Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - FREAK DIDDY Dresses As Muslim Woman, Nude From Neck Down At Freakoff

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Today's testimony included allegations that Diddy dressed like a Muslim woman during "Freak Offs." Sharay Hayes testified he did not recognize Diddy and Cassie Ventura during their first “Freak Off.” On his next invitation, Hayes said he flipped on the TV and saw a welcome message for Mr. Combs. As a fan, he then put the pieces together. Hayes said he participated in eight to 12 “Freak Offs.” He added that it was difficult to focus under Combs’ stare, and when he failed to perform, Combs asked him to leave. David James, one of Sean "Diddy" Combs' assistants, testified that he ran into Suge Knight with one of Combs’ security guards while picking up snacks for Combs at Mel’s Diner. James said when they returned, the guard informed Combs of the sighting. Combs then grabbed several guns and demanded they return to the diner. James said he felt he had no choice but to comply because Combs had three guns. He said Knight was gone by the time they got back, but Combs made him circle the block several times. Joining Nancy Grace today: Eric Faddis - Partner at Varner Faddis Elite Legal, Former Felony Prosecutor and Current Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation Attorney; Instagram: @e_fad @varnerfaddis; TikTok: @varnerfaddis Scott Johnson - Forensic Psychologist (Minnesota), 32 years specializing in addressing sexual predators, Adjunct Professor: Florida Gulf Coast University, and Author of "Physical Abusers & Sex Offenders: Forensic Considerations & Strategies" and "When "I Love You" Turns Violent" Chris McDonough– Director at the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective; Host of YouTube channel: “The Interview Room” Rachel Fischer Registered Nurse; Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE); Expert Witness; Private Investigator; Author: "Taking Back the Pen;" Forensic Nursing Consulting and Education LLC Rob Shuter - Host: Naughty But Nice Podcast, Former Publicist of Sean Combs, and Author: "The 4 Word Answer" Lauren Conlin - Podcaster, Reporter, Host- Co-Host of "PopCrimeTV" on YouTube; X- @Conlin_Lauren, IG: @LaurenEmilyConlin, YouTube: @PopCrimeTV Sydney Sumner- CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A bombshell in the courtroom, a witness describing Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy, fully nude from the neck down, disguising his face as a Muslim woman at a freak off with the male punisher escort. This as we hear about a federal raid on his Miami mansion where crates of baby oil, sex toys, ropes, and guns with serial numbers scraped off, seized. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. He's obsessed with size. I mean, the biggest tootsie roll, the size of a tootsie roll. How about that? Itty bitty ditty. Itty bitty ditty, the tootsie roll.

Sean Combs' tootsie roll. We are live at the courthouse and joining us now, investigative reporter Lauren Conlon, star of Pup Crime TV. Lauren, thank you for being with us. A lot happening in the courtroom today. First of all, we kicked it off this morning with direct examination of a special agent, Gerard Gannon. What happened? This morning in court, we finished the direct examination of special agent gerard yannon he's with the hsi and he finished showing us all of the evidence that was collected during the miami raid of sean combs's house and this is his house on two star island and what they seized from the house they

seized two defaced ar-15s and these ar-15s, they were separated. We saw the lower barrels and the upper barrels. The upper barrels were actually, they were wrapped in a towel and the lower barrels were in a separate spot and the magazines were not with the lower barrels. However, the lower magazines were loaded, both of them. You know, a lot is being made of the number of agents at the raid, and I find that very, very disturbing. Sidney Sumner also joining us, Crime Stories investigative reporter. Sidney, I understand there were dozens of federal agents at the raid. So what? What's the issue? Well, Nancy, agents went in feeling like they were going to be confronted by armed guards. That's what they thought they were walking into when they came into this house. They specifically waited for Combs and his family to leave before

they entered to avoid any more confrontation. They only found six people at the home, a music producer who has not been named, a property manager, and a few other staff members. But they put all of those people in handcuffs to go into the home, and there were 90 agents total just about. And they had people sitting out at the water to make sure nobody tried to flee into the canal right behind his home.

They had to come into this in full force, and they were right. They found ARs with several modifications, scratched off serial numbers. They knew they were possibly coming into a firefight and prepared for it. You are seeing shots now of the Miami mansion that was raided. The feds even have the backside that is on the water completely surrounded. You know what, Sidney Sumner, you and I have covered a lot of cases together. We've gone on location and investigated a lot of cases. You know what? A gun. It makes a big man little and a little man big. You know, let's tell it like it is. Chris McDonough joining me.

Former homicide detective and star of The Interview Room now on YouTube. Chris McDonough, you get an AR going. You get an M-16 going. How many feds could they shoot down in about 30 seconds? Tell it. Yeah, a lot. And that's why these operations, you know, you start out with an op plan and you discover those vulnerabilities in relationship to officer safety. You know, where do officers need to be placed and are they safe in those positions based on the potential threats that you could be facing. They would be mowed down like an old gangster movie where machine guns are used. And, you know, you got to hand it to the feds, McDonough.

They even had the backside covered that bordered on the water because I could absolutely see some of Didi's cohorts trying to make a getaway by water. Yeah, absolutely. And Nancy, I actually had a case where five guys were mowed down within 10 seconds from an automatic weapon. It was an SKS. You know, when you just said that, that put a chill down me because I've had friends that were gunned down over nothing. Cops, LA law enforcement. So when I hear them in court going on and on and on about how excessive it was that 80 agents surrounded this mansion, they were armed to the hilt. Sydney Sumner, did I hear you say that the serial numbers were scratched off some of the weapons? Yes, both of those assault

rifles, Nancy, the AR-15s, these serial numbers were scratched through. So it's unclear exactly how they were obtained, if Combs bought them with the serial numbers. Sydney, I don't care. I don't care if the angel Gabriel came down from heaven and dropped them in Diddy's lap. That is a serious, serious offense. McDonough, jump in. This is critical. You know why serial numbers are scraped off of weapons. Absolutely, Nancy.

And this tells us maybe there's a wider net here, right? What the feds are going to do is throw it into the system called NIBIN, which is the National Ballistic Information Network. And they're going to see if these weapons are tied into any other crimes anywhere in the country. Put him up. You think a bad guy is going to go to the gun and knife show down at the mall and buy a gun. H-E-L-L-N-O. They get weapons like ARs, basically machine guns on the black market. Why is a serial number scraped off?

Because that gun could be connected to another serious crime. I want to see McDonough. McDonough, you need to get real on this. You think they've ever found the gun that killed Tupac Shakur or guns that are related to many, many other ag assault shootings and murders? No, they've never been recovered. And if they were recovered, unless you do a ballistics test, you don't know if it's the murder weapon or the assault weapon.

Why? Because criminals scrape off the serial number. It doesn't get much more serious than this. No, you're 100% right, Nancy. And here's the other cool part about that. When I heard that, I nearly did a backflip. A backflip. Because that's what that means. When you scratch off the VIN number,

the V-I-N on a car, it's stolen. I mean, think about it like this. We see movies all the time where criminals go and they try to change their looks. They try to have their fingerprints change by scraping the skin off nearly impossible. They'll do anything to hide evidence of a violent crime. And that is what scraping the serial number off a gun means. When I heard that, I forgot, I forgot all about the baby oil and the Tootsie Roll, because that means to me, these guns were illegal. Now I got to figure out why, what crimes, if any, were they connected to? I can't stress enough how serious it is that he had a cache of weapons, serious weapons. I don't need, I don't mean grandma's Daisy rifle in the back of the closet, uh, wrapped up in a quilt.

I mean this kind of weapon, nasty weapons. And why were those serial numbers scratched off? No good reason. Straight back to Lauren Conlon, other, in addition to all the weapons, I mean, a lot of weapons. What can you tell me about women's shoes with seven inch platform heels? It was pretty wild to see a special agent hold up seven inch heels in court that just happened to be patent leather and red. We saw Balenciaga boots that had three different cell phones in them. And then we saw a fourth cell phone in a separate room. We saw a Gucci bag that was filled with a rolled up $100 bill, different types of pills, yellow, orange, pink, different powders. We saw eye drops. And later, these drugs were tested and they were confirmed to be coke, ketamine and MDMA, actually, in an eye dropper.

And there were actually three orange tablets they found with Tesla symbols on them. And, oh, we also saw Xanax. Drugs were tested for Xanax. There also was a wooden box in the bathroom they found. And on top of that wooden box was a gold inscription that said Puffy. There were mushroom pills in that and then a bag of crystal rocks that turns out was MDMA. You know, Sidney Sumner, that reminds me of one of the first times we heard about a male escort. And look, I'm not the church lady. I don't care. You want to be with a male escort? Just you know what? Get after it. The point is bringing in prostitutes, bringing in sex workers across state lines is a federal offense. And that is one of the charges in the indictment. That's why I care. claims they were drugged out of their gourd and wake up with pain in their vagina and their rear ends having been exposed to or participating in sex acts unbeknownst to them with these male sex

workers. So that's why at the very beginning, Sidney Sumner, we heard that one male sex worker showed up, knocks at the door. Cassie comes to the door wearing scantily clad lingerie and these heels. I guarantee it's not Diddy walking around in eight inch platform heels. He has the women dress up in various outfits and we see all those heels at his Miami mansion, Sydney. That's completely correct, Nancy. And we heard a similar story from both of the male escorts that have testified that they believe they were coming for some kind of bachelorette party. And then this woman opens the door. She's by herself, except for her purported husband in the corner of the room. And she's disguised. She's wearing some kind of lingerie, a matching wig, some kind of heels, and it just doesn't make sense.

The defense's theory that they're saying that this is all just private sex matter for Sean Diddy Combs, there is no reason to own half of a Spencer store and just keep that in your home if that's purely for personal use, where there's not more than one person involved. You're not having copious amounts of freak off parties. It just it doesn't crack. Well, that's what we think, Sydney. But that's not what the defense is going to argue that Sean Combs thinks. Their theory is their argument is that all of this was consensual. And I guess all of these women are lying. And Sean Combs is the OK.

There's great a baby old and astro glide and that all the women are lying. And Sean Combs is the only one telling the truth. Now, hold on. We've heard this week about a Louis Vuitton bag, a huge Louis stuffed full of horse trunk, uh, ecstasy, cocaine, pink cocaine, plan B birth control pills, and of course, high powered Viagra. Diddy needs his Viagra. Okay, I'm going to have to go to our shrink in a moment about mushroom pills, crystal rocks that are MDNA and what effect that has. You know what?

I'll ask him right now. Joining me, Scott Johnson, forensic psychologist, 33 years addressing sex predators. ForensicConsultation.org is where you can find him. Author of Physical Abusers and Sex Offenders. When I Love

You Turns Violent. That's another book. Scott Johnson, thank you for being with us. What is MDMA and what effect does it have on a person? All right. So you have the ecstasy basically by the street name and you have people that become delusional. It's difficult to say no at higher levels. It may cause a euphoric statement where people are kind of out of touch with with reality, sort of delusional. But it's very difficult to say no or to resist when you're under the influence of these medications.

Ecstasy, Molly, is a stimulant with psychedelic properties. That's what it is. And if you drop it in one of these ladies' drinks, there's no telling what effect it's going to have on her. Lauren Conlon, in front of the courthouse, very quickly, Lauren, I want to ask you about what happened when we got to Diddy's bathroom of his mansion that was raided. The bathroom. Yeah, and then we got to a bathroom where we saw two containers. And in one container, there was 25 bottles of baby oil and 31 bottles of AstroGlide. And I actually spotted two rubber duckies. A little bit confusing.

And when they asked a special agent, were there more baby oil that you found? He said yes. And there was because we saw a mini crate of baby oil during his direct testimony the day before. Now, right around when he was testifying, Diddy's sons, Justin and Christian, walked in and Diddy turned around. He didn't smile, but he nodded his head at them. Also, we learned a lot in the courtroom today. There was a photo, Lauren Conlon, a photo that no one could figure out what exactly it was. It was never broadcast to the open courtroom. What happened? There was a sealed photo that was shown to the special agent and just the attorneys. And they made sure that all the cameras were off in the

courtroom. The overflow room was off. And apparently, you know know they said something along the lines of do you recognize this photo they seized over 500 photos from that home is this you know is this sean combs don't identify anyone else in the photo so a lot of us were like hmm this seems like it could be something important but we don't really know at this point yeah and then tennie garagos just reiterated that the guns that the ar-15s the way they were shown to the jury they were shown whole but she wanted to reiterate that they were in fact uh separated when hsi found them when the hsi agent was going through all of this evidence diddy didn't really show much of a reaction he sat back in his chair he was very stoic. And occasionally he would look at the binder at some of the

evidence, but not much of a reaction at all. The same goes for when Dr. Don Hughes, the forensic psychologist specializing in trauma, was testifying. He really had had no reaction. And that's that's kind of been his his vibe this morning. We are live at the courthouse bringing you the latest in the federal government versus Sean Combs, a multi-count federal indictment. Diddy raging over last week's Tootsie Roll reveal. Oh no, Diddy's really angry this time. So he's mad about his Tootsie Roll. Everybody finding out about that. He is mad about, what is he mad about?

Throngs of people not coming to the courthouse. Ever since I started investigating Sean Combs, all I've thought about was candy, candy, candy. You know what? I can barely open this Tootsie Roll Midgie. You know, suddenly I've lost my appetite, Sean Combs, and I think it's because of you. We are learning that in one episode, one freak off, as it is euphemistically called, some people call it sex trafficking, that Sean Combs actually dressed as a Muslim woman in a conservative dress, a burqa, where all you see are just the little slits of the eyes.

Now yes, Sean Combs was dressed in conservative female Muslim dress, a burqa, from the neck up. From the neck down, quite the dichotomy, he was entirely nude. Listen. The Punisher, aka Sharae Hayes, explains he earned the nickname for his basketball playing. He's been an exotic dancer since 1995. Hayes thought he was booked for a bachelorette party at the Trump International Hotel, but the woman in a wig who answered the door, she explained her husband wanted to watch them together and instructed him to pretend like the man in the corner wearing nothing but a burqa to cover his face wasn't there. Straight out to Lauren Collins standing by at the courthouse, a burqa? who is the punisher we heard the testimony of sheree hayes aka the punisher

another escort that used to work with cassie and diddy and this escort testified that he heard cassie sigh a few times when she was being directed by diddy during these freak offs he mentioned a lot of the same things that the other escort mentioned on the stand, Daniel Phillip, the way the room was set up. Okay. Now, as much as we want to laugh about Sean Combs, AKA Diddy, dressing as a conservative Muslim lady from the neck up, and then the dichotomy of Combs completely nude from the neck down. Yeah, that might be, you know, fun for a minute, like talking about his midget tootsie roll. But the significance of what Lauren Collins just reported is that Shirley Hayes, a.k.a. the Punisher, and I believe we have a photo of Mr.

Hayes somewhere. What he says corroborates what other sex workers say. And transporting sex workers from out of state into this jurisdiction for free coughs is illegal. That's making out an element of the crime. What more did the punisher say, Lauren Conlon? He also mentioned that he experienced erectile dysfunction as well, although Sheree Hayes was experiencing it before Diddy and Cassie, whereas Daniel Phillip said he started it because of Diddy and Cassie. Now, the Punisher, or Hayes, also wrote a book about erectile dysfunction, and there was a moment in court where everybody kind of laughed

because the book is called In Search of Freezer Meat. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Straight out to veteran trial lawyer joining us, Eric Faddis, trial lawyer, TV legal analyst, founding partner of Varner Faddis Elite Legal, former prosecutor. Eric Faddis, how are you going to get that mental image out of the jurors' minds? Because if you say anything about it as a defense attorney in closing argument, it's going to make them think of it again. But just hold this thought, Faddis. Sean Combs having a sex worker, a male sex worker, the Punisher, flown in from out of state. When he comes to the door, there's Sean Combs wearing a burqa to here and nothing from here down. And then sitting back in the corner,

masturbating and telling the sex worker how to do his business. How are you going to get that out of the jurors' minds, Faddis? Nancy, a jarring image, not something you would ever want to highlight on the defense side. However, you know, his testimony really kind of detailed sort of a threesome and kind of a cuckold sort of situation. And as you know, that might offend the delicate sensibilities of some, but it is. Did you say cuckold? Do people

actually still say that, that word? Cuckold, you mean a man whose wife or lover is cheating on him? I thought the whole point of that is that the husband doesn't know about it. It sounds like you might know more about it than me. I'm not sure. But what it sounds like is that in this testimony, you know, they're talking about threesomes. And, you know, while some people might not be so jazzed about that, that's something that's happening in the bedrooms of Americans every night across the country. And his testimony also scores tough points from the fact. Okay. That's the best thing you've got for me is that wasn't a freak off. It was actually a threesome. Okay. I'll let you work on getting that mental image out of the minds of the jurors.

Listen to this. Hayes testifies he did not recognize the couple during their first freak off, but on his next invitation to the Essex house, he flipped on the TV. A welcome message for Mr. Combs appeared and Hayes, a fan, put the pieces together. Hayes says he participated in maybe eight to 12 freak offs between 2012 and 2016. Hayes says it was difficult to focus under Combs' stare. And when he wasn't able to perform for a session, he was asked to leave and never hired again. I mean, it's neither here nor there. This is not an element of proof. But joining me right now is Rob Shooter, longtime PR guru to Puffy, a.k.a. Diddy, a.k.a. Sean Combs. Doesn't work for me anymore. He is the host of a hit

podcast, Naughty But Nice. That's at robshooter.substack.com. And he's the author of a book, The Four Word Answer. Rob Shooter, I'm trying to keep count of how many men has Diddy given erectile dysfunction? I've already got, I think, three. And that's just the ones that I know of. I mean, they come in and work with Diddy and suddenly... It's hard to perform for Diddy, apparently. So we find out three gentlemen have erectile dysfunction while being hired to have an erection. So that's a problem there, a job problem.

However, I'm being flippant. What I'm talking about here, Nancy, and I've been listening to you very carefully, is these disguises. This is something that I think I can give you a real insight into. When I worked with Puffy, although I thankfully never saw him in a bedroom situation, I did see him go out like a lot and he often wore disguises. I've been to restaurants with Puffy where he wore a baseball cap, dark glasses. I've even known him wear a fake beard and a moustache. And so he's a master of disguise.

Shooter, are you actually equating Diddy disguising himself as a female conservative Muslim lady from the neck up with the burqa and then completely nude from the neck down? That's something I do not want to see. I've already had to think about this, the Tootsie Roll Midgie. Now I got to think about that. I mean, this is combat. Yeah, it's not a good look, Nancy. However, the point I'm trying to make here is that this is

somebody who knows how to be undercover. He's very famous, but he's also very slippery. When Puffy does not want to be noticed, he isn't. He lived in New York City for a long time. So you think completely nude from the chin down and wearing a burka from the chin up makes him not noticed? I mean, that would make me look right at him. Well, you can't see his face. And that's the point here is that people don't know a strange person is in the room. He could be covering his face with a mask. And so it's a very unusual thing to pick a burqa, although I think I have a little insight into that. He was a huge fan of Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson used to wear burqas when he wanted

to go out and not be recognized. So maybe that's the connection there. But the point I'm trying to make is Diddy knows how to disguise himself. And if this escort hadn't seen Diddy's welcome message on the television, he might still not know who he was performing for. OK, so Rob Sheeter, you mentioned that Diddy liked to dress up. What kind of costumes? What kind of disguises? I've seen baseball hat. I've seen dark sunglasses. I've seen fake beards. I've seen fake mustaches. I've seen dark sunglasses. I've seen fake beards. I've seen fake mustaches. I've seen scarves. I've

seen masks long before COVID was a thing. And so he does know how to dress down. He's not always diddy. He's not always the center of attention. I've been in restaurants with him where he slipped in and out. I've been on airplanes with him where he slipped on and out too. So this is a guy who knows how to go undercover when he wants to. He's not used to being told no. Sean Combs controlled every part of her life. He's a complete control freak. He is a vile, greedy abuser. He is running the show and this is the show he thinks is going to get him off. He may be vile. He may be controlling. He may be an abuser. But is he guilty of all the counts or any of the counts in this federal indictment? So far, according to my legal analysis,

the charges of sex trafficking have been shown by not only Cassie Ventura, but another female witness as well. Transportation of male sex workers across state lines to engage in prostitution. Yes. Now, racketeering is going to have to be explained to the jury. Racketeering. Just think about Tony Soprano. Right. Didn't anybody see Sopranos on HBO? It

went for years and years and years. It is a loose confederation of people that engage altogether to achieve a criminal act. In this criminal conspiracy, the act would be sex trafficking, bringing people in from various states to perform prostitution or and to force women to engage in freak offs against their wills. Bam. Easy. Now, earlier, Eric Faddis, God bless him, was stating that the freak offs were all consensual. But my question is, what woman in her right mind would consent to have sex with not just a male escort, a lot of people do that, but a convicted killer slash male escort? Listen. Our series, Gigolos, took over Vegas. And the formula worked because in Vegas, these guys were stars. Gigolos was fun.

It was sexy. It was glamorous. It was Vegas on steroids. They owned the town. They were treated like rock stars. Cheers, guys. Cheers. We always thought one of them would do something stupid.

We never thought one of them would be a murderer. At least two of the male escorts Cassie identified were from the Showtime reality series, Gigalos. One is also a convicted murderer. Akshaya Kubiak, who uses the name Ash Armand, beat Harleen Dulai to death. Kubiak claimed he blacked out after taking mushrooms with Dulai, one of Kubiak's clients, and when he woke up the next morning, she was brutally beaten to death. Officers and medical personnel arrived on scene and that female was pronounced deceased. This was one of the worst beatings of a person, of a human that I've seen.

This whole situation is what horror movies are made of. On the morning of the murder, they didn't call 911 first. They actually called another gigolo. That from Paramount's Sin City gigolo. They find the dead body and they don't call 911. They actually call another gigolo. Okay, you know, to Rachel Fisher joining us, a special guest joining us. Rachel is an anti-trafficking expert featured in the 22 documentary Surviving Sex Trafficking.

She is a forensic nurse, a sex assault nurse examiner and expert witness. And she is at LegalRNConsult.org. Rachel, thank you for being with us. It's one thing to talk about Diddy dressed up in a Muslim female burqa from the neck up. It's another thing to talk about this male escort's moniker is the Punisher. But it's another thing to force a woman, that would be Cassie Ventura, into sex with not just a gigolo, but a convicted killer gigolo. That's the danger of forcing somebody to be involved in a commercial sex act, whether you're the recipient or you're the one performing it and getting paid for it. That's still a commercial sex act that she was being coerced and forced into. And you never know who's on the other end of the

call when you click that ad online to order an escort because you can get one faster than you can get a pizza in most places. And whoever shows up, you don't know their background. It's a very dangerous career to be in the sex industry. And many of the people that are there are not there willingly. And some are, but you never know what their story is on the other side and what they're going to come with. That's why we have so many that are murdered when they're in the sex industry, or you get an in-call where an escort comes to you and you get murdered or robbed. And it's a very dangerous thing that you're forcing somebody to be a part of. And sex industry or you get an in call where an escort comes to you and you get murdered or robbed and it's a very dangerous thing that you're forcing somebody to be a part of and whether he was there present for it or on the phone on video in a different state across state lines he was still

you know causing all of that to come to play whether somebody else was handling the finances somebody else was booking the ad clicking the, responding and chatting back and forth with the escorts that were coming. There were multiple people involved. And so all of those people become part of that scheme. And you don't know, you don't vet the person. You don't do a background check on the escorts that you are bringing into your home space. That's no longer safe because it's the fear of the unknown. You don't know what you're going to get until they show up. And same thing of the unknown. You don't know what you're gonna get until they show up. And same thing for the escort. They don't know what they're walking into.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, as Rob Shooter was saying earlier, let me go to you, Rob Shooter, host of a hit podcast, Naughty But Nice, and author. Rob Shooter, when I think about Cassie Ventura, who was so desperate to please Sean Combs, being put in this position over and over and over, I don't know how anyone, could we see the photos Cass Cassie's beaten face, the scar that needed plastic surgery over her head, the bruises along her back. Her mom took pictures of these. Rob Shooter, having worked with Sean Combs for so long, did you ever see this side of him? I find it really hard to believe that Cassie would go along with having sex on camera with a convicted killer gigolo.

It's incomprehensible. It makes no sense whatsoever to me. Did I see any of this? No. I knew he had a temper. I knew he was bossy. I knew he liked to do things his way. He always had this sort of attitude where he was above the law. Rules did not apply to him. So if you take that to its logical conclusion, we end up where we are today. I'm not sure when the turning point was in Puff's life, but clearly there was one when he felt that he was invincible, and that's when the monster that was probably always there was unleashed a whole louis vuitton bag stuffed full of ecstasy, coke, pot. The women were drugged out of their gourds.

Pie on horse trunk, ecstasy, Klonopin, and more. I wonder what itty bitty diddy is feeling and thinking right now in a courtroom as a Homeland Security special agent describes everything that was found in his mansion that was raided. Crates of baby oil, astroglide. That's not against the law. What I care about are the federal counts in that federal indictment. I guess I could put that down now. Sex trafficking, extortion, transporting sex workers across state lines to engage in transportation, to engage in prostitution. But to Eric Faddis, Eric, can we not spark just one moment and in simple terms explain what RICO, racketeering, and a criminal organization means. To make it simple, it's a group of people, even if loosely joined together like gang members, that together advance a criminal enterprise. Would you agree with that? It's essentially correct. There are a few other wrinkles. There has to be

at least two predicate offenses of racketeering within a 10 year period. They have to be related. And also the criminal enterprise has to have an effect on interstate commerce. And so there are some significant requirements here. It's a tall order to prove this charge in federal court. And the prosecution is kind of just dipping their toes in this now. And I'll be able to see kind of what direction they take it and what predicate offenses they can expose. Because, you know, look, marijuana, simple assault, those kind of things, while they might be unlawful in some jurisdictions, they are not necessarily predicate offenses that would qualify as racketeering activity to support a RICO charge. Those are things like murder, kidnapping, obstruction, victim and witness

intimidation fall into that category as well. Sex trafficking. Sex trafficking would be the underlying felony. OK, let me get right back down to what's happening in the courtroom. Take a listen to this. Former assistant David James testifies that Combs was occasionally violent with private chef Jordan Atkinson. According to James, after an altercation at his Alpine, New Jersey home, Combs instructed him to file a police report stating Atkinson was the aggressor and hit him first. James, who witnessed the altercation, says he simply drove around Alpine for roughly an hour before returning and telling Combs it was filed.

James says he didn't want to comply with Combs' request because he did not want to file a false report. Sidney, someone joining me, investigative reporter, Crime Stories. Sidney, explain to me, am I getting this correct? The former assistant, David James, described an incident where Sean Combs allegedly attacked a female chef, but then wanted James to go file a police report stating it was the other way around, but James didn't do it. That's absolutely correct. James said that Combs and this chef got into an altercation and Combs immediately after it ended came to James and asked him look let's go to the cops let's file a police report but make sure it says that she attacked she hit me first she was the aggressor and James kind of did his okay yeah I'll do that and he got

into a car and just drove around for about an hour before returning home and saying, yep, filed it. It's in there. They'll contact me if they need anything else from us. And the whole time he never spoke to a police officer about it because he didn't want to be. You know what is probative about this, Sydney? This right here. Here we have Rob Shooter, Sean Combs beating the stew out of Cassie Ventura. She's holding up a little left hand to fight him off. Um, and they're going to argue according to Garagos. And of course this could change just like the defense in Scott Peterson changed from

a satanic cult took Lacey to burglars took Lacey. I mean it changed over time. So at one point Gary Ghost let it slip that the argument to defeat this video is that Cassie, 90 pound Cassie is the aggressor here. She's the one giving him the booty beating over text from another woman. Okay she's the aggressor. Same thing with the chef. See what I'm saying? The him the booty beating over text from another woman. Okay. She's the aggressor. Same thing with the chef. See what I'm saying?

The connection. So apparently that's his MO, modus operandi, method of operation. He attacks the woman, according to evidence, and then says she's the aggressor. Did he ever take responsibility for anything, Rob Shooter? He took responsibility when everything went well. When things were going good, it was because of him. When things were not going well, it was because of everybody else. But this video here, Nancy, this is the case to me. This video changes everything. And there's some irony that a man who has spent his whole life putting out images, videos to make him into the star he is, is ultimately, I believe,

going to be brought down because of this video. That is something that is going to be in the jury's mind. And the excuses are just excuses. And I think that actually makes things worse for him, that they're lame excuses. Sean Combs on trial in a federal courtroom to Rob Sheeter, former PR guru to Sean Combs, you just stated that Combs spent an entire lifetime curating an image through video and photos. Like what? What image? Let me give you examples of this. There were images to make him look powerful, images to make him look important, images to make him look literally like a king. I Got Diddy was People magazine's sexiest men alive issue. He wanted the cover.

He did not get that, but he was in the issue. And he shot it as if he was a king. He asked at the photo shoot if he could have a crown on his head, if he could have a coat, a fur coat. And he knew the power of images. I remember distinctly he once said to me, Rob, the story doesn't matter. The headline and the photograph is all anybody remembers. He knew the power of media.

He knew the power of video. And he exploited it. And now it's going to bite him in the bummer. Sidney Sumner, toward the end of the day, a shrink was on the stand. What can you tell me about Dr. Dawn Hughes? Nancy, we know that Dawn Hughes has testified for several important cases. She was called to the stand for R. Kelly's case, Keith Raniere, that sex trafficking case. She even testified in Amber Heard and Johnny Depp's trial. And she is a blind witness here.

She is not privy to the facts of the case. She hasn't spoken to Cassie Ventura. She admitted on the stand she has seen a little bit of news coverage about the case, but she is not familiar with exactly what happened here. And she is testifying to give the jury an insight into why Cassie stayed in this relationship for so long. We wait as justice unfolds in the courtroom. And now we remember an American hero, police officer Demetrius Johnson, 34, passed away in the line of duty,

leaves behind wife turned widow, chosen, and his two-year-old son. American hero, Demetrius Johnson. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.