Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy’s Mom Blasts Rapper’s Sex Trafficking Case: ‘Public Lynching’

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Janice Combs, the mother of Sean “Diddy” Combs, released a statement over the weekend condemning the public and media for what she called “lies and misconceptions” concerning her son. Combs is in a New York jail as he faces federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes what she has to say with Beverly Hills attorney Mitra Ahouraian.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. As rapper Sean Diddy Combs faces new accusations nearly every single day and awaits trial on federal charges of racketeering and sex crimes, he is at least one supporter standing squarely in his corner. We're analyzing his mom's newly released statement, and there's a lot to unpack. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. So it's been three weeks since police arrested rapper and music industry leader Sean Diddy Combs out in New York. This was pursuant, of course, to a grand jury indictment from the Southern District of New York. Now, the arrests had been long expected because we saw that raid on two. of his homes back in March. Homeland Security investigators swarmed Combs' multi-million

dollars homes in Miami and Los Angeles, removing boxes of evidence, including electronics. It's believed the raids and the Southern District's investigation of Combs really took off when his ex Cassandra Ventura filed a lawsuit against him in November of 2023, claiming he abused her sexually, mentally, and physically during their 10-year relationship. Combs, to be clear, denied any wrongdoing, settled that lawsuit. next day, although, to be clear, the exact details of that settlement were not released, but the ball was now rolling. And soon other supposed victims of Combs came forward with allegations of their own. And then in May, security video from inside a Los Angeles hotel

purportedly showed Combs chasing down Cassie down a hallway as she reportedly tried to leave a freak off back in 2016 and then appeared to violently beat her on tape. By the way, those freakoffs are described as sex parties that Combs allegedly held at his home and hotels were witnesses say he allegedly brought and paid for sex workers that these people would be forced to take drugs and have sex, sometimes for days on end, that these were coerced sexual performances. And that video, by the way, of him purportedly beating Cassandra Ventura went viral worldwide. And it seemed to prove what the victims were saying about Combs. This was visual evidence. And not long after, Combs posted an apology video to Instagram, which was later removed.

And in the indictment against him, prosecutors say Combs offered money to members of the hotel security team to stay quiet about what happened. In fact, bribery is one of the alleged overt acts that prosecutors are trying to use to point to the overall criminal conspiracy. They say Combs is a part of that he was running this criminal organization, that he was engaged in a number of different crimes like bribery and kidnapping and arson. In total, though, Combs faces three federal charges, though more could come in the future as the case progresses, but right now he's charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs and his team have denied any and all wrongdoing, and his lead counsel has said that

Combs looks forward to proving his innocence in court. He may even take stand in his own defense. But for now, he is locked up with no bail in the Metropolitan Detention Center out in Brooklyn. By the way, as you can see, we have been trying to cover every major update in the Sean Combs legal case for you. And needless to say, I'm very busy, but I can tell you this. And I have to say, there is something that I use that has made my life a little bit easier. It's called Upside. It's a sponsor of ours. Upside is awesome. This is a free app that It helps you get cash back when you buy gas, groceries, food. It's so easy to use.

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or scan the QR code on screen. And use our promo code sidebar, and you'll get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. Hope you can check it out. Now, Combs family has stood behind him during his legal struggles. His sons showing up to the federal courthouse for his arraignment and bail hearings. But there have been few public statements that have been released until now. That all changed. That changed on Sunday when Combs's mother, Janice Combs, released a statement to WPLG in Florida through an attorney who was based in Fort Lauderdale. And quickly, a little background on Janice Combs. She raised her son and daughter in New York City as a single mom after Combs's

father was shot and killed when he was just two years old. Combs appears to have a very close relationship with his mother, naming at least two of his management companies after her. His birthday gift to her also went viral in 2020. It was a new Bentley and a check for $1 million, but the 84-year-old was hospitalized back in July after having reportedly suffering from chest pains. A source told NBC News that the stress of her son's very public downfall was too much for her, and she was later released from the hospital. In fact, more recently, she offered up her Florida's home equity as part of her son's $50 million bail package that his legal team offered to two different judges, but that was denied twice. Combs was denied

pretrial release for a variety of reasons, including prosecutors' accusations that he had been contacting witnesses and victims in the case. But with all of that in mind, now I want to get into Janice Combe's statement. And I'm going to go through each section and break it down, but I'm not going to do it by myself. To help me do it, I want to bring in Beverly Hills attorney, Mityra Hurrian, who knows a thing or two about entertainment, the law, the intersection between the two. Maitre, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Always a pleasure. Nice to be here. And wow, to everything that's been going on with this case. Yeah, it really is, it really is something to say the least. So I want to go through this statement.

And the statement begins, quote, I come to you today as a mother that is devastated and profoundly said and by the allegations made against my son, Sean Combs. It is heartbreaking to see my son judge not for the truth, but for a narrative created out of lies. To bear witness to what seems to be like a public lynching of my son before he has had the opportunity to prove his innocence is a pain too unbearable to put into words. Like every human being, my son deserves to have his day in court to finally share his side and to prove his innocence. So, Mitra, that's how the letter starts off, calling it a public lynching. That is very strong pointed words.

What's your take on that? Not only strong, but an unfortunate use of the word, you know, in a country where we have a history of physically lynching our black brothers and sisters. So to use that word is no doubt deliberate, but also quite dramatic. And I don't know that the use of that word is necessarily something that's helpful to her statement. So, you know, that's a lot. The statement, of course, you're, you know, you mentioned she's a single mom. This is her baby boy. They're very close.

You know, he takes care of her financially. And she's very proud of him. So no mom wants to see or admit that something like this could possibly be true. Before we get into more of the statement, why do you think this statement was released now? So her son had been criminally indicted. He was arrested. He was facing all of these lawsuits. He's currently locked up.

Talk about a PR nightmare. I've mentioned it before even if he were to be found innocent of all the charges, found not guilty of all the charges. and let's say all the lawsuits were dropped. I think it would be quite an uphill climb for him to recover his reputation and his business. But why would why do you think she wanted to release a statement through her attorney now? I think that she probably feels very helpless. When someone you love is going through something, you want to do everything you can to, you know, figure out a way to help them.

She put up her home to try to, you know, get him released on bail. That didn't work. You know, and she, I'm sure, feels like she has to do something to say something to speak out against her son. And this is really probably the only way she knows how right now. Let's go through more of the statement because that was just the first part. So then it seems that Janice Combs speaks about Cassandra Ventura, but to be clear, she never calls her by name. This is what she writes, though. I'm not here to portray my son as perfect because he is not.

He has made mistakes in his past. as we all have. My son may not have been entirely truthful about certain things, such as denying he has ever gotten violent with an ex-girlfriend when the hotel's surveillance showed otherwise. Sometimes the truth in a lie becomes so closely intertwined that it becomes terrifying to admit one part of the story, especially when that truth is outside the norm or too complicated to be believed. This is why I believe my son's civil legal team opted to settle the ex-girlfriend's lawsuit, instead of contesting it until the end. resulting in a ricochet effect as the federal government used the decision against my son by interpreting it as an admission of guilt.

So Mitra, Janice Combs seems to be saying if his legal team, if her son's legal team hadn't settled with Cassie like they did, her son might not be in the situation he finds himself in. Possibly. You never know how things like this are going to play out. A lawsuit could be filed. It could go away and nothing could happen. In this case, you know, it did. did have this ricochet effect, but I think what's really interesting, I mean, Diddy didn't not tell the full truth about some things. He got caught in a lie. Let's be very clear about that. And I don't think that this is, you know, the only physical evidence that is going to come out. One of the things we're taught in law schools, you have to get ahead of bad facts, right? And so these are clearly bad facts. We know he lied. We know that he was violent against,

you know, his former partners. And, you know, we sort of know that these parties and these sexual type exchanges happened. You know, we don't know that the allegations are true, but we know from enough people that there were things that were of a sexual nature. And so I think that there's no way not to address that. I don't know if she should have been the one

to address it in this statement. It almost sounds like coming up with excuses or excusing him in some ways. I understand the sentiment of, I'm, you know, my son's not perfect, not everyone is perfect, but that doesn't mean he did this, right? We hear this in defense all the time. We saw it with Johnny Depp, you know,

he's not perfect, he has drug and alcohol problems. There was, you know, there was abuse in that household, but that doesn't make him an abuser. So we see that all the time, but I think that that argument needs to be left to the defense and not to his mother because it comes off as sort of excusing it. I thought it was interesting. She admitted essentially that he was lying and that it was him on the tape. So here's the thing. When he released that apology video, I said at the time,

he knows he can't be prosecuted for that tape on a state charge of assault or that because it was the statute of limitations had run. But that could still be used in a federal case like it's being used here. It's part of the racketeering charge. And I would also say probably the sex trafficking charge. But the thing is for her to come out and say, yeah, he lied. Yeah, essentially, that's him on the tape. I thought that was very curious. And it makes me wonder if she had coordinated with her son that she was going to release this statement. I'm sure that there was coordination. But I will say this, you know, regardless of the consequences, the genies out of the bottle, right? So there's no way that, you know, that fact is not coming out. There's no way

that video that everyone's seen is not going to impact a jury. Good luck finding a jury who hasn't seen that video. Well, he's going to, it seems based on what his legal counsel said recently is not denying that it's him, but saying this is not an instance of where he was beating Cassandra Ventura because she was trying to escape an illegal freak off, that he was beating her because of a domestic spat. We'll see if that actually holds water, if that's That's a viable defense, but that seems where they might be going. Okay, I want to continue on with a letter, though, because it says, quote, it is important to recognize that none of us, regardless of our status, are immune to fear or mistakes.

Not being entirely straightforward about one issue does not mean my son is guilty of the repulsive allegations and the grave charges levied against him. Many individuals who were wrongly convicted and later exonerated had their freedom taken from them, not because they were guilty of the crime they were accused of, but because they didn't at the image of what society considers to be a good person. History has shown us how individuals can be wrongfully convicted due to their past actions or mistakes. So Mitra, there's a lot to break down there, that even if you were to say that's him on tape beating Cassandra Ventura, it doesn't mean he's the head of a criminal organization. That if you see him using drugs,

it doesn't mean that he was supplying prostitutes or sex workers with drugs to force them into these kind of sexual escapades. And that's fair. You can't say one piece of evidence shows that he's guilty of something else, but it does help the prosecution's case. It does lead to these claims that were being made against him to make more credible. And I guess the question is, let's say, and I'll throw it to you, let's say he really is innocent of the charges that are being brought against him. And he didn't break the law and he's innocent and so proven guilty. But would there be any way, even if these charges were dropped, even if he's acquitted, let's say the lawsuits evaporate would there be any way to come back from all of this i don't

think so um i think that there are too many people involved um and the facts are if they are facts i'll say alleged facts of course um you know if these allegations are true then even if you know even if they're not true to that extent i think there are enough people that that are sort of witness to some things that are you know that are questionable even if not to this degree and i don't think anyone wants to sort of touch this which is you know you've mentioned also like celebrities are not speaking out i don't think anyone wants to touch this because it's so the allegations are so bad so i don't think he comes back from this because these types of stories i will say you know having grown up in l a haven't worked in hollywood stories have been circulating

for decades so I think that the fact that things are coming to the forefront now I think that there was a video where he lied about that what else is he lying about so even if he's innocent of some of these things I don't think that he's going to recover from what's happened to his image I want to continue on with this statement because Janice Combs writes this watching the world make jokes and laugh at my son's life crumbling before our eyes is something I can never forget. It is truly agonizing to watch the world turn against my son so quickly and easily over lies and misconceptions without ever hearing his side or forwarding him the opportunity to present his side. These lies thrown at him are motivated

by those seeking financial gain and not justice. These individuals saw how quickly my son's legal team settled his ex-girlfriend's lawsuit so they believe they can receive a quick payday by falsely accusing my son. False allegations of sexual assaults. assault thwart true victims of sexual violence from getting the justice they deserve. To make matters worse, the federal government is now using these lies to prosecute my son. This injustice has been unbearable for our family. The worst part of this ordeal is watching my beloved son be stripped of his dignity, not for what he did, but for what people choose to believe about him.

Now, Mitra, a few things there. A, it seems to be that she's suggesting that all of these lawsuits are from people who want a quick payday, that they're not telling the truth about what happened to them. that they only came forward because Cassandra Ventura had settled her her lawsuit with Combs and that the government's key witnesses are these accusers, right? We don't know exactly who's cooperating with the government, but it seems that she's suggesting it's the people who have sued her son. What do you think of all that?

I think it's fair. You know, you have 120 people who have now come out. Apparently the lawyer in Texas had about 3,000 people call his office and 120 of those people were vetted and those cases were taken on. So there's, you know, it's a fair thing to say. There are people that are after money. They're after some compensation. And I don't think that, you know, you have to think about just because that that's the case. Doesn't mean that they can't be witnesses. Doesn't mean they're not telling the truth. And she ends her statement by saying I ask his supporters, fans, colleagues, friends, and the public to not judge him before you've had

the chance to hear his side. I beg you to think about those who have been. wrongfully persecuted to remember that not everyone who has made mistakes in life deserves to have their entire existence judged by a single action or a few mistakes. My son is not the monster they appointed him to be, and he deserves a chance to tell his side. I can only pray that I am alive to see him speak his truth and be vindicated. Mitya Hurrian, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Pleasure.

And one thing I'll just add is makes me believe she could be called as a witness, at least, during his sentencing if he's ultimately convicted. Well, 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 Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. right now on Wonderry Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.