Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - P. Diddy's Exes and His Federal Sex Trafficking Case

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Sean "Diddy" Combs is being accused of sex trafficking and sexual assault by nearly a dozen women. Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. While one of Combs' past girlfriends, Cassie Ventura, is at the heart of the federal indictment, there are questions about whether his past romantic interests could become a part of the federal case. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with attorney Danny Karon about the possibility in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Danny Karon  https://x.com/lovable_lawyerCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Jennifer Lopez, Misa Hilton, Kim Porter, and Cassie Ventura. These are the women who've been romantically involved with Sean Diddy Combs over the last 30 years. But could they be pulled into the federal case against him? I take a closer look at who they are and where they fall into Combs' life with what the feds are claiming. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Sean Combs' legal problems are mounting. Not only does he face federal charges

of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, he's being sued by a dozen people who claim he either sexually assaulted them, sex trafficked them or otherwise abused them. Combs, for his part, says any sex he has engaged in over the years, including his freak offs, was consensual. Here's his lawyer, Mark Agnifilo. The fight continues. We're not we're not we're not giving up by a long shot. I told Mr. Combs I'm going to try and get his case to trial as quickly as possible. I'm going to try and minimize the amount of time he spends in very, very difficult and, I believe, inhumane housing conditions in the special housing unit of the Metropolitan Detention Facility.

And I'm going to do everything that I can to move his case as quickly as possible. His resolve is the same. He believes he's innocent. I believe he's innocent, and we're going to fight this case with all of our might until we don't have to fight any longer. Combs is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. It's the notorious federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. At this point, one victim has been named in the federal case against Sean Combs. That's Cassie Ventura, Combs' longtime girlfriend, whose allegations of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the hands of Combs really seem to be at the heart of the

indictment charging Combs with these crimes. Now, Sean Combs, I'm sure, was considered a catch even way back in the 90s. Back then, he was an up-and-coming music producer. And over the years, he became a force, a mogul, who had his hand in everything from music to clothing, cologne, and the liquor business. He was estimated by Forbes to be worth a billion dollars. He has seven children with four women. He's had four relationships with women since the 1990s that I would call romantic relationships.

I'm not talking about the women who have accused him of sex crimes, although Cassie, who was romantically involved with Combs, has certainly done that. We know Cassie is involved in the federal case, but what about the other women? Could they be drawn into the federal case somehow? Let's start with Misa Hilton. She was Combs' high school sweetheart, and they were together before Combs became famous. They have one child together, Justin Combs. Justin was born in 1993.

When Sean Combs' homes in Miami and LA were raided in March, Hilton posted video on her Instagram page criticizing how Justin and Christian were treated during the raid. She said it was overzealous, an overtly militarized force used against her son and his half-brother. Now, what I find so interesting about Misa Hilton is the statement that she put out in May of this year. This was after CNN aired the video of Combs beating Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a hotel in Los Angeles. We covered it for you on Crime Fix back then. Hilton wrote on Instagram, I am heartbroken that Cassie must relive the horror of her abuse and my heart goes out to her.

I know exactly how she feels and through my empathy, it has triggered my own trauma. She added that her children's father needs help and that she was praying that he truly does the personal work that he needs to do and receives it. Now that post from Misa Hilton always got me thinking. She said the video triggered her own trauma. Was she referring to Sean Combs and her experiences with him decades ago? Or is she referring generally to trauma? We don't know. Sean Combs' next romantic relationship was with Kim Porter. They started dating in 1994 and they had their first child together, Christian King Combs, in 1998. Their relationship ended in 1999 when Diddy started an affair with Jennifer Lopez,

and I'll get to J-Lo here in just a bit. Kim Porter and Combs got back together in 2003 and had twin daughters in 2006, but Kim ended their relationship a year later in 2007. She told Essence Magazine she left because of an unraveling of trust. Now, Kim Porter said she packed up and left when Combs was out of town, telling one reporter she did so because there was no other way. You think he would have let me walk out the door? He wouldn't have wanted me to go. Now, Kim Porter went on to say she wasn't scared of Combs. She likely won't be a part of the federal case because she died of pneumonia several years back. And there have been conspiracy theories about Porter's death and that Combs was somehow involved, but an autopsy determined she had been suffering from flu-like symptoms for weeks before she died. Now to a

relationship that could end up being a part of the federal racketeering case, and that's J-Lo. They began dating back in 1999. It was an on-again, off-again type of thing. And the reason why I think at least a part of their relationship could be relevant, the nightclub shooting in New York that left three people injured. Jennifer Lopez was with Sean Combs that night when the shots were fired in the nightclub. She was detained, but later released and not charged. Combs was acquitted of charges related to the shooting, but one of his artists, Shine Barrow, served nine years in prison for charges related to the shooting. Shine Barrow recently said Combs ruined his life. Jennifer Lopez has been quoted as saying that she broke it off with Sean Combs because she thought he was unfaithful. But could the gun case

be brought back up in the federal case when it comes to racketeering? Rodney Little Rod Jones, the music producer, claimed in his lawsuit that Combs used Jennifer Lopez to bring the gun into the nightclub that night. Here's what attorney Krista Ramey had to say about J-Lo possibly being brought into the federal case. We don't really know the full extent of their roles. I mean, when you think back to the 90s with the nightclub situation with J-Lo and Shine and Sean Combs, you know, there was really no, you know, real charges that came from that. Shine, I did think, went to jail for a couple of years. No one was really charged for shooting the victim that was like shot in the face. You know, we don't know what people held in terms of after the fact helping cover up things. You know, I think that there was probably criminal conspiracies that happened.

And I believe that there could potentially be in these relationships, maybe not willing accomplices, but unwilling accomplices to what his crimes were. So we don't know if Jennifer Lopez could be brought into the racketeering part of this case or whether she may have broken it off because of other things that were going on with sex workers. This was 1999, years before Combs' relationship with Cassie. And now to Cassie Ventura. We know for a fact that she's involved in the federal case. The indictment was basically all about Cassie Ventura, and it sounds like a lot of it is based on her civil suit. She is clearly victim number one in the indictment and likely testified in front of the grand jury. Ventura sued Combs last November, alleging she was physically,

sexually, and mentally abused and sex trafficked for years. She said she was forced to take part in freak-offs for years where Combs masturbated while forcing Ventura to take drugs and have sex with male sex workers, sometimes for days. Ventura is really the key to the federal case, and her civil suit may have brought on this federal probe in the first place. Quick question. Have you ever wondered what's publicly available about you online? I don't know. Things like arrest records, phone numbers, addresses, social media accounts. That's why I want to tell you about our awesome sponsor, Truthfinder. Truthfinder is one of the largest

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background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix. Log on and start accessing information about almost anyone, including yourself. I want to bring in Danny Caron. He is a law professor, but also does civil litigation on the defense side. So, Danny, Cassie Ventura really is the heart at this point, as far as we know, of this federal case against Sean Combs. I mean, she was a romantic partner of Sean Combs, but she said that that turned into something really horrible and that she was sex trafficked. She was forced to do things like take drugs and perform sex acts for Sean Combs' gratification with male sex workers. So she is really the heart of this case, even though she was a romantic partner.

Sean Combs settled that civil suit with her, at least his companies did, within a day. So does that bolster her claims as far as the federal case go? Well, it bolsters them in terms of, I think, their truthfulness. Because I've been doing civil litigation for 30 years. If I sued a complaint on day one and settled it on day two, you know I got the goods on that defendant. Absolutely. And the feds know that too. And they're going to take that momentum and it's going to spill into the criminal case. And it gave the feds the momentum they needed to end up filing that indictment that they did the other day, or I should say the other week. So she's fueling this whole undertaking. So too are a lot of other people who are unnamed, perhaps unnamed co-conspirators

who might be named later if the heat gets too much for them. Who knows? The feds did what they did for a specific reason, a surgical strike, a one defendant indictment, that could change. And that is really interesting because a lot of people I've talked to, even former federal prosecutors have said, I expected more. This seemed a little thin, but the investigation, the U.S. attorney said, is ongoing. So we know that more could be coming of this. Do you expect a superseding indictment? And it also sounded like the U.S. attorney was kind of firing a warning shot to people out there, like, call us, call us quickly because you could become a defendant. Do you want to be a defendant or a witness? That's

kind of what it sounded like. Right. The U.S. attorney is sending a clear message to people out there who know information. Either show up or the possibility exists that you're going to get named too. A superseding indictment could always happen. Hasn't happened yet, obviously, because the U.S. attorney did what he did for a reason. He wanted to sound the call, let folks know that, hey, we're on to this. You might be named later, but right now we're going after Diddy. You have a chance to step up and do what's right. You can step up and cooperate and get a free pass. We do that all the time in our RICO cases where we start at the bottom and we try to get people to flip

and move up and up and up the stack as we get closer and closer to the kingpin. And people inevitably flip. They do not want to go to jail for somebody else. Whereas the somebody else used to maybe have something on them when they were out there in the public by way of financial leverage or personal leverage or physical leverage. If Diddy's in jail, he has no leverage at all. So suddenly the playing field has shifted and people can safely snitch on him if that is they want to in exchange for a free pass. Do you think that a lot of that has already been going on and is happening? Because we only saw really Cassie named as victim one in this indictment. There was talk about other crimes, but a lot of that sounded like it came possibly from her civil suit or even her testimony in front

of the grand jury. Do you think that a lot of people have been calling in or calling their lawyers and saying, okay, help me out here, get me a deal? I don't know who's been calling in, but I know that everybody's been calling their lawyers. Now, we've just seen the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what lies beneath the surface, but believe me, DOJ has been talking or investigating everybody involved in this Ricoh enterprise, from the cleaning staff to the handlers to the security folk to the people who picked up the lubricant and the baby oil to the big megastars. And everybody's got stakes. Everybody's at risk. Everybody could be named, and everybody knows it.

So if it were me, which it isn't, I would very quickly step up and do what's right because the first and best free passes go to the first folks who come forward. The pickings get slimmer as time goes on because the opportunities aren't there to snitch anymore. They've got what they need and whoever's left could get wrapped into a superseding indictment. If you're going to say something, you better do it quick and You better do it honestly. You mentioned like megastars, big stars. And so I want to move on to probably the most well-known of Sean Combs' exes. And that is Jennifer Lopez, J-Lo. And this was back in the late 90s, early 2000s that she was with him. It was an on and again, off again thing. But really what interests a lot of people is the nightclub shooting. I mean,

could that be brought up into this case? And we don't know. Does she have any information about the sex stuff that, you know, the allegations of sex trafficking, things with sex workers? Did she ever feel pressured to take part in those things? And I and I do when I say these things and I ask you these questions. Sean Combs, of course, has pleaded not guilty to these charges, but it makes you wonder, was J-Lo, did she break it off in part because she said he was being unfaithful or was she like, this is just too much for me? We can't know. I mean, in response to the first part of your question, which relates to the nightclub shooting, could that be part of the mix that fueled the indictment? It's not described in the indictment, but could it be working in the background?

Could it be introduced as evidence that there's a shooting there and that he and she and someone else went to jail? They were quickly released. But, you know, the question is under the federal rules of evidence, Rule 403 in particular, does the probative value of that outweigh any prejudice it could cause? Don't know. Don't know how the evidence is going to come in. As it concerns whether she knew about the freak-offs, I can't know. Only she knows. And perhaps the feds have some degree of knowledge. And if they think she knew and has worthwhile evidence that she's withholding, they could lean on her and get her to flip. Again, going back to my theme of a second

ago, people, if they want to make sure that they get out of this thing and preserve their freedom, they too might want to flip. And it's like a game of musical chairs. I mean, you run out of them pretty darn quick. What's your gut tell you? Do you think that federal prosecutors have already reached out to somebody like Jennifer Lopez? Because I would think that they would be investigating everything about Sean Combs' past. And so do you think that they probably already have made overtures to her and have wanted to speak with her? They've been investigating this for a long time, and I think they have. I think they've talked to J-Lo's counsel.

I think they've talked to Ashton Kutcher's counsel. I think they've talked to Cassie's council. They've talked to everybody's council. They know who all these players and participants are. Now, whether they're sufficiently involved, like Justin Bieber, he was 15. Was he involved in anything that he saw? Sure, he was like 15. Was he involved in anything that he saw? I don't know. Have the feds talked to their council? I have to believe they have. And is it going to result in them stepping forward and confessing to what they saw, if anything? And it might have been nothing. Now, I want to go back to the romantic partners, Misa Hilton. She was his high school sweetheart. They had a child together in 1993. So this is very early in Sean

Combs' career. Then they broke it off. They weren't together. They have a 30-year-old child together. Do the feds reach out to somebody like her? She talked about in one post after seeing, in an Instagram post after seeing the CNN video that was aired of Cassie being beaten, she talked about how she felt for Cassie and it triggered her own trauma. So do you go that far back and interview Misa Hilton to see if she knew anything? That is completely accessible evidence. There's no reason in the world why the feds would not go back that far. It's not really that far. I suspect they talked to everybody on the board

who they know of who had involvement with Diddy in this kind of illicit way. The question again will become whether anything they say, like she said 30 years ago, to the extent it reflects on what happened in these freak-offs is relevant and advances the case and moves the ball and the prejudice doesn't outweigh its admissibility. That's something for the judge to decide. But in terms of the investigation, investigations are necessarily really, really broad. And then they kind of home in on the good stuff as you get toward trial. The admissible stuff, the stuff that's going to prove the elements of the three claims that are in the government's case, RICO, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage

prostitution. If the evidence doesn't go toward proving those themes, those theories, it probably isn't going to be worth the government's time. And P. Diddy's lawyers are probably going to try to keep it out, as you would expect. So it all goes to litigation strategy as we get closer and closer to trial. And finally, Kim Porter. She's the other high-profile romantic partner of Sean Combs. They had children together.

She, of course, passed away. The medical examiner said her death was the result of pneumonia. So there is no interviewing her. But there are people who've come out and said, one of the security guards said he saw him be physically abusive with her. He never said, I saw anything weird going on sex-wise or with sex trafficking regarding Kim Porter. But do you kind of delve into that relationship as well, even though she's no longer with us?

Sure. That's absolutely on the board. To the extent people saw things related to her, I think the feds interview them. Of course, you get into hearsay issues and admissibility issues the more and further away you get from the source because she can't confess to what or testify to what happened to her. And even if she did, whether it's relevant to what Diddy is being indicted for is another causal question that the DOJ has to demonstrate. But again, all of this evidence, all this data, it's not as if the government lacks for resources and money. They're going to turn over every stone to find every shred of evidence they can to indict him. I mean, they're taking no mercy on him, pulling no punches. They've pushed back two, soon to be three times on getting him out of jail on bail. He's languishing

in Brooklyn. They want their pound of flesh for whatever reason, but they want it bad. And they're going to do everything they can, including talking to witnesses, as you described, to get it. Well, it'll be interesting to see where this all goes and when and if there is a superseding indictment and whether or not we see some other famous names in there, including these former romantic partners, aside from Cassie Ventura, of course. Thank you so much, Danny Caron. It was a real pleasure. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix.

I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.