Missing witnesses and lingering questions plague prosecution as Diddy trial nears conclusion: expert

Fox News

5 hours ago

The government is expected to wrap up its case against Sean "Diddy" Combs on Monday after more than six weeks of testimony from a number of witnesses.
Jury selection for the rapper's sex crimes trial began on May 5, and the prosecution called its last witness to the stand Friday after hearing Diddy's former assistant, alleged "drug mule" Brendan Paul, testify about his time employed by the Bad Boy Records founder.
Diddy's legal team, headed by Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, initially indicated they would need upwards of two weeks to plead their case, but told Judge Arun Subramanian last week that they may be able to rest by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Despite the trial coming to a close, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani admitted that lingering questions remain with the case, including questions about missing key witnesses.
"What happened to Gina, who was Victim 3 in the indictment? The government said they were unable to get a hold of her, and she did not testify," Rahmani said. "Was she afraid, embarrassed, paid off by Combs, or was there another reason why she didn't comply with the subpoena? Regardless, it was a mistake by the prosecution to list her as a victim when they did not have assurances that she would appear. They should have known Combs has the resources to threaten or pay witnesses not to testify and have planned accordingly."
There have been no allegations in court that Diddy threatened or paid witnesses not to testify.
Rahmani also wondered why Diddy's chief of staff, Kristina "KK" Khorram, wasn't called to testify. Brendan Paul testified Friday that KK "basically ran the enterprise."
During the testimony of summary witness Anaya Sankar, the jury was shown text messages between Diddy's ex Cassie Ventura and KK dated May 2, 2017. Cassie was telling KK that the "Last Night" singer allegedly had locked the door and dragged her by her hair.
"What happened to Gina, who was Victim 3 in the indictment? The government said they were unable to get a hold of her, and she did not testify."
More text messages between Cassie and KK dated April 20, 2018, showed Cassie saying she can't take the violence and being kicked out of her own home. KK responded, "I don't know what else to say, but I'm here…" Cassie then wrote, "I just want to stay focused."
The jury was then shown text messages between KK and Diddy's more recent ex-girlfriend, who testified under the pseudonym Jane. She alleged that Diddy had forced her to have sex with male escorts during "hotel nights" and that occasionally the sex session was recorded.
A text message sent to KK from Jane was shown to the jury, which claimed Combs was threatening to release the alleged sex tapes. Jane wrote, "You're his righthand woman…maybe he'll listen to you…" The message was sent on Feb. 18, 2024.
"Many consider her to be Combs' Ghislaine Maxwell because she knows where the proverbial bodies are buried," Rahmani told Fox News Digital. "Khorram was actually involved in the alleged sex and drug trafficking and could have been charged as a co-conspirator. The government should have leaned on her to flip against her former boss. Instead, they gave her a pass by simply reading her text messages into evidence."
Rahmani questioned why Diddy's ex-girlfriends, including Cassie, Mia and Jane, didn't leave if they had been sexually assaulted and trafficked.
"The government put on expert Dawn Hughes to explain the psychology of abuse, but that is the biggest question in the case," Rahmani admitted. "Did the victims stay because they wanted the money and fame that came with being Combs' partner? If so, did they consent to the 'freak offs' while they were happening?"
"Was this rape, or really regret and resentment? I'm not sure prosecutors have fully answered this question and this is the same argument the defense raised with some success in the Harvey Weinstein retrial."
What the jury will decide remains the biggest question in the case. Attorney Nicole Blank Becker, who represents R. Kelly, told Fox News Digital that jurors, just like anyone else, have a difficult time separating emotions from charges.
"When you hear about the horrible actions of P. Diddy, not only here, but then you see the actions on a video, and at some point, the jury will be told, 'OK,' perhaps that it was a domestic violence, but that's not really what this is about. It's about something bigger," Becker said. "The idea that the jurors will be able to separate that in their mind is highly unlikely, even though they will be told to. And there's a lot of demonstrative evidence in this case, is my understanding.
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"My experience when I was in the case with R. Kelly, those types of things are often used not only to show what the government's trying to bring, show in their case, but it definitely brings an emotional side to a human, and sometimes that emotional part – It's very difficult to overlook when you're back there as a juror."
"The idea that the jurors will be able to separate that in their mind is highly unlikely, even though they will be told to."
She added, "I can only imagine the difficulty that there must be when you were back in a jury room to sort of separate if you think he's a good person or a bad person, because that's not what they're there for, right? Therefore, they're back there to basically check off boxes. If the government has done this, check it off. If the government has done that, check it off. Better bet that they're also back there talking about, 'Oh my god, can you believe what he did in this video?'"
Becker noted that testimony and evidence may get misconstrued, and that the jury has to separate emotions from fact.
"Some of it, I think it gets minced," Becker said. "It becomes … extremely difficult actually to say to yourself, 'OK self, I'm not supposed to let myself be emotionally involved in this. I'm supposed to just listen to the law, and then put the facts in where the law is appropriate.'"
"I know in [R. Kelly's] case, I can only imagine how difficult that must have been. And I think that that's going to also be another difficult part of the Diddy case as well."