Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Resurfaced Video of P. Diddy and Kevin Hart Partying Has Fans Outraged

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Comedian Kevin Hart and Sean Combs partying together years ago. This recently resurfaced footage has some people asking questions about how close the two were. I take a look and whether the speculation about Combs and his famous friends is fair. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Kevin Hart and Sean Combs were friends for a very long time and there's video to prove it. And Hart, at least from what we've seen in some clips from paparazzi, appears to be distancing himself from Sean Combs.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Most celebrities who know him are, and that's not shocking. Combs, of course, faces very serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. And if he's convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Combs has pleaded not guilty to those charges, and his attorney, Mark Agnifilo, has said he's innocent. 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. This week, even Combs' mom, Janice Combs, has come out in defense of her son,

Starting point is 00:01:19 issuing a statement that says, in part, it is heartbreaking to see my son judged not for the truth, but for a narrative created out of lies to bear witness to what seems to be like a public lynching of my son before he has had the opportunity to prove his innocence is a pain too unbearable to put into words. Like every human being, my son deserves to have this day in court to finally share his side and to prove his innocence. But back to Kevin Hart and Sean Combs, the two were friends. They hung out together. And to be clear, Sean Combs hung out with a lot of famous people. He's been in the public eye for more than 25 years. He's a billionaire and he has rubbed elbows with the rich and famous. And Sean Combs, to be clear,

Starting point is 00:02:01 has not been proven guilty of any crime. He's been accused of some serious crimes in federal court and in civil lawsuits, and he's denied those allegations as well. But when old videos and photos resurface online showing scantily clad women in hotel bathtubs and bottles of champagne being passed around, it's difficult to avoid scrutiny from the public, given the allegations about freak offs and people being drugged at parties that have been made in civil suits and in the indictment. Now, to be clear, the freak offs, these alleged days long sex parties appear to be different from other parties. But some people say those got pretty out of hand as the evening hours went on. Kevin Hart, of course, is a wildly successful actor, comedian and producer. There's a clip of Hart hosting a hotel party for Combs that's been making the rounds. It's been going viral.

Starting point is 00:02:49 Hey yo, can you move out the way? I want to give you a proper introduction. Go get some girls. Now Hart was hosting the album release party for Diddy's Dirty Money, Last Train to Paris in December of 2010 at a hotel in New York, at one point in the video, he is seen sitting on the edge of a hot tub surrounded by women. Sit your ass in the tub. And take a look at this part. I'm not jumping. I'm not jumping the tub myself. You know, once everybody gets out, you know, just me and the lady. This is my thing. I'm used to this type of thing. You know, doing what I do best. Oh, oh, oh, did the camera catch that?

Starting point is 00:03:27 Got the camera, got the camera. So that woman, her hair caught on fire and thank goodness she wasn't hurt. Hearts fans have been blasting him on social media and demanding that he say something, anything about this video and his connection to Sean Combs. One posted on Instagram calling him baby oil Kev. Another posted, we as your fans deserve an explanation, Mr. Hart. Another posted,

Starting point is 00:03:53 say something about Diddy. One fan commented, we deserve the truth. The comedian is currently on the road for his Acting My Age tour and the paparazzi, they've been staking him out. They caught him on the way to dinner with his wife one night and they tossed some questions at him. He was pretty uncomfortable. He responded, you're asking the wrong person the wrong question. People in Kevin Hart's camp know that these old videos and photos of Hart and Combs surfacing aren't a good thing for Kevin Hart. The Daily Mail quoted an insider at Hart's company as saying, this is like a pink elephant at his company. Everyone is trying hard to pretend that there is nothing going on. The Daily Mail went on to quote the insider as saying, Kevin is on edge

Starting point is 00:04:34 and does not say anything. So it has been extremely tense. Kevin knows as do his friends and employees that he was close with Diddy and there is video footage of Kevin placing him at the scene of one of his parties. I want to tell you about a great app and a sponsor of Crime Fix. It's called Upside. Upside is a free app that gives you cash back on things like food and gas. This is not a confusing rewards program. Upside gives you real money back that goes straight into your bank account. Just download the Upside app, click on it, and claim an offer and pay with your debit or credit card as usual. Upside works at places like Shell, Exxon, 7-Eleven,

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Starting point is 00:05:33 At one point, Usher, who was mentored by Combs, appears. Usher lived with Combs when he was a kid. Combs actually had guardianship of him for a time. This is my brother for real. We used to actually wrestle all for the frosted flakes because he used to always get up early with me. Now he's one of the richest stars in the world. Yo, what the f*** did Puff just say?

Starting point is 00:05:54 Nobody's going to acknowledge this but me. Puff just said we used to wrestle over the frosted flakes. Erin Ehrlich Caro is a trial attorney. I want to bring her in to talk about this. So Erin, you know, there are celebrities who have attended all of these ditty parties over the years, you know, you know, white parties, whatever parties he's had. And I think it's important to differentiate between a party and a freak off. So Kevin Hart has been getting a lot of attention because there is video of him actually kind of hosting parties with Sean Combs

Starting point is 00:06:26 from years and years back. So yikes. What do you make of this? And is somebody like Kevin Hart going to get dragged into this investigation? It's not all that surprising, not with respect to Kevin Hart specifically, but with respect to any celebrity. And what we've seen in the wake of the disclosure of the indictment is that a lot of celebrities knew about what was going on at Diddy's party, or seemed to know, or maybe it was hearsay. Nobody knows, though, what firsthand knowledge these individuals had. And I think the question people are starting to ask is, well, who knew what and why didn't anyone say anything? The video of Kevin Hart at this party,

Starting point is 00:07:15 when I saw it, you know, maybe I'm a bit disenchanted because I grew up in the 90s and I saw all of these music videos with scantily clad women all over the place. And maybe it didn't register for me in any sort of unusual capacity. However, in hindsight of now knowing what was going on, you know, the question is, you know, did Kevin Hart have access and knowledge, firsthand knowledge of these illicit parties that were happening behind the closed doors, behind the scenes. And as you said, not the front facade of the parties, the white parties that

Starting point is 00:07:53 people were openly invited to and well-documented. People want to know what he knew. Do you feel like Kevin Hart is somebody that federal investigators would reach out to, federal prosecutors? Because you have this tape cropping up. I mean, you have tapes of so many people and photographs of so many people cropping up. I mean, are they just are federal prosecutors going through the Rolodex of Hollywood and reaching out and saying, hey, we need to talk? You know, I would expect that they are. I'm hoping they're doing this. It seems they're doing it discreetly.

Starting point is 00:08:31 Nothing's been publicly admitted to. I'm sure they are. But Kevin Hart isn't the only one. There's rumors circulating about Justin Bieber maybe having been victimized back in the day, Usher maybe having been victimized back in the day, or having even potentially knowledge or participation. There's a lot of celebrities that are implicated here as, from now, potential fact witnesses. So I wouldn't be expecting that prosecutors and investigators are doing their diligence and going to the people who would have had access. And again,

Starting point is 00:09:05 we have to remember, these were not, you know, this isn't the party that we see on the news that was recorded on Us Weekly with photographs from the paparazzi. You're talking about parties that were happening behind closed doors and that people presumably were being invited to because they had a certain pedigree, they had certain high profile status they had, and probably they were discreet. And so those are the people such as Kevin Hart. I mean, this was also a video taken very long ago. I don't know that Kevin Hart was the Kevin Hart we now know him to be at the time that he was involved in this. But it would be incumbent upon the investigators to go to these individuals and to see what they know. Yeah, and it was many years ago, I believe 2010 or so.

Starting point is 00:09:57 Yeah, it was many years ago. And we don't know if he was invited into the back doors where this illicit conduct was happening. We don't know that he was eating and betting any sort of crimes happening or even just having simple knowledge of what was happening. They don't know, but I'm sure they're going to ask. Yeah. He's obviously uncomfortable. This is making a lot of people very uncomfortable. There's a shot of the paparazzi questioning Kevin Hart about this. And he says, wrong guy, wrong question, something to that effect. I mean, he's obviously like, leave me out of this. Because he wants nothing to do with this. This is a guy who's incredibly famous. He's a comedian, he's an actor. And probably like many people is like, oh my god, like the feds really? Yeah. And people are surprised. He's a beloved celebrity. He also

Starting point is 00:10:44 has a, you know, a fairly squeaky clean image. He's a beloved celebrity. He also has a fairly squeaky clean image. He's known as the guy who gets up before in the morning, works out, works harder than anyone in the business to have. And I'm sure he's concerned about having his entire reputation and his business unraveled over this connection to someone who was engaged in such alleged to be engaged in such illicit conduct. But again, knowledge is not in most circumstances going to be a crime. Of course, if there's evidence that he maybe knew about minors being implicated in crimes, perhaps there might have been a mandatory reporting requirement. But absent that, and this will vary from jurisdiction to

Starting point is 00:11:21 jurisdiction, generally knowledge of crimes is not in and of itself a crime. And we've seen, you know, for example, with the Jeffrey Epstein, when that all came out, how many people were connected to him, how many people we loved and adored and we put on pedestals were connected to him connected people in politics and what they knew and what they failed to disclose. People were concerned about. And again, the court of public opinion can be far more vicious and far more detrimental than the court of law. People don't want to find out that the people that they trust, that they love, that they give their money to, to make work and to, you know, consume their products. We don't want to believe that these people could be involved in this type of behavior. Yeah, no doubt.

Starting point is 00:12:16 You know, a lot has been made by people. They're like, why are why are these celebrities not coming out and denouncing this? Why are they not speaking about this? I look at it and I'm thinking to myself, what good would it do them? You as a trial attorney, what are your thoughts on that? Why haven't we heard more from celebrities who know him about these allegations? It's like Hollywood's mom. I think most trial attorneys would agree that saying anything, even if it's a denial, creates a question that might implicate you, again, as a fact witness in a case that you want,

Starting point is 00:12:56 you wouldn't want to touch with a 10-foot pole. So most people are going to be completely silent unless they're forced to come forward. Nobody wants to be involved in this. And again, in the court of public opinion, even the suggestion, the seed being planted, that is enough to be catastrophic. So, you know, they're not going to be talking. And again, like you said, there's really no benefit to them to even come out making a statement in denial. Of course, Kevin Hart might find himself in that position if this continues to escalate. But for now, I think that he's going to be advised to stay quiet and to avoid any implications. Is this kind of scrutiny and speculation and the wondering, is this unfair

Starting point is 00:13:44 to these people? You know, yeah, they might have gone to the parties. They might know the guy. They may have hung out with him quite a bit. I mean, is this unfair? You know, maybe. But in a court of law, again, the fact that someone was present is not going to be enough. So they're not going to have this kind of criminal implication unless more evidence comes to light that there was some actual involvement here. In the media attention, you know, being a public figure, this kind of comes with the territory. You're constantly being looped into things you don't want to be involved in. And that's just part of the it's part of the game. It's part of the business.

Starting point is 00:14:22 It's what you have to kind of take the hits with the good. So, you know, I'm, am I that concerned about it? Not, not really. Again, there's no, there's no evidence of criminal activity there. It just, it just looks bad, especially because in the video he's laughing as someone catches fire. It just looks bad. Yeah. It certainly doesn't look good. I mean, poor woman's hair is on fire. Yeah. Not a good look. Well, Erin, thank you so much again, Erin Ehrlich-Carrot. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Resurfaced Video of P. Diddy and Kevin Hart Partying Has Fans Outraged

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