Dateline NBC - Sean Combs: Kristina Khorram’s texts.

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

The prosecution called a paralegal and an investigator to introduce messages of all kinds between Combs's chief of staff, his other employees, his ex-girlfriends -- and him. The government alleges the messages show proof of a RICO conspiracy that involves the people who worked for him. On cross, the defense pointed out how many messages the government was ignoring and showed additional messages to contextualize the prosecution's exhibits. Combs was yawning.If you want to read NBC's coverage of the trial, check out our newsletter, “Diddy On Trial”: NBCNews.com/Diddy 

This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs' racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning and it's Monday, June 16th. Just a heads up, in this episode we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter. The government began the sixth week of trial by giving the jury a look at material they pulled off Christina Quorum's phone. We've talked about Christina before. She worked for Sean Combs in various positions over the years, eventually becoming his chief of staff.

And according to prosecutors, her phone contains group chats, audio files and voicemails that prove their charge of RICO conspiracy. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas was in the courtroom as the prosecution went through all these messages, and she has stepped out to tell us all about it. Hey, Chloe. Hey, Andrea. Chloe, how was the prosecution presenting this evidence to the jury? Who was on the witness stand? The woman who testified today she's a paralegal for the US Attorney's Office. She's considered something called a summary witness and basically there to explain how things work and tie up loose ends before this case is over. She

reviewed a bunch of data that had been extracted from different devices put it into a 30-plus page roadmap for the jurors saying, here are text messages or even audio messages when they were sent, to whom, from whom, and where you can find it in exhibits later. So who is Christina, also known as KK, communicating with in these messages? Everybody from Cassie Ventura to Jane to other assistants.

There's even an exchange about these, the Cowboys for Angels company that we talked about. Right. I mean, this is so fascinating. It's Ryan Lopez, who is one of Combs's former assistants, writing to KK, I think I saw one of the Cowboys today. You can spot them in the lobby like an escort. KK responds with four laughing emojis. And according to the prosecutor, the messages appeared to show talk of moving drugs around

for Combs. Yes, we see more about that Gucci bag. Remember, Diddy didn't go anywhere without that bag and in it was drugs. So you have KK writing to Brendan Paul, another assistant saying, King Mode active or Gucci bag active, meaning what was Combs' mood that day? Was he ready for a freak off or did he want to do drugs? In some of these texts, KK is directly communicating with Jane and Cassie Ventura

about some pretty serious stuff involving Sean Combs. So let's start with Cassie, right? about some pretty serious stuff involving Sean Combs. So let's start with Cassie, right? In one text exchange, you have KK writing to Cassie, are you okay? Cassie responding, no, but you should talk to him, meaning Combs. No one deserves to be dragged by their hair.

I don't have my stuff, I don't have money, I'm effed. So let's jump to Jane. Jane writes to KK, just keeping it real. I'm not doing any more hard partying, no more hotel nights. And so I think that what you're seeing is that KK, I mean, she essentially knows where the bodies are buried metaphorically, right? I mean, she is Diddy's right hand.

And she is communicating with these different women. And she goes way back in time to 2016, right, during the Cassie days. Chloe, how did the prosecution tie all of this into their RICO conspiracy charge? Well remember in order for the prosecutors to meet the bar of RICO conspiracy they have to prove that Combs used his business, his enterprise, to carry out a legal activity that could be procuring drugs, that could be hiring these escorts. And so when you're seeing these text messages with KK and assistants or with these former

girlfriends, you're seeing that it involves KK and others in the production of these freak offs at these hotels. And you're also seeing them talk about getting drugs, Molly and pills and other types of substances. Did the defense need to do much on cross or was it just so overwhelming that, you know, it kind of was tough for the jury anyway to absorb? It was really quick. Teddy Garagos, who led a cross-examination today, pointed out there's a lot here and it was a lot. I mean, Diddy was yawning.

There was just so much data, Andrea. But these are just cherry-picked moments over the course of nearly a decade. And Teddy Garagos was saying, these are accurate, but you don't understand what happened before and after these messages. So what she was doing was trying to show text messages and voice notes before and after said messages in these spreadsheets to try to provide more perspective. When we come back, the prosecution also introduced messages between Combs and some of his employees right after Cassie Ventura filed her suit.

We'll dive into why the government is so focused on what the staff had to say. Okay, so Chloe, Cassie Ventura filed her lawsuit on November 16th, 2023. And today we saw a lot of messages around that day. What is the prosecution trying to show with these? So the government is really trying to show that Combs and his staff were really trying to figure out what to do and how to handle this. Chloe, what is the prosecution alleging that Combs' staff did to protect him? One of the things that we saw reiterated today were messages between D-Rock, who was Combs' head of security, and Mia, one of Combs' former personal assistants.

So during Mia's testimony, remember that was under a pseudonym, she talked about having worked for days without sleep. She testified about being sexually assaulted by Combs. And today you're seeing more text exchanges between D-Rock and Combs and D-Rock to Mia. D-Rock is calling her and texting her, trying to get her on the phone.

This is a really long way to answer your question, Andrea, which is just that Combs had people working for him like D-Rock, who were trying to get to potential witnesses who might testify. And this could go towards obstruction of justice which is one of those predicate crimes that the government has to prove to meet that RICO conspiracy charge. We heard Jane testify last week that reading about Cassie's allegations in her civil suit made Jane feel like the concerns she'd had

about the hotel nights were legitimate. You have Jane writing to KK, hey, you know, I don't want to involve you, but I'm traumatized by my time with him. He's saying how I hurt him, not the trauma he caused me. He started yelling at me. Now he's threatening me and saying that he's going to call the police to send the tapes to my child's father. These are sex tapes where I'm heavily drugged. It's very hurtful for him to exploit me. Now he's threatening me and saying that he's going to call the police and send the tapes to my child's father. These are sex tapes where I'm heavily drugged. It's very hurtful for him to exploit me. Please talk sense into him." So then you have KK responding

to Jane, hey, they're about to read all of this and we'll call you. I have not seen him in two days. What the defense team has always said is that Jane was smart and she was memorializing these experiences in writing with not just Combs but with KK after Cassie's suit was filed because she knew that she either wanted to pursue civil claims or potentially be in a situation like she is now, testifying in a courtroom. But the prosecutors are saying this is a woman that was going through trauma who in real time was talking about these horrific Experiences of potentially being blackmailed and extorted. It wasn't just these women having exchanges with combs

They were having exchanges with KK. So they were talking about it with other people Chloe let's talk about the second witness today an investigator for the prosecutors of the Southern District Why did they call her? This witness was going through flight and hotel records, Andrea. And the purpose of that is to put Cassie and Combs and Jane and several escorts in the same places on the same days so that Combs can't say, oh, I didn't know where they were traveling from. And how do you actually know that they showed up to the same hotel as I did? Maybe we booked them a flight to another state and I wasn't even there.

This was to show the jury this is not a coincidence. Yeah. So this is to prove the transportation for the purposes of prostitution charges, which a former federal prosecutor told me that he thinks one of the easiest charges they have. It is, and they have two of them. So, last thing for today, Chloe, this morning the judge officially dismissed juror number six, who we have been talking about on the podcast.

Did you learn why? Because of credibility issues. He said he was living in one place. It appears he's potentially moved to New Jersey and he wasn't upfront about it. The judge also saying this morning that it's not out of the realm of possibility that this juror had ulterior motives and really wanted to be on this jury

because he had bias and that was another reason to dismiss him. They replaced him with an alternate who happened to be a white man. And this goes exactly to what Combs' legal team wrote in a very long, fiery letter over the weekend to the judge saying that this is not about his credibility and living in the right jurisdiction to serve.

You guys are potentially dismissing, and they did, one of only two black men on the jury, and this is racism. The judge very quickly shutting that down this morning. He was not having it. I was in there. He was not in a good mood being accused that there were racial motivations here. So really that hung over the whole morning of testimony. You could tell that the judge was just not happy and things were really tense. Chloe, now we're hearing a possible issue with another juror.

So tomorrow morning, the judge is actually going to be questioning another juror who might have talked about the case to a former colleague. So suffice to say, things are not going very smoothly when it comes to the jurors. Tomorrow, Chloe, we're going to hear from Brendan Paul. Who is he? He's the assistant that was arrested during the raids of Combs' homes. We're finally going to hear from him tomorrow and I'll be in the courtroom. Looking forward to that.

Thank you, Chloe. Thanks, Andrea. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with a new episode tomorrow. If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter Diddy on Trial. Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that. On Trial is produced by Frannie Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producers are Allison Orr and Liz

Brown-Kuruloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.