Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - DIDDY BUCKS: DIDDY BUSTED PAYING $100,000 FOR CASSIE BEAT DOWN VIDEO

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Sean "Diddy" Combs' 2016 video of the disgraced rap mogul assaulting then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura Fine, in a Los Angeles hotel, is taking center stage again in Comb's federal sex trafficking trial. Eddy Garcia, former Intercontinental Hotel Security Guard, briefly took the stand and immediately pled the fifth. Judge Subramanian agreed to grant him immunity for his testimony, as long as he speaks the truth on the stand. The former security officer tells the court Combs paid $100,000 for a copy of the video, which shows Comb's kicking and dragging Cassie. CNN last year published the security footage.  Another witness introduced in opening statements expected to testify this week. “Jane,” who alleges Combs drugged and coerced her into participating in Freak Offs by taking control of her finances. Many speculating if Combs’ Chief of Staff, Kristina Khorram will testify, and if she does—for which side. Khorram is accused of facilitating and enabling Combs’ crimes in three separate lawsuits and has previously been compared to Ghislaine Maxwell. Follow Crime Stories with Nancy Grace for the latest in Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial.  Joining Nancy Grace today: Neama Rahmani - Former Federal Prosecutor-turned-Trial Attorney; Author: “Harvard to Hashtag;" INSTAGRAM: @Neamarahmani, X: @NeamaRahmani Dr. Bethany Marshall -  Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," and featured in hit show "Paris in Love" on Peacock; Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, X: @DrBethanyLive Robert Crispin - Private Investigator at “Crispin Special Investigation," Former Federal Task Force Officer for the United States Department of Justice [DEA and Miami Field Division], Former Homicide and Crimes against children investigator; Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations Inc. Dr. Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco- Executive Director of Freedom Light, Human Trafficking Expert Witness, Author of “Hidden in Plain Sight: America’s Slaves of the New Millennium;" X: @MehlmanOrozco Dr. John Delatorre - Licensed Psychologist and Mediator (specializing in forensic psychology); Psychological Consultant to Project Absentis: a nonprofit organization that searches for missing persons; X, IG, and TikTok - @drjohndelatorre Rob Shuter - Host: Naughty But Nice Podcast, Former Publicist of Sean Combs, Author: "The 4 Word Answer;" IG: @naughtygossip Lauren Conlin - Investigative Journalist, Host of The Outlier Podcast, and also Host of "Corruption: What Happened to Grant Solomon; X- @Conlin_Lauren/ Instagram- @LaurenEmilyConlin/YouTube- @LaurenConlin4 Sydney Sumner - Crime Stories Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Diddy Bucks, Sean Combs busted, paying $100,000 to illegally obtain that Cassie beat down video from the Intercontinental. Rutt-Roe. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. All the horror stories, all the testimony we've heard. One assistant having to go to the hospital. Working for Diddy was making her go bald. She was losing her hair.

He is beating the living crap out of your daughter Did he had three guns across his lap? I I don't like this back and forth. I prefer guns bombshell and the courtroom in the last hours It's revealed that Sean combs aka Diddy allegedly paid off an employee to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars to get that Cassie Ventura video. Let's take a look at the Cassie Ventura beat down video.

Now it was speculated upon so much in the press. Where did the video come from? Did it come from the raid? Or did he's mansion? Did he have it there? Where the video come from? Did it come from the raid on Diddy's mansion? Did he have it there? Where did it come from? Wow! You wonder why he paid a hundred thousand dollars for this? Did he think it would never come to light busted in court sworn testimony that Sean Combs paid $100,000 to get his mitts on this video. Look at it. I want to see more of the Cassie video. This is the video that cracked this case wide open. Cassie Ventura used this to sue Sean Combs within 24 hours when

he realized she had...ow this...he settled and then you know released his scraping apology video. Now this goes on he drags her off in nothing but a towel, so arrogant, he thinks that's okay to run around a posh hotel like the Intercontinental in nothing but a towel. Thank heaven, I didn't have to see that towel drop and see the Tootsie Roll. But that said, it goes on. But this video was used in her civil lawsuit and this video was like pulling the tiger by the tail. You can't hold on and you can't let go because once the feds saw this, they had to do something.

The statute of limitations had run in the local jurisdiction so it was up to the feds. And what were they going to do? Stand there with their thumb up their rear end? No. They had to act ergo therefore the multi-count federal indictment. No wonder he paid a hundred grand to get his mitts on it. Joining me on All-Star panel but first straight out to Sydney Sumner, Crime Stories investigative reporter who has been on the case from the very beginning. Sydney Sumner, $100,000. What happened? I bet Sean

comes just twirling around in his chair in that courtroom. Tell me everything. Well, Nancy, Eddie Garcia told us that Christina Corum was actually the first person to reach out to him trying to obtain a copy of that video. And Garcia told her, no, there's no way I can do that. You're going to have to talk to hotel management or you're going to have to get a subpoena. And after talking on the phone with Christina Corum and telling her, no, this isn't an option.

She then showed up to the hotel, asked him in person again. He again, politely told her no, she would have to go through the proper channels to get that video, but he did tell her, you know, off the record this video is bad. So, Christina Corum then called back and put Shawn Combs on the phone to have Combs ask him to get a copy of this video. Again, Garcia is like, you know what? No, I can't do this.

This has to go through management. And Garcia starts running that up the chain. So now that he has had three separate conversations where he's had to tell these people no, he goes to management and tells them what's going on. Then he gets a call on his personal cell phone number, which he did not give out. And at this point, he's a little bit scared.

He gets this call on his personal phone number, both Christina Quorum and Combs are still trying to convince him to give this video. And Combs mentioned, you know what? I'll take care of you if you help me out. And Garcia immediately took that to be a financial offer. So Garcia goes to his boss and his boss says, you know what, tell him we'll do it for 50K.

And he relays that over the phone back to Combs and Combs agrees to this 50K, how soon can you get it to me? Here's the address where you should meet me. So Eddie goes to this meeting with a USB stick of the only copy of the video, hands it over, and Christina Quorum is there. So he calls Quorum to let her know

that he's arrived to make this exchange. She gets a security guard to bring him up to Cone's room, and he meets with Cone's. Christina Quorum is in and out of the room. Cone's wanted to ensure that this was the only copy of that video. He made Garcia repeat that like 10 times. And he also told Garcia that Cassie wanted this video gone too. Everybody wanted this to disappear.

Garcia was doing the right thing by giving them the copy of this video. So Combs makes Garcia sign these intimidating documents. Garcia just wants to get out of there. And those documents were confirming that that was the only copy of this video in an NDA. So Garcia testifies that he didn't really read those documents to get an idea of what he was actually signing.

He just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Then Cone started counting out this huge sum in stacks of $10,000 and they had agreed upon 50k but Cone counts out $100,000. And Cone intended that money, so the 50k for the actual video, then split the other 50 between you and the security guard that responded to the incident to keep this quiet. So that's how Garcia took the extra 50k that was coming in. And he says, Christina Corum was in and out of the room as Combs was counting this money. So she knew that he was being paid off for giving them the copy of this video. And a few weeks later, Combs checked in with him one more time just to make sure that was

the only copy. And he never heard from him again. Joining me in addition to Sydney Sumner and an all-star panel, Nima Romani with us. Let me tell you about Romani, former federal prosecutor, turned trial lawyer, president of the West Coast trial lawyers, author of Harvard to Hashtag. It goes on and on and on. But the important part for me is he was a fed. The state system is very different

from the federal system. I was lucky to get to be a fed for three years before I became a violent crime prosecutor. Very different animal. Nima Romani, can you say unindicted co-conspirator? And I'm talking about Quorum, who denies all wrongdoing. She was there. She was on the scene. unindicted co-conspirator. Explain. Nancey, we've been talking about Christina Horm for months now, and she's Combs's right-hand woman, and she knows where the bodies are buried, and she's actually an active participant in this obstruction of justice, this witness tampering scheme, this bribery scheme, which

of course is a RICO predicate act. So, believe the feds are leaning on her and she will testify. She's going to turn on her former employer, Sean Diddy Combs, and it's just a matter of days before she's on the stand. You know, Romani, I've never accused you of throwing around Latin or legal phrases again. You know, jurors don't like that. Not everybody is miserable enough to have lived through law school and had to put up with other lawyers for a living.

You know, they can be very obnoxious. You ever been stuck on an elevator in the courthouse with a bunch of lawyers? They're constantly throwing around legal terms and Latin terms to impress people. Please stop. When you say, this is a predicate act, could you just please talk and regular people talk? Because I had Ray J the other day telling

me how Combs is not going to be convicted, that this is not sex trafficking and it's not Rico. Rico is, it's the prize here. All right. That's what the feds want. They want a conviction on Rico, which is a criminal enterprise. Simply put, it can be a loosely joined together group of people that take part in a criminal enterprise. That's what it is. It's really not hard. No legal mumbo jumbo necessary. And when you have employees or minions as I call them, doing your illegal bidding such as helping bribe someone which is extortion, that makes them part of the criminal enterprise. Extortion is a predicate act. Now explain in regular people talk what you mean and why this is a RICO case. It's not hard.

It's not. And that's why Ray J doesn't understand the law. So like you said, you just need that loose association. That's the criminal enterprise. Bad Boy Records with Diddy at the top. That's enough. Then you need a pattern of racketeering activities. So what does that mean? You just need two crimes that happen within a 10-year period. So what are those types of crimes? It can be sex trafficking, it can be prostitution, and so we've heard lots of evidence of that, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, arson, kid cuddys car. So you can have bribery. So as long as you have these, what we call racketeering predicate acts or these crimes, that's the racket. So you don't need to be the mob, you don't need to be a drug cartel or a street

king. You can convince combs of racketeering as long as you have these elements, which we do in this case. And the reason Rico is so important and so powerful, Nancy, is you can bring in a lot of evidence and a lot of people in the case. So someone like Christina Horan, even if she didn't make the actual payment, as long as she is a co-conspirator, she enters into this unlawful agreement with Diddy to bribe someone or to pay off a witness, she's on the hook for all the crimes in furtherance of the conspiracy, even the sex trafficking. So, Ray J, with all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about.

You know, it doesn't have to be a bunch of thugs. It doesn't have to be the mob. Rico has been used in LA, I might add, widespread corruption. Rico has been used on the LAPD and it worked on cops. So it's not just about the mob for Rico. Joining me in addition to Sydney and Nima, Rob Schueter is with me. And Rob Schueter, sometimes I don't know if I love you or I hate you because you worked for Diddy, Sean Combs, for years. You quit. God bless you. You had to see legal turn crap ton of misbehavior. Let me tell you about Shooter. He's a PR guru. He worked for Combs. He orchestrated tons of Combs PR, PR was come specialty in his mind and he was a tyrant and He is the host of naughty but nice podcast and that's it Rob shooter sh

Uter not bang bang shoot Rob shooter dot sub stack dot com and author of the forward answer shooter with that introduction and author of the forward answer, shooter, with that introduction, are you surprised? Comes busted and a $100,000 extortion? No, I'm not surprised. But first of all, let me say, Nancy, I think you love me. I know you don't hate me.

I think it's love. However, back to the subject matter at hand, well, if he was a bully, he had a lot of money. He liked to flash it around. I remember going to restaurants with him and he always had cash and he'd always have a hundred dollar bill in his hand to give the maitre d' to get a better table.

He gave huge tips. He always used to say, tip the waiters. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me just hold on. You say so much I might drink you from the fire hydrant. Let me get this picture. So I got Sean Combs in his entourage at some fancy restaurant that I would never dream of putting my toe in. And he gets a seat but it's not the right seat in the fancy restaurant. So he's got to get the right seat. Are you serious? He would pay extra $100 to get not just a seat, but the right seat. It really mattered to him. This is who he is.

I couldn't care less where I sat. I'd be lucky enough to get in. For him, it really did matter. He thought everybody was watching him and to some extent that was true. And he thought having Diddy not sit at the best table was bad luck. And so he would make sure that wouldn't happen.

And how would he do that? If you see Sean Combs by the men's bathroom or the kitchen, God forbid, or the entryway where he might feel the wind when they opened the door. O-H-E-double-O-N-O. That ain't gonna happen. Just give me an example. What are some of the restaurants that Sean Combs would favor? There was a restaurant in New York that he loved called Nobu.

It's still open, but he also too. I went, I was in his car once. Do you know how much one piece of sushi is at Nobu? It's like $40. Yes, pretty expensive. And I don't mean a roll shooter. I'm not talking about six pieces. I'm talking about one little piece of nijiri, 40 bucks, Nobu. It's crazy.

And then he puts even more money down on the table to get what he thinks is the seat he deserves. My point here though is he is used to throwing money at any situation to get what he wants. I like the way you said that throwing money. Okay, go ahead. I want to hear about the hundred thousand dollars of money. Money. I was with him once and he was told it's fashion week in New York and he wanted to go to a fashion show. And I called the fashion people to try and get him in.

And he was told no. So what did Diddy do? This might sound familiar. He asked me for the number and he called himself. And I think he offered money to an assistant, to a young stylist. We are living in this dirty, Diddy dystopian dumpster world. In some way, shape or form, dirty Diddy is going down. My time working with Diddy was extraordinary, Nancy.

I've never experienced anything like that again. He was the ringmaster and we played along with his circus. Again, when you don't know a horse, look at his track record. Diddy busted Diddy Bucks $100,000 paid off for what he thought was the only copy of the Cassie Ventura beatdown video. Why would he pay a hundred thousand dollars? Oh there he is half naked again. Oh he's walking that

way because he's dragging Cassie Ventura behind him. A hundred thousand dollars. Why did he pay that? Why did he pay $400,000 to Mia and the defense tried so hard to discredit her? Why did he pay 20 mil to Cassie Ventura to get her to shut her pie hole? But was it, Sydney Sumner, was it the only copy of the video? In the notes to Eddie Garcia, it was not. He believes that Israel Flores was very by the book. And that's the security guard we heard from on the stand first. And he didn't think that Israel Flores

would have taken a copy of it home. But Flores testified that he wanted to show his wife what had happened because otherwise she wouldn't believe in. So that iPhone video that he took of the surveillance footage ended up being one of the only surviving copies as far as we know. We still don't know exactly how CNN obtained their copy of the video. Well you know what, Robert Crispin joining me, private investigator, was with former federal

task force officer for the US Department of Justice in the Miami field division. They're not sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Former homicide crimes against children investigator, he is now at Crispin investigations dot com. Crispin, don't you just hate it when you blackmail somebody to the tune of a hundred grand and there's another video floating around? Rutrow? I mean, really, come on, think about it. Do you really think that no one else was going to have a video of dittying, kicking the hell

out of somebody, especially Cassie Ventura? Come on. So here's the beauty of all this with the government. This cast-a-guard letter stuff, this King for a Day, Queen for a Day, they need people to give testimony in lieu of being indicted to say what happened. Hey, hey, hey, Crispin, hold on just a moment. I want you to factor this into your answer. Hold on, Shooter, with me, Rob Shooter. What was Sean Combs' reaction, typically,

when he doesn't get his way? Because in court, when he was watching Brian Steele, who's a very, very good trial lawyer, he's a great defense attorney, right? I've watched him in action. So, Steele started off with Mia with the Andy and Mayberry approach, trying to get the answers, but yet being genial to her.

He didn't want to beat up on Mia. And you could see Sean kind of going, uh, uh, uh, moving around and twisting around and holding his face and uh, all that. I mean, the jury could see him. And then suddenly, Brian still has a change of heart. I mean, you can imagine if he, if Diddy is driving, is steering that ship,

then he gets really mean to Mia, still does. So Diddy not getting what he wants. Can you imagine how angry he was when he finds out there was $100,000 right down the crapper. There was another copy. Yeah, I'm sure he was absolutely furious. Let me tell you a little bit of a secret here about Puffy. But somebody with all the money that he has

is incredibly cheap. He never wanted to pay for anything he didn't have to pay for. He wanted to get free clothes, free dinners, free tickets if he went out to clubs, restaurants. He just didn't want to pay for stuff. And so for him to have to reach into his own pocket and pay $100,000, which I think for that tape

is incredibly cheap. That tape is going to change his life. And so it was worth tens of millions of dollars. for him to get it for $100,000 cheap. And then to find out he didn't get it all. There was another copy. He will have exploded. When you say exploded, what do you mean? Throw himself on the floor and kick like a school child, a two year old screaming and

kicking and snotting and crying. What does he do when he doesn't get his way? Well, I know he beats Cassie Ventura and others. But what is he like when he doesn't get his way or does he always get his way? Well, that's interesting. He normally always does get his own way. And so when he doesn't, it's hard for him to believe. It's like a shock at first.

He doesn't quite know what to do because he never gets told. No, there's nothing that he doesn't think he can fix with money, with power, with making a personal phone call. He deeply believes in his own ability to convince you to do something that you otherwise wouldn't want to do. But he's a screamer. He's a shouter. He's a violent man. He could throw things.

I've seen him get so angry that he looks like he's about to pass out, pass out, the veins in his neck are popping, he turns into a real... Okay, I need to hear about that, Shooter. What do you mean when he doesn't get his way, he looks like he's going to pass out? He gets so angry, Nancy. He gets so angry, he forgets to breathe. Like he just can't believe that somebody says no to him. He can't believe it. I'm just imagining when Sean Combs finds out

there's another video floating around. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Rob Schueter joining us from Naughty But Nice. But hold on everybody, very quickly to Robert Crispin. Now that you know more about Sean Combs from someone that knows him, can you only imagine him gnashing his teeth and twisting his tail when he finds out there's another video? And he gave 100 away for it? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. He's not too happy right now. And now people are parading in and talking about it. People that could have been

indicted, but they needed these people. They needed to seal up that part of the testimony for that money. We are live at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, the Monahan building. Standing by is investigative reporter Lauren Conlon. She's been in the courtroom all day long. Star of pop crime TV. What a bomb, a stink bomb for the defense. Dropped right in the middle of that clutch of lawyers, $100,000, ditty bucks paid off for bribery, bribery, which as Ramani pointed out is a predicate

act. You have to have an underlying felony or predicate act to prove RICO. Tell me how that went over in the courtroom. Yes, Nancy, we started off by getting a really big interruption by a woman that works for the MTA. The entire courtroom turned around. This is before Eddie Garcia, the witness, walked in. But that was quite a moment. She was screaming at the press saying that the press is awful and the press is laughing at Diddy.

And you should have seen Diddy's face as well as everyone in the courtroom. We were all in shock. But back to Eddie Garcia, I mean, this testimony was incredibly important to this case, as you know. He testified that he received multiple calls from Christina Corum, Diddy's assistant, before she eventually passed the phone over to Sean Combs himself. Eddie Garcia described talking to him saying, you know, look, I already told your assistant here, but I don't have any clearance to obtain this video that you want me to obtain. I cannot go in this room. Only my boss can do that. And he described Diddy kind of just buttering him up saying, you know, I know you can do it, Eddie, I believe in you type of

thing. And he also described Diddy as being very nervous Seeming on the phone saying look this could destroy my reputation if it gets out now. He said, okay You know, I'll talk to my boss etc And this was actually after receiving a call from Diddy and Christina on his cell phone They started off by calling him at the the general security desk they somehow got his cell phone which he said did make him a little bit nervous. And he said that, you know, he talked to his boss and he said, look, this is what's going on.

They want this video. And his boss said, okay, tell him $50,000. They make this meeting happen where Diddy tells him a meeting place. He goes and gets this black USB from his boss at the Intercontinental and he goes and he meets with Diddy and he describes being taken up to this room by one of Diddy's security guards. He meets with Christina Coram and then eventually Diddy and he says that after some back and forth, Diddy requested the IDs of Eddie Garcia and his boss and another gentleman.

And one of the first testimonies we heard, I think it actually was the first one, was Israel Flores, who also was on duty that day. But Eddie Garcia said, I don't think that Israel Flores is gonna go for this. So they got the ID of somebody else. And they texted these to him. He went in another room, came back, got an NDA.

Eddie Garcia had to sign this NDA. And then eventually, Diddy came back with a brown bag of money and a money counter. And he did not get $50,000. He got $100,000. And he also said that about two weeks later, it was Easter. Diddy called him again to check in, saying, Eddie, my angel, you know, how are you? Have you heard anything or anybody

mention this video at all? And he said no, and that was that. Could you tell me what this reaction in the courtroom when it came out from not one but two witnesses that Combs had bribed $100,000 to get that video? I'd say today the jury is much more reserved than they were while listening to Mia. I mean, this is important testimony.

So they are listening intently. I would say their heads kind of go back and forth between the lawyer and the witness appropriately. And they look at the documents that they're reading. We saw multiple times the NDA on the screen, and these jurors, they were reading it. They wanted to catch every word here. You know, I'm very curious, too. Dr. Bethany Marshall joining us, Psycho Alice out of LA, and author.

Dr. Bethany, to hear what she's saying, what Lauren Conlon is stating, to finally be hit with reality that you've been uncovered in a bribe and what's so important about the bribe, not just bribery on its own, but it serves as a required underlying felony to show Rico. And you know, Sean Combs knows that and it's just pouring from the witness stand. We know he can beat down Cassie Ventura but he can't beat down the prosecution. He cannot beat down the feds.

And this is the telling moment for him. I wish I had like a monitor to rate his, to measure his perspiration rate, his heart rate, to see what he's really going through. I bet he's flooded right now. I bet he's enraged. Like Rob Shooter talked about the veins bulging out. He is probably enraged. He doesn't feel guilty. He doesn't feel worried, Nancy. He is mad. And he's not going to be able to get away with this once he's incarcerated. He's going to have plenty of incidents

when he's called on bad behavior and there's nothing he's going to be able to do about it. You can't buy your way out of it once you're incarcerated. And this interaction about the $100,000 bribe, you know, this is just one iteration of many incidences where he's bought people off. Lauren Conlin joining us from the Monahan Courthouse. She's been in the courtroom the entire day.

Lauren Conlin, tell me about the woman that started screaming. What was that all about? That was so crazy. I have to say, I've seen her pretty much here at the courthouse every day. She apparently works for the MTA. She does seem to have some issues. I'm clearly not a doctor,

but I've seen her cause a fuss outside. She just is always yelling at the press. And this morning, I was literally three feet away when she walked into the courtroom because she is a member of the public and she did get here early enough to put her name on the list. And I think she was actually the number one spot.

So she walked in the courtroom and this is before the jury walked in, the judge was discussing some issues with the defense and the feds. And she just starts screaming, Diddy, they're laughing at you, they're laughing at you, meaning the press. And then at one point, there's three marshals on her,

they're trying to usher her out, she's standing still, and she says to one of the marshals, go ahead and use your gun. And that's when a bunch of the press kind of turned around to make sure their back wasn't to the scene because it was pretty alarming, but you had to have seen Diddy's face.

He literally was like, what is even happening right now? His jaw was on the ground. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know the doctor, Kimberly Melman, Rose Co., joining us, Executive Director, Freedom Light Human Trafficking Expert and author of Hidden in Plain Sight, America's Slaves of the New Millennium. It's an incredible book, by the way. Dr. Kimberly, thank you for being with us.

Dr. Kimberly, an aspect that I have observed, and I want to see the Cassie Vick Down video again and I'll to see the Cassie Vick down video again. I'll tell you why. Sex traffickers, rapists, especially serial rapists, they believe they're going to get away with it. And usually they do. If you take Combs, for example, all the years, years he has been attacking people according to the alleged victims, drugging them, raping them, videoing them without their consent, butt naked in all sorts of positions. Here he is in a public hotel hallway, Dr. Kimberly, and he doesn't care. That's actually fine with him to beat her, to stomp around in his socks and his towel.

That's okay. The arrogance of these sex traffickers and sex offenders. They're convinced. Nobody's ever gonna tell on them. The security guards aren't gonna hand over the video. No one would dare cross-ditty. Is it a common character trait amongst sex traffickers, Dr. Kimberly?

Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Nancy. And I would say that we certainly see with all types of sexually based offenders, they can be emboldened when their crimes are met with some level of impunity. And I think that Diddy's celebrity status has certainly bought him some privileges that the average person who engages in criminal activity is not afforded. The

difference here though is his pattern of criminal activity, I think you hit the nail on the head when you had your opening and you said the statute of limitations for locally based charges had elapsed. And I think that's right. I don't think anybody disputes. I don't think anybody disputes. I don't even think the defense disputes that their client is a criminal. He has engaged in criminal activity.

I think their argument is that the statute of limitations has elapsed and that there's an overreach with the types of charges that he's facing with regards to human trafficking. From what I can see from this case, I think there is some atypicality. For example, we don't see Cassie being sold off to other people.

We don't see the type of modern day slavery where there's- Dr. Kimberly, she was trafficked to other people, according to her, because sex workers were flown in to have sex with her on video even when she didn't want that. Wouldn't that constitute... Typically, listen, it would be atypical, but I understand exactly what you're saying here, Nancy. And this is why this is a precedent setting case. But typically, the trafficking, when somebody is sold to another person, the person who's receiving those sexual services

would be the commercial sex consumer and would be paying the trafficker. That's what would happen typically in a sex trafficking situation. This is atypical in the sense of Combs was paying sex workers to engage in sexual activities with Cassie. Some of those sex workers testified

and stated that she seemed to be enjoying herself, quote unquote. I think that that's all up for debate and I think that that's part of the adversarial presentation of this case in front of the jury. Okay, that is a mouthful. Dr. Bethany Marshall, response. About him throwing those lavish parties

with women who are compromised and because of that he promotes his business to celebrities. And that part has yet to come out, but he is benefiting quite a bit from this. He may not be taking cash, but he is taking business deals, the sale of his clothing, his perfume, everything. He is reaping all the benefits of this. And then, and then that Cassie beat down tape, Nancy, a little detail is I think she's carrying an Hermes purse. He rushes out, he grabs the purse

as if it's his own and grabs her, drags her down the hallway. What is the difference between that and a pimp on the street giving a 12-year year old a very small gift and then withdrawing it when she doesn't obey him. This is slavery and sex trafficking 101. It just takes an unusual form. Bombshell and the trial of Sean Combs in court today, evidence of a $100,000 bribe paid for the Cassie Ventura beat down video. That wasn't the only witness on the stand. Sydney Stommer, Crime Stories Investigative Reporter, wasn't there a bookkeeper for Bad Boy Records that took the stand? That's correct. Derek Ferguson, who was the former Chief Financial Officer for Sean Diddy Combs businesses, has been on the stand. And he worked for Diddy for a very long time, 1998 to 2017.

So far, he's giving us a rundown of how finances worked for that business, who carried money. It wasn't uncommon for staff to be handling large amounts of cash back in the day, laying out exactly how finances worked for Sean Combs businesses saying that Sean Combs occasionally used company cards to charge personal charges and that staff later went back and reconciled where exactly money needed to shift from account to account to cover those charges. Okay hold on, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. Sydney, as usual, you're giving me a ton of evidence.

Let me sift through it because you know I like to go through each line individually. Okay, Nima Romani, did you hear what Derek Ferguson is testifying to? It's Sean Cohn's former CFO on the stand. You know, he knows where the bodies are buried. Did you hear what she just said? That they would make these expenditures, say, let's say $1,000 for a baby oil and astroglide, or a hundred grand payoff, and then the accountant would have to figure out how to shift funds, in other words, cook the books to make it all kosher to be business expenses. That's what that is. That's absolutely what it is, Nancy. And this is consistent with all the assistants, what they've

been testifying to that they had a lot of cash. And then when it was something unlawful or something for the freak offs, they would use that cash. And if it was something legitimate, like a meal, they would charge the credit card, right? The business account. And look, even when Combs paid off Eddie Garcia, he told him, don't make any large purchases. He knew that this was illegal, just like he paid cash to the sex workers. He paid cash for the drugs. There's nothing wrong with cash. But usually, Nancy, people use cash, large amounts of it when they're engaged in illegal activity. That's exactly what we're seeing here.

Isn't it true, Nima, Romani, that banks across the country, when you make a $10,000 withdrawal, I mean, or deposit, the bank says, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, 10 grand, 10 grand and $1. We've got to account for that. Are you a doper? Because that's common that amount of cash used. Something's way wrong. I have to dig around just to get out of a parking deck. You know, I'm looking under the carpet in the minivan. Who carries a hundred grand? Sean Combs. Now listen to this, Ramani. Ferguson, you know, the meek, mild-mannered accountant on the standards of Christ properties comes owned in Miami, New York, the Hamptons. Executives are given American Express cards for expenses, but traffic workers, requested cash as payment.

The bodyguards carried cash. That's what we're hearing from Ferguson. See where I'm going with this? Hold on, let me go to Robert Crispin. Crispin, when you raid a doper, don't you get like money balls as I call them? And you test that money, it's covered in dope particles. Money! Cash! What does it mean? Stacks. It's illegal. It's derived from the illegal proceeds of criminal activity. And it's everywhere in a search warrant. It's all over. It's in the rooms, they're in safes, they're in the bad guy's pocket.

Yeah. All over the place. My best friend, my best friend girl is a dope lawyer and she carries, I don't know, $600 in a ball and her sock. Whatever. You know where that came from. It's dope money. It's her legal fee from dopers. Now, I mean when I hear this

Dr. Bethany Marshall, I'm making I'm poking fun at my friend carrying $600 rolled up in her sock. It's dope money My point is this shows a nefarious nature Right, of course it does. Thinking it through. I can't use my credit card. I can't certainly write a check to, what was his name? The Punisher, the sex worker, because that's wrong and I'll get caught.

So I have to pay in cash. It's an age old method of hiding crime. You know, Nancy, and not just in this kind of a criminal enterprise, but remember when Warren Jeffs of the FLDS cult was pulled over with all of his wives, he had tons of cash and he was headed to Las Vegas. This is so typical of these top heavy male enterprises where they keep women under their thumb

who then abuse other women. There's always cash at the top. And Nancy, that escalate, remember when Kid Cudi's car had a Molotov cocktail thrown in it, that escalate was registered to bad boy records, meaning he was paying for that escalate from business funds. He was writing it off as a business expense. He probably wrote the $100,000 off as a business expense. Hey, the hotel where he was staying,

where he beat Cassie Ventura, he paid for that with business funds. Are those freak-offs business expenses? Of course not. That's a lot of shifting money around that accountant had to do. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. You think the feds can't see through all that money? Please. You remember in the Wizard of Oz, Nima

Romani, when Dorothy throws the water on the witch and she's, I'm melting. That's what's happening right now. Diddy melting with this money evidence because everything else, just like Ray J the other day, please, says it's just domestic abuse. A hundred grand bribe Molotov cocktail. Now we're out of, if you don't want to believe Ventura and Mia about the beatings, what about the arson?

What about the bribe? Now this is some hard evidence that cannot be shaded with the umbrella of, oh, it's just a spat between a girlfriend and a boyfriend. No, it's not. He's melting. Even if the jurors don't believe Cassie Venture and they believe that she was a willing participant in the freak-offs, that they were consensual,

the feds can still get a conviction on RICO with arson, with kidnapping, with bribery, with obstruction, with witness tampering. There's many, many paths to get there. That's why the RICO charge is so incredibly important. It allows the feds and the Department of Justice to potentially put Diddy away for life, even if the jurors don't believe the sex trafficking was forced or coerced. We remember now an American hero, Sheriff Andrew Clark, DeKalb County, Sheriff Andrew Clark, DeKalb County, killed in the line of duty, survived by grieving wife Jody and four beautiful children, Brianna, Brooklyn, Alexsavier, and Chloe. American hero. Sheriff Andrew Clark. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart podcast.