Law&Crime Sidebar - 8 Creepy P. Diddy Videos Raising Alarm Bells After Sex Trafficking Arrest

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Since Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested and charged in federal court, interview clips and social media posts are starting to resurface. Many take on a whole new meaning given the accusations of sex crimes charges he’s facing. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber takes a closer look at some of them with digital forensics expert Heather Barnhart.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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that 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. Got to keep them there. Right. You need locks on the doors? This is sounding kind of dangerous now. It's an old adage that can't be denied. The internet never forgets. If something is posted online, it's going to live on there somewhere forever. That is proving to be true for Sean Diddy Combs as he faces criminal charges in a federal court in New York. We are taking a fresh look at some videos of the rapper that take on a new tone given the

serious accusations he's now facing. We're going to break down some of the clips and the potential impact, if any, had trial with a digital forensics expert. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Sean Diddy Combs has been a pop culture icon since the 1990s for a while now. He was an early adopter of video blogging, bragging at one point to David Letterman that he had the most friends in history on MySpace. We all remember what MySpace was. He said he started a vlog called Diddy TV where he posted about his life and that hasn't stopped.

DJs aren't supposed to pass out, but when they come to one of my parties, this is what happens to him. I put him to sleep. You put the drink on his head. There you go. There it is. Now, Combs invites people into his life through social media, television appearances, concerts. He was even in talks with Hulu to make a reality show about his family, similar to keeping up with the Kardashians. But that plan came to a screeching halt when accusations arose about Combs' behavior behind the scenes.

Cassie Ventura, Combs X, filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit. against him last November, accusing him of physical assault, rape, sex trafficking, drug trafficking. Combs adamantly denied everything in that lawsuit, but he did settle that lawsuit with Ventura the very next day, but what ended up happening? That lawsuit set off an avalanche of litigation with multiple people, both men and women, coming forward with their own complaints about Combs' conduct. Then in March, federal agents rated two of Combs' homes, one in Los Angeles, one in Miami, taking out boxes full of evidence, including dozens of electronic devices. At the time, Combs wasn't facing any criminal charges, but we spoke with legal experts who

said that an indictment would be imminent. And then one week ago, Combs was arrested. Pursuant to a grand jury indictment through the Southern District of New York. He was indicted on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution. The indictment lays out the allegations against him, including force labor, bribery, obstruction of justice. The indictment states, quote, the defendant engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals. This abuse was at times verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual.

As part of his pattern of abuse, Combs manipulated women to participate in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with male commercial sex workers. At times, Combs and others acting in his direction made arrangements for women and commercial sex workers to fly to Combs' location. Combs ensured participation from the women by, among other things, obtaining and distributing narcotics to them, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support, and threatening to cut off the same and using intimidation and violence. By the way, talking about Sean Combs and these allegations, does it not just show you how scary the world can be? I don't know, how unpredictable the world can be. Did anybody ever see this coming?

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Also, their fee absolutely free unless you win. They're only getting paid if you get paid. 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 allegedly forced men and women to participate in what he called freak-offs or F-O's, these hours-long sexual performances that involve drugs, alcohol, baby oil, lubricant,

even professional lighting and cameras. Prosecutors say that Combs coerced people into taking part in these freak-offs for years. And now, as old video clips of Combs start to surface, it appears Combs' bad boy behavior has maybe been an open secret in Hollywood and beyond. And what we are seeing now in these resurfacing of older videos of combs are different contexts. We might be looking at these videos in a different lens, given these allegations. Did these videos tell us anything? Could they be used as evidence at trial?

Well, to talk about this, I want to bring in digital forensics expert, Heather Barnhart, to talk more about this. Heather, thanks so much for coming on. Good to see you. First, I want to get your reaction to this indictment. you know I've spoken with a lot of legal analysts you're an expert in digital evidence what's what stood out most to you about not only the indictment but also say the two letters that were submitted by prosecutors when they were trying to fight combs bail he's been denied

bail twice but we learned a lot more information in those letters too sex distortion is the major issue here and it's a platform I've been speaking on in my opinion it's the number one threat that we're dealing with in the United States and worldwide the fact that that that Combs is allegedly reaching out and threatening to release these videos and ruin people's lives. The thing is one video, one photo can ruin your life forever. And who knows what control was set in place

to even have these videos recorded if they were consensual or not. Because that's the allegation, right? That he would secretly record these freak off sessions. And by the way, when you hear that the government has obtained, and I'm reading from the letter by the government, over 90 cell phones,

laptops, cloud storage accounts, as well as over 30 other electronic and storage devices, such as hard drives, thumb drives, cameras, and a surveillance system. What does that tell you? So here is the crazy thing. Investigators have their hands full. They are going to need forensic software to help them get through this information. But if you think about your phone, it knows everything you do. You can't hide from your phone. It's the perfect digital witness the juries are going to expect. When we look at his phones, so when you examine Sean Combs' devices. The truth will be there.

Whether you try to remove it or not, the truth is there, and a forensic expert will dig that truth out. Well, I'm glad to have you to talk about that, because I'm also talking about the new clips that have surfaced and what we make of them. So a very digital episode. And so let's talk about some of these resurfaced clips of Sean Combs, where I think the argument would be is that he seemed to dance around the details of his allegedly debauchous lifestyle. I mean, when he went on Ellen DeGeneres show, she asked him about his

parties. This was back in 2007. No, it'd go from like 9.30 to like maybe 3 o'clock, to 3 o'clock. And then, you know, we have the top two floors of the hotel. And then it will carry on there. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. No, I mean, the after party. Mm-hmm. No, I know about them. Um... And then way back in 1999, Combs told Entertainment Tonight that his parties might even get him arrested. They're going to hear about my party. They're going to be shutting them down.

They're going to probably be arresting me, doing all types of crazy things just because we want to have a good time. You know, whenever you bring up a different element into people's environment, things that broaden people survive, people get intimidated. And then there were celebrities who were, you know, kind of happy to joke with Combs about his lifestyle, his interactions with women.

This included late night hosts like David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien. Got to keep him there. Right. You need locks on the doors. Okay, this is sounding kind of dangerous now. It's a little cakey, but you know, broccoli, but just, check it out. You need a lot of heat. A lot of heat.

Heat, you mean physically the place has to be hot? You don't have no air conditioning. No air conditioning. Why's that? Heat affects the alcohol, and it also affects, like, you know, everybody gets a little bit more comfortable and loose. Bills up a nice little sweat. So, Heather, looking at these, like, I struggle with them, right? I struggle with them.

I don't know if they'll make it. into evidence. I don't know if they'll necessarily be relevant. They're actually kind of, you know, I don't know what they tell us. They could be innocent statements about his parties being a good time, exaggerating what these might be like, puffery. Maybe they are wild. Maybe there was sexual escapades, but not necessarily illegal. What do you take away from those videos? I think there's a huge amount of control that had to be implemented here. If you think about seeing the videos of the cell phones being collected and what people were told when they were arriving at the party and how fun it would be versus what you end up in it almost

sounds like you've entered into a prison and then you were released so thinking of that and the threats of violence and all the things that could occur from what we're hearing allegedly happened but it's almost when you watch those clips as if he were bragging that he wanted the attention on what these things are because curiosity we're humans humans are curious if you're curious if you're curious about what these parties are and you'll do anything to get there, there's going to be a huge celebrity list of people who probably were just present and not participating. So I think it's going to be wild what we see on investigators uncover during this investigation. I think it's also

and what is frustrating for a lot of people, this was known. Puffy's parties, everybody knew about them. They're wild. Now, they're dancing around it a little bit, but he didn't feel to me, uncomfortable talking about the parties. Now, he might not have, I don't think he ever expected that he was going to get arrested for allegedly what happened at some of these events. And by the way, he's not being arrested for what happened at parties like the white party in general. It's specific sexual coerced encounters. But he seemed very comfortable speaking about this too. He did. And you know, I think we're going to see as we look closely at the devices belonging to combs we're going to see other people that may be nearby or involved just from

connecting the hotel Wi-Fi yacht Wi-Fi proximity to his device so even if these devices are collected there is going to guarantee the other people associated to this so we may be able to even see who's behind him and supporting him because it takes more than one person to do all the things that are being allegedly done in these freak-offs and there were those who said you know they just look the other way, right? And that's what the people believe is, oh, all these celebrities were just looking the other way, or maybe they were active participants. We don't know. What is interesting is that there were others who called out Combs and his behavior. So we had comedian Kat Williams, and he said this now infamous line during an interview with

Shannon Sharp on his YouTube channel back in January. So this was after Cassandra Ventura's lawsuit was filed before the raids on Combs' mansions, before the charges came out. But listen to what he said. Because Pete Ditty be wanting the body. And you got to tell him no. You've got to tell him no. I did. Okay, so Heather, to be clear, Kat Williams is not mentioned in this criminal case.

In fact, everyone I'm about to mention, everyone I'm about to talk about is not actually brought up in the criminal complaint or the letters. There are no names. The government mentions victims and witnesses. There's a specific mention to victim one, but no one by name. So I just want to make that clear. But what do you make of that statement from Kat Williams? Clearly word got out.

And this goes back to, is it a respect for who Sean Combs was? Why would people not talk about this? It seems to have gone on for over a decade. Think of people who are adults now that were children at the time. There has to be some level of control or almost like an intrigue to these parties, even if you didn't want to participate, that no one went forward and said, hey, this is what's happening until they start. started to. And you know what else is coming into question is how Combs acted around, like you said, when you talk about age, the young up-and-coming artists that he was mentoring, like R&B icon Usher, pop superstar Justin Bieber. You know, Combs produced Usher's first album and Usher apparently lived with Combs for about a year. And he talked about that, what seems to be an intense period of time, he talked about it with Howard Stern in 2016.

Hey, it was curious. I got the chance to see some things. Yeah, but you had 13. What were you seeing? I went there to see the lifestyle. Right. And I saw it. And it was, but I don't know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at.

It was, it was pretty wild. And Usher also told Stern in that interview that when asked if he would allow his kids to do the same, he replied emphatically, hell no. Now, Heather, again, not sure what to take away from that. And to be clear, there were no allegations in the indictment or the government. letters where they say anything about minors, right? That was a very conspicuous absence from those filings from the government. But when you hear something like what Usher said, you know, it's, again, I'm not sure. I don't believe that would, that video would come into evidence. I don't think it shows much, but it may give us kind of a glimpse into something.

I think it does give us a glimpse into the mindset. And one of the hardest things in digital forensics is almost tapping into the mindset of the person you are. investigating or looking at because once you're in almost put yourself in their shoes on the things that were done it makes the picture clear I think anything that can make the mindset clearer to the jury will help definitely help the innocent people because here's the issue when you're trying to I assume obtain people through chats because how else are you going to get these people if you have your sites set on a specific target a pop star someone you want

there, chats had to occur. So I assume that all those chats will be obtained from his devices, but the thing that bothers me the most, and this is the hardest reality for me, when someone has everything, why do you have to take the innocence of younger people or even show them a world that is not normal? And by the way, that's, you could say not even showing them a world that's illegal, showing them a world, a very adult world. And I think that's maybe what Combs' defense will be. One of the things, And we've kind of been hearing rumblings about it. He might look at all these videos and say, yeah, I agree with everything. I think everybody agreed to these parties.

Everybody agreed to these sexual events. Everything was consensual. We like to party. You might not know what this is like, John Smith in Oklahoma, but this is the celebrity lifestyle. This is the culture. And when this trial happens, that may be an argument that they move forward with. And I would say my rebuttal to that. What's the age of consent where these freakoffs occurred and can you consent when you're under the influence?

That's a very, very fair argument because he is accused of drugging people during these freakoff sessions where they would be obedient and compliant. Now, talking about age, Justin Bieber. Now, Justin Bieber was very young when he reportedly worked with Combs and one of the videos that is circulated in the aftermath of all this attention on Combs. In fact, after the raids, was Combs' interaction with a then 15-year-old Justin Bieber. This was back in 2009 as he was rocketing to start him. Now, when you talk about 2009, that is actually in the time frame and the indictment. So they talk about these freakoffs happening, this alleged criminal conduct from 2008 onward. But again, Justin Bieber is not mentioned by name in this criminal complaint or in the government's letters.

But we go back to 2009, he's rocketing to start. him. This video was posted on Bieber's YouTube channel, and it's titled 48 Hours with Diddy. Justin, he's in, you ever seen the movie 48 hours? Right now, he's having 48 hours with Diddy, him and his boy. They're having the times of their lives, like, you know, where are we hanging out and what we're doing? We can't really disclose, but it's definitely a 15-year-old's dream. very uncomfortable. It doesn't even have to be anything connected to these allegations, like the criminal case. I just find that video uncomfortable. It's gotten a lot of attention, Heather. There are those who believe that Bieber may be cooperating in the government, purely speculation, but just that video in and of itself, I think makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It definitely does. And he's a father of a young infant son now. I think who you were then, what you were introduced to. Again, it's taking away the innocence of people that don't deserve that at all.

Can I ask you a question again? And the only reason I'm bringing this up is because there were allegations in the lawsuits. I'm really specifically talking about the Rodney Little Rod Jones lawsuit. This is Combs' former producer who sued him for sexual assault, sex trafficking. He mentioned that he was tasked with soliciting minors and that there were underage people at these parties. Why do you think there was nothing about that in the indictment? Do you think that the digital evidence maybe didn't corroborate it? Maybe there was not witness testimony that could corroborate it.

Maybe prosecutors are waiting to bring those charges, or maybe they didn't want to bring that in connection with this case, although R. Kelly, he was facing sex trafficking or racketeering charges. They were very much had a theme about minors. So I just was, again, I don't know if it could very well not be true, right? Prosecutors could say there's not enough evidence to show that, but when you're looking at these kinds of things, were you surprised by that? Why do you think it's not in there? I think they may be saving this one possibly or even think of this.

The minors at the time could potentially be adults now. So do they want to be involved in this investigation? Are they willing to speak out on their experiences? Because as an adult, now they can actually do that. But I think when you look at all of these freakoffs that occurred, there has to be a collection. And I read a lot of articles saying that he recorded these with multiple cell phones, with professional cameras. So I think the collections of the videos, when investigators dig through those, will tell the truth and reveal some of the proposed ages of these minors. You talk about the power of video, by the way.

I mean, that 2016 video of him allegedly beating Cassandra Ventura, that was one of the biggest pieces of evidence that came out even before the charges. and clearly it made its way into the criminal case. If that is just a sampling of what the government has, you're seeing a very strong case. Absolutely. Now, given what we know about Combs' party lifestyle through these lawsuits and people that have spoken out over the years, it is concerning when you see someone so young as Justin Bieber

hanging out with the rapper. And in fact, in a video that was posted on Combs' YouTube channel, it was just a year or so later, Beber, again, he looks uncomfortable when interacting with the rapper. That's my take, but let's see what you think. What's up, man, you're good? I'm good. All right, young brother, everything's good, selling out arenas and everything.

Starting to act different, huh? You ain't been calling me and hanging out the way we used to hang out. Well, I mean, you tried to get in contact with me through all my, you know, partners and whatnot. But you never really got my number, so. Right, okay. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you my number. Yeah. Now, Chloe Kardashian also made comments about being at a P. Diddy party on keeping up with the Kardashians in 2014.

She said that she'd seen a young Justin Bieber at the party and that half of the guests were naked. You know, Heather, looking back on it, he might be uncomfortable. I think he actually looked more uncomfortable in the first video, but it could have been a sketch. It could have been like a little skit between them. I'm not entirely sure. But again, you know, when I think about the number of witnesses that the government is speaking to or could be speaking to because this is an ongoing investigation. I have to wonder if they are celebrities, if they are Justin Bieber, if they are the Kardashians. I bet they are. And here's the thing, names are going to come out and I think it's going to shock a lot of people.

And there's so many things that you read and all the allegations that are out there. But even just looking at the phone in that video, you can tell the digital data is going to seal this investigation on what the truth is. That's what I honestly believe. But I think, too, when you see Justin Bieber looks so young. So young in those videos, there has to be a plethora of minors involved in this. And I guarantee they're going to be big names because I feel like that would be the attraction to come to his parties. If that's something you're participating in and there's a new pop star, you're going to come

see that, unfortunately. And how much of this do you think would be documented, not just in videos, I'm talking text messages, especially if you're dealing with minors who they might not realize what the consequences of this are. So if they're just freely talking about what happened at these parties and text messages, I feel like that could be something that prosecutors might be looking at as well, right? The text message conversations. Absolutely.

Chats are everything. And even if you take devices, if you came to my house right now and I take your phone, when you leave, you can do whatever you want. That's why I do worry about the level of control that Combs may have had over the potential victims or the people that participated or even watched or saw. But there's no way for a decade that someone didn't talk about it, text about it, share something along the way. And even the alleged threats that are happening, those are happening in email and text messages. So all of these chats, secure or not, software will like celebrate. That's what

we do. We dig in and we uncover the truth. Now Bieber, who's now 30, actually recently collaborated with Combs on the love album. And he was featured on a song called Moments. Combs even posted photos of the two of them in the studio together. And sources told the Daily Mail that Bieber was shocked, deeply disturbed by Combs' arrest, reportedly unwilling to discuss it. They told the outlet that so many people who helped to make him who he is were very close to Diddy and it has completely thrown him. Justin hasn't been responding on this since the home raids.

He's not going to. He had a long break from Diddy when he believes most of this took place and he had distanced himself from him. He was featured on Diddy's most recent album and had he known any of the time. any of this, there is no way he would have done it. So it seems like Diddy's wild parties were a pretty open secret, but could those partygoers be aware of some of the crimes that are alleged in Combs' criminal indictment, the alleged abuse and coercion that was going on?

It remains to be seen if the Southern District of New York will charge anyone else in connection with Combs' alleged criminal empire. And so far, he's the only defendant named. He faces just these three charges, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation, to engage in prostitution. Heather Barnhart, I'll give you the final word because we're still at the early stages of this. And, you know, one of the things I imagine

if this is an ongoing investigation and people are coming forward, there's going to be more digital evidence that authorities have to sort through. There will be insect extortion, something this major, you can't act alone. There have to be other key players who are assisting combs in this entire allegation.

Heather, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate you breaking down these videos with me. what we can expect from the digital evidence in this case. A final question I have for you is I don't believe, I really don't know if any of that's actually going to make its way into trial. What do you think? I think some of them should, especially trying to show the age or even the look on miners faces when they're discussing these parties and what's happening behind closed doors.

I think it shows the discomfort and the people who are probably excited to spend time with combs. Look, I think if minors are not a part of this case, the defense will have a really good argument that none of this is relevant, that it's highly prejudicial towards their client. But we shall see. We're in the early stages. Heather Barnhart, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your

podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. 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.