Law&Crime Sidebar - 8 Brand New P. Diddy Developments as Associate Says She Has Secret Sex Tape

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Just in the last few days, Sean “Diddy” Combs got a new court date in his racketeering and sex trafficking case, his mother released a statement condemning his treatment, and a former associate claimed she has an A-list celebrity’s secret sex tape. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber reacts to the latest details with trial attorney Wayne Dennison.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I think he's one of the most dangerous people I've ever met. We've got a lot of developing information coming in about rapper Sean Diddy Combs, the sex trafficking investigation he's wrapped up in, the new accusations that are coming out every single day, from new attorneys to a sex tape, allegedly being shopped around to a statement from Combs' mom, we are updating you on the very latest with trial attorney Wayne Denison.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Here's something that's clear. There is no shortage of information coming in on a daily basis regarding Sean Diddy Combs, and we here on Sidebar, we have tried to do our best to cover the very latest for you. And believe me, we've seen your comments about being the Diddy News Network, not something we take lightly, okay? Not the moniker we expected, but it's, again, one we take very seriously.

We're going to try you to bring you everything that we can. And to talk about the latest developments, and there are a lot. I want to bring in trial attorney Wayne Denison, who famously represented Johnny Depp in his high-profile trial against Amber Heard. So he knows a thing or two about high-profile cases. Wayne, good to see you. Thanks for coming here on Sidebar. So we haven't had a chance yet to talk about the latest and talk about even the indictment against Sean Combs to everybody back home. He faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution.

And who knows? There could be more charges on the horizon. But for now, what is your reaction to the case against him? Well, they've charged there are three counts, but there are eight chargeable crimes that are reflected in those indictments. And you're talking about very serious charges, each of which carries very serious jail time if he were to be convicted. Yeah, I mean, he's looking 15 years to life in prison. So, which by the way, a little side note, I still am not of the belief that he would be offered a deal that wouldn't include prison time. So, you know, there's been a lot of talk. He's going to come out.

He's going to name names. He's going to mention everybody. He may won't do that, but he's still going to find him. I think, like 10 years in prison. If they're saying he's the head of this criminal organization and he's been engaging in a repeated pattern of abusing women and drugging people, I just don't believe that he'd be offered anything

attractive to him to want to take a deal. Am I wrong? He's at the top of the pyramid here. Generally, you give deals to the people who are lower in the pyramid in order to get them to testify against the top. There's no reason to give him a deal. So I want to go to these developments. And first up, we have this brand new information about an alleged secret video of an A-list celebrity participating in one of Combs' freak-offs.

So these are those prolonged sex parties where commercial sex workers and other victims would be reportedly drugged and forced to have sex. So two anonymous sources have told the New York Post that the video is being shopped around to media outlets, and the unnamed celebrity knows about this. So this comes as sources are saying that a male A-list celebrity is, quote, horrified that this footage is being shopped around. And that's what two people in this star's inner circle reportedly told the New York Post. Sources say both combs and the other male's faces are visible in this sex tape. The post says it's not revealing who the celebrity is because it's not clear if he was a minor when the footage was filmed. And of course, just last week, a Texas attorney announced that his firm would be filing separate lawsuits on behalf of more than 100 alleged victims. Of that group, Tony Busby says that 25 say they were underage when Combs allegedly assaulted them.

One man told Busby he was just nine years old, and a couple of that. The New York Post also says that an officer with the Department of Homeland Security, who was apparently part of the raid on Combs' house in Miami back in March, said that there are, quote, recognizable names. on some of the footage that they seized, but wouldn't confirm who those people are. And also, we talked about this too, that there is this attorney for a woman who says that she has that secret tape or has a secret tape and spoke to News Nation.

This was Ashley Banfield Show. Ariel Mitchell Kidd has some advice for that celebrity. The person who has the tape really doesn't want to shop it around. They really want to help and give it to the, wanted to directly sell it to that person, but it seems as if they are going elsewhere. If I was them, I would do something about this.

And the only way to do anything is to do the catch and kill. That's the only way to ensure that it doesn't come out. You know, we're taught that God helps those who helps themselves. So if we have a situation where that person does have the opportunity to purchase the video, if I were them, I would absolutely purchase the video. Wow. So, Wayne, here's the problem I have with this. if someone is videotaped, and they don't realize that they're being videotaped,

and this is being shopped around, isn't that illegal? It really depends on the state. There are two-party consent states and single-party consent states. Ultimately, it's probably illegal in many, many states, and the notion that somebody's trying to sell your name, image, and likeness for profit that probably gives you a cause of action among the civil law, but it's not going to be that great if ultimately what you're talking about is an extraordinarily explosive and embarrassing videotape.

Yeah, but could you get a court to jump in for an injunction to provide, to stop anybody from publishing it? There's a real possibility that you could. But if they, if that unnamed celebrity goes to court, can they shield their identity so nobody would know that they're doing this. It, again, depends state by state. Because Garth Brooks tried to do something similar. Similar. He went to federal court and tried to stop a lawsuit from being filed against them.

I think that's very different than having a tape being published of you that could be quite embarrassing. Yeah, your ability to sue other people is pretty much fundamental, and the courts will protect that. And you might not notice, but is it a crime federally to publish this material, especially if it's being distributed across the nation? Not to my knowledge. Interesting. And to couple that, this insider also told the post, it's a total nightmare.

He feels like he was victimized years ago and is now being victimized yet again. If this footage gets out, it will follow him for life. It will be on the internet forever. I'll tell you, Wayne, the fact that the New York Post can't determine if this is a minor means that this person was young, right?

It has to be. Yeah, and that I'm sure is going to lead to a lot of speculation about who this could be. about. The New York Post reported that the tape was not turned over to federal authorities. And so the way I think about it, if the feds requested it and they didn't turn it over, I feel like that's a problem, right? If the feds are subpoenaing something and you don't turn over, that's a problem. But maybe if they didn't know about it, does a person have a duty to provide it to law enforcement?

If there's a subpoena that requires the production of documents or other materials, you're required to produce those materials, whether they were adequately described such that it would come within the ambit. This tape would come within the ambit of the document request or the request of materials. You'd have to look at it closely. But if somebody has this tape and they're like,

look, I know Sean Combs is being investigated right now. They wouldn't have necessarily a legal obligation to turn it over. I mean, they would have to imagine that a crime was being committed. But I guess the idea is if you have this tape and you want to keep on to it and you're shopping it around, that feels dirty, but is it illegal to not turn it over even if the government didn't ask for it? Oh, if the government hasn't asked for it, they don't have to turn it over. Clearly, a lot of important legal issues going on surrounding Sean Combs. And by the way, talking about all this law, talking about who knows the law, especially when it comes to sensitive and sometimes complicated personal injury cases, I got to call out our sponsor, our partner. Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Look, here's a deal. If you're injured,

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If you get paid, the whole process can be done straight from your smartphone. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. Or you can click the link in the description and pinned in the comments. Combs team responded to Mitchell Kids saying all she wants is publicity and attention. And we'll see. I mean, if this tape gets leaked, if we'll, This is a developing story, so we'll see what happens the next few days, next few weeks. I want to go to another development.

And this is a very long statement, but we're going to do another episode with a full breakdown of analysis of this. But I want to take a look at what Sean Combs' mom has just said. So she releases a statement, and I want to read part of it, Wayne, and we'll get to it. It says, quote, it is heartbreaking to see my son judge, 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 his day in court to finally share his side and to prove his innocence. So again, we'll do another episode on this, a full breakdown of

the entire letter, but just that part, the idea of his mom releasing this letter, she's 84 years old. What do you take about that? What do you make of that? Well, it's perfectly consistent with what Combs' lawyers have been saying over and over and over again. He just wants to It's an opportunity to prove that this didn't happen. His mother apparently chose to make a very structured statement. One wonders whether it's a PR-driven exercise. Well, because it's also, and this is something that you know especially when it came to the Johnny Depp case is allegations like this can ruin someone's career.

But what happened with Johnny Depp is he actually used the court system to his benefit because going to trial and having the world's see the evidence and seeing what was really going on or what the jury interpreted is what was going on can also benefit someone's career. So this is if when you have a high profile celebrity, even if he's found not guilty of all the charges, let's say the charges are dropped. Let's say all the lawsuits are dropped. I'm not saying that's going to happen. But how does he recover from a PR point of view? How does he recover any of his businesses, his reputation? Is there anything that he would be able to do? I mean, obviously his mom is saying,

wait for the evidence to be presented, allow him to present his defense, don't judge immediately. But when you have a high-profile client like this, what do you do? Well, there's certainly no effort you can make against the government, the federal government, to recover for that kind of damage. But you're talking about individuals who are now coming out and saying things that if they are not true, he has the ability to pursue that as defamation. They're literally claiming he committed multiple crimes. That's usually a defamation per se.

And he can have his day in court against specific individuals who are raising these allegations. Yeah. By the way, I have to say one more thing about the tape that you just remind me. I think it's so dirty in the sense that let's say, for example, that this tape, first of all, if it shows a crime and you're shopping it around, okay? I think we know what, okay. But even if it doesn't, if this is two consensual adults and these are two males together, there's no crime being committed, it's not, there's a list of drug use, there's not a freak off,

I find it really wrong that somebody just wants to shop a tape around of Sean Combs engaging in alleged homosexual sex for money, given everything that's happening. I think that's a really, really ugly thing that's happening. And they talk about, you know, his mom in the letter had mentioned people jumping. jumping on the bandwagon and profiting off of this, putting aside the allegations against Combs, I find that part to be really disturbing, that people might be profiting off of, again, there's nothing wrong with having homosexual sex, but you're saying, you're using this opportunity to distribute it is really problematic. Well, largely as a result of revenge porn,

there are now lots of state statutes that deal with publishing this kind of material in a way that is intended to embarrass other people. And that's going to fall under a lot of the revenge porn statutes. Many states have now passed those. Yeah. And look, if it does show a crime, if it is a minor, or there's some sort of coercion being used or forced or drug use or this is a part of a freakoff, obviously it's a different conversation.

I just feel like if you're just publishing a video of two consensual adults and there's nothing illegal going on in the midst of all these very serious allegations. There's something that feels icky about it. All right, so we have another update for you. We have new information about when Combs will next appear in federal court. A new scheduling order came out on Friday, moving a status conference from Wednesday, October 9th to Thursday, October 10th. And this comes as Combs is now assigned a new judge, the Honorable Judge Arun Subramanian. And he is the first judge of South Asian descent to serve in the Southern District of New York.

York, one of the most prestigious federal courts in the country. And right now, he's also overseeing other high-profile cases like the government's antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster. He was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2022 and then took the bench in 2023. And this also comes as Combs' legal team will now have a third shot at getting him bail. And remember, Combs had offered up a $50 million package as collateral in exchange for his release. But two separate judges did not. denied that request. The prosecutor said there's evidence that Combs engaged in witness tampering, that he could be a flight risk, that he is a danger to the community. And right now he's locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, notorious jail, known for violence. He's reportedly

being housed in the same area of the jail as Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted scammer who stole millions from customers in a crypto scheme. So Wayne, new judge, new hearing, new chance at bail. What do you make of it? I think that the likelihood of bail still seems quite low, especially when you're talking about a fairly new judge to the federal bench. This judge used to be a clerk for Judge Ginsburg, but this is a brand new judge. He's now watched two other federal judges deny bail. It would surprise me if we would see bail request or a permission to get out of jail. I think the biggest issue is the allegedly contacting witnesses and witness tampering because he put forward an attractive bail option, $50 million bail, house arrest, his phone

internet would be taken away, you would provide visitor logs to the court, hire an outside third party security team to monitor who comes in and out of the house, be under strict guard. And, you know, some people would say only somebody in his position would be allowed that, right? not everybody who's charged with serious crimes has the opportunity to present that, is it fair? But I've spoken with defense attorneys who say, this is not right. His constitutional rights are being impeded upon. He has a, this is a very reasonable bail package, and it's not right what prosecutors are doing. It's not right what the judges are doing.

What do you think? The big issue, at least initially, in my mind, was the idea of flight risk. And it seems to me that the bail packages that you just described, are intended to address that concern, that he's not going to be able to flee in such a way that he's not going to return and be hauled into court. The witness tampering stuff, though, if there's evidence that he's tampered with witnesses, then it's going to be very difficult for him to get bail. Yeah, yeah.

And the fact that he mentioned he's new to the bench. Maybe he doesn't want to rock the boat too much. I get it. I get, I get it. Speaking of this, as mentioned Sam Bankman-Free, one of his attorneys is now joining the ranks of Colm's defense team, this new dream team, if you will. So new court filing show the team is growing. Alexandra Shapiro is named on her law firm's website as one of the nation's leading appellate lawyers,

and her work has been seen in the reversals of civil and criminal cases. She graduated from Columbia Law School in 1991, actually clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before she turned to more white-collar defense work. And just as an aside, she, in case anybody thought that, she's not related to Robert Shapiro, the famed lawyer from O.J. Simpson's murder case in Los Angeles. So even though I mention the dream team, no relation there. Also, somebody else is new to the team. Anthony Rico, he's also new to the case. He's a death penalty attorney, focuses on defending clients who face capital punishment. According to his Fordham Law website, Bile, Rico served as counsel in the World Trade Center bombing conspiracy in back in 1998. That was a very big case. And both of them, join Mark Agnefilo and Tenney Garigos as Combs appears to be forming. Again, this dream team of defenders. Wayne, you have a death penalty attorney and appellate attorney. What do you make of that?

Well, the appellate attorney is clear. They're going to take an appeal from the bail ruling. The sooner you can get that appeal heard and decided, the better off you are. And when you think about it, you're talking about an appellate attorney who has the same clerking background as the judge. Do you think he spoke to Sam Bankman Fried? He was like, who is your lawyer? And they're talking about lawyers.

And I was like, oh, you know, does that happen? Yeah, I don't, I don't see that as highly likely, but it's... Just coincidental that hires the same lawyer? Yeah, well, his lawyers are out there and they know who the other lawyers are. Right. By the way, is this something attractive to a lawyer to want to take on Sean Combs as a client? I've seen a number of different cases, murder cases, particularly where it's tough to defend And everybody's entitled to a defense.

They have a constitutional right to a defense. They're innocent until proven guilty. But it can weigh on an attorney to represent notorious defendants like this, particularly ones who are accused of really egregious heinous crimes. Do you think it's tough? Yeah. I mean, in some instances, you're going to be in a situation where your partners aren't going to let you do it. We've had that situation before.

But ultimately, if you're a criminal defense lawyer, you're going to take some tough cases. And if you win, that's going to be great for your career. Yeah. Yeah. So you're not surprised that people are jumping on to represent Shunkhomes right now. No. Do you see viable defenses? Not as we sit here today.

You don't believe the consent defense that, hey, listen, all this racketeering, all this freakoffs, transporting victim one for the purpose with, through fraud, coercion, for commercial sex acts across state lines, that this can all be explaining the way It's all consensual. That's what it is. Do you think that's a viable defense or no? Well, there's also a lot of allegations of people being drugged. Yeah.

And if you're drugged against your will, you're not going to be able to consent. And frankly, you can't drug minors. Yeah. Well, he's not charged with minors yet. That could change. There could be a superseding indictment. But, yeah, I know. I hear you.

I think that there could be something, though, you know, like everybody knew what the parties were about. everybody was took drugs knowingly he's not charged actually specifically with drug offenses it's part of the racketeering case but i'm curious to see how this defense goes and look they'll have other ways to say there's no criminal organization there's no common purpose there's no criminal agreement ways to chip at it but uh yeah no they'll i'm curious to see how that shakes the current indictment if it changes if it involves minors then the defenses change defenses are less okay so now i want to go to something else new update about some of the latest allegations against Sean Combs. As more people come forward with stories about the businessman and

music moguls, brings me to Jaguar Wright, has been making some very serious accusations against Sean Combs and others in hip-hop for years. But as Combs faces charges, those claims are getting a lot more attention. Now, Wright, a singer who's collaborated with all sorts of artists recently appeared on Pierce Morgan uncensored to tell him some of her opinions about Combs, and they were pretty unfiltered. She called him the devil and Judas and claimed that he wasn't the only person in the rap world who behaved badly. Wright also revealed that she had been a sex worker before she got a record deal and claimed that she had inside information about these freak-offs, these sex parties that Combs would throw that allegedly involved drugs, commercial sex workers,

lots of lubricant. I'm sorry, it's part of the indictment. And the civil lawsuits claim that victims were forced to perform in these freak-offs for Combs' pleasure. The sex workers that I have worked with throughout the years and continue to work with, even to this day, have worn hidden cameras. I have my own tapes. I've seen what they do. And Wright also said that, quote, anybody who thinks he's not going to talk is crazy. The simple fact that he's not saying more now only means that the people who have been protecting him all along, who put him in position to be such a horror to the black community, still find very valid. value in him. He's got everybody on tape. They all know it. And while Wright hinted at big

name celebrity, she never came right out and confirmed who might be involved. Her answer seemed a bit cagey and vague during the interview with Peers Morgan. But on top of that, Wright made some claims that were so jarring that a lawyer in a later segment suggested she could be sued for defamation. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Wright seemed to implicate not only Jay-Z and an abuse scheme, but also his wife, Beyonce, arguably two of the most famous people on the planet. She also reportedly claimed that Clive Davis, the famed record producer with credits like Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Bruce Springsteen was the one who taught Combs how to get away with anything he wanted in the music business. Pierce Morgan pointed out rightly so that

Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Davis that were not there to defend themselves, but that right was certainly entitled to her opinion. Wayne, that's, uh, that's dangerous. territory for her, no? Yeah, very dangerous territory from a defamation perspective. The thing is, whether Jay-Z, for instance, decides to pursue her, that means he would have to open up his life in a very, very public way. To sue her, you may. To sue her.

And so the question is, why do you sue her unless you're looking to prove that you just didn't do anything, one would think that she's probably not, she probably does not have substantial assets and largely judgment proof. If you're trying to clear your name, you know, but I don't know how much impact her words would have on his career, his reputation, his livelihood. I will tell you that following rights interview, Piers Morgan interviewed DJ Vlad. He's a well-known YouTuber, interviewed celebrities, especially from the rap and hip-hop world. And in response to Wright's accusations, he said, quote, Jaguar Wright is known to be a conspiracy theorist.

I didn't really co-sign anything that she says. I've never had her on my show, and I don't have any plans to have her on my show. She hasn't had an album in 20 years, and a lot of this stuff is just things she's heard or made up. What do you make of that? It's certainly these statements have been kicking around for some time, whether they're showing, they're getting the light of day now because of the indictment. Yeah, yeah. And going to more celebrities for a minute, there has been, and we've talked about this before, a lot of speculation in recent months that some of Combs' former protégés, in particular Usher and Justin Bieber, may have been victims of Combs, that they may have been victims of Combs alleged sexual deviancy, or at the very least subjected to a lot that maybe they shouldn't have been subjected to at such a young age. Usher spent a year with Combs in the 90s in New York when he was 13 and 14. 14 years old. It's been called Puffy Camp 2009 and then 15 year old Justin Bieber spent a couple days at the music moguls mansion or seemingly did because there were these videos of 48 hours

with Diddy that was posted on YouTube. And in one of them, Combs promises to get Justin a Lamborghini when he turned 16. In 2011, Combs and Justin appeared together on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC. Combs raved about the young singer referring to him as a little brother in the music industry. And Kimmel made a comment about Combs buying a Bentley for his son and then suggested maybe Combs would buy Justin a car too. When is that coming, that Lamborghini? We talked about this last time. He had the Lamborghini for a day or two and he got access to the house and he knows better than be talking about the things that he does with Big Brother Puff on national television. And that's an interesting comment and he went on to say that everything ain't for everybody. Now, Wayne, we have dedicated a lot of episodes before to old comments from.

combs or attributed to Combs or anything about Sean Combs trying to read between the lines. When you see something like that, is that potentially relevant to the case or is there ultimately nothing there? Well, in real time, nobody thought anything of it. And it's only in retrospect you look back and you say, well, I wonder what he meant by that. It's not particularly relevant. I'm not sure that I can see it coming in. We're at a point where we're going to take lyrics and put them in.

Yeah. Yeah, I know. We did an episode about that, too. Look, I always think could he just be talking about the wild parties, the celebrity lifestyle, or you're talking something illegal? And I wonder if when this goes to trial, if it goes to trial, although there would be no cameras. We'll get reports back that jurors saw these old clips. But again, I don't know. It's a suggestion that he probably not talk about what goes on in private.

That is not by itself particularly damning. Okay. Well, we shall see. Some interesting updates, to say the least. Wayne Denison, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Everybody, we're going to continue to follow what happens in the Sean Diddy Combs saga. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, though.

Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.