Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy Trial: $30K NDA, Concussions, and Control – New Allegations Surface

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

Week two of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial got underway in federal court with testimony from Dawn Richard, a former member of the girl group “Danity Kane,��� who claims to have witnessed Combs’ abuse of his then-girlfriend Casandra Ventura. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber goes over all the details from inside the courtroom with correspondent Elizabeth Millner.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you received Depo-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. Visit https://forthepeople.com/lcdepo to start a claim now! HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest 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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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. Explosive testimony rocks week two of the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial against Sean Diddy Combs. More allegations of abuse of Cassandra Ventura, choking, money to stay silent, and even a former employee testifying to the inner workings of Sean Combs' world. I'm going to be speaking with our law and crime reporter Elizabeth Milner to break down all of today's dramatic courtroom moments. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey, everybody, this is another law and crime legal alert.

If you received Depro-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. That's right. Morgan and Morgan is investigating claims that patients were improperly warned about this risk. It's free to check, just takes a few minutes, and you don't pay unless they win. So scan the QR code on screen, click the link below or head over to for the people.com slash LC Depot to see if you qualify. Well, the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean Diddy Combs took a dramatic turn as we enter week number two. Two new witnesses, two key witnesses

delivered explosive testimony, detailing allegations of violence, threats, manipulation at the hands of the hip-hop mogul. Former Danity K-member Dawn Rashard returned to the stand, doubling down on her shocking claim that she witnessed Diddy attack

his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, fine. The jury also heard from Kerry Morgan. This is Cassie's former best friend who described multiple incidents in which she claims to have seen Diddy physically assault Cassie. And interestingly, Morgan testified that she and Cassie no longer friends. We're going to explain the surprising reason why in just a moment. But we also heard from Combs' former personal assistant, too, towards the end of the day.

And let's not forget what we're talking about here. So Diddy is facing serious federal charges, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation, to engage in prostitution, namely that he allegedly operated this criminal enterprise that was engaged in a pattern of abusing women for years, including forcing them into these coerced sexual performances. He's facing potentially life in prison if he's convicted of the top charge. Now, for all of the dramatic moments from inside the courtroom, and maybe what happened outside the courtroom, I want to bring in our eyes, our ears, law and crime reporter Elizabeth Milner, because as we know, there are no cameras in that courtroom. There's no audio

recording in that courtroom, but we have Elizabeth Milner. Who else would you want to report for us, then Elizabeth Milner. Elizabeth, so good to see you. Thank you so much for taking the time. So look, today's testimony, some pretty shocking details. And we're going to get to that in a minute. But first, I always have to ask you, what was the atmosphere like today? What was Sean Combs' demeanor like today? And we'll get into a little bit more of the jury and how they were reacting to each of the testimony. But what was the atmosphere like? What was the scene like? What was Sean Combs like? Well, the atmosphere has always been how it has been this entire time, a lot of interest, just genuinely in this case overall, and not just from us in the media, a lot of people from the public, too. I get here around like 7 o'clock, between 7 o'clock and 7.30 every morning, and for the most part, there's already a pretty long line of not just, again, reporters, but people from the public who just want to get a glimpse of kind of what is all going on, especially given that there are no cameras for this trial.

So a lot of people want to either get inside that courtroom or at least kind of watch it kind of similarly to a movie theater show downstairs in the overflow room where I've heard there's been like a lot of commotion as far as just people who kind of like to be chatty during this. A lot of people are just kind of owing and awing just at the testimony kind of similar to how people might react during like a sports game or a basketball game, that type of thing. So yeah, there's a lot of interest in this case overall. A lot of people just want to either get inside that courtroom, get inside just to see Diddy, possibly his family. But as far as inside the actual courtroom today where I was, it was kind of the same as usual. It looked a little different as far as, you know, the defendant's side, just kind of what that all looked like. What we do know is that one of Diddy's childhood friends was still in that courtroom. But as far as just his extended family or just his mother, his daughters, his sons, that wasn't what we saw today in this courtroom.

And I had mentioned on Friday, you know, I source had told me that the girls, the twins had prom over the weekend, which we saw some photos of them. So it might just be that a lot of the family just went back to see these activities and that type of thing. But it really didn't deter Diddy at all. Diddy still was a laser focused on what was going on in his trial. The more I go to these court hearings and go to trial every single day, I'm starting to kind of realize that Did he, even though he's in the predicament that he's in right now and that's he still. behind bars. He's still kind of running the show, maybe possibly similarly to how he was running his business. He is very much not a passive defendant. He's not one of those defendants who's just sitting there letting his lawyers handle everything. And some aspects he might be, right? Because

they know the law. They know all of that stuff. But as far as just him participating in his own defense, he definitely is still doing that. He's still jotting down notes, passing them off to his attorneys. He's still just being focused on the trial, the testimony that's being given. He's on what his attorneys are asking, and I've seen a couple peaks here and there as far as just the jury's reaction to everything. So as far as just the tone overall in the courtroom, it's still business as usual. Obviously from Sean Combs's perspective, this is kind of the fight for his life as he's trying to, you know, probably on his hand, his end, probably just wants all these charges dismissed or at least to be acquitted of these charges. But for the most part, the tone is very much business as usual. A lot of us were expecting what would the cross-examination of Don Rashard look like. And that was kind of what, in essence, it was definitely this morning. Yeah, even the sketch artist that's in the court, and we always get the updated sketches from every day, depicted Sean Combs taking notes during Don Richard's testimony.

So let's talk about Don Richard. This is the former member of the group, Dan and E. Cain, created by Sean Combs, signed to his Bad Boy record label. She filed her own lawsuit against Sean Combs. She was back on the stand. She began her testimony on Friday. We heard more about her allegedly observing this abuse, this abuse that she inflicted, that he allegedly inflicted on Cassandra Ventura. What did she say more about this alleged abuse that she observed?

Yeah, so on Friday, when we left testimony, Don Richard was still under direct, so they kind of picked back up from direct this morning. And pretty much what she left on on Friday was that she was talking about this incident. involving an egg skillet, something that's kind of been deemed the egg skillet incident as far as court goes today. And it was a situation where she had witnessed Diddy being physically, physically assault his then girlfriend, of course, that being Cassie Ventura, and said at the day after this incident had happened, that they were in the recording studio downstairs at Diddy's home. And essentially, Diddy brought Don Rashard and her then bandmate, Kalina Harper, some flowers and essentially said something along the lines of don't say anything because of where I'm from, people go. missing. So when we left off on Friday, Mark Agnifalo was just like hold off objection. That objection actually ended up being overruled. So we kind of picked up from where that was. And so today, Don Richard was pretty much kind of picking back up for the aftermath of this egg skillet

incident where Diddy had said that this relationship was something of passion with him and Cassie and that if they were to say anything, they being Don Richard and Kalina Harper allegedly, that people go missing. And so Don said that she was actually scared, scared and shocked by this statement. And she said, even after the aftermath of this incident, that she continued seeing Cassie and Diddy together. They were seen together at hotels, in the studio, at their homes. And she says that Cassie, Dawn says that she saw Cassie pretty frequently. And she also said that she saw Diddy be violent with Cassie very frequently. She says Dawn saw Diddy punch and drag and even instances of kicking Cassie and she was asked what prompted this violence, Don, you know, because while

she was on the stand, she's very soft-spoken. She seemed a little bit nervous just overall about testifying today. And so she was very soft-spoken when she was saying these words. And she said that this violence would be prompted just at random. She said Cassie would just be speaking up for herself and then something like this would happen. Dawn said that Cassie has a very quiet demeanor, something that I kind of had witnessed when she was testifying today and that Diddy just wasn't having that, having that as far as her pretty much essentially speaking up for herself. And then there was other instances where she was asked, you know, who was all there when you witness Diddy being physically violent with Cassie? And she mentioned names such as Har Pierre, who is the former president of Bad Boy.

She mentioned Mia who had worked for Diddy. She mentioned Capricorn Clark, also a former employee of Diddy. She also mentioned DRock and Bonds. These are two individuals who we know work security for Diddy. We've seen a couple of exhibit photos of them, and they're just kind of like their driver's license photos, nothing crazy like group shots or anything, just like that yet. And so then she was asked, what was the first incident of violence that you had seen by Diddy? And she said that 2009 was the first incident. She saw this.

And so then that's when we start to see the exhibit photos, again, those being of DRock, those being of bonds. And she said that this violence kind of continued while Don Richard worked with Diddy and Dirty. money. And so the defense was kind of trying to point out the differences between her time with Danity Kane, her time with dirty money, and we'll get to that when we kind of talk about the cross. But for as far as her time working with dirty money, she had said that was from the period of 2009 to 2011. So about a two year period. She said when she was asked if bonds or DRock did anything after this violence, and she said that they essentially didn't do anything to kind of help Cassie. She said she being Dawn saw injuries to Cassie's eyes, her legs, her arms. She said

essentially that Cassie would cover up her injuries with makeup, something that Kathy herself testified to while she was on the stand. She mentioned another incident, and this was an incident over up in Central Park, just, you know, blocks and blocks up from here, where she witnessed Diddy, punched Cassie in the face with a close fist at this festival at Central Park where Dirty Money was going to be performing. She said after this incident that Cassie came into the bathroom, she was crying while Dawn and Kalina Harper, who was, again, her then bandmate on Dirty Money, were getting ready

for a performance and Dawn says that she saw Cassie's eyes swelling and she, she being Cassie, just put on some makeup and then put on her sunglasses. And Dawn said that she'd stayed with Cassie for support after this incident. Then we see a photo, an exhibit photo of Cassie, Dawn, and Kalina Harper all at this festival, all up in Central Park, all of the women were with their sunglasses. But this picture was a little different than some of the other exhibit photos that Cassie herself has turned over to the government where we couldn't necessarily see the injury under her sunglasses because it was kind of just like a group photo.

Other people were around, but you could tell that Kalina, Cassie, and Don Richard were all wearing sunglasses. And she was asked, why are you guys all wearing sunglasses? And Don responded, kind of it was in solidarity of Cassie, essentially. Then there was another incident the following year in 2010 that Don Richard had witnessed where she saw Diddy punch Cassie in the stomach. This was at a dinner that they were all having together. Celebrities were there.

She had mentioned Usher was there and Neo was there. and Nia was there, but she had also mentioned, again, a lot of Diddy's employees themselves, such as Harpier, again, President of Bad Boy. You had DRock there who worked security. Kalina Harper there are part of dirty money. Mia there. She worked for security, or excuse me, she worked with Diddy, and then Bond, who was part of security, were all there.

Then we see an exhibit photo of Harpier, again, him being president of Bad Boy. And she was asked a little bit about Harpier's role in whether or not Harfier was her boss, but she had clarified that she had reported to Sean Combs, even though Harpier was the president of Bad Boy at the time. And then she said nobody intervened during the situation. So as they're all driving back, they were on a sprinter van. On the sprinter van where Kalina, Don, Cassie, Diddy, and DRock. D-Rock was the one who was driving.

And that Cassie actually confronted Diddy about punching her in the stomach, essentially saying that it was embarrassing that he had did this in front of other people. and Don Richard recalled Diddy slapping Cassie in the mouth and that Cassie just looked out of the window for the rest of the ride. Don Richard was asked specifically questions about Cassie's career as far as that Cassie just wanted to do more in career, says that Don supported this

and that she even offered to write songs for Cassie during this. But that Diddy just didn't like that. Kalina Harper and Don Richard were essentially talking to Cassie. Diddy had told Cassie when Diddy's ready, then that's when they could work on Cassie's career. And so I could see where the prosecution was kind of going with this, as far as asking Don Richard, these types of questions, kind of painting the picture that Cassie had no other choice,

but to continue on living this type of life, knowing that her career was kind of in the hands of Diddy. So I could see kind of where they were going with this. But Don Rashard recalled one specific moment where Diddy told her that he didn't like that Kalina and Don were speaking to Cassie. He said something along the lines of stay the F out of my relationship, you mother effers don't know real work and so don had said just kind of how diddy was just so kind of mean to them when speaking with them she was asked about diddy's drug use and whether or not

she saw or witnessed diddy doing drugs she says she has including drugs like weed ketamine coke molly ecstasy and said that a lot of these drugs were brought often to the studio or even at ditty's house and she said that these drugs were actually delivered by a man named one stop We all saw an exhibit photo of this man named One Stop, because at first when I was jotting down my nose, I was like, what is in, but that was actually, I guess, his, his moniker, One Stop. And that One Stop was kind of a play on that you're one stop away and you can get the drugs, that type of thing. So it was a little funny kind of knowing that nickname behind it. But Don Richard had talked about how One Stop had delivered Coke, Plan B, weed, Molly, essentially everything to Diddy at the studio. And Dawn had said that she saw Diddy put, drugs in his Louis Vuitton pouch, something that other people have testified to, something that when the HSI agent had testified on Friday that we had seen inside Diddy's room when he was arrested and said that, and Don said that Diddy would carry drugs in this Louis Vuitton pouch, and he would carry these drugs domestically and internationally. She was asked, did you

observe Did he give drugs to Kalina and possibly Cassie, too? And she said that she did. She was asked about weapons, whether or not Diddy had weapons on him while he was in the studio. She said she did see Diddy with a handgun in the studio around the 2009, 2010 time frame. He normally would carry this handgun in his lower waist or even his back. He would even carry this gun to the club as well, too. But DRock and Bonds also carried guns for Diddy because they worked security. So then towards the end of her testimony, she was asked a little bit about why she parted ways with Diddy and said that she continued to even stay in contact with Diddy after parting ways.

Dawn said that if she didn't pick up the phone, something again, the phone situation that he would just call and call and call. And if no one was answering, then he'd get assistance to call. Don said she experienced that for herself, where she said that his assistants and management would call her if she wasn't answering to these calls himself. She says that she stayed pleasant. And this is something that I thought was interesting, Jesse, mainly because, you know, for the longest time myself would just think that as far as Diddy's relationship with Don

Richard specifically that it was a special one because I was a huge fan of making the band back when I was younger and I just remember Diddy specifically kind of having his eyes on Don just as she would be the superstar and he kind of propped her up and propelled her up and so we all thought that you know they had a great relationship so even it was surprising when Don had filed her lawsuit against Diddy a few months back and even her talking about it under testimony today. She said that she stayed pleasant with Diddy essentially because she was scared of him and said that she just wanted to exchange pleasantries, even referred to him as bro, something that I think she doesn't necessarily mean, but just said it because I think

she just wanted to continue to maintain that relationship in a professional way, but still witnessing all of this. So I thought that was an interesting moment that she had talked about today. She said that she didn't disclose the violence because she was told to not, she was told not to disclose this by Diddy and as well as even Har Pierre, but she said everything kind of changed for her when Cassie took a stand and told her truth and told her truth. And that was Cassie filing her lawsuit. Obviously, everything kind of happened afterwards. And then she said that she being Don referred to her lawsuit specifically as something that referred to herself as far as just all the allegations that she put in. Because a lot of the allegations she put in her

civil claim just weren't necessarily talked about during her testimony today, especially under direct, but she says that this lawsuit is still pending, and she says she's not aware of any type of settlement in the case so far. She said that she wasn't expecting compensation, which is interesting because under a cross-examination, she said she was expecting compensation as far as the time that she had worked, but under direct, she said she wasn't expecting compensation, but she was essentially just expecting justice, and that just wrapped up her direct testimony. So they touched upon a lot of key points I think to kind of help solidify Cassie's claims but when I tell you the cross-examination was a cross-examination for watch it definitely was so I was taking notes of

what you were saying and a couple things here yes so she filed her own lawsuit I if I remember correctly accusing Diddy of groping her imprisoning her threatening her life I think when she tried to intervene you're right there were aspects of that that weren't a part of her direct examination. By the way, when we did the lunchtime show on Law and Crimes YouTube, I remember at least one of the questions we got from our viewers was, how come this wasn't brought up? How come this wasn't brought up? And it seemed it was very specific. So for me, from a legal point of view, I think she did a couple of things, right? So obviously she corroborated Cassandra Ventura Fines' account that she was physically abused, but that is doubled down by the video, the 2016

video, the photographs of Cassandra Ventura Fines alleged injuries, other witnesses. testimony her testimony that she was physically abused but i think what she also did very well or at least i think what the prosecution was trying to assert why she didn't come forward why didn't she speak out why didn't she confront ditty though that is very consistent with why cassandra ventura arguably didn't leave the relationship or go to the authorities or speak out the power the influence the threats that are those are key factors that the jury has to consider and when you talk about the guns and you talk about the violence, that goes to the means and the methods of the racketeering charge. So the prosecution has said that he is operating this criminal

enterprise, that it was engaged in a pattern of illegal conduct, and that he would use violence and intimidation and his resources and his assistance and his power to silence people and to commit these crimes and to cover it up, which is, by the way, why I think it's so important that Don Rashard talked about how there were assistance involved, their security, and saw what was going on, but did nothing. So it seems that her testimony not only helped or tried to corroborate Cassandra Ventura's account, but also tied in and tried to prove some of the elements of racketeering. And by the way, talking about the drugs, that could go to the predicate crime. So remember racketeering, the prosecution has to prove at least two underlying crimes. There's forced labor, there's drug trafficking, there's sex trafficking, obstruction, bribery, arson.

You talk about the drugs. You could see how that might tie into that. Now, let's talk about the cross-examination. Okay, I thought that this was quite notable from what I was reading on the notes, but obviously the notes don't serve justice because you were in the courtroom to see all the cross-examination. So, A, who did the cross-examination of Donne Richard? and what were the highlights of the cross-examination? Well, a lot of us were initially thinking that it's going to be Mark Agnifalo doing the cross-examination

because on Friday, he was the one posing all the objections. But then he clarified with the judge earlier today outside of the presence of the jury that it wasn't going to be Mark Agnipelow doing the questioning. It's actually going to be Nicole Westmoreland. And she was somebody who would come onto the Diddy Defense team a little later on, pretty close to trial, essentially. but a lot of us may know her because she had previously represented one of the YSL defendants, and she had previously kind of worked with Brian Still in that capacity.

But this was the first time we actually saw her kind of doing her work inside this trial, inside this courtroom. And it was something to see because let me tell you something, Jesse, Nicole Westmoreland, she is a little tiny as far as just her height and her statue. But, man, she is mighty, and she delivered a mighty cross-examination, let me tell you. So initially when they were first talking to her, her being, Rashard they were asking her about her lawsuit of course they were asking about whether or not she was aware of the motion to dismiss and whether or not

that this was a pending matter that she had even known about and Don said that she wasn't aware she said she wasn't aware of a demand letter she said then this was something interesting that she had filed her suit in September of 2024 which was just a few weeks from my understanding before Diddy was even arrested then she was asked how many times she had spoken to federal prosecutors Don wasn't necessarily sure of about the number. Nicole Westmoreland was like, did you speak with them about eight times? Is that kind of fair for me to say? And she said she couldn't recall how many times she had

spoken to federal prosecutors prior to her testimony. The defense asked her, and this was a very key point throughout our entire cross-examination, was have your answers changed over time? And then that's when Nicole Westmoreland was just kind of boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you change this, this, this, and this. Because when they got to the egg skillet incident, Nicole Westmoreland asked On Friday, you testified that Cassie was cooling eggs. Diddy comes downstairs. He hits Cassie with a skillet. And then she drops into the fetal position.

Don said that, yes, she did say this. And she said, is this the first time you've spoken about this incident? And then she said she did speak about this in her civil lawsuit. And she spoke about it with prosecutors. And she's speaking about it during her testimony. And then they brought back the civil lawsuit to talk about it because she claimed in the lawsuit, specifically that she didn't see the pan actually hit Cassie. during this entire incident and she being Nicole Westmoreland asked are you aware on your behalf

that you heard something but not saw something then there was an objection that objection was sustained then Nicole Westmoreland asked her you told the government that he attempted to hit her you need to tell the truth and that she was essentially giving two different stories then they brought back her interview in March of just this year where she had told prosecutors that did he threw eggs at Cassie in this incident and that the pan didn't hit Cassie during this incident. And then she was kind of asked, okay, did he throw the eggs? Did he throw the pan? Did he hit her? Did he attempt to hit her? Really just what was it? And then Nicole Westmoreland was like, is it hard for you to keep your story straight? And then Don said, again, Don being kind of very soft spoken when she's giving her

testimony, says, I told it to the best of my recollection. Then she was asked again about the whole people go missing statement that she had made on Friday and even today, just as far as is insinuating that people go missing just equates to a death threat. Nicole Westmoreland said this is not the first time that you explain that incident because you sat down with prosecutors and then that's when she started going by all these different dates. She's in 2024 did he had told Don and this was according to the statements that she had made to federal prosecutors that this was a passionate argument and that the defense says you didn't tell prosecutors at this time the whole where I'm where I'm from people go missing part. Then in the March 8th.

2025 interview. This is, I guess, her second interview with federal prosecutors. The defense says that you didn't tell prosecutors about the whole people go missing part. Dawn says, I'm answering the questions as best I can. Then in April, she was asked about the whole egg incident again, again with federal prosecutors. And again, these conversations that are being had with federal prosecutors aren't with the Diddy present, aren't with Diddy's defense attorneys present. And so essentially it's just Don and other witnesses meeting with federal prosecutors essentially going over their statements and what their testimony could look like, that type of thing. But during this April 17th meeting, which was just a few weeks before trial, they spoke

about this egg incident again. And Don apparently or reportedly didn't bring up this people go missing claim. And she didn't bring this claim up again until May 10th, according to the defense. So the defense was really just kind of like, you need to be honest about this. They were really just saying, why do you have to be, why, if you're not scared, that Diddy is there and you're not scared about Diddy's threats, then why weren't you just more forthcoming with prosecutors? Why didn't you bring up these types of incidents? And so they were really just kind of getting her to kind of admit or kind of trip her up there a little bit.

Then she was asked about these other incidents, such as the dinner incident with celebrities there. And that's when you start to hear the names of Neo and Usher being present at this incident. And she was asked, why didn't she mention that other celebrities were there? She really only mentioned that Diddy's employees were there, and Don said that she wasn't asked what celebrities were there. And so then they bring her civil claim or her civil lawsuit again and talk about how there was this incident in the civil lawsuit where Diddy allegedly dragged Cassie out of a car, but to the federal government, she was saying that this didn't happen and that she was actually misquoted from her lawyer, which I thought was kind of, ooh, a little interesting there because her lawyers are sitting inside the courtroom when this testimony is going on. And so she kind of essentially blamed that this was kind of a mischaracterization from her attorneys when they were drafting or writing up that lawsuit. Then she was asked about the Central Park Festival and the whole incident there where Diddy allegedly punched or, I believe, slapped Cassie in the face. And she was asked, you know, is there, was there a camera crew there?

Because they were reportedly filming something during this and that Don was quick to say that this whole incident wouldn't be on video. they weren't actually filming in the bathroom. So whatever camera crew was present, didn't capture just, I guess, the interaction between Cassie, Kalina and Don Rashard inside this bathroom. And so at one point, I thought they were going to bring up the video inside the courtroom, but we didn't see any type of video, I guess, from this whole day or anything like that. And then she was asked, the defense said she was never alone with Diddy. There was always someone else there like Kalina Harper.

Kalina Harper, I think kind of pretty interestingly, after Cassie's, or excuse me, after Don Richard's suit came out, Kalina Harper kind of made this statement or she did an interview, just essentially kind of denying Don's claims that she didn't witness, did he beat Cassie? And there's been kind of a lot of hiccups there. So I think as far as Kalina Harper is concerned, I think that it's possibly the defense might use Kalina Harper to kind of dispel what Don Richard had to say, maybe possibly as a defense witness, but I'm not 100% sure there, so I just definitely want to point that. out there. Then Don was asked about the guns and whether or not Diddy, Diddy's security team brought

guns around because they're protecting this mega celebrity. And so, of course, his bodyguards are going to be carrying guns around. And she was asked, what instances did you see Diddy carry these guns? And she said that she saw one incident at the studio in New York, another incident here in New York, another incident at Diddy's house, also in New York. And Diddy said that, or excuse me, Dawn said that she never saw Diddy wave a gun around or loaded or put bullets in it, but she just reaffirmed that she did see Diddy with a gun. Then she was asked about drugs, again, kind of, again, kind of going piece by piece about kind of dispelling her testimony under direct there.

But she was asked, was there ever a time that you pretended to do drugs? And Don said that she did. Then she had testified today she saw Diddy do cocaine, but didn't tell this to problem. prosecutors during her October interview, and during her October interview, according to the defense, she never said that she saw did he do any type of cocaine? And Don admitted during this time, because really Nicole Westmoreland was really just kind of like poking every hole that she really needed to poke here. Don admitted that over time her story has changed because overall these events happened so long ago. And I think that kind of worked into her favor as far as why she

wasn't recalling some of these. You know, we're talking about 2008, 2009. It's 2025. And I think she was kind of, you know, essentially saying that this was a long time ago. And so that's why kind of her memory has been a little back and forth there. She was asked about one stop. And then when they were referring to one stop, again, this being this alleged drug dealer, that would bring ditty drugs to the studio. She was asked who gave payment to one stop. And she being done told the government that she never saw anyone give payment to one stop. And so there was kind of that.

And so that was another moment where it was just like, ooh, But as far as just the threats that Don says that she had went through, she said that she had felt scared just during her time working with Diddy, that she departed with Bad Boy in 2011. And the defense says that she, she being Don Richard, actually asked Diddy to come back because she wanted to work with him again. And the defense says that there was times that Don herself initiated communications with Diddy on several occasions, even though Don was allegedly scared of Diddy.

And so then they were talking about. Don Richard's career overall, just how they sold hundreds of thousands of records with Danny D. Cain, something I think was interesting that they had talked about because given that Aubrey O'Day, one of her former bandmates had talked about how much they all got for publishing, essentially, that being 300 bucks, something that Don didn't talk about during her testimony today, but just something, you know, for our viewers to kind of understand that the defense was trying to paint it as they sold hundreds of thousands of records, they got a claim, all this stuff, but then in the back of their mind,

they really didn't get much money from their actual deal working with Diddy. But the defense talked about how Diddy didn't even want to sign Don Richard as a solo artist, but that Don continued to reach out to Diddy even again as late as 2020, 2021. The defense claims that Don was angry about the dismantling of the group.

I think they were referring to either both Danity Kane and dirty money or just dirty money itself. but Don essentially said that she was saddened by the whole situation. She was asked about Cassie's lawsuit as well, too, and said that did you file your lawsuit shortly after Cassie felt her suit? And she said yes, which I think was kind of a little misleading there because it wasn't really directly after that Don Richard filed her lawsuit. It was almost the year after that she had filed her suit.

But I think probably to the jury, they might think, oh, Cassie filed her suit, Don filed her suit right after. And that essentially they just are after money from this. this mogul who has a lot of money and that Don said that she wanted to file her suit to get compensation for her work, essentially something different that she had told under direct, which she had said that she just wanted justice, but under cross-examination, it was that she did want compensation for the work that she felt like she was owed while she was a recording artist for Sean Combs. And so I think under the redirect, the prosecution was really just kind of talking about

about the threats that Diddy allegedly made as far as keeping quiet and people going missing. They were talking about Don's work experience with Diddy, how it was a volatile work environment. She had said that essentially every meeting that she informed the government of Cassie's physical assault. So that was something that she didn't change throughout her testimony. That was something that kind of was a sticking point throughout all of her meetings with the government. Again, she was asked about the egg skillet incident, and then that kind of just ended the redirect, and then under the recast, it was kind of the same thing. You reached out to Diddy very recently. You were trying to kind of re-engage on making the band, this reboot that they were trying to do a few years ago.

You were trying to get everything back together, and if you were so scared of Diddy, why would you try to get dirty money back together? And that was essentially because she was trying to help out Kalina Harper, but then Nicole Westmoreland was. like you know what all that entails if you were to get the group back together you'd have to do tours you'd have to be in hotels together you have to do appearances together interviews together travel together and don essentially had to say you know she was willing to do that also while saying that she was feeling threatened and intimidated by ditty so the cross-examination was a little rough it was a little hard to watch but i think you know to Nicole westmoreland's point she kind of did what she had to do which was have a lot of people thinking wow if you said this under

direct but you said this under cross really what can i believe and i think the defense did a really good job there at kind of getting to that point yeah she raised a number of questions about her credibility about uh don richard's credibility you know a witness who has inconsistent statements or says things allegedly at the first time or near a trial juries sometimes don't look favorably upon that um the idea of a financial incentive and motivation same thing we heard with with Cassandra Ventura. Ventura. Before we move on to the next witness, real quick, Elizabeth, I know it's impossible to know,

but how is the jury reacting to the cross-examination of Dawn Richard? Were they attentive? Were they checked out? What could you tell? Well, the jury was very attentive during this, because when I, I always say the word tennis match eyes, because that really is what it is, where it's like, Nicole Westmoreland asked the question, then they go to Don Richard. Richard answers the question, then they go to Nicole Westmoreland. I saw some of the jurors

taking notes. I saw some of them looking at the exhibits, which there weren't too many exhibits during Don's testimony. It wasn't like a whole bunch of text messages that we got during Cassie's testimony or even like Carrie Morgan's testimony that we'll get to in just a little bit. But as far as just Don Richard's testimony overall, I felt like the jury was maybe thrown for a loop a little bit once cross-examination happened because I myself, if I was a juror on there, I'd be like, oh, wow, so you said this here, but you didn't say this. this here and yet I know you're trying to be honest to tell the truth but your statements aren't making the most sense and so I can only imagine what the

jury was feeling but as far as like being checked out didn't see any of that okay now we move on to Kerry Morgan somebody that we heard about a lot last week when Cassandra Ventura Fine was taking the stand and was testifying my understanding this is Cassandra Ventura Fine's former best friend not current best friend talked to us about the highlight from her direct examination, then we'll move into cross. But first, direct examination, and do we have an understanding about why she is no longer friends with Cassie?

Well, Jesse, I got to tell you, it's pretty simple as to why Carrie and Cassie are no longer friends, and that answer is simply the defendant being ditty. And I'll get to the reason why in just a second. But Carrie specifically, Carrie Morgan, was somebody that I personally myself was interested in all that she had to say. She has been Cassie's best friend for a number of years. They were best friends for about 17 years. And then it was just one incident that happened in 2018 that just kind of dismantled everything as far as their friendship goes.

For the point that the two no longer even speak to one another, even though we all know that Cassie is no longer with Diddy in the situation. And I'll explain more just about that right now. But I thought one interesting point from Carrie's testimony today was that she did not want to testify. She had said that in open court today. She said the only reason she was testifying was because she was subpoenaed to testify. So she was required to do so. But I will say, you know, just in respects to the difference between Don Rashard, who appeared very nervous, very kind of quiet and timid as far as on the witness, Dan, from somebody who maybe wanted to testify versus Carrie, who flat out said she didn't want to testify. I felt like Carrie's answers were a little more direct.

She felt she seemed a little more confident in giving her answers to the best of her. if there were things that she didn't recall. She just simply had said that. And so as far as the reason that Cassie and Carrie are no longer friends was because Diddy had assaulted Carrie with this wooden hangar. Apparently, he had grabbed her by the neck to the point that Carrie had had a concussion. And this was something that had happened in 2018. And the two, there was a whole discussion after the fact, but the two haven't spoken really

since this incident. And again, that's in 2018. So it's been a while now. but first the prosecutor and that being the questioning by Meredith Foster they were getting into kind of the foundational stuff so they go back to the time period of around 2004 that's when Carrie was living in the man in Manhattan she and Cassie had met while they were working on a modeling shoot and the prosecution was asking Carrie did you see Cassie drink very often and said and Carrie said that she didn't see Cassie drink much very often she said that um she said that um she said that um She didn't see Cassie do drugs at all at first. Then they started to get into the relationship between Cassie and Diddy, which started off in 2007. And she said, she being Carrie, said that she saw Cassie and Diddy often together, that they traveled together, to Ibita, to Italy, to Los Angeles, to Miami. She was asked about drug use and whether or not they did drugs together.

And Carrie was very forthcoming. She said that herself, Cassie and Diddy all did drugs together, and these drugs were provided. by Diddy. So when Carrie was asked also about just type of drugs that they used, it was drugs that we've kind of heard them talk about prior to this, that being drugs like Molly or ecstasy or weed. Carrie even admitted that she had did opioids with Cassie around the time. Cassie herself when she was under direct testimony and even cross-examination, she was talking about how she had an opioid addiction while she was testifying. But she said that she had gotten to know Diddy really well. And even at points thought, you know,

know that he was pretty intimidating, but it seemed like all together that they were kind of like a group of friends that would always hang out together. They did activities such as even going to Burning Man together. We even saw an exhibit photo of Carrie Diddy and a producer name Dallas Austin all at Burning Man together. That was one of the exhibit photos. But Carrie said that Diddy did have mood swings, that he would yell, he would get mad, and that Cassie essentially lost her confidence while she was in a relationship with Diddy. Carry heard Diddy talk down to Cassie. He criticized her looks, how she behaves, who she talked to. She said that Diddy would call Carrie just to look for Cassie. So we had seen an exhibit photo of Carrie Morgan, a music producer

named Dallas Austin, who was actually on that people in places list during jury selection, Diddy and another man, all together at Burning Man. So you could kind of feel just the close relationship for the most part that they had had where they all seemed like a group of friends together. And then it seemed like from Carrie's perspective, that one incident that had happened in 2018 really changed everything, and I'll go in more in depth in just a second. But as far as Diddy is concerned, Carrie admitted that Diddy had mood swings, that he would yell, he would get mad, that Cassie lost her confidence while she was with Diddy, that Carrie heard Diddy talk down to Cassie, that he criticized her looks, how she behaved, who she

talked to, and that Diddy would call Carrie just essentially looking for Cassie, something that we had heard about in different testimony as far as how Diddy wasn't able to get in contact with Cassie, he would go through other means, such as his own employees, such as, in this case, Carrie, just to get a hold of her whenever Cassie wouldn't be answering the phone. And Carrie even said that employees would call Cassie as well, too. So then that's when we see an exhibit photo of Christina Corum. Carrie actually refers to Christina Corum in a loving way, similar to how Cassie did, where they both had called her KK, and that's what they would refer to her as KK. And there was one incident where Christina Cora, aka KK, would actually call Carrie to look for Cassie. And so then the prosecution asked Carrie about Cassie's career and that essentially Diddy was in charge of her music, her career, and that she recorded a bunch of songs, something that Cassie testified to under her, during her testimony, where Cassie recorded a whole bunch of songs.

She was supposed to do a 10-album deal. Only one album came out. She did a mixtape. That didn't go, you know, that didn't elevate or anything like that. but that essentially she recorded all these songs that just wouldn't be put out. Carrie said at this time that she had witnessed Cassie getting physically assaulted around twice. So she recalled two different instances where Diddy had hit Cassie, had pulled her hair, something that a lot of other people have testified to, something that Cassie confirmed to or confirmed that it happened.

So she recalled two specific incidents, one in the Hollywood Hills at a rented house by Diddy. another time in Jamaica. So the witnesses to the Hollywood Hill incidents were a security card named Rubin and then Carrie. And during this incident, again, Diddy had hit her, pulled her hair, pulled Cassie's hair, I should say, and that Carrie had told Ruben the security card to do something and that essentially Rubin didn't do anything to kind of stop this incident from happening. She said after this incident happened that Cassie and both Carrie left, they hid over near a neighbor's house kind of under the stairs as Rubin and Diddy were essentially looking for the both of them together. And she said that they waited and hid for about 20 or 30 minutes during this

incident, but that Cassie went back to the home afterward. Then they recalled a 2013 incident in Jamaica where they were on vacation. It was with Carrie, Cassie, Carrie's friends. And then Diddy joined about, I think, midway through the trip. And that all of a sudden, Carrie heard Cassie screaming and a terrifying scream at that and said that Diddy was essentially mad because Cassie was taking too long in the bathroom and that's the reason that he had allegedly drug her by her hair and pushed her to the point that she had hit her head. Carrie said that Cassie didn't move after she had fell, that she went into a fetal position that Carrie even thought at one point that Cassie was just knocked out because she just wasn't moving. Then all of a sudden

Carrie and Diddy get into a verbal argument and during this Cassie just ran ran off and she ran into this wooded area and then Carrie ended up getting on a golf cart. She found Cassie and the two pretty much crouched together in a ditch essentially hiding away from Diddy. She says after this incident, Cassie didn't receive any type of medical attention and that they just went back to the house that they had rented during this trip together. Those were just some of the instances that Carrie had recalled throughout her friendship of just kind of witnessing this type of physical assault and physical abuse from Diddy. but she said those were the two incidents that stood out to her the most. Then we kind of get into March 6th of 2016, and we all know that date very well because that was after the Intercontinental Hotel incident,

something that we are all very familiar with. Carrie just remembers Cassie coming back home. She had that hoodie on that we all saw from that surveillance video. She had dropped her bags and essentially just didn't say anything. But when she had pulled her hoodie back, when she, being Cassie pulled her hoodie back, she had a black eye. Then Carrie said about 30 minutes later, Diddy came over with a hammer, which I thought was very kind of stunning to say. And while Carrie was terrified that Diddy was kind of hammering and yelling and banging on this door, that Cassie was just numb.

And this is one part that I wrote down that really kind of stunned me that Carrie had said on the witness stand. She says, she being Carrie, said, I don't think she cared if he had killed her. And I think that was just kind of a startling statement to kind of for her to kind of say while on the witness stand today because we all have seen that surveillance video so many times. But for Carrie, who was Cassie's best friend at the time to say that she didn't, that she didn't care if Diddy would kill her. I think that was just kind of a very big sticking point during her direct examination. Carrie said after this incident that Carrie called Christina Corum, that being Diddy's like head assistant and then DRock, who we all know now to be one of Diddy's security guards after this.

Eventually, Diddy had left. He stopped with the whole hammering and yelling and banging on the door because he wasn't able to get into the apartment, so he eventually left. Another interesting point was that the police came over. They, they being the police, allegedly pushed Carrie into a wall, asked for her ID. Carrie told Christina Corum that the police were coming over. And I thought this was interesting because Carrie said that she didn't call the police. But Cassie, during her testimony, believed that Carrie did call the police during this incident.

But according to Carrie's testimony today, police came over essentially because of the noise, not because anyone had called them specifically. And so we saw some text exhibits between Carrie and Christina Coram, where Carrie had wrote, I'm sorry, I missed your call. I'm not used to this. S-H-I-T. She said she was looking for someone to say the wrong thing so she could call it domestic violence. she being one of the investigators, one of the detectives.

And then she also wrote to Christina Corum, Cache just asked me to send you that, which I thought was interesting, kind of verifying that Cassie wasn't once always, wasn't one to go to the police or even if the police were to respond, that Cassie would still kind of cover for her then boyfriend at the time. And that Carrie, from her perspective, that she encouraged Cassie to talk to police,

that Cassie didn't want to talk to police. And so there are times where throughout their friendship that Carrie would tell them. to leave Diddy, that he controlled her job, her career, her car, just everything that he had given to her throughout this relationship together was part of the reason that Cassie had stayed. But Carrie had said that really Cassie didn't have a lot of other, like, close friends beyond Carrie and Diddy's employees, because even when Cassie was on the stand, she had said that Diddy's staff was like family to her, and it was pretty much a big loss when everything

had went down. But for the most part, Cassie herself still talks to some of his staff members, just kind of not like how it used to be or anything like that. Then they get to 2018, and this is where kind of the friendship breakup really kind of kicks into gear. Carrie had said that she was at Cassie's house in the Hollywood Hills when Diddy assaulted her. Cassie at this point locked herself in a bathroom. Diddy had come over unannounced, and that Diddy had choked Carrie and boomerangs a wooden hanger at Carrie. And it hit Carrie right in the right ear because Diddy was accusing Cassie of cheating on him. And so she had told Diddy's one of Diddy's assistants, an assistant named Ryan that

Diddy was acting crazy. Then we see an exhibit photo of Ryan. Carrie says during this entire incident that she did get a concussion, she became dizzy. She was vomiting after this incident and that she actually went to urgent care after this. And so this is where things just weren't the same ever for Cassie. and Carrie specifically that Carrie went to a lawyer and that this lawyer was going to reach out to Diddy about the assault, and that Carrie was actually going to file a lawsuit around this time, this being in 2018, but instead of filing this lawsuit, everything was kind of underhanded

where Cassie kind of played the middleman where it's like if you don't go file this lawsuit, we'll just give you a settlement payout. That payout was for $30,000, and all Carrie had to do was sign an NDA in return. And so, Cassie, or excuse me, Carrie had said that this conversation she had had with Cassie went down at a pizza parlor or some type of pizza restaurant over in California and that Cassie had told Carrie essentially that she was milking the assault. And what ended up happening was that Carrie felt that Cassie didn't have her back in this type of situation. Carrie in turn ended up just taking the $30,000. She signed the NDA and she hasn't spoken to either Cassie or she.

did any sense because she felt like Cassie didn't have her back and the summary of the direct examination was there's no pending lawsuits now yeah look this is another example what I think the prosecution is doing very well with Cassandra Ventura who is the star witness in this case alleged victim number one before they even called her to the stand they had two supporting witnesses the hotel employee from the 2016 event a male performer who was hired or allegedly hired to have sex with Cassandra Ventura, you had the 2016 tape that was introduced to support her credibility before she took the stand. After she takes the stand, now you have Don Rashard and you have Kerry Morgan who are further seemingly trying to corroborate Cassandra

Ventura's testimony. But what I think is interesting about Ms. Morgan is she's talking in a way where it supports the prosecution's argument of a pattern of abusive women, right? It's not just one woman for the racketeering and sex trafficking charges, this is ongoing. This is multiple people. You know, this pattern of illegal activity that there are people who were there, witnessed it, supports Ventura's claim. So she's a key witness, and I understand exactly why she was called by the prosecution. But obviously, you know the defense is not going to take this lying down. They too had an opportunity to cross-examine Carrie Morgan. What was it like? Um, was it the same intense questioning as you described of Don Richard?

Not necessarily. So Mark Agnipelow was handling this questioning. So this is the first time we've seen him actually question a witness since trial has started. It was pretty interesting to kind of see him in action. He actually kind of was cracking a little bit of jokes with Carrie Morgan at the beginning, mainly just about him wanting to finish the questions up pretty quick because he knows that she wants to be done with her subpoena and be able to just leave. He says that and then the cross-examination takes longer than just a few questions.

So thank you so much, Mark Agnifalo. But one thing I thought that it was interesting that he did during the cross-examination was he actually kind of took it back a little bit and asked her about Don Richard, which I was like, kind of where is this going? Why is he asking about Don Richard when it's Carrie Morgan testifying? And so Mark Agnifalo started off with a photo of Don Richard, Kalina Harper and Cassie Venture over at that Central Park Festival. And I was like, why is he showing this?

Carrie Morgan and me speculating a little bit. I think they were trying to kind of introduce this photo and bring this exhibit photo in front of the jury because while Don was on the stand, she had always said that she's always with Cassie. She's seen her and she's seen Cassie and Diddy a number of different times. But then Carrie Morgan, who's been her best friend for 17 years, said she didn't know who anybody in the picture was beyond just Cassie. And so I think that was kind of a point that they were trying to, I'm trying to a little bit discredit Don Richard's testimony there. But then Mark Agnifalo was asking about how long Carrie and Cassie had known each other. They had met since high school.

Mark Agonifalo brings up Ryan Leslie. That was Cassie's boyfriend before she was with Diddy. He's a music producer. And from Carrie's perspective, they began dating around 2004, and they seemed pretty serious. But then they brought it back to how often did Carrie see Cassie and Diddy together? And she being Carrie said she saw them a few times per month. that she would see Diddy and Cassie together at the studio, at their homes. They traveled together.

Then the defense brings up Burning Man again. And I keep bringing up Burning Man. The defense keeps bringing up Burning Man. And apparently this was something that Cassie and Diddy did together. It was kind of like their little tradition of going to this music festival out in the desert together. And so they brought that back up. And one thing that I thought Mark Agnifalo did, which was also pretty interesting too, was ask Carrie if Cassie was jealous of Kim Porter. and Carrie says that she was, again, something that Cassie had admitted to while she was testifying, too, because Carrie said that Cassie was jealous of Kim Porter.

Kim Porter, again, being the mother of some of Diddy's children, that Cassie was jealous because she could never go to the New Year's Eve parties, and I guess that must have been a big family gathering between all of those families, and Cassie essentially wasn't allowed to go to that type of thing. So then the defense asked Carrie about who was paying for the studio time because they were always in the studio. And Carrie said, I guess the label and the label being bad boy, the defense asked if Diddy put Cassie into the studio with other artists like Kid Cuddy and Lil Wayne. And then Carrie was like, I never said Little Wayne. And then I think the defense was just kind of trying to throw it out there that because of Diddy, Cassie was able to work with like these big names such as Kid Cuddy, who's been mentioned a number of times, Lil Wayne. Carrie said that she also remembers Cassie working with French Montana, too short. All of these artists were in the studio with Cassie. Then the defense asked about Diddy's jealousy and that Carrie kind of always saw the drama play out.

Then she was asked about Chris Brown, another celebrity name that was mentioned a couple times during this trial where the defense asked about Chris Brown and that Diddy was jealous of Cassie dancing on Chris Brown and that Carrie says she actually doesn't remember this whole entire incident happening because I think this incident with the Chris Brown dancing was like 2013, so what, 12 years ago now at this point? And so then that's when we get to another big celebrity's name. That was Michael B. Jordan, and she was asked, Carrie was asked about the movie shoot over at Honey 3 that was taking place in South Africa. She was asked about Cassie essentially blocking people, including Diddy, a time where Cassie and Diddy were not together, according to Cassie's perspective that Cassie just was blocking him.

She wanted him out of her, out of, um, out of her mind while she was shooting this movie because they brought about, they brought back Gina into this whole situation. I'll get there in just a second, but Carrie kind of confirmed that Cassie and Michael B. Jordan were just speaking to one another, that they weren't dating, that they weren't intimate, that they weren't like this more than thing that Diddy himself kind of made it out to be because essentially that was a big argument between Diddy and Cassie was just, that Diddy felt like Cassie was cheating on him with Michael B. Jordan, or at least pursuing Michael B. Jordan in a romantic fashion. Then Carrie was asked if she saw Cassie doing drugs in

South Africa. And Carrie said that she didn't see Cassie doing drugs in South Africa. And then again, the defense trying to kind of confirm whether or not that Cassie and Michael B. Jordan were together. I thought that was just a kind of a weird moment. It's just like she already said that she said that they weren't together, but the defense kept bringing it up a little bit there. then they segued into Gina and that Carrie confirmed Gina was kind of a big problem and this was another point she was saying that he was having a full blown relationship with this little girl and so the defense there had to be like was this girl of age and so that was kind of a whole moment where like they were kind of equating Gina to being a little girl because Gina was much younger than Cassie and Carrie at the time but still the defense had to verify like oh this is not a minor we're talking about this was still an adult woman by law, but that Carrie essentially called Gina a little girl and that she wouldn't go away. And then one thing that was kind of just a crazy utterance, I will say, is that Carrie said that Gina actually got pregnant.

And so don't want to necessarily confirm that the father of this child was ditties or anything like that. But apparently this was something that was just kind of thrown out there. It wasn't really kind of delved into or anything like that. but just something Carrie threw out while she was under cross-examination by the defense. Then Carrie was asked whether or not there were times that Cassie wanted Carrie to cover for her, and Carrie says she doesn't remember. Then they get to the whole incident where Adi was allegedly being on this door with a hammer,

and that no one took photos of the door, that police didn't show up until three hours later, because this was after the hotel incident, and police asked Carrie what all had happened. said she wasn't at the hotel when Diddy had physically assaulted Cassie, so she didn't say what happened there. Carrie confirmed, again, that she didn't call the cops. The cops had come because of all the noise that was going on. And she was asked again about her text messages with Christina Corum, again, that being one of Diddy's head assistants. And Christina, or excuse me, Carrie referred, all these Cs, all these Cs, sorry about that. But Carrie confirmed that Christina was like the right hand of Diddy and that she was always nice and that she always tried to

help something that I feel like the defense will definitely possibly use later on a little bit. Then she was asked a little bit about her relationship with Diddy's employees, again, naming names like Christina Corum, D. Rock, Derek Roche as well, too, that they were all friends. And Carrie Morgan had talked about a person named Mia who we expect to be testifying. And Carrie had said that Mia had a ton of energy, something that you kind of have to have to have the stamina to work with Sean Combs. And so we got a little bit about that there. Then she was asked about the 2018 incident where she was hit with the wooden hangar and that Carrie got a concussion. And then the defense was asking her why she stopped being friends with Cassie. Carrie says that Cassie wasn't supportive of Carrie after Diddy had hit her. Carrie says that Cassie never even reached

out to her after this incident. They were essentially verifying that the $30,000 didn't come from Cassie herself that essentially Cassie was the middleman and again that Carrie says Cassie offered money to sign the NDA so Carrie wouldn't publicly speak about this and the defense asked why she's not friends with Cassie if Cassie didn't specifically harm her something that they were kind of going on and on about as far as her cross-examination goes today and Carrie says it was simply just because Cassie didn't reach out to her even after the fact later on we were shown some more exhibit photos, those being of Carrie, Cassie, and a woman named Bona together. Bona is somebody who had also filed a civil claim against Diddy, somebody that we possibly expect to be testifying

for the government in this case, but that's not 100% sure just yet. Diddy, or excuse me, the defense, Diddy's attorneys were asking Carrie if Carrie, Cassie, and Diddy all did drugs together. Carrie said yes, something that she had answered to under direct. The defense asked if there was times that did he wanted Cassie off drugs and Carrie confirmed yes that did he actually sent Cassie away to Mexico to get some type of treatment for this and they were asked if Bonna brought drugs to Cassie and Carrie did kind of confirm that then we saw an exhibit photo this one a group photo it kind of I couldn't tell if it was a selfie or just someone taking the photo and everyone was just super close together but Carrie kind of verified some of the people

that were in there like Eli Maroon Rob Holliday Kiki Palmer um Deontay Nash, a person named Luba, Bonna and Cassie were all in this photo together. And I think the defense was trying to kind of get at, you know, you guys did all these things together. You guys were best friends together. You got opportunities to go to places maybe you wouldn't have if your best friend wasn't dating a big giant mogul at this time frame. And so the defense was asking, did you guys have a lot of fun? And Carrie verified yes. Was it exciting for the wrong reasons? And Carrie verified yes. And Carrie had also said so, or the defense asked Carrie, you love Some of them, some of them being the people that she's no longer friends with,

but that she knew during her time being around Cassie, being around Diddy. And she said, yes. We saw, again, another photo, that being the Burning Man photo with Lucas White, Dallas, Austin, Diddy, Carrie, all in Burning Man together. The defense asking her, did you have fun? She said yes. And she was asked, again, from your perspective, were Cassie and Diddy in love? And she said, yes. From your perspective, he was flawed.

Carrie said yes. Did you try to help Diddy be a better person? She said, yes. Then we see this text message from Diddy to Carrie, where he said, hey, I never asked you to call me, but it's about Cass's birthday. If you can, it's a five-minute call about her B-Day. I couldn't tell or I couldn't necessarily see because I really do have that eyesight. I'm sorry about that. But this long text message that was sent back from Carrie to Diddy.

And it was essentially in summation about loving oneself. and that Carrie says she actually didn't remember sending this text message. And again, this message, it was kind of, it looked like a poem, and it was very kind of hard to see and kind of get all grasp of that. But I don't think these were Carrie's actual own words. I think these were a poem from some other author. They brought back the wooden hangar incident and kind of ended on that, just about whether or not Carrie recalled doing drugs,

if there were drugs on the table, and that did he came in during this point, accusing Cassie of cheating on him. Carrie didn't remember who this person was that Cassie was allegedly cheating with and then the defense brought up just her prior statements to the government from 2023 so a little while ago and just that when she had spoken to the government

during this time period that she had actually said she went to the hospital after this incident but while she was testifying today she said she went to urgent care which according to Carrie she said that she thought they were just one and the same as far as urgent care hospital just kind of thought it was similar at that point.

And so she said that there was no police response to this incident and that Carrie took photos, but she doesn't have them today. Then she was asked whether or not the government subpoenaed Carrie's devices. And Carrie didn't turn over her communication devices, but she said she wasn't subpoenaed for those devices. So there was no type of photo that we saw of just the aftermath of this incident or any of that sort. The defense kind of brought it home with just these photos of Diddy and Cassie together along with Carrie.

And this was after the 2017 Met Gala and they're all kind of posed together on the streets of New York. And they seem like, you know, had we not heard all this testimony, it seemed like just a great group of friends. But I think the defense was trying to kind of point out here that this was a fun time for you, that there was love here for you guys. And they really just kind of brought it home as far as just that this was just like a big just friendship. fallout just from everything that had happened, something that may have worked into their favor, but it's unclear to tell sometimes with the jury and how they're responding to all of that. Yeah, it's a lot of information. It's a lot of power dynamics, relationship dynamics, and we've talked about it with Cassandra Ventura, too, you know, this idea there were maybe

great parts of their relationship or there was a love there, but the difficulty is, is she's claiming, and the prosecution is asserting that she was a victim throughout this. And, you know, when you listen to Kerry Morgan, an important witness, an important corroborating witness, but at the same time, they may have been friends, but think about what she's testifying to now. Elizabeth, before we wrap things up, real quick, I want to talk about David James, who I think is an important witness, because this is not a friend necessarily, this was the personal assistant of Sean Combs, and if we're talking about racketeering in what the first few pages of the indictment, I don't care which indictment we're looking at.

They're all superseding. They talk about the assistance and the people who might have helped or facilitated Sean Combs' criminal empire or alleged criminal empire or a part of this. That's why I think the assistants and the bodyguards are all a part of it. Not necessarily, I mean, that they're charged, but their testimony is important. And the idea is that Sean Combs ran this criminal enterprise where he can't do it by himself. So real, real quick, David James, some highlights from his testimony. And by the way, is he going to continue his testimony into tomorrow?

Oh, he's absolutely going to continue his testimony into tomorrow. He probably was on the stand, not more than even 20 minutes before the judge just kind of wrapped it for the day, sent the jury home, and then he'll continue with his direct examination tomorrow. But as far as David James goes, he was somebody I was kind of looking forward to his testimony as well, Because to your point, Jesse, I really kind of want to hear from the employees at this point and just everything that they had went through because it seems like from the government's perspective, they're really just kind of honing in on the forced labor kind of perspective of everything, especially when it comes to this RICO conspiracy, because that's the number one question that a lot of people have on their minds as far as the people I've been speaking to is just how is the prosecution relating this to RICO because I think people have one idea of RICO in their mind, but kind of hearing how they're just slowly kind of piecing it together. you can kind of see it from both ways. But as far as David James's testimony goes, he did say he was testifying because he was ordered to do it by a subpoena and by that order. He's essentially there to tell the truth. And so this was a former personal assistant of Diddy

who had worked for Diddy for about a two-year time period from 2007 to 2009. And that's when we see some photo exhibits of Diddy. It's just kind of like a standard photo of him on a red carpet. And then we see a photo of David James himself as well too. And so he says as far as his work goes with Diddy that it began around, again, that 2007 time period in 2005, just a couple of years before he went to Michigan State. Shout out to Nick. Then he moved to New York City as an executive assistant. He wanted to pursue fashion and then actually saw this job description by the New York Times and said that he applied to this job and this job being a personal assistant of Sean Puff Daddy, Puffy. Combs again in the New York Times and applied to this position a couple of times and

let me just kind of date it here a little bit Jesse because this was before you know we were able to just all apply through jobs through LinkedIn or through any of those type of job boards online that he said that he faxed in his resume he emailed his resume and he went to drop off his resume in person something that you don't necessarily see nowadays but overall he said that he ended up going for an interview a bad boy entertainment something that's at 7-10 Broadway or previously was. And he had met with this woman named Basha, somebody who was the senior VP of Bad Boy.

And this is where his voice kind of gets a little bit of shaky. I couldn't tell necessarily if he was about to cry or if he had a little bit of allergies or that sort. But it seemed a little emotional to me where Basha had told David around this time period, it's Mr. Combs' kingdom. We're here to serve him. And I think that might have kind of pointed in the prosecution's favor there

just about what the employees of Diddy had to do in order to kind of, one, keep their job and two, just kind of how the workflow was. But essentially, he was given a bunch of tasks that he had to complete for his interview. He said he actually dropped off all his requirements that he had to do for this interview in order to get this job to a woman named Dia. He said that he did this like on a Monday and finished everything up. And I guess Dia had mentioned that normally it takes like prospective employees like a week to do this thing. but David James was one, he was ready to go, essentially. And so Diddy himself ended up kind of getting in onto the job interview and asking David James why he would make a good personal assistant.

And David James said something along the lines of, I'm not worried about yesterday, I'm focused on today. And then he kind of did a play on words to Diddy's song, Can't Stop, Won't Stop. And that was something that David James had conveyed to Diddy himself. Then we start to get like some exhibit photos of just some other employees that we had previously seen in the exhibit. such as Capricorn Clark. She was the former director of communications for Sean John. That was Diddy's fashion line.

And then, but he said that his actual supervisor at the time was Dia, who was the chief of staff at that time. And he said his responsibilities as a personal assistant were essentially to operate for the chairman of a company. He said it was also to travel with Diddy. He said that his job duties included arriving at Diddy's home before Diddy even wakes up. He would compile a bunch of different documents. He would get together Diddy's business schedule for the day. He would get together press clippings on any type of press that had mentioned Diddy's name that he would kind of help compile together. Then he said his job was honestly to wake Diddy up as well, too, wait for him to be done with breakfast. And then from breakfast, they go with security.

And then they would just be on the move. They would either go to dinner later on during that evening. They would go to the studio. And a lot of people have been mentioning a lot of stuff at the studio, obviously. he was like this mega producer slash rapper slash executive so you know the studio is always kind of mentioned as far as being a little bit of ditty's home away from home essentially and said that he couldn't leave he being david james couldn't leave until he got the call time to be in the next day and that that call time would come in at night but he said he worked pretty long hours you know if

it wasn't five days a week six days a week it was seven days a week so he's he says he's working essentially seven days a week's one time three weeks straight which is a lot of time but he says that he got over time he said his pay around that time was $70,000 given that time frame that's a pretty substantial amount of money I guess but um he was asked about kind of riders for hotel rooms were different than writers for TV appearances and writers are essentially um just everything that the artist the person who's going to be interviewed needs stocked into um I guess in the hotel in one perspective, but also for TV appearances and those dressing rooms. So they didn't touch too much on the hotel aspect, but I think, again, the prosecution kind of amping it up for what might be

later to come. Then he was asked about just other members of the staff, such as security and their roles. The security's roles were to protect Diddy, his family, his property. He mentioned names like Uncle Polly, D. Rock, Big Tim, bonds, some familiar names that we had all heard about in other people's testimony. David James was asked about security carrying legal weapons. He said that Uncle Polly carried a knife. That security didn't carry illegal weapons. And that security at one point told David James to kind of stay in his lane and not get

too into the weeds of everything that they were doing. Then they started kind of really just familiarizing other people amongst his staff, such as a person named Amanda. Then we saw an exhibit photo of Chef Jordan, who was Diddy's personal chef. someone who, again, we expect to be testifying very, very soon. Then David James was asked about Diddy's girlfriends, and I was expecting to hear him say just Cassie's name, but he didn't say just Cassie's name. He named other people such as Sarah, such as Tara, such as Yanna, and then Cassie during his time working with Diddy. And so then they started kind of getting into Cassie,

of course, and they were asking how David James had met Cassie. That was at Diddy's Miami home. that Diddy had rented a yacht during this time to essentially kind of impress Cassie around this time frame. I didn't get down to date as far as when this was, but I imagine it's probably around that 2007, 2008, 2009 time period because that was the time that

David James was working with with Diddy. But as far as his conversations with Cassie, the first ones had happened in Star Island with Cassie and actually Carrie Morgan, so everything's kind of intertwining there. That Cassie had said something along the lines of this lifestyle is crazy and David

James had said, if it's so crazy, why don't you get out? And then Cassie said, because Diddy pays for her car and for her home and kind of helps build her career. Then he recalled another incident where, yeah, another incident where Cassie was telling David James about her album, an album that never came out, but that they were listening to songs. Cassie seemed pretty proud of it, but again, this album never had come out. Then David James was asked about Kim Porter. Again, Kim Porter being the mother of some of Diddy's children, and that Kim Porter was referred to as Diddy's queen, whereas Cassie was right where Diddy wanted her to be, and that she was moldable, that Cassie was a moldable person, and then that there were some disagreements about Cassie's

career, that she wanted to sing and model and essentially do more of her career, and that's where the direct examination ended today. So I assume when we get back tomorrow morning, that's exactly where they're going to kind of pick up and see how they kind of lay out everything as far as what all he had seen, what he had witnessed, possibly what he had heard. So it'll be interesting to see where his testimony goes tomorrow. Look, again, like you said, the inner workings of this enterprise and the people who help facilitate it. Very important for racketeering. Plus, anytime you're listening to employees who work these long hours and maybe against their will,

you're thinking of forced labor, which, again, is one of those predicate underlying crimes that, you know, the prosecution is asserting to prove racketeering conspiracy. I did think it's really interesting that Cassie had allegedly said to him, why don't you leave? Well, he pays for everything for me, and he's, you know, he's Sean Diddy Combs. Not I'm in fear for my life. I can't leave. I'm scared of what happens.

That's an important point that I'm curious if the jury picked up on. Listen, Elizabeth Miller, thank you so much for the incredible detail, the play-by-play of what happened for each of the witnesses today. continue to be covering this trial every day and elizabeth will be in there every day thank you so much elizabeth great seeing you thanks jesse and that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar everybody thank you so much for joining us and as always please subscribe on youtube apple podcast spotify wherever you should 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.

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