Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 7/3/25: Mehdi Releases Censored BBC Gaza Doc, Abrego Garcia Tortured In CECOT, Zohran Fires Back At Trump, Diddy Verdict

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Ryan and Emily discuss Mehdi Hasan releases censored BBC documentary, Abrego Garcia tortured in CECOT, Zohran fires back at Trump, Megyn Kelly rips Diddy verdict.  Mehdi Doc: https://zeteo.com/p/watch-now-gaza-doctors-under-attack    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. For the past many months, the BBC has been broiled in a controversy in which it has been refusing to air a documentary that kind of took on a life of its own inside the organization as the journalists there have been demanding to know what happened to an investigation that the BBC had commissioned into Israel's war on medical professionals and the entire kind of medical community inside of Gaza. That controversy has now resulted in the documentary being acquired by Mehdi Hassan and Zatayo News for its worldwide distribution

and by Channel 4 inside the UK for its UK distribution. So Mehdi is joining us now to talk about this documentary and also the process that led up to it being censored and now being finally released last night. Mehdi, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. And I wanted to start just by honoring several of the medical professionals who have been killed in this genocide. If we could put up, I believe it is C3.

Dropsite posted this yesterday. This is a picture from a graduation ceremony at the Faculty of Medicine in Gaza. Four of the people that you're looking at in this photo, Dr. Omar Farwana, who was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Adnan al-Barsh, who was head of orthopedic surgery at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, Dr. Rafat Lubad, who was the head of internal medicine at Al-Shifa, and also then this week was the killing of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, who was the director of the Indonesian hospital and a cardiologist. So in that photo, four of them have been assassinated several, you know targeted at their homes not not collateral damage from attacks on you know

Fighters are caught in crossfire. But many want you to talk about the the targeting of medical professionals because that is what I think People don't understand because it sounds So insane to say it out loud understand because it sounds so insane to say it out loud that it sounds insane to say it out loud it's I mean two things three things I think sound insane over the last 21 months 22 months that we've normalized one obviously is the deliberate killing of journalists which a lot of journalists in the West have a lot of problem comprehending the other is the deliberate killing of children of course gunshot wounds to the head, sniper shots, not collateral damage. And of course, the

third is the doctors, the killing of doctors, nurses, paramedics, the deliberate targeting and destruction of Gaza's health care. And that is what the premise, that was the basis of this film is. And this film, produced by award-winning filmmakers at Basement Films in the UK, made over several months, went through rigorous checks, went through the BBC editorial process for much of it, right of reply, fantastic lead reporter, Ramida Navai, award-winning war correspondent. And they put together this film, this hour-long film,

based on eyewitness testimony from Palestinian doctors and survivors, as well as Dr. Adnan al-Burush, who you just mentioned. He's in this film, but he's since been killed in Israeli captivity, tortured and died in prison, killed in prison, as one of his colleagues says. So you've got eyewitness testimony from Palestinian doctors to what they have had to endure.

We also have an Israeli medic whistleblower in the film who served at state amen the Israeli gulag the prison the black site where they've taken Palestinian detainees to be tortured raped killed So it's all there put together in the film and you mentioned, you know the targeting of doctors saying it out loud They're perhaps the most powerful moment for me in the film And we just I would urge breaking points viewers to go to the Zateo Twitter feed or Zateo Blue Sky we actually put up a clip from the film last night separate to the trailer which is one of the most powerful

moments in the film from Dr. Khalid Hamouda who was a surgeon who is a surgeon in Gaza now in Egypt who was bombed in his home with his family a family of other doctors at first ten people killed they then then flee him, his wife, his child, and they go down the street. By the way, his house is blown up, not the entire street, just his house. They then go down the street to take refuge, and a drone follows them down the street and attacks them again. And he wakes up in a hospital and sees a nurse carrying his child, his daughter, who's dead.

The next morning his wife, the mother of his child, is also dead, he's told, killed. He's the only survivor, or one of the only survivors, I believe, from that massacre. And she says, Ramita Navayana reporting, you were targeted? He says, yes. Drone came and targeted us. And this is what we heard from the World Central Kitchen folks when they were in the humanitarian convoy, and they were targeted car to car to car.

This is what we've heard from journalists, of course. And this is what we have to get our heads around, that the United States of America has been arming and funding a country that is systematically, this is a key word here, destroying the Gaza healthcare system, destroying doctors and medics. And the key point here, and it comes out in the film, you could rebuild hospitals in years to come. Trump can turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East and build as many hospitals as he like.

You cannot rebuild that knowledge base. You cannot rebuild that human base. You cannot just get doctors back over. Gaza and society, Palestine, it's all spent years educating itself in this way. And the Israelis have deliberately targeted it. Well, let's take a look at the trailer. This is C1 to get a sample

of what people can expect from the film. He got injured. They should be done. That's the only way to prove. Israel has been killing the very people trying to keep the healthcare system alive, its doctors and medics, despite hospitals and healthcare workers

being protected under international law. despite hospitals and healthcare workers being protected under international law. As Israel has bombed Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian doctors and medics have refused to leave their hospitals. We are in the theatre, in the operating room, full darkness, no water, no electricity. But we have a hero, surgeons in Gaza. SIRENS Hundreds of medics have been killed. Hundreds have been detained.

Many of them have been forcibly disappeared. Our Palestinian team on the ground have gathered testimony from health workers and their families. They put me in a cage, like the prisoners. They put me in a cage, all of them. They put me in a cage, all of them. And Israeli whistleblowers have told us they witnessed Palestinian prisoners being tortured and that some Israeli medics are complicit. I don't even think that in the Israeli society there is a need for cover-up these days. You can do almost whatever you want when it comes to Gazans.

Well one of the things people can see at METI is that this is a high production value film. And the BBC funded this film. The BBC then refused to air it and was giving quote unquote bullshit reasons, according to a source who told that to the Independent. And Matt, you have probably a lot of insight into this process of why the BBC, which had recently aired the Louis Thoreau documentary, I believe that was on BBC. What happened?

What's your understanding of why they ended up getting rid of a film that they funded? So the BBC put out a very long statement, a bullshit statement, I would argue, as well. Their argument was that they had this other documentary that they aired on Gaza, which became super controversial, I would argue, for unnecessary reasons. It was narrated by a child in Gaza surviving the war,

and it turns out the child was the son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Gaza government, some technocrat, who was then labeled, of course, as just Hamas, and there was a huge furore in the UK that the BBC had put out a film for the child of a Hamas minister, even though, again, it was a well-sourced, well-made, high-production value film.

The child had not decided the editorial agenda. But while they were quote unquote investigating how that happened, they decided to park this film, which, as you say while they were quote unquote investigating how that happened, they decided to park this film, which as you say, they had spent a lot of money on, spent many months making, with Basement Films, who we at Zateo know well because they made a film for us last year called Israel's Real Extremism,

which I came on the show to talk about if memory serves me correctly then. And the fundamental argument for the BBC was, well, Basement Films went out and talked about the process while we were still trying to get everything approved They then put out basement were frustrated Of course my friend Ben Depeer who's the executive producer former head of Channel 4 News very respected award-winning journalist He went out at the Sheffield documentary festival and said come on. This is ridiculous

We've got doctors in the film waiting for this film to come out We're showing disrespect to people who risk their lives to talk to us, sources, whistleblowers, survivors of massacres. The BBC put out a statement saying, well, if we put it out now, there will be the perception of partiality. And the BBC can't have the perception of partiality. The great irony being, of course,

that their decision not to air this film that they commissioned, that ran through their checks, that is the greatest perception of partiality. It's partiality towards Israel. They have now run one Gaza doc and then pulled it. It's nowhere to be seen because apparently it was the child of a Hamas minister bullshit argument and now they didn't even air the other Gaza documentary. And then add that to all of the rest of the coverage of the BBC's of Gaza over the last

21, 22 months, which has been abysmal, which has caused multiple internal, you know, backlashes, protests from BBC staff who are frustrated at what their broadcaster has done. This is a BBC that has been cowed, intimidated, pressured, bullied. This is a BBC, I used to work at the BBC. I used to defend the BBC when I worked in the UK from right-wing bullshit attacks.

But I think I've never seen in my entire lifetime, I'm about to turn 46 years old, in my entire lifetime of watching the BBC, I've been watching the BBC since children's cartoons on a Saturday morning. And I can honestly say it's never taken a beating like this. I've never had such a depressing, disappointing view of the national broadcast in the UK

that I've had since October 2023. I know many other people who've stopped watching the BBC, stopped appearing on the BBC because their coverage has been so shameful Not just in the documentary space, but in the news space the online space the ridiculous headlines There was a study by the Center for Media Monitoring recently, which said they give 33 times as much coverage per Israeli casualty as they do per Palestinian casualty. So there's not a perception of partiality, there's a well-documented evidence of partiality towards Israel. And I want to linger on that point and connect it to the point that you made about the original controversy that then put this documentary on ice. Trying to imagine a world in which a documentary was made about the difficulties faced by Israeli children

In the war which are you know non-trivial? often headed to bomb shelters, which is Absolutely, even if nothing happens That's a it's traumatizing for a child to have to hide it to hide somewhere with their family in the dark worried that They might get hit by a bomb like that alone is traumatizing So let's say that the BBC commissioned a documentary for you know focused on the way that the war was affecting children And then it turned out

that the boys father worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel and father worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel and they pulled the documentary and apologized and investigated how that could happen. How could you possibly have aired the thoughts of a child whose father works for the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel? That to me kind of tells you everything you need to know about the way that the BBC approached this. So how difficult was it to kind of pry this out of the BBC?

Or were they like, thank you, Mehdi. We're so glad to be done with this controversy. So the heavy lifting was done by Ben DePere at Basement Films who spent, who made this film, kind of, you know, sweating blood in this film, spent a long time in back and forth with the BBC and, you know, he runs an independent production company. It's very risky for him to pick a fight with one of the biggest broadcasters in the world which commissions his staff. So props to my friend Ben really for believing in this film and saying, look, I want it out there. Doesn't matter if I screw up my relationship with people, doesn't matter

if I lose money on this, I want it out there. Doesn't matter if I screw up my relationship with people. Doesn't matter if I lose money on this. I want it out there. And the BBC did sit on it for a while and weren't going to release it, as far as I'm aware. And eventually, they did release it, partly because of Ben's cajoling, partly because I think they just wanted to be done with it. And then us and Channel 4 were able to come in and say,

well, we're going to give it a platform. I knew from the moment they benched it. If this film becomes available, I messaging and say we want to platform This is what Zateh was created for right to give these voices to the world to try and platform these voices Yeah We know Ryan you and I that the right have been arguing about cancel culture for decades and yet the single biggest victims of cancel culture are Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian movement and journalism about Palestine

and academia about Palestine. And that has been a fundamental issue. We've seen that in this conflict. And I think that was a frustrating issue where the BBC were not airing it and were not releasing it. And the moment they released it, we moved fast and props to Channel 4, broadcast from the UK for running it.

Because again, Ryan, you say Hamas and everything shuts down. All critical faculty shut down, even amongst smart, liberal, progressive folks. And if you're able to say anything's Hamas, then that's what you're able to throw at it. And I'm sure people will throw that at this film as well. One thing I took great pride in doing was taking, the BBC put out a statement saying,

this is not our film anymore. That's true, it's not their film anymore. We made a few changes. One of the changes we made is we took out all references to the Hamas-run health ministry. We call it the Gaza Ministry of Health in this film. That in itself is a propagandistic and loaded phrase, as you well know, because it allows people

to then cast doubt on the deaths and torture of Palestinians. And we have eyewitness accounts of this film from people who have nothing to do with Hamas about that suffering. Just one quick story that your viewers might be interested in that I heard recently from someone else. You talk about, kind of imagine if this was the

other way around. A production company I'm told went to a major American broadcaster at the start of this conflict, at the start of the genocide, and had a story about a Palestinian family just to kind of follow them around and the suffering they were going through and the number of members of the family had been killed. And the American broadcaster said, we'll run it, but first go and find, first let us go and find an Israeli family so we can balance it and we'll run both stories. A few weeks later, they came back to the production company and said, well, we can't find an Israeli family that suffered like the Palestinian family showed us. Therefore we're not running your story.

Not we'll just run yours, but we won't run anything now because we can't do this fake bullshit balance Right and it would have looked would have looked worse if you tried to do the balance Because you'd see they just dropped the whole thing right you this is what happens if Palestinian voices are silenced. Yeah The other interesting thing about the BBC's position here is they're not Disputing any facts in the film or any of the journalism, right? Maddie, they aren't disputing the quality of the journalism. They're not even saying that it didn't meet their editorial standards, which is a pretty usual excuse. Yep. Yep. Not at all. And I think they're hiding behind this bullshit phrase,

perception of partiality. So it's not even... and by the way, Emily, they're not even saying it's a biased film. They're saying if we run it now, people will say that we are biased to one side and we are scared of people, people being the pro-Israel lobby, and therefore we're not gonna put it out. I mean, look, the people who've made this film have won Oscars and Emmys.

The reporter, Ramita Nevaeh, of Iranian descent, has done films all about Iran's human rights abuses She's traveled around the world the credibility of these people cannot be questioned I'm sure it will be questioned by bad faith actors And yet this is where we've reached now in the name of protecting Israel wittingly or unwittingly We've burned down international law and we've burned down journalistic credibility. We've burned down so many Institutions which will not survive the last 22 months. So, Matti, where can people go to find this? So they can go to find this at gazadockters.film. That's the website

we set up for this film specifically or zeteo.com. It is available to paid subscribers for now. People will say, well, why not put it out for free to the world? Well, because the people behind this film spent a lot of time and money making this film. And I just want to remind people that a free press isn't free. High quality journalism requires investment. If you really want documentaries that are going to win awards and report on the ground and break stories, then we really have to support it financially. I'm proud that Zateo is financially supporting this film.

It costs a lot of money, Ryan, Emily, as you know. Documentaries cost a lot and therefore we are airing it to our paid subscribers. I urge people to become a paid subscriber. If you become a monthly subscriber, it's less than the cost to go into the movie theater to watch a film. And this film is more important than any other film you're going to see this year, including the F1 movie, which I loved, but this movie is more important. It is true. Journalism is expensive and documentaries are particularly so the travel the The the sophistication that that goes into the legal in the legal in oh my god. Don't get me started on the legal in Well, Maddie. Thank you so much for joining us and congrats on this acquisition. I'm glad that it's it's getting out there finally I

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Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebene and and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all, childhood trauma,

addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more, and found the strength to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer. Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on the street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed.

Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life.

I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean, but the most unforgettable part? Our roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakley, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his stage name? Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone.

In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you, but then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A new legal filing from attorneys for Kilmar Abrego-Garcia alleges that he was tortured

while in CICOT custody in El Salvador. We can put up this first element up on the screen. Abrego-Garcia has become the detainee who has captured the most attention. It could have gone a Lot of different ways it could have been the makeup artist who was still Facing these brutal conditions in El Salvador. It could have been the sock the Venezuelan soccer player Who had absolutely no connection to Tornado, Uruguay and yet remains down there

Abrego Garcia has become the one that Democrats kind of focused their attention on. He was returned from El Salvador, surprisingly, by the administration to face charges for human trafficking in the Nashville area, charges which are now kind of crumbling under scrutiny. This new allegation serves as a part of these ongoing proceedings. And we're still joined by Azoteos Metti Hassan to talk through some of this. Metti, thank you for sticking around. We appreciate it. It's a horrific story, Ryan.

It really is. They talk about, and he says that he walked into Seacot and one of the guards said to him and was saying to everybody who was coming in, welcome to Seacot. Those who enter, never leave. And Abrego Garcia is one of the only cases that I think we even know of, whether in El Salvador or anywhere else, of somebody leaving CICOT alive. Soon after getting there, it seems like they had them all kneel for 24 hours, which Mehdi and I are old men at this point. If we kneel for two minutes, we're struggling hard. And then they were beaten

if they collapsed. And the filing says that he soiled himself while they were being forced to kneel kind of overnight among a bunch of the other abuses. Do you think that this is the reason why the Trump administration was initially so reluctant to, and is still reluctant to, return anybody from the detention center because they can then talk about what happened down there. I think it's part of the reason. I don't think it's the whole reason. I think even if they weren't being tortured there, it's a point of principle, right, for

the bullies not to give in and they don't want to see that, oh, the liberal media and the Democrats made, and the Human Rights Act was made to bring people back. You remember that the ridiculous, cosplaying Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, went in front of Congress and said, I guarantee you, he's never coming back. Well, he did come back.

But for this bullshit Tennessee indictment for human trafficking, human smuggling. Yeah, I think it's part of the reason. It's not the only reason. And Human Rights Watch have documented that this is a prison where people never leave from and yes They are just literally disappeared inside of there It's a horrific gulag in El Salvador created by a kind of autocrat president bukele Trump's ally People are treated horrifically. He was threatened with being put into cells with gang members where he would be killed He was told by the guards. He had his head shaved forcibly with a zero razor.

He was beaten with wooden batons. He was punched in the head. He was, as you say, forced to kneel all night long, kicked and beaten if they weren't able to kneel all night long, soiled himself, deprived of food, malnutrition, lost dozens of pounds. You'll remember that photo that the Trump administration released with him and Chris Van Hollen having margaritas, which as the Senator from Maryland pointed out, they didn't order. It was placed in the picture by the El Salvadorans

to make it look like they were having this great time. He was not having a great time. Well, we can only dread to imagine what is happening to some of the other innocent people who have been sent there the The gay barber who was sent there the guy with the autism tattoos who was looking after his brother so many cases There was a case just this week I read of where the Trump administration have admitted for once that they sent someone who shouldn't have been sent out

But they can't find him anymore. I tweeted this yesterday and I stand by this You said you and I are old men because we can't nail We're also old men who remember 2001 2002 2003 I think this is as big a scandal if not bigger scandal than Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay This is happening in plain sight at least we could argue in 2001 2003. We didn't know till much later We didn't know till senator Diane Feinstein's report. We didn't know until Seymour Hershey's reporting in the New Yorker. This is happening in plain sight. We have known since day one, we didn't even need Kilmar Abrego Garcia's report. We saw the video that the Trump administration put out. Remember, they put out a video to music

showing off their torture and beating and forcible shavings of innocent men sent to Seacart. Now we have this 40 page amendment with the details in it. I think history will judge what those of us who know about it and saw did in this moment. This is a scandal that Democrats in Congress should be screaming about from the rooftops, which every Democrat who wants to be president in 2028 should be talking about. The Trump administration took a bunch of people in the United States, including possibly legal residents we don't know because they haven't told us who went, and sent them to a foreign gulag to be tortured

and refused to bring them back, including when the court said send them back. That is a crime, that is a scandal, and I think Americans need to stop thinking it can't happen here, we're not like those other countries. The descriptions in this report, in this amendment, are the kind of descriptions you would read about

from a North Korean prison, an Iranian prison, a Russian prison. Let's stop pretending we don't do what everyone else does. This is something that Ryan and I actually debated a little bit yesterday, and we can put D2, this is a VO of alligator Alcatraz flooding on the screen. So this engineering marvel that was constructed very quickly in the middle of the Everglades is already flooding. Probably no surprise to anybody who would conceive of what it might look like after you throw up a massive 3,000 bed facility in the Everglades in like a week's time.

And Ryan raised the point that hurricane season could be especially devastating to people who are kept there in the future. So 3,000 beds, they want to increase that to 5,000 beds and they just got an infusion of funding for immigration enforcement. But Mehdi, I think the public hates the CICOT stuff. I think most of the public hates the CICOT stuff because it feels profoundly un-American. I think it's a blind spot for the Trump administration that gets very online and you know sort of falls for the appeal of the memes on these types of things. I think the Trump

administration has sort of understood that which is why they didn't send another group of people to CICOT at least not yet on the political front. So I guess I'm curious what you make of alligator Alcatraz, which you mentioned Kristi Noem cosplaying. Honestly, I feel like it, I think we need to take it seriously. I do feel like the Trump administration likes to LARP as Bukele. I don't think it's popular, but I don't foresee alligator Alcatraz looking like Seacat. That doesn't mean I don't think we should take the threat of that seriously, but I'm curious what you expect to see from the facility in the next several months as they start filling it.

Well, just on the lapping point, I should also point out that when the history books are written about this period and about the torture in El Salvador, you will have a series of Republican members of Congress who went to El Salvador, stood outside prison cells, said, what a great place this is. Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem led the charge. She stood in front of a cell full of dozens and dozens of men with shaved heads lined up for a photo op. Many of those men who have been tortured as we now know and this is what the American government was part of which is what I'm saying

it's worse in many ways than Abu Ghraib because the Bush administration Cheney and Ashcroft didn't go and do photo ops at Abu Ghraib. They were ashamed. They tried to keep it hidden. And this administration, as usual, the cruelty is the point to borrow Adam Sears' line. So yes, and I think, look, whether you call it alligator alchemy, whatever stupid name these people give to their concentration camps,

even already ICE detention facilities were overcrowded. We were hearing reports about abuse. We were hearing stories about people not eating for days, not having beds, sleeping on the floor No blankets all sorts of abuse 911 calls from ICE detention centers with people Collapsing that we had a death. I believe of a Cuban American man this week or a Cuban man this week I don't know what his status was. I can't remember who knows with this administration what the status of any

So many just to underline that because I was just in Miami and they were talking about this down there a lot, he was a 75-year-old man who had been in the United States since 1965, since the age of 15. So he fled what they will call in Miami the Castro dictatorship, which, I mean, kind of was dictator. Glad to have you guys on the record here. We know that. So he'd been here for 60 years. Now, a lot of people in Miami,

because of its cultural nature, maybe he never became a citizen, I don't know. It's quite possible he didn't. He easily could have. If you've been here since 1965 as a Cuban, you could have become a citizen, but just in Miami, like a lot of people didn't he easily could have if you've been here since 1965 as a Cuban you could have become a citizen But just in Miami like there's a lot of people didn't he died in ICE detention and Tom Homan responded. Well, you know Bad things happen in every prison people have every prison, but we're saving so many lives with ice

Anyway, so ice prisons ice prisons in particular are overcrowded. We know now we have this new budget We have this budget bill that's gone through giving them more money than most than a lot of foreign militaries There's a lot of people appointed that I believe they're gonna be I believe they're gonna half the levels of Personnel as the United States Marine Corps when all is said and done if this bill goes through so they're getting lots of money for fancy new centers and Troops, but what I would say is even already the overcrowding is insane The conditions are horrific You mentioned the elderly Cuban man. There was an Iranian woman who's been here 50 years

She came in 1979 her family and her came to visit the United States and the revolution happened and they stayed and she never got Citizenship and they're now to push I think they got her in her front yard while she was gardening this dangerous threat this elderly Iranian woman, so these are kind of ridiculous stories coming out from the ICE detentions but the conditions to go back to Emily's question are horrific I don't think even if they get 37 billion dollars from this bill that they're somehow gonna build nicer facilities it's not about lack of resources the reason people are being abused in detention is not because they lack resources that's part of it but it's also because the cruelty is the point they don't see these people as fully human beings they don't see these

people as deserving of rights. You've heard United States senators have gone on live television and said, no, foreigners don't get due process. Foreigners aren't covered by the Constitution. This is the kind of ridiculous shit that is said by people with law degrees serving in the United States Senate, which is obviously nonsense. Everyone gets due process. So that is the fundamental problem.

It's not about resources. It's not about resources. It's not about where you locate your concentration camp. It's about the fundamental mindset of Tom Homan and Stephen Miller and Donald Trump, which is that these people are not fully human. These people are not people deserving of rights. These people need to be punished to send a message. And these people need to be out of here.

And I think that is the key point that, you know, Ryan mentioned Miami, a bunch of Republicans in Florida, members of the house are saying well Come on Can you tone it down a bit because they're feeling some backlash from their constituents who are like, you know, the leopard eat What's the face the face eating Leopard Party meme like I didn't know that come from my friends Many I know you have to run. So thank you so much for sticking around for a second segment. We appreciate it Thank you guys, of course

I second segment. We appreciate it. Thank you guys. Of course. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts.

Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebene, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all, childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more, and found the shrimp to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer.

Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on the street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

favorite shows. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennessean, but the most unforgettable part? Our roommate, Reggie Payne, from Oakley, sports editor and aspiring rapper. And his stage name? Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone.

In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like thanking you, but then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Zoran Mamdani held a press conference to respond to President Trump's threat that he was going to do all sorts of things to him, including round him up, deport him, jail him, etc. Here's Mamdani. Yesterday, Donald Trump said that I should be arrested. He said that I should be deported. He said that I should be denaturalized. And he said those things about me, someone who stands to be the first immigrant mayor of this city in generations,

someone who would also be the first Muslim and the first South Asian mayor in this city's history, less so because of who I am, because of where I come from, because of how I look or how I speak, and more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for. I fight for working people. I fight for the very people that have been priced out of this city. And I fight for the same people that he said he was fighting for. This is the same president who ran on a campaign of cheaper groceries, who ran on a campaign about easing a suffocating cost of living crisis.

And ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge the ways in which he has betrayed those working class Americans, not just in the city but across this country, and the ways in which he continues to betray them. Because we know that he would rather speak about me than speak about the legislation that he is shepherding through Washington, D.C. Legislation that will quite literally take health care away from Americans. Legislation that will steal food from the hungry. Legislation that looks to build upon one of the largest transfers of wealth we've seen

in recent history in his first administration and do it once again for the very Americans who already have enough. We should be fighting for those that do not have what they need to live a dignified life. That is what I will do, and I am thankful to have the protection and to have the support of so many New Yorkers who have stood up and said how unacceptable this is, including our governor,

including members of the labor movement. And ultimately, what I fear for is that if this is what Donald Trump and his administration feel comfortable about saying about the Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City, imagine what they feel comfortable saying and doing about immigrants whose names they don't even know. So also yesterday, and we can put up this element here, President Trump's Homeland Security Advisory Council, which is a group that includes such luminaries

as Bo Deedle, who is the founder of Bikers for Trump, and Rudy Giuliani, who is, believe it or not, the former mayor of New York once in his life, as well as some other folks, they met and they quickly decided that the main thing the Homeland Security Advisory Council needed to focus its meeting on was what they're going to do about Zoran Mamdani. And talking about the Homeland Security Department having authorities that haven't been used in the past that maybe need to look into that. So before we get into the actual threats on Mamdani, Emily and I wanted to talk about his response to it, because I think we both think that this is

an expression of a populist democratic party that could exist, that does not exist, but these are the kind of green shoots of it popping up, and that if it did exist, it would represent a genuinely interesting development on the scene and would become a party that was actually worth working people respecting and voting for, which is stunning because it's happening at a time when the Democratic Party could not be at its lowest. We saw when we were in here yesterday, we saw a preview of Mom Donnie's strategy towards this when he just first put out his statement after Trump made his comments and pivoted. And we talked about that yesterday how he he pivoted to basically

class warfare did the same thing right here he pivoted not to I shouldn't say class warfare because I think that diminishes it he pivoted to affordability and it's like this is what you do if you realize your average voter isn't Liz Cheney this is how you run a campaign where you're going after Trump, but you're not fully taking Trump's bait. And I think it's genuinely a pretty interesting development for Democrats that they now have a kind of textbook example of how to do the thing. Right. It's not backing down on the initial charge. It's not apologizing for any of the culture war stuff Trump is doing here. It's pushing back on that, but then it's moving and saying,

the reason you're doing this is because you're a billionaire that doesn't care about people, and you just want to distract from the fact that you're stealing everybody's Medicaid, and that you promised to run on making groceries cheaper, and you're not doing it. It's really interesting because the 2017, the first term version of Democrats against Trump would have just fully seized on the the culture war aspect of it and said, Donald Trump is a bigot, he's a xenophobe, we are a nation of immigrants, and he doesn't back away from all of that rhetoric, like he believes all of those things, but that's not that's not really where he puts his energy But don't you response and what you're saying is that 2017 because I think this is so true and easily had a story

Yeah, I feel like that's really what everyone would have done Like the conventional wisdom is that maybe you throw in a couple of lines about grocery prices and Medicaid and snap But actually you spend the bulk of your response Talking about how you are gonna be the first Muslim mayor of New York City and how that's what scares Donald Trump. He's scared of brown people. He's scared of change. I think that's totally true if we put that in a time machine.

If we put Mamdani in a time machine and say he was running in 2017, maybe he would have been smarter about it. But the strategists on the left would not have. Yeah, maybe he would have been smarter about it, but the strategists on the left would not have. Yeah, they would not have. And I think it's probably it's tied up in the intra-democratic fight that happened at the time where Bernie Sanders had just come off this very bitter primary, where a lot of Hillary Clinton supporters were still even blaming Bernie Sanders for the fact that Trump was in at all and

Anybody who said that? Donald Trump supporters had quote-unquote economic anxiety. Yes. Yeah was that was said to be code for the real reason that they've supported Trump which is their racism and their homophobia and bigotry and on and on and so because that was the case, if Democrats shied away from talking about economic anxiety, because they were afraid that they would then like, oh, look at you, you racist much. Mamdani instead takes Trump at his word and says, if you notice in that clip, he says Trump ran on these things, people voted for him. The point he's making is people voted for Trump because he promised he was going to

lower grocery prices, he was going to make the city more affordable and fill their lives with some dignity, make their lives better. That's what Trump said he was going to do. And he's talking to Trump supporters and saying they're not he's not doing that what is he doing he's getting you all riled up about me mm-hmm when all I'm trying to do is lower grocery prices I revisited this last week when we talked to Zoran in what was that December yeah something like that yeah it was November December actually you like that Yeah, it was November December. Actually, you know what? I think it was November because he was gonna say

Doing the Trump people. Yeah. Yeah, he did He sort of followed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's lead and went out into I think he told us to the Bronx and he was in Queens He was interviewing people Talking to them trying to pitch himself to Trump voters and he said the number one thing they were concerned about was the price of groceries They feel like they have less than their bank accounts than they used to and that's again. It's so obvious but 20th circuit 2017 you just couldn't make that argument period Which is weird because of course you could but like could this just the structures of the Democratic Party at the time We're just not allowing the party there was one and also

They were so thoroughly rewarded by the media for Leaning into the culture war. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes and rewarded by a Significant chunk of their voters, right doesn't mean those voters wouldn't also have been with them on other stuff. Now, inflation was not what it was in 2017. We had 1% inflation since basically the financial crisis. So the context is actually different.

Now, the economy stunk, and that's why Trump won, I think, in 2016. But it wasn't exactly prices. It was wages and joblessness, which was slowly getting, you know, had gradually come back from the financial crisis, but took so long. And people were mired in debt and student debt. So opioid crisis had wrecked local economies. So I think Democratic base would have been there for it. But Democrats didn't need to go there because they would get donations, they get crowds, and they would get fawning media coverage for pointing out what a bigot Trump was.

And so they didn't need to go and be like, look, he actually said he was going to run on all these things to make your life better, and he's not doing that. They didn't want to take seriously the idea that he actually ran on that stuff. Because they thought that the silver bullet was their own cultural arguments against Trump. And it wasn't. That wasn't enough to persuade voters who have always baked into their calculation. And this is what the media doesn't understand, because the media is pretty friendly with a lot of politicians.

Other voters understand that politicians are probably bad people. They know that. You're not convincing people to stop supporting Trump by saying, he's a bad guy. That's not like a slam dunk own on a Trump supporter. They actually are making a calculated decision that he was going to disrupt the system. If you're not competing on that field, you're not competing at all. You're arguing totally past what you could possibly persuade people on Yeah, and I think also the party's donors are ambivalent about any class-first messaging. Yeah. Yeah, of course

that they're like Like mmm, can we do some of the other stuff? Were you at HuffPuff? Welcome when they did the asterisk After every mention of Trump. Yeah. I look back and then I remember it said like Donald Trump is a racist, xenophobic, homophobic bigot, something like that and every mention of Trump had an asterisk and said that. I was like, I mean Many people believe all of that is true. I mean you can make arguments about all of that, but it's not persuasive It actually distracts. I don't know.

We don't have to relitigate that, but it was a good example of the approach at the time. Yeah. I mean, and I think if we went back and looked at it, I don't think it had any class messaging in it because you could have led with Donald Trump is a billionaire, blah, blah, blah. But I think the only way that- busting. Yeah, right the only rips off everyone who's ever worked for him I think the only way Huff Post was able to get away with that and yeah, I was I was there and involved with it at the time like journalistically was because it

It would feel more partisan if it was class in a way. Because what it was doing was pointing to their universal American values, which are equality, justice. We treat all people with dignity. Civil rights, at least at that time. Aspirational.

Yeah, everyone believed in the civil rights movement, like left to far right, like that the, not far right, but left to right, civil rights movement was seen as like a very good thing. Yeah. That was brought to people who fought for justice. Yeah. Brought by people who were. Charlie Kirk had not yet discovered Martin Luther King Jr. Yeah. yeah, right. They hadn't gone down different rabbit holes and come up with theories and And so it appealed to these universal values Whereas if you say he's a billionaire wants to rip people off like that feels that's us against them. That's that's that's more partisan in in not in a party sense, but in a We are partisan in not in a party sense but in a we are there's just fundamental

disagreements here that we're not going to win with by persuasion we're going to just have to beat the 1% right we're just like or the 1% is gonna have to beat us like this is a fight over something yeah that makes sense and so then as journalists that that feels like you're now engaging in the, you're in that fight in a way where if you're just upholding universal values, like when the Washington Post says

democracy dies in darkness, like they can say that and not feel partisan because of course, we're all for democracy and we're all for transparency, we're all for democracy and we're all for transparency and we're all against darkness. Yes. When you say, you know, the 1% are ripping us all off. I think your owner's gonna love it. Right, yes.

Yeah, and the 0.1% are ripping the 1% off. Yeah. Yeah. Then that feels, now you're tangling Which is also the massive like unanswered question To the extent that Democrats are able to replicate if they want to win if they put power above everything else And that's not all of them, you know It's some like some Republicans have genuine ideological values that they want to advance

But if they just want to win, do they replicate the Mom Donnie campaign in congressional races in the midterms, for example, in gubernatorial races where you learn from him? Imagine if Democrats made affordability the thing that was associated with them. Right, but they're already getting hammered for what they're already Republicans running ads comparing like random Dem candidates I forget who the first one I saw was but like random Dem Kim and candidates to mom Donnie I think Glenn Yonkin said it about the Dem gubernatorial nominee in Virginia right and burger, right? Exactly. Exactly

Real mom Donnie it's it's suicidal on part of Democrats because The question is how do you define? What he stands for to the national public before you're then linked with him? And so if the national public is like, oh yeah, Mom Donnie, this guy who ran to make groceries cheaper in New York, then when Republicans are like, Spanberger's nothing but another Mom Donnie, people are like, oh cool,. So she's also going to make groceries cheaper in Virginia. But if Republicans are all saying that he's a Sharia law loving jihadist, and then Democrats are also saying that they have deep concerns about his use of the word global jihadist,

and then Kirsten Gillibrand apologizes because he never said that, but that they have all these concerns about him. So all the leading Democrats have still not endorsed him. Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Gillibrand, and it's Swozy just put Tom Swozy from Long Island just had an op-ed in the New York Times about how bad he is. And so if Republicans are saying he's really awful and like the worst and basically a terrorist, and Democrats are saying, the leading Democrats are saying, yeah, he's kind of, he's kind of bad. He's not that bad. Like Republicans are over the top and then bigoted

in the way they're talking about him. But I do have a lot of concerns about him. Then nationally, if you're a voter, you're like, oh, this guy seems pretty concerning. You have to actually engage with him or media that covers him honestly to get the accurate impression and there aren't enough people that do that. Yeah, I mean, this is from just a purely cynical perspective, but Republicans were basically able to do this with Nancy Pelosi back in 2010, socialist Nancy Pelosi back in 2010. When they put enough money behind it and enough, what's the right word for it, craft into like carvillian public relations efforts into it, it's one of the scary things about politics media in general, but you can in a red state pretty easily capitalize on a mom Mom Donnie narrative. It doesn't mean that Mom

Donnie is in any way a net drag on the Democratic Party, but I think it'll probably work for them in red states. Not so much in Virginia, though. But yeah, I think if Democrats wanted to, like, avoid this problem, they would say, of course, I'm Donnie and his call to make groceries cheaper. Yep But they they just can't do that. Just say the guy wants to make I don't agree with him on everything But I sure as hell agree with him making groceries cheaper Free advice here, I mean we're always just giving it out. Yeah, we are nobody takes it. Yeah, I Know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this Taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Inc.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st, and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free.

I'm Ebene and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all, childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more, and found the strength to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer.

Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on a street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday Tuesday make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on

the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Coming back to Las Vegas, September 19th and 20th. Screaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Adams and Sherryn Fade, Glorilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogarty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCrae, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. Get your tickets today AXS.com. All right, Ryan, let's move on to the Diddy trial.

Yes. So Sean Diddy Combs is not walking out of the courthouse of free man. He thought he might for a second. So he was acquitted. We can put this first one up on the screen. He was acquitted on the most serious charges, the racketeering charge and the sex trafficking charges. But he did get found guilty on two counts of transporting prostitutes. He did not get hit with any domestic violence charges because they were outside the statute of limitations. And so did he collapse to the floor and like praying? Do we have that image of him like praying?

There he is. Thanking to the jurors. And then it did seem like he felt like he was about to get out and the judge said no. Interestingly, cited the domestic violence that was in the case as a reason why she was not giving bail before sentencing or he. She or he? The judge. The judge. I didn't watch enough of the case. Great question.

Which is interesting because clearly he was guilty, it's on video, but he was not tried for it. Right. So it's this gray area where bail and accusations can have an interplay that leads to you being behind bars. But clearly the jury felt that it was not a conspiracy. And what Diddy had argued, or Diddy's lawyers had argued, is that yes, there was a plan to have these freak-offs. And they were organized.

And in that sense, they were as a conspiracy, because he would tell, hey, you do the drugs, you do the baby oil, you bring the women. And he had an overarching kind of leverage campaign that he would use with women, where some would have be getting $10,000 a month in child support others others would Have an emotional connection others, you know, there's different various ways that he got them involved plus some, you know

According to them and seems credible fear of violence. So all there all these pieces, but he made this they made this kind of loophole argument almost that the other people were not partners in a conspiracy. They were just his flunkies who he paid to do work. And that if you could use Rico for this, you could use Rico for anything where you didn't single-handedly carry out every aspect of the crime like, you know, you if you go and buy a handgun and then commit a crime with it like and It was just a Business transaction with the gun owner

Like did you conspire with the gun owner? Right even if the gun owner knew what you're gonna do that would be a point is that would be a different crime, right? Like that that that's a different crime. Right. Like that's the underlying crime. But layering conspiracy on top of it doesn't get you there. That is my guess at trying to get into the jurors mindset. What did you think of the response? Yeah, I mean, I think that's-

What's your response to the jury's response? No, I think that's right. I think the RICO is starting to look like an overprosecution. Bundling everything into a RICO is starting to look like a real mistake. And you will be shocked to learn that one of the leading prosecutors on this case is Maureen Comey, who is James Comey's daughter. Amazing. Yeah, just wild stuff.

But it looks like a really overconfident prosecution team. To be clear, he could end up with 20 years in prison. So he was denied bail. He has to stay in prison until his sentencing, which is on October 3rd. So he's still got a ways to go. But he could still also get 20 years. It's highly probably unlikely. So each there's two charges and they're 10 years maximum, right?

So if they were served one after the other and both the maximum, then he could get 20 years. Right. But this is when sentencing guidelines come in and you have to kind of set aside who he is and what we know about the case. And pretty sure he's a first-time offender. Does he have any other charges from before? Yeah.

Does he? What does he have? He was, I mean, he's been involved in so many things. I mean, he's got a bunch of lawsuits. Well, there was the, I'm trying to remember whether he got charged for it, but there was the J.Lo. Mac has already scrapped it. Yeah, Mac, yeah, send this to us, producer, back.

But there was theca low Mac has already scream yeah Mac yes and this to us producer back but there was the J lo shooting there was the night club like fire that people died in that he was implicated in right did he catch charges on any of that right that's a good question he's by the way he is 55 so if he gets 20 years and serves out 20 years he'll be an old man before he gets out of prison but my guess is that he definitely will not serve all 20 years I don't yeah I don't think even close even now there's some indication from the fact that he was denied bail here that the judge is gonna go as as hard as they feel like they can get away with but I'd be very surprised I think he was acquitted of murder in the first, I think there was like a big, if I'm

remembering correctly, there was a big case in the nightclub murder situation. This would have been around 2000. And I want to say he was acquitted of that actually. Let's take a listen to Megan Kelly's reaction, followed the case very closely and had some legal experts on when the news came down. We'll go ahead and take a look at this next clip. Combs shook his head vigorously and put his hands together in prayer. Oh, it's all just so chummy inside the courtroom for this disgusting pervert female abuser

who I can't believe is about to roam our streets again. I'm sorry. I'm disgusted by this verdict. This is fucking ridiculous. I just find it absolutely outrageous the amount of crime that this guy just got away with. I believe he committed arson. He definitely battered Cassie.

He battered Jane too. The statute of limitations for battery in Los Angeles, California is one year, one year. So if they didn't charge him for battery within one year and they couldn't because he bought the tape and it remained hidden thanks to those security guards out there, then they could never charge him with that again. There's no question. He dragged her back into that hotel room.

Why wasn't that kidnapping? They only talked about the kidnapping of Capricorn Clark, who was his sort of main assistant because she said he grabbed her and made her go with him over to Kid Cudi's house. There's no question he broke into Kid Cudi's house in my view, and that he opened up the Christmas presents and locked the door in and made a threat. There's no question in my mind he was behind the arson

of Kid Cudi's car and there was proof, plenty of proof to prove that. No, okay, there was female fingerprints they found on that, the fire bomb that was left there, the Molotov cocktail. And the prosecution said, there's no question he didn't do it himself, but he said, I'm going to bomb Kid Cudi's car. It's in writing. Cassie Ventura emailed her mother saying, oh my God, he's threatening to bomb his car.

And two weeks later it got bombed. Oh gee, it was just some third party who also had, it's just, it's just like the proof was there. The beatings, the threats that if they didn't go back into those room and get off with these male escorts that they were going to get beaten. The testimony from that Daniel Phillip, who was the male escort, who heard combs, abusing Cassie behind the door and she was screaming, I'm sorry, I'm sorry as he heard him slapping her. Get back out there.

She came back out, she was shaking. She got back into the escort's lap, physically shaking. She was so scared to the point where that guy couldn't perform sexually because this was so horrifying to him. What in the actual F went on in there? Yeah, so I feel like that's probably the general public's reaction. It's just baffling. And it seems, Ryan, like the prosecution just, I mean, in that clip, at least one of the

legal experts goes on to kind of blame the jury. But I would think that the onus for the failure here has to lie with the prosecution. Yeah, sure. I mean, they, they, it's very hard to lose a federal case. It's like their conviction rate is absolutely through the roof. And so, yeah, they clearly own the blame for this. We didn't cover this trial a whole bunch, but whenever we did, and I would look into it, I remember I would think like they're really leaning into the emotional aspect of this

you know how poorly he treated Cassie and these other women and how Just what an absolutely like repulsive lifestyle. He was leading using violence and emotional manipulation to you know pull these multi-day freak offs off and but I remember thinking every time like manipulation to pull these multi-day freak offs off. And, but I remember thinking every time like, but what are the crimes here? Obviously- The Cassie one was obvious.

Yes, the violence, but then that's out of the statute of limitations. The drugs, no charge. Prostitution convicted but like Beyond that like where's the I and trafficking is an interesting Like yeah concept and charge. It's like it's interesting way to get you pay someone If you pay a prostitute get a car Yeah, and then go to a hotel go to a hotel for a freak off that you traffic them there, right?

Right, and it's like what does that mean? Yeah. No, I mean, that's a really good point It's and so I guess partially another thing is it's not that the jury was like that's not trafficking That's that's paying a prostitute and it's not necessarily easy for the prosecution then to build a case based on and I think a lot Of it also is him. So he's alleged to have drugged people many many times which would be a crime which they didn't charge that right? And I think because it looks like they were overconfident started bundling things into the Rico case thinking that they had him yeah, right It's on racketeering because he clearly conspired to organize these freak-offs, but the jury was like Not really illegal right except that most of the pieces within it are actually illegal. Right, within it, yes.

And so yeah, we were just looking up his criminal history. He has been charged many, many times. He was... He never got charged for the nine people dying, which he should have been charged with some type of negligence there. It's a pretty... If everybody probably knows about this case. There was a stampede at an event that he put on.

It's like 1992. Where he knew, I've got to hear, December 91, where he knew that too many people were there, didn't care, wanted too many people to be there for the spectacle. Nine people end up dying, doesn't get charged for that. He got convicted, 1996, convicted of criminal mischief for threatening a photographer with a gun. So that's a conviction. That's something that the judge can point to.

That's a pretty easy denial of bail predicate right there. And then in 99, Combs and his bodyguards are charged with attacking, this is PBS I'm reading from, or attacking Interscope Records music executive over a dispute over music video. He was sentenced to anger, an anger management course. Didn't work. But at least that's something on the record that the judge can then point to. December 99, he's arrested on gun possession charges for that nightclub shooting that you mentioned

where Jennifer Lopez. Was in the car. Three people got wounded. A woman still says that Dady is the one who shot her in the face. Yeah, there are people that say that he was shooting and that he shot her. He was later charged with offering his driver 50 grand

to claim ownership of the 9 millimeter that was found in the car. We know from this trial that him offering to pay people to get out of trouble is something that he does. So that's a quite credible charge there. However, he was then acquitted of all charges. Well, Shine took the fall for that. So the judge can point to the arrest, but if you're arrested and convicted, that's not really supposed to factor into your sentencing, because you're supposed to have been found, like innocent is supposed to mean innocent. Doesn't always mean that, but that's how it's supposed to mean. Then he got arrested in 2015. He looks like he got in a fight at a UCLA game where

his son was playing football, but the charges were dropped. This is why 50 Cent referred to him yesterday as the gay John Gotti. Nothing's sticking to him. Teflon diddy. Yeah. I mean, really. It's all that baby oil. Yeah, he's slippery. Yeah, slip right off. And then these charges. It's his Gotti, yes. So he has not zero criminal record. He has a very long criminal record, most of it ending with acquittals or misdemeanor stuff. So that's why it's going to be a real stretch for the judge to hit him with the maximum. And even if she does, he'll appeal this. So I expect he'll be walking free in a matter of several years, like 510 max.

Unbelievable. Well, on that note, Ryan. And a lot of people took a lot of risks. Coming forward. Coming forward. Yeah. They are suffering greatly right now. Yeah, oh my gosh, the trial was just awful.

It was one of those ones that was just hard to follow because Cassie was testifying about all of this while she was pregnant. It was just a really, really, really dark trial. I forget, I want to say this was on Hulu. Someone did a fantastic documentary into the sort of influences emotionally on that sort of forged Diddy. How did he become who he became?

And it's just incredibly sad and dark. So I hope that there's at least some closure for people who suffered from this. And I was saying yesterday, I actually liked doing the show without the laptop here because there were fewer distractions. On the other hand, when it comes to something I really don't remember, which is like Diddy's criminal record, it's actually helpful. Not at the top of your mind. To have it here. Yeah. I knew it had been in and out of trouble, but yeah. So my memory actually served mostly correct. He's basically gotten out of all the jams that he's

been in. Yeah, but there's so many of them. I think that's what you look at them, you're just like, holy smokes. It is. It's Gottie-esque. Yes. It is. No Friday show. It's July 4th. We will be independent of our laptops in the morning. Happy Independence Day to everybody I hope you enjoy the fireworks or a barbecue or whatever you're up to Yeah, we'll be back on somebody will be back on Monday. Yeah, I think we're still in soccer back Yeah, so great news. Yes, you can get rid of us. Yeah, we put we promise they'll be here. Yeah. Well, no, we don't They're gonna try very hard. They will be, yeah, well, maybe they'll get caught up

in the system like we did. There you go. All right. All right, see you guys then. ["Pretty Private"] Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebene, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebene and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that will challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you.

Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Our iHeartRadio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas! September 19th and 20th.

On your feet! Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams and Sheeran, Fade, Glorilla, If you're looking for another heavy podcast about trauma, this ain't it. This is for the ones who had to survive and still show up as brilliant, loud, soft, and whole. The Unwanted Sorority is where Black women, femmes, and gender expansive survivors of sexual violence rewrite the rules on healing, support, and what happens after. And I'm your host and co-president of this organization, Dr. Lea TraTate.

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