Law&Crime Sidebar - Resurfaced P. Diddy Clip Puts Spotlight on Young ‘Adopted Daughter’

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Internet sleuths have unearthed an Instagram video that Sean “Diddy” Combs posted in 2020 to advertise for his dance-a-thon fundraiser. As Combs now faces charges as part of a federal trafficking investigation, there have been questions about who the girl is and her actual connection to Combs. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sat down with Eva Sullivan to discuss it.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST: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.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Rousseau must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Yes, it was breaking news. Did he adopt it and white child? I want you to tell the story about how I adopted. is getting attention this time involving a young girl was it just a silly quarantine video made during the pandemic or could there be something more sinister going on we're going to discuss it all with a former prosecutor right now welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime I'm Jesse Weber

so we have been trying to do our best to react to everything you're reacting to when it comes to the Sean Diddy Combs saga there's so much out there what's true what's not what's relevant what's not and right now there is somebody who has been in the spotlight quite a bit this teenager has been thrust back into the spotlight this comes after an old video of her and sean combs has recently gone viral again and you may have heard of her eva baroni she was part of a video and a live stream that was posted to the rapper's Instagram account back in 2020. And now that the 54-year-old is behind bars in New York on federal charges,

concerned fans remember this very odd interaction. So with that, and we're going to go over it, I want to talk about this more with former prosecutor, Ava Sullivan, who is back with us here in studio on sidebar since the last time I saw you. We got this plant. A lot has changed. Good to see you once again. Thanks for coming back.

Great plant. I don't know if it's real or not. I don't know. I knocked it over. I don't think so. Well, first can I start, it was the last time we had you on, I think we were talking about Jennifer Lopez, generally speaking, before we even talk about Ava Barone, do you think it's fair that we're going back or people are going back and looking at everything Sean Combs has

ever said, every interview he's ever done, any kind of interaction he had with anybody that's been caught on camera? Is that fair? I mean, on one hand, from me, I look at it, I say, look what he's facing, look at these charges, what else could be hit with? And maybe everything's relevant, but on another hand, is it just too much speculation? What do you think? I think it's totally fair. There's a judge in an unrelated case, and one of the things he said is what you put to the public belongs to the public, and what you keep for yourself private belongs only to you.

Whatever P. Diddy put out in the public world is all fair game. And what goes on the Internet lives forever, right? Stays there forever. And with that, I want to talk about this. So to be very clear about something, I want to set the stage. Combs, who was once said to be worth nearly a billion dollars, this is according to Forbes, he was already facing explosive allegations from multiple civil lawsuits when his homes were raided back in March. And based on the evidence that was collected, including surveillance footage and electronics,

plus dozens of witness accounts, the Southern District of New York took the case to a grand jury, and that grand jury indicted Sean Combs on three federal counts, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Basically, they're accusing Combs of using his power, his influence, his wealth, and even violence to force people around him to help facilitate freak-offs, these elaborate and lengthy sexual orgies that were often filmed. Talking about the Sean Combs allegations, these theories kind of sends a shiver. down your spine. So can I just take a minute to tell you guys about something else? Something

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and use our promo code sidebar and you'll get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. So what is it about this old video of Combs with a girl named Ava Barone that is giving people the creeps? Take a look. Yes, it was breaking news. Did he adopted and white child. I want you to tell them the story about how I adopted you. But you still have beautiful parents that, but you're my child also, please tell the story. So, I was on the streets and then Papa Combs decided that he would like to be a caring man. So then he saw me and decided to pick him. And he saw me and decided to pick Mia. And to come inside and play with his kids. Yeah. Yeah. Now, according to insiders, this was all a joke. It was streamed during the COVID-19

lockdown. And as everyone was going a little stir crazy, Combs has said in the video that he had gotten permission from Ava's mom to legally adopt her. But to be clear, that never really happened. Ava Barone apparently was good friends with the twin daughters that Combs had had with Kim Porter, Delilah, and Jesse. Kim was reportedly good friends with Ava's parents, so she was around all the time. She was often photographed with the twins. Now, Ava has been quiet on social media recently, apparently even removing her Instagram, and for what it's worth, the username at one point was Ava Barone-Comes.

So Ava talking about Ava. Even when this was posted in 2020, people thought it was kind of awkward and weird, but obviously, given all the allegations, people are looking at this in a different light. What do you make of the video? There's a lot of interesting things that may come out of it and people may want to come out of it. But right now, it's a non-story.

Right now, all you have is a independently wealthy individual who goes on TV 2020 saying, I adopted this daughter, whether or not he adopted Ava or didn't. we don't really know. We know that adoption records are sealed, especially in California and New York, and typically the only people that have access to them are the adoptee, the biological parents, and the people who adopted the child. So we may never know if it's really the situation that he adopted her or what comes out of it. But I think the interesting thing is the potential of what could come. We know that P. Diddy had seven kids.

One of them he actually really did adopt Quincy. And there's a lot of questions about, did these kids attend the party? If Ava was his adopted daughter, whether real or not, was she treated like a child? And what are the implications with her being treated like P. Diddy's other kids? She's saying she could potentially be a witness for the government if she observed any of this criminal conduct. That's something that we're thinking about. Yeah, she could, but right now, we don't have any evidence to suggest that. Now, to be clear, no one has suggested, the government has suggested.

None of these civil lawsuits have suggested that she has any role in anything that he's accused of. But it is a fair question to ask. The fact that she deleted her social media, could that be that she maybe is getting so much unwanted attention now? Or could it be that she is speaking with prosecutors? We don't know. We know that... But it could be a possibility. It could be a possibility, sure. And I think as we wait and see how the case unfolds, if she is speaking with prosecutors,

I'm sure that she's going to have a spotlight and we're going to hear a lot of information. Would it be common for someone who is speaking with the government cooperating in case to delete their social media and for what purpose? You could delete your social media, yeah. But, you know, it's everything's case by case. The prosecutors may tell her, like, don't post anything. Right. But to delete may just be she's trying to distance herself from everything. The larger question is, of course, the big elephant in the room, is in multiple lawsuits.

And by the way, there is a Texas lawyer who has come out and says that he plans to file over 100 lawsuits on behalf of multiple alleged sexual assault victims of Sean Combs, 25 of which will say that they were abused by Combs when they were minors. One even says nine years old. So when those allegations come out, and although he isn't criminally charged, yet, I should say, criminally charged with respect to minors, people look at this video of Ava Barone and him kissing her on the cheek and being around her and say, could she potentially be a victim? Now, this is purely allegations at this point, right?

Because there's nothing to suggest that whatsoever. Again, he hasn't been criminally charged with respect to anything to do with minors. But that is part of the conversation. Could she, in fact, be a victim? What do you take away from that? She could. But right now, based off of the facts we have, it's a non-story with Ava. Yeah.

Now, according to the New York Post, Ava's parents are keeping their distance from Combs. And you can see at the bottom of the video that Combs is pushing viewers to donate to his virtual dance-a-thon that Combs had created the fundraiser to raise money for health care workers and other essential people who had to work during lockdown. On April 11th, by the way, of 2020, Combs actually joined with his ex-Gennifer Lopez for the Instagram Live. They ended up raising almost $4 million for direct relief with Sorok Vaca kicking off the fundraiser with a $1 million donation. So you're kind of seeing there was other things put around it.

So if you were representing Ava Barone right now, is there any, she put out a statement, if she's trying to live her life and she's getting these kind of this attention, what are her rights? I think she should stay silent. Yeah. She shouldn't put out a statement or anything, especially if she's working with prosecutors. We don't want a situation. Again, like we spoke last time with J-Lo, it comes back to the same thing. You don't want canon father for a cross-examination. So if I was her counsel, let's say work with prosecutors, lay low, keep a low profile.

And the thing about putting out a statement, that's really dicey because the Internet has a forever memory. always going to remember what you put out there. And I'm sure the prosecutors right now are combing the internet for anything that they can use to help build their case. Could that video be used at a trial and for what purpose? I think that video doesn't show anything illegal that's taking place. But let's say there is a video that shows something illegal or a photograph. Like let's say, for example, P. Diddy's notorious parties. If you had a picture, of a celebrity like Jay-Z at one of the parties. That could be used in the sense that it creates a treasure trove for prosecutors to get information.

They could look at that photo and they could say, okay, we know illegal things were happening at these parties. So let's get a search warrant. And the way that it works in a recent unrelated case, you know, the government argued that they're able to get search warrant for an innocent third party to be able to search their property where they have probable cause that there's a crime. So what would that mean if, let's say, there's a photo of a celebrity at one of P. Diddy's parties where we know crimes were taking place. Well, they would get the search warrant and they'd say, you know what, I want to get into, let's say, Facebook. The photo is placed on Facebook. I want to get all their photos now and see what, what, uh, what, what, uh, what comes out of it. Now, the interesting thing about that is, let's say it's Jaycee.

You could get his photos, and they don't even necessarily need to tell him that they're getting it from Facebook. They just get it. That's a good point. That's a really good point. I guess one of the things that I've been thinking of as well is, let's say, for example, you had minor children who were around these legal, coerced, drug-fueled freak-offs, but they weren't a part of it, but they were there. They were present. I could see that being a form of child endangerment. And the reason I say that is, when you look at the racketeering conspiracy charge that he faces, there are a number of underlying crimes that they're saying proves that he was the head of this criminal organization that was engaged in illegal activity.

Bribery, arson, kidnapping. Now, he's not specifically charged with those crimes, and some of them are even state charges, right? But could you throw a child endangerment charge in there and say, that's another example of this racketeering criminal enterprise? So if you have evidence of children being at these freak-offs, not participating, but could that support a child endangerment-like charge for the racketeering case? Does that make sense? Yes, absolutely. I think it could. You know, what are the elements of child endangerment if you acted in a way that endangered the well-being of a child?

Having them at a party, let's say there's drugs everywhere, that could very well endanger, especially a nine-year-old. You don't want a nine-year-old doing cocaine. and if it's readily available, yeah, I think it could definitely bring that into question. Now, to be clear, this isn't the first time that a video of Combs with a teenager has gone viral since all of these allegations of sexual assault and abuse were leveled against the rapper. There has been a lot of speculation in recent months that some of Combs' former protegees, in particular, Usher and Justin Bieber, that they may have been victims of Combs alleged bad behavior. Usher, he spent a year with Combs in the 90s in New York when he was 13,

14 years old. It's been called Puffy Camp 2009, and then 15-year-old Justin Bieber spent a couple days at the music moguls mansion. Videos of the 48 hours with Diddy were posted on YouTube. In 2011, Combs and Justin appeared together on Jimmy Kimmel live on ABC, and Combs raved about the young singer, referring to him as a little brother in the music industry. Kimmel then makes a comment about Combs buying a Bentley for his son and then suggested that maybe Combs would buy Justin a car too. When is that coming, that Lamborghini? We talked about this last time. He had the Lamborghini for a day or two,

and he got access to the house, and he knows better than be talking about the things that he does with Big Brother Puff on national television. And then he went on to say that everything ain't for everybody. So, you know, if I look at that, again, going back to how much do we take away from videos like that, strange videos with Justin Bieber, strange videos of him saying,

you don't talk about what's happening. Now, that could be just a wild party, a wild experience, or that could be something illegal. What do you take away from that? They're all treasure troves. They may not within themselves lead to a particular bit of evidence, but it could be enough to get a warrant for probable cause, and then you start seizing things. You could do a search warrant for Twitter, TikTok, and see what develops out of that. I want to ask you one more question as we talk about this.

So, Sean Collins is not charged currently with anything to do. do with minors, nothing about solicitation of minors. Even though those, as I said, those were allegations in other lawsuits, even though Tony Busby, this Texas attorney says that he's going to plan to file multiple lawsuits where many of these accusers say that they were minors when they were abused. The government, some would say the government had to move as quickly as possible to try to prosecute Sean Combs to arrest him because if you really think he's a danger, then you got to get him arrested immediately and locked up before he can commit any more crimes. The other way of saying it is prosecutors could have built their case until they were ready to hit him with everything they

can. The question I have is, A, do you think in light of everything I just said, there is going to be a superseding indictment where he could face charges with respect to minors? And why wasn't that brought already as part of the original indictment? I'm going to answer your questions in reverse. So why wasn't it brought already? Probably because they didn't have enough evidence for it. If they had enough evidence initially when they brought the indictment, they would have charged it. Now, with the class action we have of the 120 individuals, 20 of them we know were minors at the time of the allegations, that maybe out of it comes enough information to bring another indictment against him.

And if they do get that information, then they will. So we are in a very flexible, fluid situation to see what happens with Sean Combs. And again, I think it's important to address what even might be a minor video because people are talking about it and to see if it has any relevance and what might come from it. And the fact that Ava Barone has remained silent, completely understand. Not surprising, given the situation and the allegations again, Sean Combs. But, you know, look, we wish her the best, wish her and her family the best, because this is probably not an easy time without spotlight being put on her.

Ava Sullivan, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever we get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

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