Federal prosecutors are presenting their closing argument in the Diddy criminal trial ... and they're telling the jury it won't take much to find Diddy guilty of racketeering conspiracy.
00:00Well, this is the time when both sides in the Diddy case try and create a story.
00:07Because up to this point, when you have testimony, it's kind of disjointed.
00:12You're talking racketeering with this witness.
00:14You're talking sex trafficking with this witness.
00:17This is where both sides tell a story to the judge.
00:22And this is usually where you win or lose a case.
00:25And the prosecutors, prosecutors have started and they came out of the gate swinging.
00:31Yes. The closing arguments just try to, as Harvey said, you want to tell the story.
00:37You want to bring all of the elements, all of the testimony that they've heard for a month.
00:43You've got to put it in a nice little package for them to say this is why you should convict him.
00:48And they started with sex trafficking on this first day of closing arguments.
00:54It's because, again, prosecutors are going today and the defense will go tomorrow.
00:59But they said sex trafficking and they wanted to make this very clear for the jury.
01:04You've heard a lot, a lot of testimony about freak offs.
01:08You've heard dozens of nights that these parties were organized and everything that happened.
01:15It only takes one instance, one of those parties where you can show the girlfriend did not want to be there.
01:24Where you show force or coercion in order to have a freak off.
01:30Now, with Cassie, I will say we're going to get to Jane in a minute.
01:33With Cassie, the one thing that really stood out to me, if the jury believes it, is she said on redirect when she was on the stand that when they flew from France to New York,
01:48Diddy showed her a freak off on the airplane and said, if you don't participate.
01:53Showed the video of one that she was in.
01:55Right, and if you don't participate in a freak off when we get to New York, I'm going to release this video publicly and embarrass you.
02:03If the jury believes that alone, that would definitely be coercion.
02:08That would be enough for sex trafficking.
02:10It's interesting you mentioned the airplane with Cassie.
02:14Prosecutors started with Jane laying out three freak offs they say were evidence of force, fraud, or coercion.
02:19What were they? What were they?
02:20The first one is September 2023. They said Diddy tricked Jane into flying to New York.
02:27He said he promised a shopping spree and a fancy dinner, but while she's on the plane, he's texting escorts,
02:34hey, meet us at this hotel for a freak off, and he springs that plan on her while she's in the air.
02:38No, no, no, that's different. This is a different one. This is Jane, not Cassie.
02:41Oh, Jane, right, right, right.
02:42Jane, they started with Jane. They haven't talked about Cassie yet, so it's kind of interesting they're starting with Jane.
02:46But the first one is Jane. September 2023, he tricks her into a flight to New York with promises of-
02:53So wait a minute, Jason, so it's force, fraud, or coercion. That would be fraud, right?
02:57That would be fraud. Exactly right.
02:58I mean, it says you have two elements here, right?
03:01You have both the fraud, but you're also laying out the groundwork for this larger criminal conspiracy.
03:06I think the prosecutors are-
03:08Yeah, but let's get to racketeering in a minute.
03:10I mean, let's get into the sex trafficking.
03:12So that's one. What are the other two?
03:15The second one is the next month, October 2023, that was when there was like a sobriety party,
03:23and she told him, hey, like, she texted him, I'm not an animal, I'm not a porn star.
03:27And then a couple of days later, he's got her having sex with two men.
03:31She threw up, and then he asked her, hey, can you have sex with another guy?
03:34Right, and there was an instance-
03:36So that would be force?
03:37I guess they're saying that's force.
03:39I think it's all coercion. It's hard to say that there was actual force used,
03:43because there's no evidence that there was physical force, that she wasn't allowed to leave these incidences.
03:48I think the idea is that he was coercing her or defrauding her into engaging, getting herself into these positions,
03:55and then she testified over and over again that she didn't feel that she had the right to leave
04:00because the injury would have to occur.
04:02So what's the third, Austin?
04:03This is the big one. This is June 2024, and they say Diddy knows at this point he is under federal investigation for sex trafficking.
04:11This is when Jane testified they got in a big fight at the house that he was paying her rent for in L.A.
04:16After that fight, they say Diddy texted a male escort to come over using her phone.
04:21The guy gets there. He takes her into the bathroom, tries to force her to take ecstasy.
04:27She's saying, no, I don't want to take it. I don't want to do it.
04:29He gets up in her face, they said, with the pill, and says, take this.
04:33And he says, is this coercion?
04:34And they're saying he knew at that time that he was under investigation for coercion.
04:38And the prosecutor said to answer that question, Diddy, yes, that was coercion.
04:43Okay, so that's the coercion they're trying to prove, and they're saying all it takes is one.
04:47That's before you even get to Cassie.
04:49By the way, to be clear, it's not one time with Jane and one time with Cassie.
04:54If there's one time with either of them, then you should convict them for sex.
04:58So they haven't done Cassie yet, but they did get into racketeering this morning, right?
05:04Yeah, there was a lot of testimony about, or a lot of argument about racketeering.
05:08They laid out the elements that you have to have this criminal conspiracy.
05:11They pointed out at the outset that Diddy liked to refer to himself as king,
05:15and that the people that worked for him were his lieutenants.
05:18And they talk about that because the entire idea of a criminal enterprise
05:21is that you have one person who is the kingpin,
05:25and then you have these various minions who are doing the criminal work for him.
05:28So how do they define the racketeering?
05:30Yeah, so they lay out, right, you have to have two predicate acts
05:36in order for there to be racketeering.
05:37That's what the government's burden is to prove.
05:39Meaning what?
05:40Those predicate acts can be things like arson, kidnapping,
05:45forced sexual activity, forced sexual conduct,
05:47and there's a number of other things.
05:49And there's also bribery, right?
05:51Bribery and drug distribution.
05:52Drug distribution, yeah.
05:53Drug distribution, yeah.
05:54Yeah, and so the one they really hit on first this morning
05:56was drug distribution.
05:58We heard a lot of testimony, even from people who were loyal to Diddy still
06:02and in his camp, that their responsibilities were to go out
06:05and source drugs, ecstasy and other drugs,
06:08and bring them to the freak-offs where the participants would use these drugs.
06:12So that was sort of the easiest one to prove,
06:14but they also argued about Kid Cudi, and they asked the jury, like,
06:19to infer from the evidence they had that it was Diddy behind the Kid Cudi car bombing.
06:24They obviously don't have, they haven't able to tie that up in a knot
06:27by saying that, you know, by having proof that it was Diddy,
06:30but they asked the jury to infer that from the testimony.
06:33And there was other things about Capricorn Clark and the kidnapping claim.
06:37So they're laying out all of these various predicate acts.
06:40Yeah, and the thing with the drug distribution, they said even if he gets somebody
06:44to bring him drugs, and he gives those drugs to Cassie or Jane for a freak-off,
06:49boom, you got him on drug distribution, which is interesting.
06:52See, that's kind of a weird one to me, because to me, drug distribution is selling.
06:58Or, you know, I mean, typically it's selling.
07:01And here, he's the buyer, and he's giving it to somebody in the room.
07:05That's kind of a weird notion of drug distribution to me.
07:09They specifically said to the jury, it does not have to be selling in this case for you to find him.
07:15But I think your point is taken, Harvey, that a jury may be less likely to consider this,
07:20although they could technically do so, less likely to consider it a predicate act for something like Rico,
07:25because they're not distributing, like you typically see, like, go back to Tony Soprano.
07:29It's an example we all know, you know, in the business of selling this for profit.
07:34Hi, this is Tracy from Pennsylvania.
07:37And as the Diddy trial concludes, or is being wrapped up,
07:42a lot of people are concerned about charges being dropped.
07:46But I'm not concerned about charges being dropped or Diddy's Tootsie Pop.
07:50Because what I think is happening, the prosecution,
07:53they're streamlining everything so that the jury can focus on the crux of the matter,
08:00which are the Rico charges.
08:02Yeah, I mean, prior to the closing arguments today,
08:05we had all been saying, like, where's the Rico?
08:07Where's the Rico?
08:09But it is interesting that they made it clear,
08:11you only have to find two of those predicate acts,
08:14three crimes, alleged crimes, or two of the alleged crimes,
08:18and you can convict him on that.
08:20Now, if you're the defense, if you're the defense, how do you...
08:26Oh, here's what they say.
08:27Combat that.
08:28Here's what they say.
08:29They say...
08:29And we'll find out tomorrow.
08:30I mean, they say, okay, so some guy hires a prostitute
08:36and then has a friend give him drugs.
08:39No, no, hold on, hold on.
08:40But you asked how they're going to combat it.
08:42They're going to say, so some guy hires a prostitute
08:46and gets a friend to give him drugs that they can party with at night.
08:51That if you look at two of these elements,
08:54drugs, prostitutes, that guy's a racketeer,
08:57so they're going to say...
08:59What they're going to do is they're going to say
09:00this is becoming bedroom police.
09:02I mean, that's got to be their theme.
09:04I don't know whether it's going to work or not,
09:05but that's what they're going to say.
09:07It's like, really?
09:08That's a racketeer?
09:09And then they're going to give examples, I think.
