:15,599
but to convict a man of it requires more than narrative.

428
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:21,599
It requires evidence, clear, direct, unambiguous, beyond a reasonable doubt.

429
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,720
And in this courtroom, on this charge the evidence is

430
00:28:25,759 --> 00:28:29,839
so far absent by the law the only permissible verdict

431
00:28:30,039 --> 00:28:33,039
is not guilty. All right, folks, that's gonna do it

432
00:28:33,039 --> 00:28:35,960
for this one. And in the next episode, I'm gonna

433
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:37,839
do my best to try and defend Diddy on the

434
00:28:37,839 --> 00:28:40,400
Man Act. But man oh man, that's a tough one

435
00:28:40,599 --> 00:28:43,920
and it's gonna be a very difficult sell. As for

436
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,240
this one, well, that's gonna do it. All of the

437
00:28:46,279 --> 00:28:49,640
information that goes with this episode can be found in

438
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:50,720
the description box.

