The Megyn Kelly Show - Diddy Trial Deep Dive: "Mob Boss" Background, Issues of Consent, Prosecution and Defense Strategies

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Megyn Kelly discusses the latest details surrounding the Diddy trial and his abusive behavior, what new information is emerging, the way Diddy appears to have operated like a "mob boss" for years and is getting charged that way, the exact crimes Diddy is being charged with and what he's not, the challenges the prosecution faces in proving the case, what Cassie has said on the stand related to consent and abuse, what the Diddy defense strategy seems to be, Cassie’s texts and past relationship with Diddy, the truth about consent, the challenges each legal side faces, and more. Done with Debt: https://www.DoneWithDebt.comByrna: Go to https://Byrna.com and order their all new Compact Launcher.FYSI: https://FYSI.com/Megyn or call 800-877-4000 Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and a special Friday, more casual edition of what's happening in the P. Diddy trial. We're actually supposed to be off today, but I've been following this case pretty closely and there's been a lot I've wanted to say. And we've been trying to sandwich it into other shows. And finally, I just wanted to take a chunk of time to just cover what we've seen this week because there's been a lot of developments and I got a lot of thoughts on this. So coming in sort of on a day off, it was supposed to be a day off. Thank you to my team for, uh, accommodating me on my need to get this off my chest. Being in debt is like sinking in quicksand.

You're trapped. You feel helpless. And the harder you struggle, the deeper in debt you can get. If you are trapped in debt, let me throw you a lifeline done with debt. Done with debt has created a new strategy with one goal in mind, to get you out of debt quickly and permanently. Done With Debt stands between you and your bill collectors. Then they negotiate a plan to end your debt permanently, without bankruptcy and without loans. They can get you out of debt quickly and put more cash in your pocket monthly. But you need to contact Done With Debt right away because some debt solutions expire.

It's easy to get started. Go to donewithdebt.com and get a free consultation. You have nothing to lose. Talk with one of their experts about a strategy that will end your debt faster and easier than you thought possible. Visit donewithdebt.com. That's donewithdebt.com.

I'm horrified by this case. And the more I look at it, the more I think the case is getting stronger by the day against Diddy for sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Those are the claims against him. I do not predict he's definitely going to get convicted, but I'm more and more believing it's likely. And that's because watching, for example, the cross-examination of the star witness has been, I think, kind of underwhelming. I thought that they'd have more and I thought that they'd be a little bit more skilled. But instead, they seem to be all over the board, the defense counsel on trying to just score points with her. And they are clearly, I get it, trying to prove that she consented to some of this behavior. Okay. Okay. You need to prove that she consented to all of it. That's the truth.

I mean, more accurately stated, the prosecution needs to prove that there were at least some of these sexual encounters, so-called freak-offs, that were not consensual on her part. And I think they're doing it, I have to tell you. So let's just take a step back, okay? Because what's interesting about this case, and the reason we're all paying such close attention, is because this is one of the most famous men in the world. Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, whatever, is one of the biggest celebrities in America, in the world. And his star was on the rise. He formed Bad Boy Records. Of course, he was very famous for his relationship with J-Lo and being involved in shooting a woman in the face. He allegedly had another person take the fall for him. The woman who got shot in the face says it was Sean Combs. I saw him and that he paid this other guy to take the fall for him and actually serve time for him.

That's not at issue in this case. I'm just saying he's been infamous for a long time. And we've seen him at the award shows, you know, behaving badly and being a bully and just kind of a douchebag. And we knew that he was a douchebag. I knew he was a douchebag. In my opinion, that's what he was. But it's so far beyond that. This is just so far beyond that. This is not the Johnny Depp case, guys. This is not like, oh, you know, you've got this controversial guy and this lunatic woman, and, you know, she's trying to make a buck off of him, or she's not taking responsibility for her piece of it. This is not that. It's also not Epstein or R. Kelly, where you're talking about underage girls. You know, the women involved in P. Diddy's web were of age.

They're adults, but that doesn't mean they're incapable of being sex trafficked in the meaning of the law. Or part of what essentially amounted to a criminal conspiracy of control and coercion over them. And that's really at heart what the government is alleging against this guy. But P. Diddy's apex of his fame almost was right when he was brought down. I mean, the news reports about him talk about how in 2023,

he'd been nominated, I think, for his first solo Grammy, Artist of the Year, whatever it was. Like, he was moving up in the awards ceremony world. He was getting more and more recognition. He was releasing an album. And he was sort of everywhere in the media. And he knew everyone. Everyone. You know, I remember that video of him going through the names of the people who came to his parties. It was a who's who of the Oscars and the Grammy Awards. I think I should have said Grammys, not Emmys. That's TV. And he was extremely well connected. You know, Ashton Kutcher at all of his parties and Oprah, of course. Okay. That's he's the one who listed her as coming to his 50th birthday party.

Everyone wanted to be near him, his extreme wealth and his infamous party life. You know, we had seen these videos of Justin Bieber being handed over to him at age 15. Great job. Great job. For his weekend with Diddy Camp. I mean, we don't know, but it certainly looks like Justin Bieber is still suffering the fallout from whatever happened to him as he was coming up the ranks of the music world. It really doesn't seem worth it. I mean, I'd love to hear more from his camp about what's real, because it's clear he's suffering. We just don't know from what and what mother out there would give her 15 year old boy over to a grown man who's in the rap industry for a weekend with Diddy camp without other adult supervision. That's insane. Then there was Usher going on with Howard Stern, talking about how he was living with Diddy for almost a year and how he would never, never let his young sons at his age then go and do that kind of thing. These are guys who are indebted to Diddy professionally,

saying, you know, this is Usher at least saying this is insane. I believe, I believe this guy has been abusing people severely for a long, long time. And I don't think the government's wrong that he behaved like a mob boss, like the rules did not apply to him. And let's face it, they didn't seem to. Where were like the repeated police interventions on his behavior? He was too rich. He was too connected. He was too powerful. Look how the government opened its case here. And by the way, before I get to that, so he's, you know, reaming back up to the apex of his fame in 2023. And that's when his ex-girlfriend of 11 years, Cassie Ventura, dropped her civil can get paid. And some were probably much more serious than that. Some of the more serious ones have withstood motions to dismiss and are in civil litigation right now. So she brings that case and the feds get interested. And before we know it, there's a federal raid on his homes and Bob's your uncle. We're in uncle were in criminal court. But Diddy was behaving with impunity for a long, long time.

And the way the government opened its case kind of proved how he operated. Their first witness was not Cassie or another alleged sex trafficking victim of his or a sex worker. It was an LAPD guy who had been, prior to joining the LAPD, working security at the Hotel Intercontinental out in LA and was there when that terrible beating we all saw on camera took place. That security guard was the one who got called and who went up to see what the hell was going on. Here's the tape for those of you who have forgotten. He's walking down the hall. Sorry, she's walking down the hall. Stand by. Now he's coming in a towel, running, running after her. She's trying to get in the elevator. He grabs her by the head. He whips

her down to the floor. He kicks her, kicks her in the head. She's down. She stays down. She's testified. He kicks her again. She testified she stayed down because she thought it would minimize her injuries. And he's literally dragging her down the hallway and back into the hotel room. There are a number of reasons the prosecution started with that. And with this witness, who is a third party, not alleged to be a victim of Diddy's, not a friend of Diddy's, not a friend of Cassie's, not a sex worker, no one directly involved in this case.

This is an LAPD guy who said not only was he there and saw the visible injuries on Cassie, but said that Diddy offered him a bribe. He offered him $100,000 wrapped in a wad. First of all, who the hell's walking around with $100,000 cash on them? Wrapped in a wad and that he declined it. And he was smart enough to take out his cell phone and videotape the videotape that was on the security cameras. He was going home for the weekend and he was very wise to do it because he said when he came back on Monday, the hotel tape had disappeared. And the testimony was that Diddy did find some security agent willing to delete it.

Love to hear more about that. But this one, their first witness said, I rejected the bribe and I videotaped what was on that camera. And it was only leaked to CNN recently. We hadn't seen that tape. And it tells you so much. There's no doubt he's a physical abuser. Zero doubt that he is a physical abuser of women. That's not his first rodeo. That guy's been around the block. That's not how you beat a woman when you're just trying it out for the first time. Bullshit. There's no question in my mind that this is part of a pattern of abuse that probably went

on for years and probably spanned across multiple individuals. And part of the thing we don't know right now is who else is the government calling? They don't have to tell us right now. So we don't know. We know a couple of people. We know Cassie. We know they have another female, Jane Doe, who we believe is going to take the stand and say he did this similar behavior to her. There's a third witness who absconded. She decided not to testify and she left the jurisdiction, according to reports. We don't know exactly who that was or why, but I'm sure that she's terrified. Of course, they're all terrified because what's not going to come into this trial probably are all the other reports

around Sean Combs. He denies all of this, just to be clear. He denies the allegations, the abuse. No, he's admitted that against Cassie in that video because mean, who does that? Right? He denies everything. And there are lots of other allegations about Biggie Smalls and what, if anything, Sean Combs did to him. He was part of his record label. He was part of Sean Combs' Bad Boys record label. What's he going to say? He's no fan of Diddy. That seems clear. What happened with him? What happened in the past with some of these big rapper battles like Tupac Shakur? There are all sorts of questions about what Diddy has done, to whom, when, how extensively involved, none of which

this trial is going to get into. Okay. It's too big. They've decided sort of Al Capone-like to focus on the few charges they think they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. And the rest is just sort of noise. But you know, it shouldn't be for the press, the public. We should know before. Why don't we choose more carefully who we're going to lionize? Not just us, but like the Harvards and the MITs of the world. Look how they lionized Epstein, not to mention the Bill Clintons. Why don't we choose more carefully who we're going to put up on these pedestals?

Jeffrey Epstein was lionized even after he had pleaded guilty to this act of prostitution with a 14-year-old. Still, Katie Couric's going to his house for dinner. Why? Not to mention Prince Andrew. We're so obsessed with people who attain great wealth and have the trappings of it all around them. It's like some sort of magic elixir to other people, even if they're wealthy too. Like you must know something. You must be someone. Instead of having like a healthy disdain for that and questioning, you know, how'd you get it? You know, like I'd like to know more. If I sit next to Tom Brady at a dinner, I'm going to know exactly how he got his money and I'm fine with that. But like an Epstein and a P Diddy or a

Weinstein about whom there's always been a rumor mill of bad behavior. I mean, it just makes you wonder like before you actually get in business with this person or in bed with this person, how much more would you need to know? How much due diligence should you be doing? And lionizing them, yeah, same rule. So Diddy, after the Cassie lawsuit, gets hit with a bunch of lawsuits, and then ultimately the raids, and then this criminal case. And the feds, Al Capone style, have not charged everything under the sun. They've charged three main charges, racketeering, um, sex trafficking, and the transport of a prostitute. And I'll tell you, I don't know about the racketeering charge. It's pretty sweeping.

And I'll tell you what the general, um, what the general elements are, just so you can understand it's, I mean, it's a lot. Um, and, and you can tell, you know, you can ask yourself whether you think he's, they've, they've proved their case. It's going to be probably an uphill battle on the racketeering. That's the toughest one, but the other two are looking good racketeering. Uh, okay, that he has with others. And just because no one else has been charged, which normally in a RICO case, you would have others charged. It was a statute designed to get mob bosses, trying to get at criminal behavior that's like a web of criminal behavior that you can't necessarily prove like the one thing or the statute of limitations expired on the other thing, but you're just showing this bad guy

who's operating what's clearly an enterprise that over and over engages in criminal problems or criminal acts. So they've used it against many non-mob bosses since it was created. And they've used it against people like Epstein, they were going to, for this kind of behavior.

So what they're saying is that the defendant and others known known and unknown, being persons employed by and associated with his enterprise, engaged in. And in a way that affects interstate commerce, they conspired together and they engaged in an effort to violate the racketeering laws of the United States. And what they say is we mean that they committed multiple acts involving, by the way, under the law, I think you just need to, multiple acts involving kidnapping, stand by, reading through their indictment, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and more. The general list at the front of the complaint says arson, bribery,

and obstruction of justice too. So among others. Now the kidnapping and, stand by, I'm just looking at my list here, kidnappingnapping, arson. That's probably going to be the kid cuddly stuff. We'll see. She testified to this. They got this from Cassie when she took the stand. That videotape, she testified, was her running out of a freak off. She'd had enough. She was escaping. And that he ran after her, dragged her back and forced her to continue. Now that's kidnapping right there. And it's assault. And just because the state prosecutor in California did not bring charges against Diddy, which he should have. But again, that tape was kept secret for some 10 years. So the statute of limitations may have expired.

So it's not being charged as an individual act, but that her showing us that and saying, I was escaping a freak off and dragged back in there to continue is kidnapping. And on top of it, it meets the other, it meets the other elements as well. It's a person in a room with a sex prostitute, which she testified to, someone being paid to be there to engage in sex acts.

And she's testifying she was there under coercion. That's sex trafficking. And there was testimony that he did this with her across state lines and outside of the country too, like down in Turks and Caicos or one of those tropical islands not owned by the United States. So that is the second count, sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. Saying that from at least 2009 up until 2018,

he, in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, knowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised, maintained, patronized, and solicited by any means a person knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that means of force, threats of force, fraud, and coercion would be used. What they're trying to say, to force that person to engage in a commercial sex act. What they're saying is in interstate commerce, he transported, would be enough, a person through means of force, fraud, or coercion into a commercial sex act. Okay, well, where was the force, fraud, or coercion? The prostitutes are going to testify that they did it willingly. Now, the first guy said I was there willingly. They were paying me, but he also took a picture of my license and seemed to be threatening me that if I spoke or didn't behave as he wanted me to, he was going to hurt me.

There would be retribution. So that's evidence of some force or coercion. But it's really coming down right now to Cassie, who is showing us the tape. I tried to escape. He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me down the hallway back into one of the freak-offs.

That would be coercion to go back into this room and engage in a commercial sex act. She's not the one getting paid. The lover is. And she testified to that. So you don't, and then you also have to prove that he knew,

Sean knew that the victim was engaging in this act as a result of force for auto coercion. Well, the defense is offering emails of her saying, I want to do the freak offs. I'm into it. Can't wait to freak off. It's all from 2009 so far, 2010. There was some testimony, some email correspondence. They're not sharing all the email language with us. Before that 2016 one that resulted in the beating that we saw in the hallway. But even if they have an email suggesting she wanted to do that one and she's disputing that, it seems pretty clear on the tape she was done with the freak off. Seems pretty clear the consent had been withdrawn. And by the way, as a legal matter, a woman can withdraw her consent to a sex act literally in the middle of sex. The first two minutes can be consensual. And if she says, I'm done, get off of me, the next minute would be rape if he doesn't listen. That's the law. So you can certainly

participate voluntarily in one of these freak offs, which she said some of them last four days. And maybe on day one, you're good. But by the time you're on day four, you're saying, I want to get out of here. Let me go. And if he chases you down the hallway and grabs you and pulls you back into the room where the commercial sex worker is there on the clock for money, you're effed. You're effed. You are going to be charged likely with sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. That's count two of this indictment.

Now, maybe the jury will be persuaded. Maybe the defense has one of these emails or texts for every single freak-off. She said there were hundreds, so I doubt it. She's doing more of a narrative explanation of what happened saying in the beginning of our relationship, by the way, there was a 17 year age difference. She was 19 when it started. He, he threw a 21st birthday party and invited Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, she was an ingenue. She was as green and doe-eyed as they came. And this older, much more successful, more sophisticated, bully, criminal thug took advantage of this young girl, so beautiful, everything in front of her, and lured her into his world through promises of making her in the music industry,

remaking her, you know, making her over, teaching her how to dress and how to be in a way that would be enticing for others. Of course, that would be extremely alluring for any young woman. But there was a price to be paid. And in the beginning he wooed her. My God, this is a pattern. I mean, you guys have seen it. You've heard it just on this case, this show enough to know it is a pattern of, of abusers to love bomb the women at the beginning. If it's, if those are the roles, the gender roles, men versus women, it can happen the other way, but it's this kind of abuse, domestic abuse with a love bombing is generally men on women. And then once he obtains control over her comes the abuse. It can be verbal, it can be financial,

and it can be physical. And she testified that he beat her many times. And the second witness of the case was a sex worker, not the one who was in that room for the 2016 Intercontinental Hotel incident, freak off slash beating, but a different one, a different sex worker, the one who said, I had to show my license. And he said he heard Diddy slapping her behind closed doors, that they had an argument. I think that he threw a bottle at her and then they went behind closed doors and he heard him slapping her and he heard her saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And then he expressed his concern directly to her. It sounds like this guy was kind of side text from time to time. And he felt that she was in danger in Diddy's world. This is a third party. Again, yes, he was involved, not like the security guard. He was involved in their relationship and their freak offs, but he's setting the stage and the prosecution with those first two witnesses is setting the stage that this was not a purely voluntary thing, that Cassie did feel coerced

and feel like she had no other choice and understood very well that there would be a high price to pay if she did not do what he wanted. And it really doesn't matter. Again, if that coercion began mid freak off, pre-off, or if in the beginning of their relationship when she was very young, 2008, 7, 9, when they're showing her her loving texts toward Diddy, that she was genuinely in love with him and possibly wanted to do these things. And she was explaining that she did love him, that she felt there was actual tender love between the two of them. And she felt he loved her too, though he was dating other women. He was hiding her. He wouldn't bring her out in public. She didn't like that. He was spending all the holidays with Kim Porter, the mother of some of his other children. There are many, many baby mamas in his world. And

he wasn't treating her in any way like an equal or a partner, but this poor lost girl who now had been hooked by this guy had been repeatedly, I mean, it's a form of sexual abuse what he was doing to her, whether she knew it or not. It is not love to take a 17 years younger, 19, 20, 21-year-old girl, and have some sex worker come into your private home or hotel room and urinate down her mouth to the point she's gagging. You fucking cretin, Sean Combs. That's what the evidence was. That's one of the many reasons I think he's a disgusting, perverted criminal. It's my opinion. And she was fooled into believing it was because she was

young. I don't know what her background was, but I guarantee you it wasn't great. And she testified that even now, even up until the recent past couple of years, she's had suicidal ideations. She's married now to what appears to be a nice man, by all accounts. They've got a child and she's, I think they've got two children and she's about to give birth to number three. That's why they had to rush her onto the stand because the prosecution understands she is the star witness. And, you know, she's got two weeks to go. This baby could come at any time.

And everybody understood once the baby's here, all bets are off. She might not testify. So they were right to put her on the stand. But even now with her life ironed out and a good man by all accounts in her life, she's still having suicidal ideations, or at least was up until recently. She was very tearful on the stand. She's very soft-spoken. This is not some strong, fierce, badass woman. Even in the text messages, you can tell she's very sweet. Even the defense counsel seemed to be conceding that in the cross-examination of her. And their answer to it is to have Diddy sitting there in a sweater. For our listening audience, I have a gray sweatshirt on today, but like in a

sort of a wool sweater like this with this little polo collar and a Bible. His hair is gray now and he's wearing reading glasses. Oh, he's basically grandpa. No, actually he's not grandpa. He only called himself pop-up in his texts with her because he found out that was her endearing term for her grandpa. Like it was for me and mine. What a sick effort. He found out she called her endearing term for her grandpa, like it was for me and mine. What a sick effer. He found out she called her grandfather pop-pop, and then he insisted she call him that, the guy who was forcing her to do it with unknown sex workers, etc. So he called her BG, baby girl, and she called him pop-pop per his request. I'm just so, it's so foul.

So the defense yesterday got their hands on her Thursday for the first time. And they were all over the map. They were scoring some points in terms of she loved him. She was definitely requesting at least a couple of these freak offs and it's in writing. Now she was saying, those are just words by that point. She was, she was denying that she actually wanted them. And it's, it's hard because if you look at the overall narrative of her first two days on the stand, she was talking about the coercion and the, and the control he had over her and how she didn't want to be doing it. And she knew she'd pay a

price if she didn't. And she was afraid of him and he would physically threaten her. So it's okay. You can pull out like in the course of hundreds of these things, one or two, or she's trying to please him. And, and she also testified that some of the time she knew she had to. And so she'd volunteer to do it like three days in advance. That's the 2016 one. She said of an award ceremony, she was supposed to appear at because she knew she'd have to take drugs to get through it. And that sometimes she would be physically hurt. And she, she wanted to look nice at her movie premiere or at the premiere of, you know, an album award show. So she would try to convince him

to get it done like three days before so she could recover from these things. I mean, this is sick. This is a depraved individual. And just keep in mind, she's not the only one. We're going to have more women come forward, we believe, and take the stand and say he did this with them too. And as far as the racketeering goes, there's been testimony that his staff was facilitating it. They would set up the rooms, they would deconstruct the rooms, they would clean the rooms, they would bring in fresh linens from all the blood and human fluids and baby oil that were all over the beds of these hotels. It's absolutely disgusting. Yes, he was obsessed with baby oil. I know we're all kind of joking about baby oil now. It's just sick. Like he wanted to heat it up. He wanted her putting it on sex workers, sex workers, putting it on her. He wanted her to watch him with female sex workers too, made her do that.

And the defense is trying to say it's all consensual. We've got these emails showing some of them were at her request or she was at least open-minded or seemed to anticipate, seemed to be anticipating it with favor. And therefore, this wasn't coercive. As for the beatdown we've seen on tape, they seem to want to suggest he was angry about his phone, something had happened to his phone, and not that she left the freak off. Now, they're not going to get that in evidence in any meaningful way unless he testifies. And if he testifies, all bets are off. It would be a disaster. I think it will be, I think it'll seal his fate beyond doubt. And he's just arrogant enough to think he might be able to get away with it.

But unless they can convince the jury through some other means that that's what he was angry about when he beat her, I think they're gonna accept Cassie's testimony because she was quick to own it when she didn't know something. She wasn't an argumentative witness. Even the judge at one point said to the defense,

look, you've got a very cooperative witness. Like, come on. Because they were saying, oh, we might need to hold her over to Monday. We don't know when we're going to be done with her. And he was like, you're going to finish up with her on Friday. That's it. This was the schedule. You knew this was the schedule. Get it over with. And the baby's about to pop for God's sake. And by the way, think of the poor stress that this woman's under. For all my female listeners who have had kids, remember yourself in the last two weeks of your pregnancy. Remember what an enormous whale you were and how even emotionally vulnerable you become. It's like somebody could stick a pin in you and you feel like you'd pop. You'd be like a Veruca Salt. No, Violet Beauregard type. Juicy everywhere. Rolling around on the Wonka floor like a blueberry. You just, you're

totally not yourself. You're spicy and you're maybe kind of emotional and you just, you don't feel like yourself. You're excited. You're nervous. Even if it's your third kid, I've had three kids. It's a big, very big deal to squeeze another human being out of your body. And I mean, it's quite a testament to this woman's strength on some level to be doing this at all. The other woman's going under Jane Doe. Like this woman is like there with her real name. And you know, the stress hormones that are running through her body, I'm sure this was calculated by her on whether she wants to do this. You know,

am I going to hurt my baby? Am I going to endanger my pregnancy? But things don't get any more emotionally relaxed in the first four weeks of motherhood after you have your baby either. So clear is very important to her to take the stand and do this. And there's no picture whatsoever being painted of her as a villain. That's why I say it's not like Amber Heard. Even the defense seems to be conceding this is a sweet lady. Their best defense is she was into it. And I'm sorry, but that hotel videotape is just absolutely freaking devastating to their case. Because what we know more than anything is she was not into it that day. All she wanted was to get away from him.

And he came out there like a criminal thug, beat the shit out of her, and dragged her back to his room in which he was sitting naked prior to putting on that towel. I just think that's going to be enough for most of these jurors. Look at her getting out of there. For the listening audience, we're showing the tape again. He's running, running. He's just holding the towel together. He didn't even have the time to like fold it on properly.

Grabbed her like a rag doll, kicked her in the head, grabbing her stuff. This is in public, basically. It's a public hotel. Kicked her again, the anger. So these kicks, he's incredibly angry. Oh, and by the way, they tried to establish through Cassie when she was on the stand that he was upset because they took bad drugs the night before. He was on a bad drug trip. I don't give a shit and neither will the jury. She testified that he was violent with her many times. As I said, she's already gotten sex worker testimony that he heard him abuse. How many bad drug trips did he have? And is that really a defense to coercion? I don't think so. I guess that's it. That's where we are right now. This thing's supposed to go eight weeks.

We're in week one. Week one. I'm looking at the sex trafficking count. All right. Interstate and foreign commerce, there was testimony that they crossed state lines and even country lines, that he transported or provided or obtained or patronized or solicited any person to engage in a commercial sex act, again, by use of force, threats of force, fraud, and coercion. So she's the one being forced. The sex worker is the one who makes it commercial. He definitely transported and provided and so on prostitutes into these rooms. I think that's the jury's going to accept that. And then the last piece of that second count is that he did it knowingly and in reckless disregard of the fact that it was by force, fraud and coercion. And that's one of

the things they're going to argue. He didn't know. If she didn't want to be there, he didn't know because she was sending him emails saying, I want to do it. Well, he knew at the Intercontinental that she had her clothes on and she was running and he beat the shit out of her and dragged her back there.

He knew. That's just, how are they going to get around that? There's a reason the prosecution opened its case with that videotape. And I don't know what else we're going to see on these videotapes or what else the jury is going to see. You know, the prosecution has held its cards close to the vest. The one unknown dynamic here is not totally wowed by the strength of the lawyering on either side. Believe it or not, you have James Comey's daughter as the lead prosecutor,

and you have Mark Garagos' daughter as one of the lead defense attorneys. Isn't that crazy? And the other defense attorneys, it's actually very interesting, it's Mark Agnifilo. And Mark Agnifilo is the guy who defended Keith Raniere in that NXIVM sex cult case from Albany, New York,

you know, my hometown. And I think if you remember, I've shown you my interview of him when I was in NBC on the NXIVM case and how he was going to defend these claims by these women who got branded as part of a Keith Raniere sex cult with his initials. And Agnifilo said to me, oh, same defense he's bringing here. Look, this is a New York jury, he said. We don't do disempowered women. There's no cult. You're not forced to do anything. These women got the brand because they wanted it. They had sex with Keith Raniere because they wanted to. No one made them do anything. And that is literally what they said. This is going to be the defense here. These women were there of their own volition. Nobody forced them. Sean Combs didn't force them. I've got emails. I got texts showing. I can't wait for the freak off. Let's do it this Friday. There's no force. It's like he tries to spin like a girl power moment out of all of this. Like, no, it's impossible for a strong woman to be abused or something. And that's the other defense, of course, that this is all just a weird

sex life. But I do think we have to bear in mind, there's something dangerous about not understanding that domestic violence can absolutely be a part of sex trafficking and a racketeering case like this, where you're saying it's a criminal enterprise in which you force multiple women into your weird sex web that involves other criminal acts potentially like kidnapping, like assault, like drugs. And there's been some testimony to that effect as well. Just because domestic violence is a thing that happens outside of the sex trafficking arena, it happens in people's private homes every day in this country far too many times. So just because it isn't a thing, it is a thing that's independent of potential criminal charges

involving racketeering or sex trafficking, doesn't mean that racketeering and sex trafficking will never involve domestic violence. Or just because a freaky sex life can happen and does happen every day in this country in non-criminal settings doesn't mean that it can't cross over to being a part of a criminal enterprise like racketeering or something you would see on camera or hear testimony about in a sex trafficking case. So we have to be aware that this is the only defense that's available to Sean Combs. She wanted it, is really what he's saying. We're both freaks in the bedroom. Everyone was there of their own volition. There was no coercion of anyone in these rooms. Now, frankly, I don't know how he's going to get past the prostitution counts. That's, that's going to be transportation to engage in prostitution, which doesn't really require too much. He knowingly transported individuals in interstate or foreign commerce with the intent that they engage in prostitution. It doesn't require fraud,

coercion, or force. He knowingly transported individuals in interstate and foreign commerce with the intent that they engage in prostitution. Well, we've already had testimony to that effect, and there's going to be more, my understanding is. And Cassie, two witnesses have already testified to that. Now that's got a lower penalty, but the sex trafficking, the one that I read to you before, sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, that alone could be 15 years. And you add the RICO in there, and now we're talking potential life in prison on all these counts. But I'm just saying, he's looking at some very serious prison time on all of these. And it's no defense like she wanted it to the transportation to engage in prostitution

count. Now, you just have to keep in mind, she wanted it has to apply across the board. And I just don't know how they're going to get there. There's just too many of them. And the tape is too brutal. And the testimony of the sex worker about the fight and him slapping her behind closed doors. And even one of her text messages says, when we both want the freak offs, I love them. Well, what does that mean? So what I see is two okay lawyers on the prosecution and the defense side squaring off against one another and each building the, planting the seeds for their garden in closing argument. And you're going to have the prosecution get up there and they are just going to go element by element on each of these charges. That's what they're doing. They're eliciting testimony to prove each of the elements they need to prove. And they will go through them piecemeal on,

you know, kidnapping. What was it? Bribery. That's another one of the predicate acts for the RICO count. We've already had the testimony on that. The security guard was offered $100,000 to get rid of the tape. He said that under oath. They really didn't dent that guy up at all. He added more on the stand about he and Combs scuffling over, I think, his phone. Maybe Combs had seen him videotape the videotape. And they got in his grill about why he didn't put that in his report. The guy's like, look, I didn't put every detail in the report. But, you know, obviously the beating happened. The security guard we know is telling the truth on that. We've all seen it. So that's, that guy's talking about

bribery. You got bribery there. Looks like you got kidnapping right there on camera. That's two. All you need is two predicate acts for conspiracy under Rico. And you generally have other defendants. Again, it appears some have cut deals. That's my belief. I believe there are probably unindicted co-conspirators who are probably gonna take the stand against Diddy and say, I arranged the room. I provided the baby oil. I paid the prostitutes. I supplied the drugs.

I mean, why are we going eight weeks if we're not gonna hear that? So all of that is coming our way. And I would say now when we are at week one, and I should offer the caveat that we're doing this Friday morning around 11, and she's back on the witness stand getting crossed again right now, the defense is still crossing, and then the prosecution will do a redirect and then a recross, et cetera. So maybe something dramatic will happen today before we go

to air with this. But right now I think the prosecution is getting it done. They're not, they're not wowing me. And the defense is not wowing me either. They don't have, you know, what was her name? Vasquez, the lawyer who cross-examined Amber Heard. Yeah. Camille Vasquez. She was a star. They don't have that on team defense. Not so far. And they don't have a witness who can be made into a villain like Amber Heard pretty easily was. You know, when she did fine on her cross, you remember, I actually found her on her direct, I found her direct kind of compelling. And then she got on cross and it was just so clear. Her whole story fell apart. That's not happening to Cassie Ventura. It's not happening. So that's

where we are after one week of the Diddy trial. I really think we need this. We need this full airing of this man's behavior. It was past time and it shouldn't stop at this criminal trial. Like this isn't my world. I cover politics, you know, for the most part, and, you know, massive cultural stories too. But the people who cover the entertainment industry, the people who cover the music industry, where the hell were you losers? You know, that whole,

I guess I touched this world a bit in my year at NBC, but that whole world around these celebs is all about one thing, sucking up to them for ongoing access. It's just all about kissing their round rumps so you can have ongoing access to Diddy and you might be invited to a Diddy party or have him swing by to promote his new record. That's the name of the game. You know, listen to the reason Billy Bush describes himself handling Donald Trump on that now infamous bus trip when Trump was the biggest star at the network and Billy Bush worked for

Extra or Access Hollywood. And he's like, of course I was kissing his ass. That's my business. That's the, like the whole game is ongoing access. There's no one willing to take a serious look and do some real investigative reporting on these people. And there must be, because we have to figure out exactly how widespread his alleged criminal acts may possibly go. Again, he denies it all. He denies all of this and is outraged at the allegations being brought against him. And in fairness to Diddy, some have clearly been made in the wake of Cassie's lawsuit that appear to be absolute bullshit. You know, money grubbers who've decided to try to get on the Diddy gravy train and shame on them because they undermine the legit claims being made against him or what appear to be. So we have to proceed with

an open mind toward his defense and look, maybe he's got some ace in the hole that we haven't yet seen. And maybe he will take the stand and get in more evidence of consent and participation and what happened on that tape that we don't yet know about. And I am open-minded to that. So anyway, thank you for listening. I hope you have a great weekend and we'll pick back up the show on Monday. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear. These days, personal safety is not something that can be left to chance. Whether at home, on the road, or just living everyday life, having a reliable way to protect yourself and your family is crucial. That's why Burna is the choice for many.

Burna is a game-changing, less lethal self-defense tool. Compact, powerful, and easy to use, it provides the confidence to act in any situation. Burna uses non-lethal rounds, tear gas, pepper, and kinetic projectiles to effectively stop a threat from a safe distance. And the best part? Burna can be shipped directly to your door, and it's legal in all 50 states. Burna is proudly American with products hand-assembled in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sometimes a firearm is not the right option, and Burna provides a powerful alternative. Protect what matters most with Burna. Visit Burna.com. That's B-Y-R-N-A dot com slash Megan, and that'll get you a 10% discount and learn why thousands of people and law enforcement agencies

are adding Burna's less lethal protection. Burna, non-lethal self defense, always ready. Let me tell you about Financial Yield Solutions, Inc., known as FYSI. If you're handling your own books or you have a bookkeeper, you risk inaccuracies, missed deductions and blind spots in cash flow. FYSI's team of seasoned accounting professionals, corporate and tax attorneys handle every journal entry, bank reconciliation, and month-end close with unmatched precision, delivering clear and timely financial reports that keep you in control. They weave advanced tax avoidance strategies into your bookkeeping so you can capture every deduction before you file and plug you into their network of industry leaders and referral partners for real world growth opportunities. Set up your free consultation to learn how FYSI's

experts will transform your books into a growth engine and accelerate your business to the next level. Act now to claim your free $5,000 business assessment available only for a limited time. Visit fysi.com slash Megan, use promo Megan, or call 800-877-4000 today.