Rotten Mango - I Spent 8 Hours In A Courtroom w/ Diddy & This Is Everything He Did
Episode Date: May 8, 2025Some attorneys say the case is decided before opening statements in a trial even begin. They believe the trial begins and ends during jury selection. Picking 12 people to decide what happens to Sea...n “Diddy” Combs. Some potential jurors come in - stating they’ve seen the hotel video of Diddy and Cassie. Others mention that they work at HBO - the same company that released a documentary on Diddy’s case. One juror mentions that they work at the very jail that Diddy is currently housed in. Diddy intently listens to the jurors getting questioned. At times - he shakes his head no, he smiles, he takes notes, and he jokes around with his famous attorneys. And sometimes…he looks back and stares at the members of the press. There are no cameras allowed in a federal courtroom. But we were there and we want to tell you what we saw. Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com
Transcript
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Tuesday, May 6th, I walk into this room in New York City.
I'm already nervous.
My plane was delayed.
I was supposed to be here yesterday.
The room itself is so daunting.
It's huge.
It feels like it could fit 100 people, 200 people.
I have no spatial awareness.
It feels like a cathedral church without the peaked ceilings.
The ceilings are tall.
They're made out of wood,
and everything about it feels like you cannot talk above a whisper. That's the energy of this room.
So right when you walk in through the double doors, you've already walked through this like
carpeted hallway where you can hang your coat, double doors open up, there's two retired law
enforcement officers next to you, they're wearing bulletproof vests. They're retired?
Yes, and now this is their job.
So all of them are retired law enforcement.
So you walk in, and the first thing you notice
are church pews, just rows and rows of church pews.
You got the left side and the right side,
and then above that, and I'm just trying to paint
the picture, there are 10 massive chandeliers.
Huge lights, but chandeliers makes it sound
very fancy and there's crystals hanging off of it. They look like the ceiling boob lights
everybody hates. But they're huge. I don't even think I could hold it with my arms all
the way stretched out. And there's 10 of them. So to give you scale of this room, it's grand.
Interestingly enough, magnifying these ugly ceiling boob lights tenfold actually does make them look prettier.
So there's 10 of them lined up in rows of two
right above the church pew.
So five on the right side, five on the left side.
And then you have this like wooden little barricade,
like a little wooden fence.
I mean, you could easily jump over it.
There's a little door.
But beyond that, there's more rows and rows of seating.
But they have computers and they have better chairs with cushions and at the very front of the room
You have this podium and this rope painting
It's it's a massive artwork that takes up the whole wall and it's made out of rope that's been tied together
And it's different colors and it's probably two of me standing tall and you walk in and it is
Incredibly awkward the church pews are just rock solid wood probably two of me standing tall and you walk in and it is incredibly awkward
the church pews are just rock solid wood
you know it's good wood but every time you inch your butt you feel like the whole pew is vibrating
you can feel other people moving and by hour four everybody's inching their butts
because it's so sore from the solid wood pew
and it's awkward because almost everyone just sits uncomfortably on one
side. Now this is going to probably change on Monday, but during jury selection, we're all
seated pretty much on the right side. So the left is empty? The left side has a few people,
but barely any. So we're all gathered on the right side and we're not even condensed to like,
oh single file, let's fill out the first few rows. We're all scattered around the right side and we're not even condensed to like, oh, single file, let's fill out the first few rows.
We're all scattered around the right side.
So at the very front row, you have the court sketch artist
and they're going to be looking at Diddy diagonally.
So he's sitting right in front of the left side row,
the pews.
And so we get like a diagonal from behind view of Diddy.
So the court sketch artists are at the front,
there's about two to three and they have, I didn't know it was this big because when I look online it looks like a little thumbnail. I thought they bring in a little not stare into Diddy's soul. Yeah, I guess
I'm they're trying to get all the details of every defense attorney the judge the prosecutors of Diddy and
Then behind them you have a few empty rows and then like a few scattered people
these appear to be people associated with Diddy's legal team or
Supporters of Diddy aka his friend was there. So his family aren't there yet. They're going to show up for opening statements, but they're not here for jury selection.
One friend is there.
He was sitting two rows in front of us.
And then you have the in-house.
Was he the one wearing the free Diddy shirt?
He was pleasant.
He didn't really talk to anybody, but yeah, he was sitting there.
And then behind him, you have the court reporters.
And then behind that row, you've got us, members of the press. That's where I was sitting there and then behind him you have the court reporters and then behind that row you've got us members of the press that's where I was sitting and
when you get there you sit down and the place feels like 90% of church 10% the
back rooms it feels intentionally uncomfortable and you're just sitting on
this rock-solid pew and the one saving grace of this entire place is there's
massive windows that are covered in sheer curtains so you can't really see out but if you do take a peek it's the most
beautiful view of New York City and the Hudson River but nobody is looking
outside we're staring at this one door near the front of the courtroom because
that is where Sean Ditty Combs is gonna walk out of. The man on trial for
racketeering two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of
transportation to engage in prostitution.
It's interesting because when he walks in, his presence is kind of like a shrug.
My researchers and I were staying up all night, we're trying to find analogies because there's no cameras allowed,
and I want you guys to get not even just like the visual, because clearly you guys know what Diddy looks like,
but the feeling that I personally got, it's like a shrug.
When someone walks into a party
There's a few ways that people react
I feel like the first way is oh my god who is that who is that person and people start asking you're like
Oh, that's that person and then you have times where people walk in you look at your friends and you just go
You just shrug like I don't know who that person is. Do you know who that person is? I don't know why they just walked in here
It's just very Unassuming, there's
no strong presence. He just walks in. So it wasn't as intense as you thought it was going
to be. Yeah, there was nothing. Less presence. Way less presence because you hear all these
reports about how he does have this very magnifying, electrifying star power
none of that
but there is a lot of tension
and it's interesting because this room is massive
but all of the tension, all of the energy
is just lopsided to the front of the courtroom
because that is where the judge, the prosecutors, the defendant, Sean Diddy Combs, the defense team
they're all there and at some point during the many hours that you sit there,
it kind of starts feeling like a one-way window or a one-way mirror.
I overheard some people say it feels kind of like we're watching a movie
or we're watching fish in an aquarium.
There's no interaction between the two sides of the room.
There's no conversation, obviously. There's nothing.
It just feels like we're watching something that maybe we're not even supposed to be watching.
Like we're silent flies on the walls and we have to be silent and we can't comment and no one's talk
and we don't exist to them. That's interesting. It's a very, it feels like an invisible force field
in the middle of the room. Just boom, there's the force field. Yeah. Cause you know, like when
you're even in public, you don't want to stare at people. No, but all of us are just staring out.
I wonder if that's why it feels so intriguing.
Because you're not supposed to staring at someone, like analyzing everything they're
doing in person.
And you know what's crazy?
I did catch myself staring so intently because I'm jotting down notes and I'm watching because
I want to make sure that I get all my notes accurately, right?
So I'm staring up like this.
And then I made eye contact with someone who works at the court and it is
very weird I did feel like I'm breaking social norms yeah and it feels very
uncomfortable it feels like a force field and then all of a sudden it breaks
because Diddy will turn around or tilt his head and he will stare back and this
is a man and my researchers warned me because their flight did not get delayed so they came on Monday
and they said, it's not like he's looking at one person specifically
I mean I'm sure he's looking at his friend, I'm sure he's looking at the people that he works with
but it's not like he's looking at the members of the press
like he doesn't really care about the members of the press like that
he's not like, hey that one person I'm gonna stare at you
but he will look at all of the members of the press
sometimes- like one by one
yes, it feels like one by one now, it's not like he can spend at all of the members of the press. Sometimes- Like one by one. Yes, it feels like one by one.
Now, it's not like he can spend a lot of time looking.
It feels like he's doing maybe a few faces and then he'll wait, turn around, do another few faces.
Yeah, but there are- I would say I could count many a times I felt I made eye contact with Diddy.
And I'm not saying this as like he wants to look at me or he was specifically looking at me, right?
But it's just he's trying to see who's in the courtroom
and the way he makes eye contact, I think that was more jolting
his presence was a shrug but his eye contact is very intense
he reminds me of someone who just does not break eye contact
it feels like he's staring into your soul.
There was one point where I thought I was going crazy and I looked at my researcher
who's sitting behind me and she was like, she's mouthing, what?
There was one spot he's looking in maybe me, the person next to me or the person to my
right and he just wouldn't look away to the point where I felt like all of us started
looking away first.
Wow. You know, we were talking to other people and there were like all of us started looking away first. Wow.
You know, we were talking to other people and there were a lot of people that felt similarly.
It feels very challenging when he looks at people. It doesn't feel like zoning out. It doesn't feel
like, huh, I wonder why these people are here. It feels challenging. That's the best word.
So is he doing this on purpose here or is this how he always...
I personally, I don't know him.
I personally feel like this is how he is.
I don't think that he cares about the members of the press that much.
This is just how he always looks at someone.
He holds his eye contact and he doesn't break it.
No.
It feels like he sizes up everyone.
And it's not even like we're important or anything to him.
But it just is very interesting.
So this is week one of jury selection for the Diddy trial. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to
support the Joyful Heart Foundation.
They're working to transform society's response to SADV and CA.
This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing
team and allow our team to travel to New York City to attend the trial. We'd also like to thank our listeners for your continued support as we work on our mission to be worthy advocates
As always full show notes are available rotten mango podcast comm a few disclaimers before we get started
Regarding content warnings that are themes of SA and DV
Secondly certain portions and quotes have been shortened and condensed and or combined for brevity now third
This is a very thick disclaimer,
but Sean Combs is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Everything reported on in this episode
and throughout the trial is public information.
Any descriptions or observations regarding the defendant
are personally noted by myself or my two researchers
who were present in the courtroom.
Seeing these things happen in real time with our own eyes,
that's what we're telling you
but just because we feel something and see something does not mean that our experience and statements are valid reflections of the truth
our interpretations of random things that we saw in the courtroom are our own opinions
shared for the purpose of reporting on current events because they don't allow cameras
none of this should be used as a definitive source for how someone feels about Diddy
and especially not for deciding if you think he's innocent or guilty as the trial is ongoing
so with that being said, let's jump into a super brief recap
we did 4 deep dives into Diddy's case in 2024 after his arrest
part 1, we cover the FBI raids of his mansions, the leaked hotel security footage of Diddy
allegedly physically assaulting Cassie, his girlfriend at the time, and multiple accusations
from victims allegedly harmed at Diddy's infamous so-called freak-off parties.
In part 2, we cover Diddy's history and lore, including allegations against Diddy's son,
their yacht parties, the untimely death of Diddy's ex-partner and mother to his children,
Kim Porter.
Part 3 was an interesting one.
It covers a lot of different connections that people have made between Diddy and
13 people who have mysteriously passed away including Biggie,
Tupac, and the
1999 City College incident that killed several people in a crowd crush at an event promoted by Diddy himself
Then in part four we went over the rumored Diddy's list which includes all the internet allegations about celebrity friends who internet users believe may be
connected to ditties infamous freak-off parties and now starting Monday May 12th, we're gonna be doing daily episodes
Daily updates on ditties trial. There are no cameras. No live streaming allowed in federal courtrooms
There's no way to really get that type of information
We can't even bring our phones or laptops in.
Everything is even just hand notes.
It's very serious.
He is facing one count of racketeering, conspiracy,
two counts of sex trafficking,
two counts of transportation across state lines
for the purpose of sex work.
Diddy has rejected a plea deal,
and he is facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment
if found guilty on all charges.
So this week, this past week, was jury selection.
Opening statements are projected to start Monday and in some sense it kind of is Diddy
fighting for his life. there will be multiple in-person witness testimonies
including Cassie, Diddy's ex-girlfriend from the hotel video and we will be
giving you guys daily updates on all of that as well. so with that being said,
let's get started. I think the only thing that matters in a courtroom and I was
doing so much research about this
before we went into jury selection, not we, but you know, is that the 12 people that are
on the jury, this is the only thing that really matters, is that they like the defendant more
than they like the prosecutors, or vice versa.
That's what the government, that's what the defense are trying to do.
Does this person like us maybe a little bit more than they like the other person? Obviously that's very simplified, but is
it? Some jury experts believe trials can be won or lost in jury selection. The
first week, the first few days. I was watching a ton of videos reading articles
written by attorneys and I find it fascinating that most of them say jury
selection is not about selecting a juror.
It's about deselecting jurors. One jury expert puts it a little more blunt. You're trying to
get rid of the jurors who are going to ruin your case and will not be receptive to your arguments.
Don't focus on jurors you want. Focus on jurors you don't want. But in that same regard, you have
to ask yourself, if I try to get this person out of the jury,
am I going to have a less desirable potential juror replace them?
Other attorneys candidly write on Reddit, pick your leaders and pick your sheep.
That's the rule that I live by.
You need four people who you think you can really speak to, and they got to be leaders.
And they're going to listen to you.
And then later when they deliberate, they're going to lead the followers to the answer that you want
Wasn't one of the latest addition to Diddy's team a
Yes, a jury a jury consultant. So her whole job is this yes
That's all she's doing and she does that for many trials now others say pick your leaders
Yeah, that's true But also pick them wisely you want thinkers, strong leaders that are great at advocating and leading conversations that also like you.
But you don't want strong-willed jurors.
According to one attorney, strong-willed, domineering jurors are the most dangerous because they try to drag the others with them.
Letting one of these into your jury can ruin the entire jury.
Pay attention to the degree of certainty and confidence in which they respond to questions. If in
any way, it's not even about the question being asked, because a lot of the questions
being asked during jury selection are very repetitive. Are you going to be able to not
be biased? Yes, you saw the hotel video, but are you going to be able to put that aside
and not be biased? The questions themselves don't say a lot, but attorneys say it's the way the
jurors answer the questions. If in any way they exhibit a tendency to challenge the question,
strike them. Get them out. One jury consultant says trials aren't completely won in lost injury
selection, but all lawyers acknowledge it's a big part of winning. Pick the perfect jury and your
job gets so much easier. Make some mistakes in jury selection and you're essentially
down 10 points with a minute to go because how jurors brains work matter
more than how you present the case. I believe that is the most important phase
of the trial to which one famous jury consultant says, jurors are not empty
cups. you know they're not little empty cups where lawyers get to pour their
information in from both sides and see which one they like. Jurors serve as
filters. The way they process the information distorts some of the
evidence before arriving to their decision. Basically saying, it doesn't
really matter how good your case is, if someone has such a strong fundamental
bias against your case that you did not catch during jury selection, you might as well quit and move to Florida and change your government name
because you're not going to be able to convince them.
That's how these attorneys describe it. Surveys done on jurors, a lot of them,
they actually start forming opinions on everyone in that courtroom.
I mean, obviously not people in the pews,
everyone in the courtroom before the trial even starts.
they're typically looking at, a lot of the times, the prosecutors and the defense attorneys
and obviously the defendant.
they're typically looking for competent, energetic, organized attorneys who seem appreciative,
patient, sympathetic, good listeners.
they're looking for a pleasant presence, not the shrug presence that Diddy brought,
but I don't think they care for that for him.
Progressively as the days go on, Diddy does seem to get a lot more confident.
The first day that he walks in, he's wearing a white collared shirt, dark navy sweater on top,
it's your very typical court defendant outfit.
His hair is grayish-white white and the way that my researcher
describes it the very first day because his demeanor does change a little bit
the second day she says. She says this is not Puff Daddy. This is a man named Sean
Combs. This is a 55 year old man with probably a bad left knee which I would
say is very accurate. There were multiple times throughout the first week of trial
where either did he start slapping his left knee under the table like just really
slapping it. it's not loud but you can see like he's slapping it or chopping it
or where there's brief moments where everybody stands up and stretches to use
the restroom he will start stretching that specific left knee. he'll like lift
it up in a 90 degree angle and kind of move it in circles and then back down. I
digress. now since cameras are not allowed in the courtroom, I think the courtroom
sketches, they're incredible. I think there's some debate about them online. I
think they're beyond the scope of my capabilities so I can't say anything but
sometimes maybe it's my brain rot frontal lobe. I just have a hard time
trying to picture him from the courtroom sketches. Like even during his previous
court appearances, I just couldn't understand what he looks like. so we
have an edited picture for you. this was done using photoshop. this is not like an
AI generated image. it's literally a photo of Diddy and we, and by we i mean
the RMT members who actually know how to use Adobe unlike me. he does look pale. he
looks like he could use a lot more vitamin D but it's not like he can put
in a request for that.
A lot of people say that he's lost weight. I think that he gained quite a bit of weight before getting arrested,
and compared to that timeline, he did lose weight. But he doesn't look particularly frail or anything of that sort.
He's still quite the sturdy-looking guy. I thought it was interesting because visually, he looks a lot older than 55.
He looks a lot older than 55 he looks a lot older than he is
really yes he looks like he's like jail is doing a number on him however however this is the weird
juxtaposition i felt when he moves around minus his bad knee the visual he looks a lot older
but he's he's not slow he doesn't seem unwell. Like I feel like he could run a mile.
Maybe it's the hair.
Maybe. And I do think it's the lack of sun, probably.
And when he needs to get up from his chair, I mean, this man is up.
For example, when a juror walks in or when a juror walks out of the courtroom during individual questioning,
so it's one juror at a time, did he and the defense team typically stand up?
He's pretty quick with it. He's not gripping the sides of his chair
or the table to get up.
He's not even slow.
He's trying to make a good impression,
is the feeling I have.
He's very, he's up.
He's very respectful.
On two specific occasions,
my researcher and I were scribbling in our notes
and we both looked at each other
because Diddy, we felt, in our opinion,
shot up out of his chair quicker
than he normally does and we look and it's a very beautiful female juror with
a lot of assets yeah really yeah and we were we both wrote it individually in
our notes like the way he just shoot up yes and the way he just kept lingering
and staring like I have all the other attorneys sat down first
And then he sat down. I mean he could have been zoning out and thinking about lunch or the case. I don't know
So the white hair does kind of throw it off
It seems like he's turning into a full-blown grandfather, but physically he seems fine
Day one he walks into the courtroom and my researcher was telling me and he did this again day two
He does this practically every day in court He starts coming out into the courtroom shaking all researcher was telling me, and he did this again day two, he does this practically every day in court, he starts coming out into the courtroom,
shaking all of his attorney's hands, hugging them, then he puts his hand to his chest and
mouths thank you to the people who came to support him.
So other people, I guess, related to his legal team or his friend, they're in front of us
and he's like saying thank you.
Sometimes he'll look around and put his fist to his chest for his friend, again, his family will, I believe,
be there on Monday, so we'll see what his interactions
with them are, Diddy mouths thank you,
and you can't really hear it, and with that,
day one starts, it's a pretty big day,
a whole group of jurors are gonna be brought
into the courtroom, so this is again, same thing,
but they're gonna sit in the church pews directly behind Diddy. So they all get brought in behind Diddy using
the massive two doors that I came through. And I sit right, they come and they sit in
the pews right behind Diddy.
How many came in at a time?
Like 40.
Oh wow.
And they just single file come in and they just line around the pews. Okay, so they take
up like five, six pews and they're gonna be sworn in but while they're coming in in
a single file line Diddy and the defense are staring at them which makes sense
because a lot of these attorneys they write on online and they write articles
you want to know their age race gender probably even the way they're dressed to
get a grasp of do they have any certain hobbies socio-economic status what do their attires say about them? what does their posture say about them?
do they look annoyed to be here? do they look too enthusiastic to be here?
the jurors get sworn in and then they get brought back out of the courtroom
and then they go wait in another courtroom
so then they're each called in one by one for individual questioning
they are very serious because some of these people is going to determine Didi's fate.
Yes.
They only have that window of time to decide.
Yes.
I will say out of the...
I couldn't...
So Didi and his attorneys take two rows of the desks and chairs.
Linda Moreno, which is his jury consultant, was to me closer to the judge. So she's behind Diddy
I couldn't get a good look at her
But from his the like four attorneys that sat on Diddy's row
Diddy and Brian Steele young thugs former attorney they looked the more most intense when they stared at the jurors
They looked the most intense when they stared at the jurors
Whereas the other attorneys they were looking but it wasn't like it didn't feel so intense
Didi and Ryan Seale, I'm like, whoa just staring at their faces is variant like they're locked in
I'm sure everybody is but they look extra locked in
They walk in one by one and this happens multiple times, but it almost seems like every time the jurors come in, Diddy kind of nods. It's like he's doing
a head count but I don't think he's doing a head count. It's just a thing he does. He
has moments where he just nods, it feels, to me personally. And it's not a big nod,
it's like an ever so slight. Like you're thinking to yourself. You're nodding to yourself. You're not like confirming like oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's do that
Nod it's like to myself does it happen to every one or most of them or
When all of them come in in that single file line
He's kind of nodding the whole time day one both of my researchers were freaking out and telling me I'm like
time. Day one, both of my researchers were freaking out and telling me I'm like in the car on the way to meet with them and they're like there's this moment
where after the jurors leave, he turns around and his hands are at hip level
and he kind of rubs them slowly. It's not sinister, it's not like creepy like
hmm-hmm. It just felt like okay let's do this. It didn't feel like yeah I'm gonna take them it just was like all right let's go so now the jurors
are gonna come in one by one for individual questioning but before they
can even bring in the first juror you know when you're in a classroom for the
first time and you've walked in you sit down you haven't spoken a word suddenly
the teacher calls on you and you have no idea how to project your voice because
you're like I don't know if this is loud enough when my teacher is all the way over there,
like I don't know, but then I don't want to scream because that's embarrassing.
It's just like how far is my voice going to travel? I don't know. You're trying to grasp it.
Diddy's lead attorney Mark Agnifilo stands up to ask the judge, I'm constrained to ask for another
two minute bathroom break. I apologize. The judge is confused. Well, why don't we try to get through at least ten jurors?
So previously they already had another bathroom break and my researchers said it was so quick
I mean it just looked they were like I don't even know if did he peed
No, they say they also said we also don't know if he washed his hands because it was just too
They also said, we also don't know if he washed his hands because it was just too quick. Like, did he not pee or did he not wash his hands? Because they think in their timeline, maybe we're
slow movers, but they're like, I couldn't have peed and washed my hands like that in that amount
of time span. It was just so quick. It was super brief. Yeah. And then they have, and then court
is back in session. Then he's asking for another bathroom break. So the judge is like, well, why
don't we try to get through at least ten jurors where I mean
Do we really need to take one now?
Did he lifts his butt up from the chair tiny bit and I cross-reference both the researchers notes
He raises his hand near his head level and the pointer finger the index finger is slightly upwards, but it's not like pointing
It's kind of like oh, excuse me
But he's barely looking up at
the judge. He seems very meek the first day. He barely raises his voice and this
is when he says the nine or so words that everybody was talking about. I'm
sorry your honor, I'm a little nervous today. This is considered the first thing
Diddy has said in court. And did he get a bathroom break after that? Yeah, he did.
How long does usually one individual jurors session take? It really depends. Um, it's like
39 a day. And then there's group questioning. Yeah. And then there's also a few breaks and like lunch.
Okay. So it's like five, 10 minutes. Yeah. And then it really depends. Like some jurors,
if they don't answer yes to specific questions they
don't really ask anything more. I see. Recently Drake released this new song
and okay it's just not been a good year for Drake I mean I feel like years ago
he all the titles are like the new face of hip-hop now the article headlines are
are we sure Drake is okay? But maybe this is his comeback, maybe this is his partial recovery from what happened with Kendrick
Lamar. He's gonna release new music with engaging lyrics and this one song the
lyrics read, I've been in the house but I'm coming outside tonight. Yeah I love
how you always be speaking your mind. People want to meet up, talk about shit,
I'm vegan now. Evil eyes are staring at me and I see it now. Shout out to Brian Steele.
Take off the cuffs. We leaving now.
The whole song is called Brian Steele.
So who the hell is Brian Steele and why is there a song named after him on a Drake album?
Brian Steele is one of Diddy's defense attorneys, but he's most well known for being Young Thug's attorney.
This is the man that with his full chest said, Your honor, Young Thug? More like Young, truly humble under God.
That's what his name means.
He didn't say it like that. He said it much more eloquently.
But it was equally goofy.
He also shows a picture of Young Thug that supposedly shows him making the letter B with his hand.
Which I guess the prosecutors were trying to argue that means a gang that like that's
a gang sign pretty much that's a B which I think by a lot of netizens or really
anyone with some ocular capacity could see that it does indeed probably look
like a B it's like an eye exam and you put the super clear slide and you're
like oh yeah that's a B right and being like an eye exam and you put the super clear slide and you're like, oh yeah, that's a B, right? And being dramatic. But Brian Steele disagrees. He said
that is not a B. That is a P because my client, young thug, truly humble under God, is pushing
positivity. P for positivity. Listen, I don't know, you know, I don't even want to get too
deep into the Brian Steele lore and the young thug case because I might do a whole
Separate deep dive on that one. But now that same attorney is sitting on Diddy's left side
He's sitting right next to Diddy for jury selection and he is
interesting he's so fascinating and
This is the part where I feel like please listen to the wording and all of this
I'm trying to describe exactly what I saw in that courtroom and they're like we please listen to the wording in all of this. I'm trying to describe
exactly what I saw in that courtroom and there, like we went in with the idea of, especially
for jury selection, we wanted to see how the jurors would react to the defense and the
prosecutors. So yeah, I could have walked in and been like, I personally don't like
Diddy, so I personally wouldn't defend him if I were an attorney, so I don't like the defense attorneys like I could have just walked in like that, right?
But I did want to see from a more neutral perspective of maybe how some of the jurors would feel
And I will say Brian Steele is very likable. All of Diddy's attorneys are
incredibly likable if you remain neutral.
How in what sense? Yeah let me run you
through it and this is very interesting because there is a poet that reportedly
even said a jury consists of 12 people who decide who has the better lawyer and
if that's the case the prosecutors they're also a dream team they're like
heavy hitters but the defense they're basically courtroom predators
they look like the popular kids how many were there whoo there were a lot so on
the road that did he was sitting it was his two main leads and then two to his
left and then there were three in front of him and then there were a few in the
pews I mean this he's spending a lot of money a lot of money. A lot of money. It's reported, alleged, by a Young Thug song
that Young Thug spent $2 million for Brian Steele.
And I'm sure it was more,
because that trial was the longest trial,
I think, in Georgia history or something crazy.
His defense team are courtroom predators,
and I say that with respect and a lot of fear.
Have you ever heard the quote,
you don't get a second chance to make a first impression?
That's the feeling. So according to one attorney, trial attorneys are professional communicators with their body. That's what they're supposed to do. Or at least the good ones.
According to some jury experts, they believe at the very least, this is a very conservative number, a defense attorney's message is conveyed
55% through their body language and tone and not the words.
I'm not insinuating
that that's what's happening here with Diddy's team but yeah I think they're
all incredibly successful for a reason. One attorney says when you walk into
that courthouse you're on. Everyone is watching. In that courtroom the jury is
watching you not when you start talking. They're watching you from the moment you
walk in. Long before you say anything they will notice everything about you
and draw conclusions about who
you are. It is advised that trial attorneys, especially in the beginning,
perhaps practice smiling, a soft smile in the mirror, so they have a neutral,
natural resting facial expression. I don't know if any of Diddy's defense
attorneys stare at a mirror when they get home, but I would believe it if you
told me they did because they're incredibly polished, they're friendly, and aside from Diddy just sitting
there at their table, a lot of people in the courtroom seem to like the defense team.
They seem to have good relationships with the prosecutors, a lot of them used to work
at the DA's office.
Yeah, it seems.
Crazy.
I mean, not the defendant, I don't know about that, but the defense team.
So you have his lead attorney, Mark Agnifnifilo appearance wise, he has salt and pepper hair
i would say more like 70% pepper
i'll keep you updated on if that progresses one way or another during the trial
he has a bit of a rounder face
which actually makes him look a lot more approachable and younger
in a lot of the pictures i find of him online, he looks kind of angry
i think he usually gets his picture taken when he's mid-sentence talking about clients
outside the courtroom.
So he does look kind of his eyebrows are crunched together.
He doesn't look nice.
In court, he looks nice.
He looks mainly focused.
He doesn't look particularly stressed or angry ever.
And I'm sure that's something that all the defense
attorneys are trying to show in their demeanor he's got more of a geeky energy
to him he walks in with one of those backpacks that are like double the size
of his back it's like the backpacks that the smart kids have in school the one
with 10,000 different zippers which I feel like is less utilitarian and more
like bragging about one's finger dexterity but he has one of those
backpacks his energy overall is
The dad that you asked to take a picture of you on the iPad and then he'll take a picture of himself and hee-hee-haha
To himself. That's the energy. I'm not saying this is who he is. I'm not saying he's a great person
He has defended lots of questionable people
I'm just saying that's his energy if I know nothing about him and I walk in as a potential juror, like that's the energy I would get personally.
Mark Agnifilo is known for representing Keith Raniere, Nixxiom cult leader who was sentenced to 120 years in federal prison for similar charges, charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Keith Raniere also, he liked to wear the defendant's starter pack, white collared shirt, blue sweater, and the way that Mark represented Keith could tell us maybe about how he's going to talk
about his new client Diddy, he does the very typical, you might not like Keith Raniere,
you might not like what he did, it's disgusting, it's offensive, it's gross, ooh, all that
sexual stuff, but you can't convict him because everyone was a willing participant.
You can't convict someone for being disgusting and repulsive and offensive.
It's not against the law.
AKA, a lot of people think that the defense is going to try and say that there's no sex
trafficking in Diddy's case, that it's just Diddy being a swinger.
AKA, jurors, you might not agree with the lifestyle, but that doesn't make it a crime.
Now despite Mark's slightly approachable, unassuming look, he clearly is a very intense
man.
One person describes him as a boxer moving through the courtroom, controlled, watchful,
everywhere does a jab, every cross-examination is a calculated strike.
He has an unimaginable ability to navigate high-pressure cases.
One person says he's built a reputation off of taking cases to trial rather than settling.
He prefers to challenge government allegations head on.
To put it simply, this man is probably a tank
in the courtroom.
But this is still probably one of his
most challenging cases yet.
Now, side note, he has now joined his wife Karen Agnifilo
in defending Luigi Mangione,
so he is officially on that legal team.
Really?
Yes, and Luigi Mangione and Diddy are in the same prison or jail
One netizen comments people have mixed feelings about all this, you know fact people in America are
Constitutionally allowed to have representation. So you guys need to stop being mad as defense attorneys
Another comments people trash attorneys until they need one then they'll find out the true value
Another comments, people trash attorneys until they need one, then they'll find out the true value. But another netizen argues, just because someone has a right to an attorney does not obligate any particular attorney to represent them.
Agnifilo represents wealthy criminals because it's a good payday.
But another netizen has the opposite sentiment.
Lawyers are going to lawyer, believe it or not.
Defending criminals is not a crime.
You seem to be arguing in bad faith from a position of ignorance.
They argue back. I also believe everyone deserves a defense attorney, Claiming criminals is not a crime. You seem to be arguing in bad faith from a position of ignorance.
They argue back.
I also believe everyone deserves a defense attorney, but I also believe defense attorneys
that defend obvious monsters like P. Diddy will gain some bad monster baggage.
If he really believes Diddy is innocent, maybe he should defend him for free.
Others just say, seems like the Agnifilos are going to have a very prosperous year.
Financially.
Another nut is in comments.
I'm not shocked by this in the slightest he defends the worst of the worst
along with Mark Agnifilo you have Tani Garagos. Tani is she's so put together
I mean she walks in four inch heels she's ready for the day she's probably
most well known for posting a few tik toks last year more or less defendingdy on social media, which you can imagine social media and TikTok did not like
some accuse her of being a sellout, others point out that in one particular interview it appears that she's wearing white nail polish
I will say it looks a little more baby pink
and some just comment, you know what, no shame in our game
a lot of people, regardless of her own success thus far though,
she's kind of known to be a nepo baby.
But other people say, well, yeah, she's a nepo baby,
but she still is pretty accomplished in her own right.
Others comment, I love that she's following in the footsteps
of representing the scum of the earth,
just like her father did.
I mean, somebody's gotta do it.
I do think that watching her in the courtroom she might be an epo baby and maybe you can tell by some of her outfit choices or her bag choices
She looks she looks really rich and we might all have our opinions on people who defend Diddy
Yes, but the way she works. I think objectively she's very good at what she does. But what do I know?
She seems very in control. She's poised. She's sharp. Her father is famous attorney Mark Garagos. He's known for a lot of cases
He represented Hunter Biden Chris Brown Michael Jackson the Menendez brothers. He actually just took them on in 2023
So he was I don't believe he was part of the original trial
So he is advocating for a new trial then he represented Scott Peterson
Who is actively seeking to overturn
his murder conviction, by the way,
and we might do another deep dive on that.
But Mark Garagos has a whole podcast.
So he's not officially on Diddy's legal team.
But his daughter is.
Yes, and he's a long-term legal consultant for Diddy.
He has a podcast with TMZ called Two Angry Men which got him into
a lot of trouble recently. He goes on there and he calls the prosecution team a quote
six pack of white women to which later according to court transcripts the judge tells Mr. Garagos
when you say things on a podcast like six women all white my understanding is that you
got a six pack of white women that's not not, that's something that you shouldn't.
That no one should be saying as an officer of the court
and a member of the bar, right?
To which Mark Garagos responds,
I think when you've got a black man who's being prosecuted
and the client feels like he's being targeted,
it's an observation.
The judge doesn't seem to be having it.
I think this is ridiculous.
I think referring to the prosecution in this case
as a six pack of white women is outrageous
Alright, and I understand what you're saying about the cases and everything else
But I think this is outrageous and this would not be tolerated in any court from any lawyer
Anywhere across the nation and I'm going to be watching and I'm going to be listening. Alright, you have one more listener for your podcast
To which mark Garagos responds as long as you subscribe, I'm all for it.
The judge hits back, you heard me, and you've heard what I've said,
you know I'll be watching.
This judge is very intense.
This is the same honorable sir that just looked like he biked to work.
This judge is very multifaceted.
There's a clip of him walking into the courthouse,
and he's wearing athletic wear.
He has got his big headphones on, and it's very different from when he's in the courtroom.
He so far is a very compassionate, fair, firm, incredibly sharp judge.
He's so sharp.
His brain runs on five times speed.
And he's like a tank.
He's like, you guys have to tell me about lunch because I'm just going to keep going.
Yeah.
He's a Judge Supermanian.
He is a former clerk for Justice RBG Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
He's the first Indian-American to be the New York District
Court Judge.
He was nominated to SDNY in 2022 by former President Biden.
And now the clip of him walking into the courthouse for work,
it starts going semi-viral.
He looks so young.
He looks like an intern.
And I say that in the coolest, most respectful way, he's so multifaceted, your honor.
the comments to him, however, are unhinged. they read,
he's bumping to cassie's songs. he's listening to diddy's no way out.
some comment, i don't know why, but this makes me trust him more.
others say, i feel like the judges who take on serious cases like this should be provided security.
but back to the defense attorneys, you have mark, you have tenni, the lead attorneys,
then you have diddy. so this is the seating order, it's like, and i'm sure this is going
to change depending on what they're talking about, but mark, Tenney, Diddy, and then Brian Steele sits on the left of Diddy for jury selection week.
And according to the New Yorker and a defense attorney from Atlanta,
Brian Steele's from Atlanta, according to a defense attorney that worked with Brian Steele for 30 years,
he says, Brian doesn't drink.
He doesn't smoke.
He can't believe anybody would.
He won't curse, even in court, even if he's reading from a transcript. So when he's cross-examining, he will say so and so,
F word. The court will say you can read that out loud and he won't do it. He only
drinks water, his lunch is tofu or salmon, maybe a salad, no bread. I've never seen
him eat out. He'll bring a toothbrush to court. He exercises daily before and
after court, running, swimming, weights. He has three kids, a wonderful wife who is also his law partner, and they kind of idolize each other.
So his wife's name is Collette, and just a side note, I'm going in depth on all these
attorneys and I will go in depth later on the prosecution team as well.
They not entirely sure what the word would be.
They were less notable during the jury selection, I'm sure once opening statements start.
I mean, they're a very competent
team so we'll go in depth. I just want to paint the picture because we're going to be
talking about them for like two months. Yes, you can Google pictures, but there is like
a certain energy, like a synergy when they're all in the same room and I want you to be
able to picture it every day and not go through the same things because I think a lot of evidence,
witness testimonies are going to come up. We just won't have time for that. so he always says in the phonetic alphabet, see as in collette, which is his wife's name,
right?
apparently he's also superstitious, I haven't seen this yet, but he will allegedly kiss
a finger or tap on a table anytime death is mentioned.
apparently he likes to call his childhood friends mothers to tell them, thank you for
giving birth to my friend.
Also in 1992, Brian Steele was assigned to the case
of an illiterate man who was charged
with attempted murder in Atlanta.
He actually slept in the jail with him
because that man would not, he was distrustful of Brian Steele
and did not wanna say anything.
He was not the killer, or he was not the attempted murderer.
So he slept in that jail room
to try to get him to open up and trust him.
And Brian Steele apparently once said,
a fair trial is better than sex. He's also said,
I've defended people who cut out eyes and ate them. The system only works when the accused have real representation.
The more challenging the case, the more likely I'll take it. Do I like the person I'm defending? That's the main thing.
The reporter for the New Yorker asked Brian Steele if he would have represented Epstein.
He says,
I'd have to understand better all the facts and circumstances.
See, I don't believe allegations.
I go into believing the person is innocent.
So he's saying it's not that he doesn't believe the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein,
but he doesn't believe in allegations, I guess, until they're confirmed by the court of law.
I don't know. Netizens seem to have more positive sentiments about Brian Steele than many of the other
attorneys.
More people are defending his choice of defending Diddy.
Others are commenting, ugh, or a depletion.
Others feel genuinely offended because I think they were emotionally invested into Brian
Steele after the Young Thug trial.
Some people comment, I mean he's a defense attorney, defending accused, even bad people, and making sure that the state proves
their case is his job, i guess? to which someone comments, i don't think anybody's
going to hold it against him for not getting diddy out, right? except maybe diddy.
others say, dude's gonna make so much money, he's gonna do pro-bono work at the local courthouse
after this. other people say, i mean on an emotional level, i'm disgusted that
anyone would sign up to defend diddy, but outside my emotions, this is necessary.
state has to prove their case and defense attorneys don't always defend
likable people. his work is necessary even if i want diddy locked up. the New
Yorker describes him of having a boy scoutish manner and i could see that he
seems really interested in everything happening in court.
All the attorneys are.
No one looks like they're zoning out.
But he's sitting left of Diddy, and maybe this is a natural thing.
Maybe he's got a better right hip and he likes to lean to the right, right?
But being an attorney for a case like this, it could be argued that maybe it's all intentional.
He's always leaning closer to Diddy.
He's always resting his right arm on the right side of his chair closer to Diddy
because he's sitting on Diddy's left.
He also has the energy is Mark and Tenny are very serious.
They're not overly serious or aggressive or skeptical.
They're just very in work mode.
Brian Steele, there's a lot of moments where he seems- he appears to be having a good time sitting next to Diddy.
Really?
Yeah, it's like they're passing notes, Brian Steele is smiling, and again, look, I only know what I remember seeing from the other side of the courtroom
and my very limited research about Diddy's humor, but Diddy is a big personality. I have never read that he was known to be someone
who just makes others chuckle
at rapidly reoccurring frequencies, you know?
Not that I know of, but Brian Steele seems to genuinely enjoy,
I don't know about genuine, he seems to be enjoying
his time sitting next to Diddy in the courtroom,
but does he really?
We don't know.
Yeah, and he has a lot of interesting things that he does.
I will say I believe the tapping on the desk when death comes up because a lot of his movements are very repetitive
So he wears reading glasses if he is looking at the screen
He'll have them on if he's not looking at the screen
He'll take them off and he kind of puts the glasses tip into his mouth
He likes to stick things into his mouth be it a pen be it his glasses
He also has a bright pink water
bottle that he drinks out of and I'm like I always try to analyze is this very intentional
to come off very likable or is this genuinely just who this guy is? I don't know. He uses
I see him frequently use a pink highlighter. He's got this stance. So anytime there's a
break Diddy gets Diddy's not like lingering and mingling.
Diddy gets taken to the back because he needs to be held and there will be breaks where people need to go use the
restroom and the lawyers, they can come out, the attorneys, they can come out and they can talk, not to the members of the press,
they're on a gag order, but they can talk to their colleagues, they can talk to the prosecutors, they can talk to Diddy's friend, right?
And they all just seem relaxed,
they seem like the cool kids,
but Brian Steele has his go-to pose,
his blazer jacket is unbuttoned,
he's got his hands on his hips,
and he's got one hip popped out.
It's like a very fun dad vibe.
I don't know how much of it is so genuine.
I did read in a separate article that one judge said if Brian Steele cries in court,
he would believe it.
He's very genuine, is the feeling.
But I don't know.
I think he's a fascinating addition to the defense team.
And I'm not saying this like, oh, Brian Steele is a good man.
I don't know the man.
He's a good man and he's defending Diddy, so that must mean something.
That's not what I'm saying.
I think it's very smart that he hired Bryan Steele clearly Bryan Steele has
extensive history with defending against RICO charges racketeering charges which
Diddy is accused of but I do feel like to some degree was he brought on for
positive press positive associations because he was a huge meme during Young Thug
mm-hmm along with Bryan Steele we have nicole westmorland who also represented young thug.
notably she is a survivor of essay. she is the only black woman on his defense team so far.
and i would say if netizens like brian steele, less people know of nicole westmorland but more
people like her. a lot of people are really amazed at how she overcame trauma. she was essayed in the past and she became the successful attorney.
a few netizens are concerned about the conversation around her being an essay victim and her joining Diddy's defense.
some feel betrayed, writing,
she should be ashamed of herself for defending him then.
or another one that reads,
if she thinks mentioning her essay will be a strategy to help him, she's wrong.
which i feel like is all kind of icky, the commentary about her essay that is by random internet people.
And then you have Alexandra Shapiro.
She's got shoulder-length blonde hair. It's a little curly.
She looks incredibly athletic.
If you watch those movies about like New York City power woman who do it all,
that's the kind of energy she gives me.
She looks like she's an attorney.
On the weekends, she works on her novel,
her fiction thriller novel, and then runs marathons.
I don't know if she actually does that.
I don't know if she runs marathons,
but she is an attorney,
and she did release a fiction thriller novel in 2022
called Presumed Guilty.
And as someone who has to lay down
after going out for approximately one hour,
she seems like she's gonna be running circles.
that's- we don't know what she's gonna be deployed to do for this case,
but she represented SPF, she's described as a former big law titan,
she's also clerked for Ruth Gator Binsburg, but not at the same time this judge did.
others say, call Alexandra Shapiro if you can afford her.
additionally on the team, there's Xavier Donaldson, Anna Estavo, Jason Driscoll
they're all super successful attorneys but they're less talked about
so there's not many things that we can go off of, at least not on the internet
so I guess it'll be interesting to see what they do during the trial
but all of them do have a presence about them
they know what they're doing, they're likable, they're the popular kids.
One legal expert describes the team as, I'm looking at the team, especially on the first
day of jury selection, it seems like they've got people who are experts in their own kind
of general areas.
I think the team that Diddy has put together are some heavy hitters in their own rights
and they're working together as such.
But maybe at least for this past week, maybe the most important person on Diddy's team is Linda Moreno, the jury
consultant. She's here to help decide which jurors would be the most
advantageous for Diddy. And again, we don't really get to, like the prosecutor,
we're gonna cover it all. This is not like me just talking about Diddy's team.
It's just there were not as many notable moments and I think we won't really understand what angle they're going
for until the opening statements. Now, one attorney completely unrelated to all of this,
slightly controversial, bizarrely comments. Generally speaking, I mean there's all these
other small things you can do to find the right drawer. The heavy, rounded face, happy-looking person is the
most desirable. The undesirable juror is quite the slight, underweight, delicate type. Features
are going to be sharp and fragile, and he's got a very lean look. The athletic juror is
hard to categorize. Usually he is hard to convince, but once he's convinced, he will
go all the way with you.
As for Linda Moreno, she's a juror expert on anti-muslim bias in American jury trials.
The trial of Nora Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter, Linda Moreno got
her acquitted.
That was the first complete acquittal of terrorism charges in America since 9-11.
Now without getting too much into her cases, at least not in this moment, she does have
a fascinating way of picking jurors. For example, in one moment, she does have a fascinating way of picking jurors.
For example, in one case, she was representing a client that was charged with explosives.
She says, it's all about picking a jury.
So in that particular trial, one prospective juror talked about how her brother had served in Iraq
and how she had grew up in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
A lot of people on the defense team wanted to get rid of this juror because you're dealing with explosive charges.
This is not good. There's going to be a lack of understanding there. A lot of people on the defense team wanted to get rid of this jury because you're dealing with explosive charges.
This is not this is not good. There's going to be a lack of understanding there.
They don't want her on the jury.
But Linda Moreno wants to keep her.
She's saying she had a clear, strong voice suggesting that she thought about a lot of things and something she said really impressed me.
You would have to live through the war in Vietnam to understand why people did what they did
she said we're keeping her she was firm she said if selected she's gonna have the sensitivity to
put herself in other people's shoes that juror was one of the five leading the jury to an acquittal
that is so fascinating i feel like nobody talks about like the deeper level of what yeah these
people will determine. Oh we're
gonna get into different, they have different methods. So one person
describes Linda as having a very gentle persistence that makes a huge difference
she does seem gentle. She's an older woman now she seems very slender she had
on giant pearls a pearl necklace I mean I think she must have been very successful
in her career because those pearls were crazy yeah they looked beautiful giant pearls, a pearl necklace. I mean, I think she must have been very successful
in her career, because those pearls were crazy.
Yeah, they looked beautiful.
Definitely not as strong as a presence,
but maybe that's intentional.
Maybe she wants to fly under the radar,
so she can analyze jurors without them feeling
like she's analyzing them, and they're focused
on the other attorneys, so she can just watch.
I don't know.
They say that she has a very laid back politeness
about her, to which Linda Moreno once said,
I had to be polite but not shy to get things done.
I also had to pay close attention to what people said.
Another person says, her instincts, her ability to read people,
I mean, it has a lot to do with a lot of the great outcomes that attorneys will have if she's on their team.
She was born a lawyer. No, I'm serious.
So for her 12th birthday, Linda Moreno said that she received her favorite movie which was
12 angry men which is about jury deliberations in a murder case. another
colleague says if anyone can figure out the jury, it's gonna be linda. it is also
believed that she has never has more than one client at a time. a lot of
attorneys will have multiple clients at a time. she says that she likes to solely
focus on just one case
and that's it. it is believed- this is not public information so we don't know- it's believed that
someone like linda moreno would charge diddy around a million dollars for her services to be a jury
consultant. others argue it's probably going to be a lot more than that. one person who worked with
linda says, what strikes me about her is her complete dedication to her clients, which continues to this day. now this is not something that Linda Moreno has said, but from
our research, because i was so intrigued about like the different models, some attorneys will use
their own model. it seems like most attorneys, at least from what i can gather on like subreddits
where attorneys are talking about jury selection, they have their own unique model that they tweak
depending on the charges of the case
and depending on that specific defendant.
But they all have some sort of tailored to them model
that they like to categorize potential jurors.
So these are very basic, probably dumb models,
but I thought it was intriguing.
So one model is the three categories of good juror,
poison juror, and go with the flow-er juror.
One attorney says, typically it's fairly simple
to spot good jurors.
You just say a joke and they'll laugh
or they'll give you eye contact, they'll nod,
they'll do the smile.
They're eagerly, you know, not too eager,
but just very happy to fulfill their civic duty.
They're doing their best.
Those are the good jurors.
Then you have the poison jurors.
These are typically cynical.
They get agitated easily, and they
like to be silent most of the time.
That's what's dangerous, because they fly under the radar.
Then you have go with the flowers.
Quiet.
Initially, they have indifferent opinions
and are open to listening to the evidence.
So clearly in this model, you want
to identify and remove the jurors that are poison. another model some attorneys say they
like to use is the leadership authority model. classifying and dividing jurors
based on their influence and decision-making approach. so there's three
categorizations or at least this model does. leaders, so jurors who influence
others during deliberations, they're gonna be in the back rooms like no this
is it guys look at this. They're strong personalities
They can sway the opinions of other jurors and then you have
Authoritarians in criminal trials authoritarians typically favor the prosecutors. It's not a bad thing
It's just who they are. So the defense are gonna want them out of the jury
Typically they prefer police they they like authority figures. They have high respect for authority figures.
They're not sitting there like, oh yeah, I love the police, but it's just in them.
It's like an innate bias.
Some people just respond better to authority figures than others.
They often hold more conservative views on crime and punishment as well.
Then you've got the followers, jurors who tend to be influenced by the stronger personalities
and opinions in the jury room.
They rarely take strong positions independently
some attorneys will even further categorize and say
you need a fourth category in there
you need negotiators
they are so important
these people they're not really the leaders
which are like no I think this
and then people are arguing
they're the peacekeepers
they facilitate negotiations
they keep peace by analyzing and verbalizing the issues.
Then there's another model that instead of three, they've got four classifications, you have traditionalist.
So these are jurors that they like structure, they like established institutions, they typically naturally seem slightly unknowingly, probably even to themselves, in favor of the prosecutors. Then there's experiencers.
They're very practical, they're present focused,
they like to evaluate the evidence
rather than debate abstract concepts of guilt and remorse
and principles and values.
Then you have the conceptualizers.
They are thinkers who are not naturally empathetic.
They seem less swayed by emotional appeals. and then
lastly you've got the idealists. more empathetic, more focused on human impact
rather than the evidence. they're way more receptive to considering a
defendant's circumstances. typically it's said defense attorneys like influential
leaders with a skepticism towards authority. they exhibit natural
leadership qualities but they don't like institutional power structures. As for the temperament-based model,
defense attorneys say they might prefer idealists.
They're empathy-driven,
especially if your client has mental health
that's going to be coming into it, a mental illness,
or some sort of dire situation
that they're trying to argue is for the case.
They're empathy-driven.
And then people that are super analytical, some defense attorneys like them because the burden of proof is on the case, they're empathy driven. And then people that are super analytical,
some defense attorneys like them.
Because the burden of proof is on the government.
So these people, they demand logical consistency
in the prosecutor's arguments.
They have high standard for the prosecutors.
They identify flaws in forensic evidence chains,
logical gaps in timeline reconstructions,
overreach in expert testimony.
They're very analytical.
So all of this makes sense.
But according to some attorneys, the absolute worst, worst, worst,
worst type of juror that you can have is a stealth juror.
Stealth jurors deliberately conceal bias to infiltrate the jury.
Usually you can tell when they have inconsistencies in their answers.
Their written questionnaire,
their responses versus what they tell the judge during their individual questioning,
they don't match. Or sometimes they try to overcompensate and really sell themselves as being impartial.
Usually stealth jurors, they have different motivations.
Financial gain, media deals, book deals after the trial,
ideological, maybe they have a personal vendetta, or just a lot of the times it's thrill-seeking, especially for high-profile cases. To just be like I was part of that.
One attorney states, stealth jurors pose catastrophic risk.
Through undetected bias injection, their influence persists throughout trial stages, often discovered
only through post-verdict interviews.
With that being said, I'm clearly not knowledgeable enough to know if any juror was a potential
stealth juror, but there were some intriguing moments.
Publishing houses have what's called a slush pile.
It's like usually the big publishing houses,
there's five big publishing houses in the US
that dominate 80% of the market.
They have a slush pile.
It's a collection of unsolicited manuscripts sent to them
by people seeking to get their wonderful book published
and they're just, it's a slush.
People will open up a manuscript,
read one page if they don't like it,
it goes into the slush pile.
It's not getting published.
Because in the world of publishing books,
it's that cutthroat.
A female juror is sitting next to the judge,
and she has a high position
at the publishing house Simon & Schuster.
She says, we publish lots of books,
2,000 books a year,
and one book we are publishing in the fall is by another hip hop artist. And I know that that book
contains some information or some accusations. I haven't read the book. I probably won't
be working on the book directly, but my office reviews all the press releases that go out
and I saw the press release after I filled out this questionnaire. So she's asked, like,
did you find out anything else about the defendant or the case or anything related
after you filled out this questionnaire?
And what is the book?
And what book is that?
It's a memoir by another artist whom I don't know.
I don't remember.
I don't remember the name of the author.
I think it's called Do You Believe Me Now?
or something like that.
And it's about his personal history.
And I know it contains some accusations.
A male artist, yes.
And you don't remember the name.
No. She states she doesn't remember the name,
just the press release.
She explains, I saw the press release because my office,
we review all the press releases,
our different prints sent out to the media,
so that's just one of my roles, is to kind of vet all the press releases.
Alright, now what did the press release say?
Just that the book is,
it was an announcement that the book is publishing in the fall,
and sort of different topics it touches on, it was an announcement that the book is publishing in the fall
and sort of different topics it touches on and this was one of the topics
and what did it say pertaining to this case? if you can remember in your mind, what did it say?
i think the point, or what the press release is alluding to is that this other artist has been accusing the defendant here for a while
and hadn't been believed, that is what i took from the press release. Now, do you know anything else about the book?
No.
The judge asks her, considering she works in a company that's publishing a book written
by someone making accusations, would it cloud her view in the case?
She says, no, no, I also would be very unlikely to read the book because I work on the executive
team.
I don't really get that involved on individual books.
But it's tricky because she's salaried So her bonus is tied to the company performance the general company performance
Which means her bonus is tied to the performance of all the thousands of books they publish including the book written by
I'll be sure about Diddy
I think the list of people who really do not like Diddy would be comparable to a CVS receipt times
people who really do not like Diddy would be comparable to a CVS receipt times 10. it's a long list but I do feel like at the top it's gonna be 50 cent and
potentially yeah definitely I'll be sure. now just to recap, Diddy has seven
children. the first is Quincy Brown but Quincy is not Diddy's biological son he
is Kim Porter and Albie Shore's biological child. it is believed that
Diddy adopted Quincy however recently Albie Shore states in a documentary there's no adoption and if
you haven't noticed his last name is still Brown. Take that how you will, I've
no idea which one is true. But there's Quincy the oldest, then there's Justin
Dior Combs, he's Diddy and Misa Hilton's son, then there's Christian Combs, Diddy
and Kim Porter's first biological child together, Chance Combs, Diddy and Sarah
Chapman's daughter, and then Delilah and Jesse Combs, the twins, Diddy and Kim Porter's first biological child together. Chance Combs, Diddy and Sarah Chapman's daughter,
and then Delilah and Jesse Combs, the twins,
Diddy and Kim Porter's twin daughters.
And in 2022, Diddy had another baby, Love, with Dana Tran.
So that baby's an infant.
And all you need to remember at this point
is that Albie Schur is Quincy's biological dad
and Kim Porter, the mother of many of Diddy's children
and Quincy's mother, is a long-time partner of Diddy but also was married to Albie Sch of many of Diddy's children, and Quincy's mother is a long time partner of Diddy,
but also was married to Albie Shore before dating Diddy.
So, Kim Porter and Albie Shore are married,
they have Quincy.
Kim Porter, they break up,
Kim Porter starts dating Diddy.
They go on to have multiple children together,
and Diddy was very involved in Quincy's life.
Now, after Kim Porter mysteriously passed away
from pneumonia, that's how people think
she passed away mysteriously,
there were all sorts of rumors flying around. Again, conspiracies, we don't know, right?
That maybe she didn't die from pneumonia, maybe she was writing a tell-all book about her relationship with Diddy
and she was done with Diddy and she wanted to be set free.
Again, conspiracies, but after she passes away, Albie Shorr is very suspicious of Diddy. He even slips into a coma at one point and he kind of insinuates that perhaps Diddy had
something to do with him being in a coma.
Albie Schorr went on to allege that Kim Porter confided in him before passing away and he
says, she started to confide in me.
What she did say is that something's not right.
Diddy's soul has gotten completely dark.
Like he's just not there. That's what he alleges was said.
He does say, allege, that Kim Porter was writing a book,
but nothing was done about it,
saying someone got her passcode to her phone and her computer
and they found out and she was writing
what was going on behind closed doors.
The public had no idea what was happening
right in front of everybody's eyes.
But there were a lot of people who turned a blind eye.
In the documentary making of A Bad Boy, the there were a lot of people who turned a blind eye in the documentary
Making of a bad boy the very documentary that diddy is suing NBC for a hundred million dollars in a defamation lawsuit in that documentary
I'll be sure says it was like two or three weeks prior to her murder. Am I supposed to say allegedly?
Oh, he's just straight up so murder
So all that's to say the water is very deep between Diddy and Albie Shor, and the potential
juror works as a high-level executive at the publishing house that's going to be releasing
Albie Shor's book.
The blurb for the book says, tell all in this inspiring survivor's memoir that reveals
the untold story of his near-death health emergency, shocking ties to Diddy, romance
with late Kim Porter.
Days after Homeland Security raided Sean Combs' compounds in a federal sex trafficking investigation,
Albi Shor declared that when people heard how he wound up in a coma two years later,
they were quote, really going to need to call Homeland Security.
So the book is not out yet?
No.
Yeah.
So she's saying that, okay, we're publishing this book. I
don't know anything about it. I don't care. I'm not going to read it. Yeah. And I am
qualified. Yes, but I don't think she's like overly eager. Oh, okay. I mean, I
think a lot of people can interpret it different ways. So I don't want to put an
interpretation out there because, you know, but you could, I guess some cynical people could say she wants to maybe write a book after she's in
publishing maybe she wants to write a book maybe she wants the thrill maybe
it's fun right maybe she wants to take off work no or just simply the fact
that the connection is crazy yes or maybe some people are like maybe she
genuinely doesn't care about any of these people and like does in her head
does not understand why it relates yeah yeah she's like genuinely doesn't care about any of these people and like does in her head does not understand why it relates yeah yeah she's
like I don't care about any of these people so obviously I can be unbiased
mm-hmm but the blurb is kind of crazy the blurb continues people called him
crazy now back from the brink of death he reclaims his power and truth in the in
this incredible memoir about finding inner peace despite countless attempts
to break him the last lines of the blurb read
Albie Shore is one of the few still living to tell the whole story, which I'm not insinuating anything
But that just feels like a bad sentence to even utter into existence whilst publishing a reportedly explosive memoir
Which is going to be titled. Do you believe me now? It just feels like an unnecessary
potential jinxing.
Regardless of how one feels about Albie Shore or the death of Kim Porter or Diddy, it probably would not provide Diddy a fair trial if this juror were on the jury.
Why do we care if Diddy gets a fair trial? Because if he doesn't get a fair trial,
the conviction could be overturned, if there is one. And everyone should be entitled to a fair trial.
So yes, justice, but also it's like, if you genuinely want justice, you to a fair trial. So yes, justice, but also it's like if you genuinely want justice, you need a fair trial.
She is ultimately excluded from the jury.
Now, please keep in mind anything I say in the entirety of this episode, especially right now, is a personal opinion.
I've had a lot of personal opinions, great ones and some bad ones, but whatever I say does not mean, oh this action means he's doing this. Like for example, there will be some days where I feel incredibly insecure about the
way that I look and I start spiraling and maybe in a video I touch my hair because I
feel ugly.
But someone will comment, look at this narcissist, she's obsessed with herself.
It's like a very different interpretation, maybe it's true, maybe it's not true.
So just take it like that.
I don't know. This is just what I saw and how I personally interpreted what I saw visually with my eyeballs
With that being said I personally felt like Diddy was kind of an iPad kid during moments of the trial
He was given an iPad by his attorneys to look at specifically related to the case
He it's just interesting. He has reading glasses and he will put them on kind of randomly.
I don't know if there's a method to it.
I don't know. Maybe he is reading something and I just can't see it because he's further away.
But it just seemed a little random.
Sometimes they'd be on, sometimes they'd be off.
So the first day the researchers were like they'd be on and then they'd be off at random times.
To the point where we're like we don't even know if there's a prescription in these,
if these are even reading glasses and
Then they he would always put them on the desk put them back on put them on the desk put them back
It was a very feeling is how they felt it was do I feel like I want to put my glasses on and then the second
Day he started putting putting them up on the top of his head and then putting them down putting them at the top
Maybe we're over analyzing absolutely nothing
But the way that Brian Steele would kind of tippy tap
on the iPad next to him, gave iPad kid,
there's this fascinating moment on day one of trial,
the very first day that jury selection begins,
right before the jurors come in.
At this point, it's just the judge, the court personnel,
defense team, the prosecutors, and members of the press.
The jurors are about to walk in that door.
My researcher was like, Brian Steele reaches over,
beep boop bops on the iPad, beep boop bop,
front camera turns on and they just see Diddy
on the iPad because it's the camera, the front camera's turning on
like a mirror and he's wearing his reading glasses and then Diddy proceeds
to lift the iPad up four or 5 inches and looks at himself
before putting it down. There's nothing deep about it. I'm sure he's just trying to make
sure nothing's on his face for when the jurors actually come in. But it's a, they said it
was so weird.
It's a fascinating visual.
Yeah, like Brian Steele is older than Diddy, but he's over there bibu bopping on the iPad
for Diddy. It was weird. Or maybe, uh...
And then more cynically, I guess you could say,
maybe this is all a thing.
Make Diddy seem like a clueless,
oh, I don't know what's going on, can you help me?
I'm kind of lost and all these powerful attorneys
know so much, diminish some of his power, I don't know.
In another part, this was, I saw this,
Brian Steele is putting on his blazer, so sometimes he would just be in his dress shirt some of his power, I don't know. In another part, this was, I saw this, Brian
Steele is putting on his blazer, so sometimes he would just be in his dress
shirt and then he's putting on his blazer and there's a little fuss about
it and Diddy is just all hands on board helping him put his blazer on with both
hands, so he's got his hand on the back of the collar for Brian Steele, his left
hand is on Brian Steele's like neck area and then his right hand is reaching over
around Brian Steele's neck in the front to fix the collar. Now can I just say
something? I've never seen a man have trouble putting on a suit blazer. I don't
even think that my own tailor, tailoring a shirt would be this... it was a
lot. It wasn't even just like let me me fix your collar. Yeah, like blazer is a pretty easy... Collar fix.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's interesting too.
It just was a lot of effort. Just like a lot of...
So it does... Okay, I see what you mean.
Like it does seem like they have a very close relationship from the visual.
This is my speculation.
I don't know if it's true. I don't know what goes on in other people's minds I feel like this is a thing that happens during trials
I think both of them are aware of what makes the defendant look good and they both want the same
Outcome and they maybe they haven't had a conversation about it
But it seems like they both kind of play into it is the feeling I get so are
Was it were their jurors or is it just the press?
I think at this point there were no jurors when he was putting on it. Okay, okay, but even for the media
It's like it's a visual that seems very
Maybe somewhat positive. Yeah, maybe he's like helpful
Fixing Brian Steeles. It just I guess I've never seen someone need help fixing their suit blazer
Yeah, cuz I you know, people put on suit blazers all the time on and off.
Yeah.
And there is this one yawn where Diddy is standing up, the court had to rise, and he yawns, but he doesn't cover his mouth.
So for like a fraction of a second, it just looks like he's silently screaming.
And that was really-
Yeah, another fascinating part that I noticed, and again, this could could be coincidence I could be looking too deep into things
I could have a personal bias that makes me interpret these movements as something that it is completely not
It's an eyewitness testimony. It's questionable, especially my brain after eight hours of sitting in there
But there's this moment where I recall seeing the sketch artist
She is in the first row diagonal from Diddy behind
And we're all the way behind her.
Now, she has one of those binoculars that she wears.
It's strapped to her head, like a brain surgeon.
She's wearing that.
And she's mid-stroke with her charcoal.
And Diddy, from my perspective, looks like he briefly glances back.
He doesn't shift, he doesn't turn.
He just kind of sees in his peripheral.
I think he sees in his peripheral.
Maybe he doesn't
see her but this is all coincidence maybe I'm hallucinating but it's almost like immediately
after he turns back to face the front he takes off his reading glasses and his shoulders roll back
and he sits a tiny bit straighter it's not super obvious it's not like suddenly his back is erect
and his posture is 10 out of 10 but but it did seem a little coincidental.
Like, let me sit better for this portrait.
Yes.
Like, make sure that they pay me better.
Yeah.
Type of energy.
Yes.
Now, other moments with jurors that were maybe slightly uncomfortable in the courtroom, I'm
just going to pull them out rapid fire.
One juror has asked about about in response to question 13
You indicated that you had a prior criminal issue, which is that you were caught shoplifting at the age of 16
How old are you now? 30 30. Okay, and you say you were charged a fine and just generally speaking what happened?
mmm, I
Was at Universal Studios caught by security taking an item. I think I was in Harry Potter World.
So they took me to the back and just kind of like put me through all the process and
then I was mailed a fine.
I got a lawyer, my lawyer handled everything so I was, it was just a fine and they put
against me and I was prohibited from going back to the park for about a year.
And what is it?
What did you take?
A wand.
Okay, so let's go to question 29.
The question is, have you communicated to others
or posted your opinion on social media or online
or liked any social media posts about Mr. Combs?
And you initially wrote no,
and then you changed your answer to unsure.
Yeah, so what did you like?
I think it was a comedian.
They made a joke
because I guess when they went to his house they found a bunch of baby oil. I
remember liking it because I thought it was funny. That was really it. So there
was a joke about baby oil and you said you liked that comment. Yeah. What was the
reason why you liked that comment? It was funny in my opinion. So I liked the video
because I thought it was funny. Do you remember who the comedian was? not off the top of my head
another juror walks in and she says that her musical interests are rock, hip-hop, and as well as quote
i'm actively watching the concert of the group called BTS or bangtan boys
there was nothing else notable i just wanted to say that
now the next juror walks in and he looks, looks from my opinion kind of like a fraternity boy
but slightly sleazier and I say that with respect like this is
visually speaking because I don't know this man
He looks like the type of guy that would graduate college and ten years later still
Heavily rep his college fraternity merchandise and want to talk about how he was the coolest big to his little and still go in depth about rush week stories that's the personal opinion vibe
I get from him he asks the judge a question so number 11 I wasn't sure
about allegations concerning distribution and use of illegal drugs so
I smoke marijuana personally for recreational use okay and I'm not sure
if that counts so the question is asking are you okay can And I'm not sure if that counts.
So the question is asking, are you okay?
Can you be unbiased if we talk about illegal drug usage?
And he was like, well, I smoke.
And there's a slight giggle in the courtroom,
and the judge tells him, well, I wasn't asking about your use.
Okay. But are you going to have any issues
if there are allegations in this case about the distribution
and use of drugs, is that going to make you biased? No, no. The juror to his very fine credit, he's incredibly honest, which I think is admirable.
He basically states that he might have affected judgment though if he's on the jury.
I use marijuana for personal recreational use which might affect my judgment in making the right decision.
Meaning that, well, are you able to not use marijuana
during this trial?
I'm going to order you not to use marijuana
during this trial.
Are you going to be able to follow that instruction?
Yes.
And so if I give you that instruction and you follow it,
you're not gonna be having an issue.
Correct, yeah.
When was the last time you used marijuana? Last night.
Okay. How often do you use it per day? Once a day. And I said that I would perhaps order
you not to use marijuana during the trial because you said it might affect your judgment.
Would that be hard for you given how often you use it? Yes. It would be. Yep. He was eventually excused for cause.
What?
Then the next juror walks in, and these are not in chronological order, but the door opens,
the juror walks in, and he appears to be a middle-aged white man, but if he were Korean
– this is a crazy statement – if he were Korean, I could see him kimchi-squatting behind
a convenience store and eating a roll of kimbap.
That's the energy he gives me, not smoking a cigarette because he's got children and a wife and kids that don't like the smell.
That's the aura he gives me in my personal brain.
He says, I admittedly don't read pop culture news. My wife makes fun of me for that.
I have heard a few headlines, a few accusations, just as a father of two young kids.
You know, some of the accusations are troubling.
The judge asks if he's going to be able
to not have discussions about this case with his wife,
who is on social media a lot.
He says, absolutely.
Okay, so then, just on the form,
why did you say that you had a reservation or concern
about whether you're going to be able
to follow these instructions?
My wife, she's a, you know, she watches Sunset, TMZ, that's what she loves.
And so I assume this case is going to be all over that
since she's a follower of that type of content
and that is a little concerning to me.
But he does say, she's a fan, she does her own thing,
I'm not around, I'm not gonna go looking in her phone.
If I can tell her topics that she cannot show me,
she will listen to that.
Has your wife spoken to you about this case
or this defendant?
I guess a few months ago.
Okay, what was the conversation?
Oh my God, P Diddy, these terrible parties.
He's in trouble, did he do it?
He did it, did he do it?
No freaking way.
Yeah, and he was pretty, okay, so a lot of the jurors,
you can tell they're very self-spoken into the mic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah He's like OMG
How far are they from Diddy? Like in terms of distance?
Two rows of desks, three rows of desks
It's two rows of desks, yeah like three rows of desks and then Diddy
So like super close?
Yes
Wow
Yeah and they have to walk
So there's two doors, one Diddy comes out of, the other one the jurors come out of
And he has to walk- they have to walk by Diddy to sit next to the judge and then walk out right in front.
Did your wife express a view, you know, her own opinion about this case? No, no, no, no.
And did you express an opinion about this case?
Oh my god, that's a pretty big accusation.
He was excused from the case.
The next juror walks up to the stand.
He reminds me, and this is personal, but he gives me bowling dad vibes.
Like this man in my alternate universe in my head, I feel like he owns a collection
of bowling balls and he bowls on the weekends.
Is there anyone who doesn't know Diddy from this, all these people?
It doesn't appear.
So most of them, they all know what's going on.
Yes.
And so he says he's unsure if he can be fair and impartial because the lifestyle
bias, you know, and when he's asked to elaborate further, he says,
oh, just the reputation that might be someone in that field.
What do you mean by that?
What field are you referring to?
The music LA
lifestyle, it's very much different than the way I was brought up. What's your
perception of how it was different? Fast and loose. He also says that he saw the
video of Diddy and Cassie in the hotel, however even though he saw it he can be
unbiased. He describes it as, well you can't unring a bell. What does that mean?
You can't unring the bell. I can that mean? You can't unring the bell.
I can't unhear something that I've heard,
but I can separate that from what's presented here.
He does appear to be pretty honest in his answers.
Like even, it seems like he's very genuine.
Like he's not trying to be like, yeah, no, I'm unbiased.
It seems like he's being very thoughtful.
If I'm not mistaken, the defense did not want him
on the jury.
So after they leave, after every jury leaves in the individual questioning, the defense
and the prosecutors have a moment to bring up an application for striking that jury.
And then the judge will either strike them or hold off or bring them back in for further
questioning or they'll be like, as of right now, no, the defense did try to strike him. They really did not like the can't unring the bell comment.
And was he excused? He was not. Oh okay. Because I think he was being honest. I mean there's
no one that hasn't seen something about Diddy. A lot of jurors were excused for
either lack of English comprehension or just financial hardship due to the
schedule. It's eight weeks. It's eight weeks. You have to take off work. If you work by commission, if you
have your own business, I mean that's that's gonna run you into bankruptcy. So
a lot of them were excused for that.
Now this judge is asking a female juror about her ability to take off work.
He asks, and where do you work?
HBO.
HBO.
And what do you do for HBO?
I'm a photo producer.
Which side note, photo producer means she helps with hiring, securing the location,
getting the actors to their, getting the right attire, costumes, getting catering, hiring the photographer
and then they take the pictures for the advertisements that we see on the billboards
she later states that she recently worked with The Last of Us, White Lotus Thailand, the one Lisa is on, and the judge asks her
okay, and in the course of working for HBO, have you done any work or heard- have there been projects related to any allegations in this case?
no have there been projects related to any allegations in this case? no.
later the judge asks her, okay now what have you heard or read about this case prior to today?
just because i work in entertainment i'm somewhat familiar, i've seen the video, i've read a few headlines and articles, but i haven't done like a deep dive into it.
so the judge asks, has anything been discussed in your presence at HBO concerning Mr. Combs?
Not officially, but I would say yes in the hallway water cooler talk. What was the water cooler talk? Just that there's a case and he was arrested and he's in jail.
Later when the jury leaves the courtroom, I mean, Mark is on this, okay, the defense,
they don't want her on the jury. Really? He says there are two areas of concern. HBO has a documentary, a very negative documentary about Mr. Combs in
the context of this case. Now she didn't say she knew anything about it you know
and we have to accept her answers I suppose and so that just gives us great
concern. I mean she works for a company that actually put out a documentary that
you know I think objectively speaking is a very negative documentary. The judge asks the defense, what is the documentary?
Mark looks over at Tenny. She looks at him.
Diddy leans behind Tenny and gets Mark to lean down and whispers to him.
And Mark stands up straight again. It's called The Fall of Diddy.
Are you saying Diddy told them the name? Yeah.
So, okay, so they know the documentary.
They don't know the name.
Diddy leaned in and said...
The fault of Diddy.
The fault of Diddy.
Yeah.
She was, um, she was not excused that day.
She was excused the next day.
Now, there are lots of overlap in this case.
It's not even just overlap of everyone has seen some news or some articles, some
headlines but there's a lot of personal overlaps as well.
One juror walks in and they reveal that they are enrolled at City College which if we're
trying to make everything a connection I guess that would be a connection to the City College
crowd crush.
One juror walks into the courtroom, he tells the, I gotta change one of my answers to the questions. He says, my wife turns out probably about 30 years ago, served
as a lawyer in a case, I don't even remember, I think she was involved in taking depositions
and it was a case that involved Mr. Combs. So she was a lawyer for someone involved in
the City College crowd crush incident. It was a case involving, do you know how or what the judge is asking the juror?
My understanding is that Mr. Combs was a promoter of a concert and something went wrong.
There was a riot or stampede at the door and some people lost their lives and there was
discussion about his liability, I believe.
The judge later asks, all right, and has she ever expressed to you any
negative opinions about Mr. Combs that you can remember at this point 30 years later? You know,
in taking the depositions and just research, she, you know, did not have a positive opinion of him.
And what's crazier is he didn't even tell his wife that he was serving on the jury for Diddy's
case. He says he went home and his wife was like, hey, what case did you
are you doing jury duty for? And I didn't tell her. But he says, you know, this case
was all over the news though. And it's a big case. The day after that, he's like, my wife
came back and her colleague, the wife of this colleague is also in the jury pool. And I
was like, Hey, I saw the other person you work with. she comes home to her husband and is like hey
So why colleagues partner? Yes is also in the end they told that is crazy
So then the judge is like okay got it So then your wife came to you and said I was in this case a long time ago
And then he's like yeah when I filled out the questionnaire. I had no recollection of it
I would not want her participation to come out at some point in the future and me not have revealed it
No, you you did absolutely the right thing. So he's saying that was 30 years ago. I didn't even think about it
Yeah, and then you know, my wife was like, hey my colleagues wife saw you at jury duty for the Diddy case. I
You can
And then there's just a lot of other random, slightly awkward, interesting moments, another overlap.
When one juror walks in, he instantly is like,
they're giggling.
The judge and the juror are giggling.
They used to work together at a massive law firm.
So he was excused.
And another juror, there's a very awkward moment
where he goes up and he is questioned,
and he states that his occupation is working at
MDC Brooklyn the very jail that Diddy is being held at
So any of these like personal connections between anybody is a reason for them to be excused
Typically, but it really depends on how strong the connection is. I did notice something and I don't know if it's a coincidence
It could be a coincidence, but a lot of the jurors came up onto the stand, and one of
the pieces of media that they say they saw before being called to jury duty is the hotel
footage of diddy and cassie.
and sometimes they will describe it, sometimes the judge will read out what they wrote about
the hotel footage in their questionnaire, but if it's brought up with a little more description Diddy appears to me to be shaking his head no slightly it happened
multiple times and every time the hotel footage came up I would be locked in I
would be staring at Diddy and often again he would just kind of shake his
head no so one juror is asked do you remember what that still image was that
you were referring to so he just saw like a screenshot of it. it seemed to have been in a hotel
hallway and the still image was of a woman on the floor and can I say mr.
combs standing? now the judge points out in the questionnaire she wrote that it
could be damning evidence and she said I guess I guess I don't know how else to
say it. it didn't seem to be what a person would want to be experiencing.
I don't know how else to phrase it.
Another juror describes the hotel footage, and this is when they're questioned.
A video in the hallway that was dragging a person over the hallway,
and Diddy would kind of shake his head no.
Later, the same juror states they saw, quote,
parties and there were like headlines in the news,
parties and there were different situations with people who were very uncomfortable
after certain periods of time and they feel like they were drugged, put something in their drinks and then they remember
and then there were situations that people were abused that they were taken advantage of?
Wondr describes the hotel video as,
I saw the video of Mr. Combs and this person.
I seen a video of Mr. Combs and it seems like
this person was in the video and harm was being done to her
in the video.
Another says, the defendant was shown,
I don't know how to describe, I think he was,
was outside an elevator in a common hallway of a hotel.
I think he just had on a towel or bathrobe on
and there was a woman, he went to get her,
she ended up on the ground.
Well. Another juror describes seeing the hotel footage as quote
pretty much in my opinion mostly everybody saw the video of the defendant
and I believe it was his ex-girlfriend in the hallway of the hotel.
another juror responds about what they saw prior to this again the hotel footage
yeah it's what I remember from the news.
and seeing those reports did that lead you to form an opinion as to Mr. Combs's guilt or innocence? No, it
didn't lead me to form an opinion. I was basically just watching it and was taken
aback or shocked. And why were you taken aback? Because it was just seeing it was
a tad disturbing. I don't- I didn't have all the facts, I don't know. The scene
itself was unfortunate. That's what I meant.
Other notably awkward moments, which again,
this might just be my perception of things.
The judge will, because the judge has to verify.
It's not like the judge is doing this intentionally.
He's doing everything to the letter of the law.
He's reading out some of the jurors' responses
to the questionnaires.
It feels like when you talk bad about someone
and then it gets repeated in front of them
The judge is reading you said that P. Diddy has a lot of money to use that his description
Possibly by his way out of jail. What did you mean by that?
I mean, I don't know how else to explain that on the same note another
instance the judge reads out another part of the questionnaire of another juror and reads out the repeating playing of the hotel video of
Incidents above and media gives the appearance of an angry hostile person who is entitled
So judge is reading these out loud and it's just like can you clarify in front of didi and do you feel like they're I?
Feel like okay, so I was trying to watch both
Didi is actually more deadpan during these moments. It's usually the hotel footage
That seems to get a little head shake now.
It gets something out of him.
Yeah, otherwise people are like, yeah, I saw the headlines, I saw this. My wife was like, did he do it?
Did he not? OMG. Not much. It's kind of just deadpan.
But I will say the jurors look slightly uncomfortable.
Now, speaking with another juror, the judge reads,
just to remind you, the question about have you read, seen, or heard anything about this case.
And the last sentence here is, well, I'll just read the entire answer.
You said, human trafficking and extortion. I understand that a producer of his alleges that Mr. Combs may have forced him into sexual relations that were non-consensual and that Mr. Combs
was also accused of engaging in sex with underage participants against their will."
Where did you get that information? With this one, Diddy, I perceived a little head shake
now. Yeah. I do think that it's been a very depressing week.
I know a lot of news headlines were pointing it out, but the amount of women and even men
that were on the stand for further questioning.
Now because Diddy is accused of essay crimes, they have to ask, like, have you been essayed'd because it could form a bias that they need to at least know about it doesn't
automatically disqualify someone but it's just something that they need to
know the amount of people that have been essay'd in their lifetime it it just is
like one after another after another one older juror states the situation was a
dentist that my
parents had gone to and they didn't pay them and they ended up sending me there
and I ended up working for them for that. it was a very blurry authority versus a
person who is not paying for their dental bill. I developed confusion about
obligations, about authority, which you know I went to a lot of I guess you
could call it therapy about it to become more alert and more aware of boundaries around these types of situations.
She was molested by the dentist.
This happened in the 70s.
Another juror reports that they were essayed by family members when they were like 8 years
old.
Another was essayed during college by a neighbor.
Another their daughter was essayed.
Another was there was a tempted essay by a random person on the street. And the most
depressing part of it is not even just the sheer amount of people that have
those traumatic life experiences is the fact that a lot of them do
report that they didn't go to the police about it. I mean they don't go further
into it but you can imagine it's just What are the police gonna do? That's the feeling
One Marine vet
He came out. He looked like a sports dad. So I was trying to understand the I guess the
Vibe such a weird word of each juror as they came out for individual questioning. He looked like a sports dad
He looked kind of buff. He's a Marine veteran. His wife was also in the Marines and he tells the judge, my
wife was a uniformed victim advocate in the Marine Corps in South Carolina. She's
in the Marine Corps. We both were. And he admits, yes, potentially I would be biased
in this towards an alleged victim. And the judge excuses him for cause, thanks him for his service, and thanks him for being
there, but it was a very interesting moment of having a very buff, statured guy walk up
there, a marine vet, and in front of Diddy say, yeah, I'm going to be biased towards
the victim.
There were a lot of people who have had experiences with dv. one
juror states that their sister was a victim of dv, another had friends that were ultimately
deceased from dv. it's just like back to back to back. another juror, she seemed at least in my
opinion traumatized by even having to answer the jury duty questionnaire. She was asked why she wrote no on the questionnaire about seeing
Diddy on TV and then later took it back and said I actually did see him and she said because
I'd been through all those things before so I didn't I didn't want to talk about it. You
said that you had been through those things. What do you mean? What I mean is I've been
traumatized. It was in a war,
it was a lot of things, she was older, it was lots of things, we went through this when I was there.
She was excused. So a lot of the testimonies were just, not testimonies, but questionings were
incredibly raw and difficult to get through. There were a lot of medical concerns, a lot of people
that were very sick. One woman, she has ocular migraines,
so she needs to take breaks,
put her hands above her eyes and rest
for her vision to come back.
Another juror has seven stints in their heart
and has to take medications
that would make it nearly impossible for them to come here
and serve on the jury every day.
And I think the very jolting part about watching
and listening to the jury selection questions is
I feel like we meet a lot of people in our daily lives but to have everyone's life
encapsulated in a 10-minute like they go through their most traumatic moments
they explain their job their occupation they talk about other random facts like
my cousin is a law enforcement officer I have a degree in psychology so it feels
like you get a very deep snapshot not just of like the pretty resume
Yeah, but like all of the aspects of what makes someone who they are in
Ten minutes and it also is just so just depressing after depressing after depressing
Yeah, and I think that's why this next incident became I guess a more funny moment in court, although I don't think it's funny.
I think it just everything is so depressing.
A slightly older woman walks into the courtroom, a juror, and at least from my impression,
from the other side of the courtroom, she appears very timid in her body language.
Like how old is she?
Oh, 50, 60.
Okay.
She sits down next to the judge.
She's one of the dozens of jurors that's going to be questioned.
The judge says in question 9b, the question was,
would you be able to listen to and discuss matters of a sexual nature with fellow jurors?
And your answer to that was no. And you gave a reason for it.
And is it okay if I ask you about that while you're sitting here?
Sure. Her voice is like, sure, like, kind of shaky.
What was the reason for your no answer?
I'm a very...
Shakes again. It sounds like her voice is breaking.
I'm a very sensitive person
and I could faint or black out.
When I was in junior high school
during the health education class, the teacher brought up
what it shouldn't have been
but they brought up blowjobs
and I actually fainted.
And the teacher and everybody surrounded me and said, what's going on here?
And I was so embarrassed I said I fell asleep when I didn't.
And so I feel that if I were to come into mental contact with something similar, I wouldn't
be able to speak coherently and I wouldn't be a good juror.
She is excused.
I think that was a very notable moment in the courtroom.
An older woman was asked about how she responded to a question if she could be fair and impartial.
And she says that she does have a level of anxiety about the idea of being on the jury.
She says,
It's very unfamiliar situation, I guess.
It's not very familiar. It's unfamiliar.
It's an unfamiliar environment, and I'm not used to being listened to intently
and to having my answers matter very much.
Wow.
In question nine, you were asked if there was anything in the nature of evidence or graphic
videos and photographs, including videos of physical violence, that would make it difficult
for you to be fair and impartial.
You said no, but you answered, I cannot predict my response and what the images will be.
What did you mean by that?
I've seen people die in front of me, like I watched somebody get run over by a train.
There have been a few other situations in my life.
I've seen horrible things actually happen.
And I was okay with it.
Not, I mean, not okay with it, but it didn't become a second problem.
When something utterly horrible happens in front of me, I tend to shut down or just kind
of call 911 or anything like that.
But I guess in a video it's detached.
So she's saying like, she's not 100% confident, but she assumes she'd be fine.
Another juror raises concerns.
You know, the only thing that I was um, and put in the prior question is that to me, you have the life of somebody on your hands.
So to me that is this very difficult part.
I don't know. I think I can do it, but it's something that I have to be very sure that that person, you know
Yeah, I will say that the media is reporting a lot of jurors just didn't want to be there and didn't want to serve
I actually didn't necessarily get that being in the courtroom. I think the transcripts do kind of read that way
I'm sure a ton of that a lot of them just looked annoyed to be in jury duty
But they didn't it wasn't like they were coming up with a million excuses to try and leave.
They just seemed kind of like, I don't know if I can do eight weeks because I'm going
to lose my job, I'm going to have financial hardship, like I can't.
A lot of people seemed relatively neutral, if not like, oh yeah, I mean, I guess jury
duty, right?
But there was one juror where I felt, I'm like, I don't think this woman wants to be
here at all
She walks in and she tells the judge she has a new scheduling conflict. Her son is graduating high school
And she wants to be there. It's the second week of June trial is supposed to go into July the judge starts asking her
What day I don't recall on a Friday. I don't remember. Okay, what time of day is it?
It starts I think around 10 or 12 and you you don't know the day, like it's a Wednesday, Thursday.
I don't recall.
Which week is it?
I can't say.
I don't remember.
Okay, well you clearly thought about this
after you did your questionnaire,
but you didn't go look to see what the date was
or what the time was or any of the details of the event.
Well, I rely on my son to tell me these things
and he didn't yet.
He says he didn't know it himself yet.
But I remember when my first one was graduating, it was around this time.
Alright, where does your son go to school?
Like where is it?
In the city?
It's in Westchester.
They move on and the judge asks her if there's anything else she needs to change from her
questionnaire.
She says, um, I think there was.
I don't have.
So there were questions about violence in graphic.
Yes.
Images and stuff like that. So I don't think I can do that.
Why?
I'm battling depression right now,
and I don't think that's going to help in my recovery.
Which side note, this is not me insinuating.
I think that's a very real thing.
But then the next part, the judge says,
all right, so in your questionnaire,
why did you say that you did not have a problem
looking at that type of material?
I don't know, I was overwhelmed.
I didn't realize.
I didn't know about the case at all. Alright, anything further that you
wanted to change in your questionnaire? I didn't know about the case then. I now I
do. What did you see? It was um, it was music. It was a song that I heard about
the case. How did you come upon hearing this song? It was on like a Russian
comedy channel. She does get excused for cause I did find the Russian comedy channel
Wait, wait, what? It's just like a SNL skit vibe of P Diddy
Oh, so she's like yeah, I saw that now. Oh
It did seem like she wanted to get out of it
Maybe she wanted to get out at least to me
Maybe she wanted to get out of it because it's too much, too intense mentally, and she was just looking for any reason.
I think that could be the case.
Okay, okay.
One thing that I do think is very interesting,
and I don't even think there's any sort of measure that we'll have at the end of the trial for this.
There were moments, and I was talking to my researchers, so it's not just me.
There were moments where it's like in the back of your mind, right?
I felt like I made eye contact with Diddy and of course like there's other things I'm thinking about
I'm taking my notes, but then in the back of my mind like once or twice. It's like oh
Yeah, this guy is famous
Like it's just it's it's just like a thing like cuz you see him on TV
You see him on screens you hear people talk about him and then it's a reminder of like oh, whoa
This is the same person in the courtroom. These are the same people, right? Now, I
don't know, I think it would be interesting to psychologically study the
jurors for that. I don't think they can, but you get what I'm saying of during
individual questioning of the jurors, there are so many times where it looks
like Diddy is trying so hard to connect with them, maybe he just likes to connect with people, maybe it's for his case.
He would seemingly sympathetically nod his head as jurors talk about hardships that they
go through, or if a juror has an awkwardly cute or funny moment, he would sometimes smile.
I mean, it's not like a big toothy grin, but he's smiling.
So for example, one juror's asked if she knows any people on the people's in places list
and she says, I don't, but I wish I did
and he's smiling at her
can you explain the people's in places list?
okay, so there are a list of like over a hundred people in places that the jurors-
this is not public information, everyone on that list
the jurors have to go through and they have to tell the judge if they personally know any people or places
on these lists.
I'm going to go into who they are.
When the group questioning takes place, at least on the second day of jury selection,
Diddy pivots his chair so the jurors come and they all sit down in the front of the
courtroom on the right side.
So now they're like directly in front of us because we're on the right side and they're facing left. So we see their side profiles. Diddy sees like if he twists
he'll see all of their faces and it's tiered you know so it's Rose and he's just giving
them undivided attention. So they have a mic and they go one by one and they rapid fire
like I'm 34 this is where I work. They have to answer a list of questions that they're
given and then they pass the mic and the next person and the next person at points he's and they rapid fire, like I'm 34, this is where I work. They have to answer a list of questions that they're given.
And then they pass the mic, and the next person,
and the next person.
At points he's craning his neck to get a better look
at the jurors while they're speaking.
When someone makes a joke, he genuinely giggles
like they're at a dinner party.
And I'm like, I was just thinking in that moment,
and I think this is unrelated,
but how does that affect jurors?
Because at the end of the day, I think psychologically humans are somewhat drawn to people that are perhaps famous
In a way, he's giving them this attention, right? Does that like psychologically play anything?
Yes, because and then I guess also like the whole thing is they are supposed to be non-biased
Yes, right. So they trying to not to judge him, you know
supposed to be non-biased. Yes. Right? So they're trying to not to judge him, you know, innocent until proven guilty. And then he's here being a really good sport, you know, charming, who's
laughing at their jokes, devoting his attention to them. Does that change their view of Diddy?
And I know what people are going to say. They're going to say, if I was on that journey, it
would not change my view. Right? But you wouldn't get to that point because you would have been
weeded out if you're biased against Diddy to that level. So coming from like a if they're a
neutral unbiased stance, does that even play a role? I don't know.
Yeah, no, that's that's valid. That's a good point.
There is another moment during group questioning where, so they all have to answer if they have
adult children where their adult children work so there's no, I guess, conflict of interest or any
bias. One of the jurors states that her daughter retired as an executive from United
Healthcare and I was my eyes went straight to Mark and because he and his
wife are representing Luigi Mangione. At least from my perspective it did seem
like Teni and Mark Agnifilo shared a look. It looked like a mental note look.
It didn't look panicked, it didn't look crazy, it just was like oh but it was interesting nonetheless. Yeah. Okay so now the people and places list. It's like a mental note look. It didn't look panicked. It didn't look crazy. It just was like, oh, but it was interesting nonetheless
Yeah, okay. So now the people and places list. It's just a lengthy list so far from all of the
Every juror that was the first day they didn't ask personally so every juror that came in was like yeah
Kanye and everyone's like how do people how does everybody know Kanye personally and then once they're verifying
Do you know them personally or you just recognize their name as a celebrity?
They're like, okay, yes, I recognize their name as a celebrity.
So far, here's the list of people.
Number 38 is Chance Combs, which is Diddy's daughter.
Christian Combs, Diddy's son.
Laurieann Gibson, a choreographer.
Kanye West, Michael B. Jordan, which one of the jurors does mistake him for the basketball player.
Lauren London, an actress who dated Nipsey Hussle before his passing.
Kid Cudi, Mike Myers, the actor and comedian.
Aubrey O'Day, Harvey Pierre, that's the producer.
These are people that are like directly related to Diddy,
and there's allegations or there's situations.
Don Richards, Cassie Ventura, Michelle Williams,
the singer from Destiny's Child. Dallas Austin, Cassie Ventura, Michelle Williams, the singer from Destiny's Child,
Dallas Austin, Young Miami. It's been reported, so the main connection that people are focusing on
is Mike Myers because no one really knows like why. We don't know if the connection is deeper.
It doesn't seem like there's a deep connection. And then it's reported that Michael B. Jordan went
on a date with Cassie, which Diddy was reportedly upset by, allegedly.
And then obviously Kid Cudi, his car was blown up, allegedly Diddy blew up his car.
And the rest I imagine a lot of them don't have sinister connections as some people are making it appear.
Like I don't think this is the Diddy's list, that you know?
But I guess we'll find out.
So a lot of people are now guessing what's next
because opening statements are coming Monday. Some people are commenting, I'm
guessing Mark and Tenny are gonna focus on the sex trafficking. And then Emily is
gonna be on drugs and drug use. Brian Steele, the Rico racketeering focus.
Nicole Westmoreland will probably concentrate on cross-examining female
witnesses. Alexandra Shapiro is this netizen's favorite.
She seems to be the expert,
but I'm not sure what she and Xavier Donaldson
will focus on.
That's the netizen comment.
And so with that, we just have to wait for Monday
for opening statements to start.
So they haven't narrowed down to the 12?
No, and the six alternates, not yet.
So they're gonna do that on Monday
and then opening statements will start right after.
So right now there's 45.
And at this point, up until this point,
every time the defense doesn't want someone on the jury
or the prosecutors don't want someone on the jury,
they have to tell the judge,
I don't want them for this reason.
The judge can disagree.
The judge can be like, yeah, your reason is dumb,
or no, that doesn't apply.
But so they fight it out or maybe sometimes they both agree, which in that case, the judge will strike that juror.
But now each of them have six strikes. They can take out six jurors without explanation, without reason.
So 45 minus six and six, that's 12.
So 45 minus 12 will be 33 people left after they just knock out 12.
But I do think that there's more questionings too for any potential strikes as well.
They just have to narrow down to 12 and then 6 alternates.
But I think it'd be interesting to see who they strike out just because they're like,
I don't want to give a reason. This is interesting.
So a lot of decisions will be made on Monday
and I will be in the courthouse
and I will be right here right after
and I will see you then.