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Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The

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Diddy Diaries. In the previous episode, talking about sex trafficking

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and defending Diddy, I was saying that we were going

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to take a look at the Man Act charge and

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try and formulate a defense for that. But I have

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to tell you I can't come up with a good

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defense for the Man Act considering we know for a

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fact that mal prostitutes were imported to several different states,

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allegedly at Ditty's behest. So it's almost impossible to defend

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the Man Act. Now, you could defend it when it

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comes to the women, right, but that's not what the

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government's alleging. The government's alleging that these male prostitutes were

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in fact imported over state lines for nothing more than sex.

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And I think that the testimony has done more than

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prove that. So I'll leave it to other people to

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try and defend Ditty on that charge, and we're gonna

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move on to obstruction instead. There's an old prosecutor trick

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that every season defense lawyer recognizes when your case is

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weak on the law, when you lack the hard evidence

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to convict on the actual elements of the crime, you charged,

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you pivot to narrative. You hint at things you don't

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formally charge. You see suspicion where you cannot plant proof.

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You create the ghost of a crime, not to meet

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your burden, but to inflame a jury sense of outrage.

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And that is precisely what the government has done with obstruction.

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In this case, Shawn Colms is not charged with obstruction

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of justice. The government had every opportunity to do so

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if they believe the evidence supported it. They did not,

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because it does not yet. Throughout this trial. In their

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enterprise letter, in witness questioning, in their reco theory, in

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their opening statement, they have repeatedly invoked obstruction, destruction of evidence,

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intimidation of witness, manipulation of legal process, silencing of victims.

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They cannot prove these things in accordance with federal law,

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so they have not formally charged them. Instead, they use

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them rhetorically to poison the well, to dirty the canvass,

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to convert jury suspicion into juror conviction. But courts are

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not places for shadows. There are places for evidence. They

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are not places for fear. There are places for law,

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and on that standard, the only one that matters the

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government's obstruction narrative collapses entirely to ground ourselves. Let us

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remind the jury of what obstruction actually is. Under federal law,

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obstruction requires that a defendant one knowingly engaged in conduct

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intended to interfere with an investigation proceeding or official action.

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Two acted with corrupt intent, meaning with the purpose of

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impairing the integrity of the justice process. Three to concrete

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identifiable acts designed to influence or prevent truthful participation in

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that process, whether through destruction of evidence, intimidation of witness, bribery,

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or coercion. Intent is critical, action is critical, Casualty is critical.

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Suspicion alone is not enough. Atmosphere is not enough. Celebrity

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culture is not enough. The government must prove that Calms

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personally and knowingly engaged in obstruction with intent to subvert justice.

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They have failed completely to do so. Let us begin

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with the centerpiece of the government's obstruction narrative, the use

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of non disclosure agreements and private settlements. The government is

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suggested without formally charging that Colm's use of NDAs and

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settlements with accusers constitutes obstruction. They imply that he use

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these agreements to silence victims and to prevent the reporting

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of crimes. But here the law is clearer. Das are

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not illegal. They are a standard, lawful tool used by

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public figures in every industry and every sphere of American

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life to protect reputation, privacy, and brand settlements. Are not obstruction.

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There are civil agreements between parties represented by council, voluntary,

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legally binding, and recognized under every jurisdiction in this country.

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To convert these tools into evidence of obstruction, the government

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must prove that they were used with corrupt intent to

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impair the justice process, not simply to resolve disputes or

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avoid reputational harm. And on this point the government's case

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is empty. Not one NDA produced that trial contains an

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illegal term. Not one contains an agreement to lie to

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law enforcement, not one forbids reporting a crime, not one

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forbids cooperating with a legal process. In fact, most contain

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the very opposite standard carve outs for law enforcement cooperation. Moreover,

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many witnesses who signed NDAs testified that they did so willingly,

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with independent counsel and with full understanding of the rights,

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and the defense exposed this relentlessly in cross examination. No

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witness could testify that Combs or as attorneys forced them

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into an NDA under threat. No witness could testify that

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they were told not to report a crime to police.

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No witness could point to a single instance where an

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NBA prevented them from cooperating with an investigation. NDAs are

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not obstruction, they are a legal defense, and to criminalize

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them would be to criminalize the very tools that American

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legal system provides for private resolution of disputes. The government

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has also leaned heavily on a rhetorical flourish describing private

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settlements as hush money, but this is not a legal term.

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It is a narrative device designed to provoke dure or

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outrage rather than legal analysis. The reality is far simpler.

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In a world of celebrity litigation, risk is omnipresent. Reputational

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damage is as lethal as legal exposure, and when disputes arise,

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especially disputes involving sex, money, or power, the path of

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civil settlement is not only legal, but often advisable. No

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evidence was produced that any settlement was paid to prevent

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testimony in this case. No evidence was produced that any

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payment was conditioned on perjury, witness tampering, or the destruction

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of evidence. The settlements were negotiated through council, they were

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entered into voluntarily, and they contained lawful terms. Again, this

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is not obstruction. The government has made much of an

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allegation that Colms ordered the destruction of surveillance footage and

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other digital evidence. But where's the proof. There is no

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forensic report that was produced showing deliberate erasure traceable to Colmbs.

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No witness testified credibly that Colmbs gave an order to

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destroy evidence. No chance of custody was presented showing that

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evidence was destroyed while in colmb's control or in his instruction.

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No subpoena was issued to Colmbs where he allegedly failed

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to comply. No video was subpoenaed and then destroyed after

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the subpoena. In short, there is no act of obstruction

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proven here. What the government relies on are innuendos, missing footage,

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gaps and timelines, former employees speck relating that something must

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have been deleted. But speculation is not evidence. This is

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a smear, not proof, and in a court of law

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that distinction matters. Another branch of the government's obstruction narrative

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involves alleged intimidation of witnesses, But again, where's the proof.

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No credible witness testified that Shan Colms directly threatened them.

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No credible witness testified that he instructed others to threaten them.

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No credible witness testified that any threat prevented them from testifying.

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In the case, no credible evidence was presented of bribes, blackmail,

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or retaliation. The government's witnesses did speak of fear, but

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fear is not proof of intimidation. Public figures often inspire

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complex emotions, power, fame, wealth. These create atmospheres that people

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interpret in many ways, But the law demands specific acts

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of intimidation, not subjective feelings, and the defense did their

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best to expose this in cross examination. Witnesses admitted they

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traveled freely both before and after alleged intimidation. Witnesses admitted

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they cooperated with this investigation despite alleged intimidation. Witnesses admitted

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they spoke to the media, filed lawsuits, and posted publicly,

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not the behavior of individuals intimidated into silence. There is

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no act of intimidation proven here. None. Let's be honest.

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The real purpose of the government's obstruction narrative is not

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to prove obstruction, it's to salvage their reco charge. Without obstruction,

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the government's RICO pattern falls apart. Their alleged enterprise lacks continuity.

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Their predicate acts are too sparse, too disconnected, and so

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they inject obstruction not as a charge, but as an

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atmosphere to glue the case together. But this is an

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abusive process. You cannot prove RICO with non charged, unproven obstruction.

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You cannot convict based on shadow charges. You can use

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suspicion where the law requires proof. The defense drove this

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point home. If obstruction was provable, why was it not charged.

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If obstruction was provable, why was no forensic evidence produced?

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If obstruction was provable, why did government rely on inference

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and implication rather than act in proof. Because they can't

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prove it, and the jury must not let them succeed

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through suggestion alone. And so after four weeks, the government

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is left with nothing but fog, no clear evidence of obstruction,

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no forensic trail, no proven witness intimidation, no illegal NDAs,

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no illegal settlements, no proven destruction of evidence. What they

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have is a story designed to outrage, But outrage is

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not an element of the offense In the courtroom bound

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by law not emotion. The obstruction narrative must be rejected

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in full. Without obstruction, there are reco charged Withers without obstruction,

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their case return to what it is and incoherent collapsing

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attempt to criminalize celebrity life through implication not proof, and

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that is not justice, all right. So that's going to

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do it for this one. And in the next episode

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we're going to bring it home and wrap this bad

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boy up. All of the information that goes with this

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episode can be found in the description box. What's up, everyone,

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and welcome to another episode of the Diddy Diaries. In

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this episode, we're going to wrap up taking a look

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at the defense that Diddy. The time has come. After

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weeks of testimony, after countless exhibits, after days of argument

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and cross examination, the court room returns to its core truth,

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one truth that transcends all others. The burden of proof

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is not ours, it's the governments in this nation, in

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this system of justice, no one, not the powerful, not

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the famous, not the flawed, can be stripped of their

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freedom unless the government proves beyond the reason doubt that

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they committed the crimes charged, not suggested, not implied, not suspected, proven,

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And after all this time, after all this theater, after

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all these headlines, the government has not met that burden,

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not even close. They want to convict Sean Combs not

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because the law demands it, but because they hope your

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heart will override your reason. Because they hope that if

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they stir enough moral outrage, enough revulsion at celebrity excess,

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enough discomfort with the world Combs and habits, that the

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jury will forget the standards that they swordw uphold when

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they took their owth. This jurors, but this court room

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is not a tabloid, It's not Twitter. This is not

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a place where we convict based on feeling. It's a

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place where we convict or refuse to convict, based on proof.

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And by that standard, this case is already over. The

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government built the case en Rico because they knew their

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individual charges were weak. They needed a grand narrative. They

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need a frame into which they could force disconnected, disjointed

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events and allegations. They failed after four weeks. What has

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been proven No enterprise, no structure, no hierarchy, no agreement,

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no chain of command, no written plan, no verbal commitment,

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no criminal goals. What we saw instead was the chaos

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of a celebrity entourage, a world of shifting alliances, opportunistic actors,

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toxic relationships, and transactional dynamics. But not a criminal enterprise,

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not a rico pattern, not a conspiracy. The defense is

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demonstrated this with unrelenting force. Witnesses failed to describe any structure.

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No one can name an agreement. The so called pattern

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was a patchwork of isolated events, stretched across years and continents.

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This is not rico. It is fiction, a dangerous fiction

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used to leverage heavy penalties when the government cannot make

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the case on the merits and in the court room,

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fictions must not prevail. The government sex trafficking case was

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a calculated gamble, an effort to trigger moral revulsion, to

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bypass the jury's reason and go straight for the gut.

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But when stripped of that emotional veneer, their case crumbles.

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Force not proven, no physical restraint, no violence compelling sex

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fraud not proven, no documented false representations, no explicit quid

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pro quo, no promises exchanged for sexual activity. Coercion not

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proven as the law defines it. What we heard were

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stories of emotionally fraught relationships of adult women, making complex,

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often painful choices, but choices. Nonetheless, the prosecution's trauma expert

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was presented to excuse every inconsistency to override the presumption

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of agency. But trauma science, valid though it may be,

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cannot replace the legal elements the government failed to prove,

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and the core truth remains. No act of sex trafficking

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is defined by Section fifteen ninety one was proven beyond

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a reasonable doubt, not one. The failure of the Man

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Act charges. Here the government's desperation became clearest. They took

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the most ordinary acts of celebrity life, travel, hospitality, intimacy

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and attempted to criminalize them. But the law is clear.

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The man Act requires proof of purpose at the time

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of transportation, not post hawk moral judgment, not guilt by lifestyle.

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And here again the government's case collapsed. Not one message

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from colmb's arranging prostitution, not one travel record proving illicit purpose,

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not one agreement conditioning travel on sexual favors. Instead, the

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government asked the jury to infer a purpose from outcome,

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a legally impermissible maneuver that the defense dismantled through meticulous

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cross examination. Adults travel adults make choices. The existence of

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intimacy after travel is not proof that the travel was

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criminal in purpose, and without such proof, the man Act

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charges cannot stand. But perhaps the most cynical element of

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the government's case was its use of obstruction, not as

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a charge crime, but as a cloud of suspicion to

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prop up they're a failing reco theory. But here too

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they failed. No direct evidence of obstruction, no forensic trail,

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no witness testifying to orders from Combs, no illegal NDAs,

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no illegal settlements, no proven destruction of evidence. What they

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presented was atmosphere fear, innuendo, a play to the jury's imagination,

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precisely what our system of justice forbids. The defense exposed

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this strategy for what it is and improper effort to

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glue together a case that cannot stand on its own,

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and the jury must not allow it. Beyond Shawn Combs,

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beyond the salacious headlines and public outrage, this case presents

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a deeper danger, one that threatens the integrity of the

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justice system itself, because if the government can convict here

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without meeting its burden, if it can convert lifestyle into conspiracy,

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agency into coercion travel into crime, legal tools into obstruction.

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Then no one is safe. Then every flawed relationship becomes trafficking.

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Then every lavish gift becomes prostitution. Then every settlement becomes obstruction.

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Then every celebrity becomes a target. And that is not justice,

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That is opportunism cloaked in moral rhetoric. The jury must

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be the bulwark against that abuse. And for the jurors,

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their role is not to right every wrong. It's not

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to punish every act that they dislike. It's not to

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reform the culture of celebrity. Their role is to uphold

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the law, to hold the government to its burden, to

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ensure that no man, however powerful, however famous, however flawed,

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is convicted without proof beyond the reasonable doubt. And when

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you apply that standard here on rigorously, the conclusion is inescapable.

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The government has not proven its case, not on rico,

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not on sex trafficking, not on the man Act, not

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on obstruction. And in our system, when the government fails

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to prove its case, there is only one verdict, not guilty.

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And now we leave you with these closing thoughts. When

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all is said and done, we come to the hardest

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part of the jury's task the part where the pressure

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of public expectation, the pull of personal feeling, and the

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moral gravity of the accusations may weigh heaviest upon them.

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And it is precisely here in this moment where the

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jury's duty matters most. They're not here to deliver justice

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for headlines. They're not here to deliver justice for social media.

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They're not here to answer the calls of those who

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would see this man condemned not because the law demands it,

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but because they found him unsavory, or his lifestyle objectionable,

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or his world foreign to their values. The jury is

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here to uphold the one thing that separates a court

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of law from the court of public opinion, the presumption

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of innocence, the burden of proof, the requirement of proof

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beyond the reasonable doubt. And if you allow feeling, if

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you allow moral outrage to replace that requirement, you do

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not merely convict one man unjustly. You damage the system itself.

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You signal that for some defendants, those who are famous,

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those who are wealthy, those who live outside the cultural norms,

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the presumption of innocence is hollow, that for them the

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standard is lower, that for them, story will suffice where

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evidence does not. But our system must be better than that.

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It must be. You are a difficult testimony. You are

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painful stories. Some of it may have disturbed you deeply.

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But difficult testimony is not a license to convict. Inconsistencies remain,

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proof is absent, the legal elements have not been satisfied.

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You may believe John Colmes is arrogant, that he is selfish,

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that he is morally compromised, that his lifestyle is repugnant,

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and you are entitled to those personal views. But you

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are not entitled, not in this court room, not under

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this constitution, to convict him of crimes. You are not

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convinced he committed beyond a reasonable doubt. The law draws

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that line sharply, and your oath demands that you hold it.

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If you allow that line to blur, if you convict

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because you dislike them, because you feel for the witness,

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because you fear what the press will say. If you

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do not, the jury surrenders the very foundation of due process.

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You allow feeling to overwhelm fact, You allow narrative to

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override law. And I'll tell you this plainly, that is

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not justice. That is not what a jurors oath commands

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that is not what the law demands of them. The

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jurors may walk out of the courtroom with mixed feelings

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about the man who sat at this table. They may

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walk out believing that he lived recklessly, that he made

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grievous personal mistakes. He may even believe that he caused

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pain to people who trusted him. But unless you believe,

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truly believe, that the government is proven beyond a reasonable doubt,

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every element of these charges everyone, then the jury is

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bound by their oath to acquit not because Sean Colmes

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is perfect, not because he is worthy of admiration, but

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because the government did not meet its burden. And because

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our system depends on jurors, jurors who are willing to

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uphold the standard even when the title public opinion runs

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against it. That's the jury's duty, and in this case

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the duty is clear. There's no enterprise proven. There is

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no trafficking proven. There is no Man Act violation proven,

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there is no obstruction proven. There is feeling, there is outrage,

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there is a narrative, but there is no proof. And

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in this country, in this courtroom, without proof, there can

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be no conviction. So when the jurors enter that jury room,

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they need to remember they are not the sword of

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the public. They are not the shield of law. They

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are not here to serve a story. They're here to

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serve justice. They are not here to punish a man

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for his failings as a human being. They are here

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to judge whether this man committed specific crimes as charged

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beyond a reasonable doubt, and if they hold to that standard,

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as the oath requires, then their verdict can only be

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what the law demands, not guilty on every count. All

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of the information that goes with this episode can be

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found in the description box.

