This Is Why Cameras Aren't Allowed In The Courtroom During Diddy's Trial
It seems like the entire world has been reading the multiple daily updates about the Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial, leading many to wonder why the case is not being streamed or televised.
The music mogul- who goes by Sean Combs, Puffy, Puff, Puff Daddy and P. Diddy- faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution as well as a slew of civil lawsuits alleging abuse, sexual assault, and drugging over a 20-year period. Combs has denied all allegations and has pleaded not guilty in court.
So far, we've already heard the testimony from the star witness- Diddy's ex-girlfriend of eleven years Cassie Ventura, who testified for nearly 20 hours over four days. Also appearing in court was singer Dawn Richard- who alleged that Diddy threatened her with violence and sexually assaulted her- and an escort Diddy allegedly paid for 'freak offs' called Daniel Phillip. That's just the beginning of the extensive list of famous names that could potentially be called to testify.
However, those following the case have had to rely on court reporters' records of what is being said as cameras, phones, and any other electronic recording devices are prohibited in U.S. federal courtrooms according to the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53, per the United States Courts' official website. The site reads, 'Except as otherwise provided by a statute or these rules, the court must not permit the taking of photographs in the courtroom during judicial proceedings or the broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom.' Therefore, Combs's trial will not be televised or streamed anywhere online.
So far, courtroom sketches have been the only way for the public to get a glimpse of the drama happening inside the courtroom.
However, some courtroom recordings for high-interest proceedings are allowed with the approval of a judge. Other celebrity-centred cases over the years have allowed cameras into the courtroom- including O.J. Simpson's murder trial, Gwyneth Paltrow's ski crash trial, the Menendez brothers' murder trial, and Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard. This was because in the case of O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers, they were permitted to be televised due to approval from the judges presiding over the cases. As for Heard and Depp, their trial took place in Virginia and Gwyneth's took place in Utah, and both were civil cases.
Sarah O'Byrne has worked for Bauer Media since May 2023. She writes for Grazia, heat, Closer, Bella and Yours.
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NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
A 'criminal enterprise' may be emerging in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs, said Combs was on a mission of revenge in December 2011 after learning rapper Kid Cudi was also dating his girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie. Combs, armed with a gun, commanded Clark to go with him to Cudi's Hollywood Hills estate, Clark testified this week during Combs' sex trafficking trial. ''Get dressed,'' Combs allegedly told Clark after beating on the door of her home. ''We're going to kill this n-----.'' Sign up for the ' Diddy on Trial ' newsletter for key developments and analysis After Combs and a member of his security team broke into Cudi's home, she said, they saw he wasn't there, setting off a violent chain of events that she would tell a Bad Boy Records executive about three months later. 'I told him that Puff kidnapped me with a gun,' Clark said, referring to one of Combs' previous stage names. Clark's stunning testimony in the third week of Combs' trial provided another example of the control he allegedly wielded as head of his New York-based record label, building on the premise set forth by prosecutors that Combs allegedly oversaw a criminal enterprise that relied on employees and other accomplices to carry out illegal acts. Clark's 'testimony is certainly helpful in painting a sinister image of Combs, of his manipulation and his coercion, his control and his violence, which will be beneficial to the prosecution down the line in terms of gaining the jury's sympathies that this guy was up to no good and needs to be put away, or at least held accountable,' said Mark Chutkow, a defense lawyer who handled racketeering cases as a federal prosecutor in Detroit. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. As per the federal racketeering statute, the government must prove at least two predicate offenses, or crimes, committed via a criminal enterprise, Chutkow said. Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, spent four days on the stand in the first week of testimony, saying she 'felt trapped' into engaging in orchestrated sexual encounters, known as 'freak offs,' with male escorts at hotels and homes — sessions that she said Combs funded. Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, testified how his car was firebombed in January 2012, following the December break-in at his home. Los Angeles police also testified that evidence showed the break-in was connected to Combs. The car that police observed leaving the scene of the break-in at Kid Cudi's home was registered to one of Combs' companies, according to testimony from Los Angeles police officer Chris Ignacio. Another accuser, who used the pseudonym 'Mia' on the witness stand, testified that she worked for Combs as a personal assistant for several years and he sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions during that time. Combs was never charged in the firebombing or alleged sexual assaults. His defense team said in opening statements that Combs is a 'very flawed individual' prone to violence and jealousy in his relationships, but that the sexual encounters were consensual. The tangled relationships Combs had with his employees will have to be addressed by the jury during deliberations, Chutkow said, because prosecutors and defense attorneys have raised questions about whether the workers were victims, accomplices or both. For example, Clark, who testified she was paid $55,000 a year, said she set up hotel rooms for the freak-offs at Combs' direction and she sometimes procured illicit drugs on his behalf. Although she testified she was kidnapped twice by Combs or his bodyguards and subjected to multiple days of lie detector tests, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo entered into evidence an email Clark sent to Combs in September 2014, asking for his forgiveness. She did not specify what she wanted to be forgiven for. The email was sent two years after Combs fired her and about two years before she returned to work for him again. 'Mia' testified to sometimes feeling like Combs was a best friend and working partner, but other times treated her 'like I was a worthless piece of crap.' 'You do have these elements of extortion and coercion and fear and intimidation also at play, which you see in gangs and you see in the Mafia and other criminal organizations, and so I think that you don't necessarily have to have co-conspirators and accomplices that are completely voluntary in their commitment to the organization,' Chutkow said. Employees may have also realized the benefits of being in the powerful celebrity's inner circle and so may have been willing to go along, he added. 'That's why you hear the concept of a 'den of thieves,'' Chutkow said. 'They all have their own agendas at play, but they're still working together towards advancing other criminal objectives.' Chutkow said 'that's probably the way the prosecution will kind of categorize this for the jury, and say, 'Hey, we would love to be able to put on witnesses like firemen and nurses for you, but that's not the world that Combs worked in.'' Bad and illegal behavior does not necessarily guarantee a racketeering conviction, said Mark Zauderer, a veteran trial and appellate lawyer in New York. 'There is lots of evidence of violence and possible criminal activity,' he said of Combs' trial. 'But all of that still does not answer the question of whether the jury will find an enterprise and a conspiracy. 'There's no question that a jury can and will consider a so-called victim's own complicity in the matters that were violent and even illegal.' Attorney Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, said that while racketeering charges can be complex, prosecutors can sometimes prove the charge with only one witness or even circumstantial evidence. 'I don't know if they've met all of the elements of racketeering yet, but prosecutors are showing that Diddy used employees from his business and organization to carry out criminal activities,' Maimin said. 'They're linking the crimes to his business.'
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
President Trump reveals whether he'd pardon Diddy if mogul is convicted in sex trafficking trial
Mia says Diddy sexually assaulted her at his star-studded 40th birthday party Mia told the court that she was first sexually assaulted by Diddy during his 40th birthday party in 2009 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, which was attended by many celebrities like Bono, Denzel Washington, Kim Kardashian, Gayle King and Al Sharpton. She said the mogul approached her in the kitchen and complimented her on her work before pouring shots for her. 'I felt like they hit me kind of hard,' she said of the drinks. 'I was in my 20s in New York. Two shots would not have made me feel that way.' Mia told the jury what happened next: 'He was talking and all of a sudden his face [was] far closer, my eyes couldn't focus on his face because it was so close. 'I didn't really know what was happening... he put his am next to my head against the wall and leaned in to kiss me and put his other hand up the side of my dress.' Mia said she did not want to kiss Diddy or have his hand up her dress. 'I was shocked and I froze. I didn't even process what was happening,' she added. The next morning, she woke up clothed on a chair in the mainroom of the penthouse Diddy had rented. Martha Stewart takes a picture of Diddy at the party below. Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Key moments from the third week of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
Some of Sean 'Diddy' Combs ' ex-employees took a central role in the third week of his sex trafficking trial, including personal assistants who testified that the hip-hop mogul was capricious, controlling and violent. The week began with Capricorn Clark, a personal assistant who was later a global brand director for Combs' company. She recalled witnessing Combs beating his longtime girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and said he raged about wanting to kill rapper and romantic rival Kid Cudi. It ended with another ex-assistant, testifying under the pseudonym 'Mia," who alleges Combs raped her during a torturous eight-year tenure working for the rap star. She is the second of three women expected to testify that he sexually assaulted them. Combs has pleaded not guilty. The trial resumes Monday in federal court in Manhattan. Here are key moments from Week 3: Ex-Combs aide says fear stopped her from calling police Former employees of Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment described repeatedly witnessing him beat Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, but said they didn't report the abuse to law enforcement because they feared Combs would harm them. Clark testified that the day she started as Combs' personal assistant in 2004, he threatened he would kill her if her previous work for rival rappers interfered with her work for him. Then, she testified, she watched in shock as Combs viciously assaulted Cassie, his on-again, off-again girlfriend for more than a decade, in 2011 after learning she was dating Cudi. Clark said her 'heart was breaking from seeing her get hit like that," and neither she nor Combs' bodyguard intervened. She said she called Cassie's mother and told her: 'Please help her. I can't call the police, but you can.' Weeks later, Clark said, she reported what happened to Cassie to the president of Bad Boy Records. She also testified about her own run-ins with Combs, telling jurors that he kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her to Cudi's house as he fumed that he was going to kill the rapper. Cudi testified that he believed Cassie and Combs had broken up. He said his relationship with Cassie only lasted a few weeks. Clark said she stayed in Combs' SUV while he broke into the home. She said she was fired weeks later for what she contends was a trumped-up reason. Cassie delivers her third child after testifying for four days One of the week's biggest developments came outside the courtroom. Cassie, 38, delivered her third child less than two weeks after testifying for four days as the prosecution's prize witness. The news of her son's birth Tuesday reached the jury the next day when Cassie's longtime stylist, Deonte Nash, testified that he was still close to Cassie and had sent her well wishes after the birth. Cassie, known for the platinum-selling 2006 hit single 'Me & U,' married personal trainer Alex Fine in September 2019 — about a year after breaking up with Combs for good. Their first daughter, Frankie Stone Fine, was born in 2019. They welcomed a second daughter, Sunny Cinco Fine, in 2021. Attacks on Kid Cudi's property put law enforcement on the stand Jurors heard from a Los Angeles police officer who responded to the December 2011 break-in at Cudi's home and an arson investigator who spoke about his efforts to solve the firebombing of Cudi's Porsche 911 weeks later. Officer Chris Ignacio said he found Christmas gifts, some opened, with luxury watches and purses. Cudi has testified that his dog was traumatized after being locked in a bathroom by intruders. Ignacio said he saw a car with tinted windows registered to Bad Boy outside the house but didn't approach it because he had no proof a crime had occurred. Prosecutors are trying to prove that Combs was behind the break-in and the subsequent firebombing, which involved a Molotov cocktail dropped through a hole sliced in the convertible's fabric roof. Lance Jimenez, a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator, said the explosive was made from a 40-ounce Olde English 800 malt liquor bottle and a silky designer handkerchief. 'I personally felt it was targeted,' he said of the Jan. 9, 2012, attack. A stylist delivers answers from the witness stand like nobody else Celebrity stylist Deonte Nash was a witness like no other, adding flair and humor within seconds of taking the stand on Wednesday. Asked if he wanted to testify, he declared: 'Absolutely not!' Nash said he knew Combs as 'Puff' and Cassie as 'Cass.' He said he responded to a Craigslist ad and started working at Bad Boy Entertainment as an intern and then a stylist from 2008 to 2018. Prosecutor Maurene Comey put a picture of Nash in front of him and asked, "Is it a glamour shot of you?' 'Yes. I look amazing,' Nash responded, drawing laughs. Asked what he had heard Combs call Cassie over the years, Nash answered 'Um, Baby Girl, CC, Cass' and then listed a number of slurs against women. Asked how often Combs used one particular slur, Nash said: 'Um, quite a bit. That was his fave.' Nash later testified that Cassie had confided in him that she didn't always want to go along with Combs' demands that she have sex with other men during his drug-fueled 'freak-off' marathons. A second woman testifies she was raped by Combs Mia testified that Combs sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions: forcibly kissing her and putting his hand up her dress at his 40th birthday party, forcing her to perform oral sex as they packed for a trip, and raping her after he climbed into her bed at his Los Angeles home. Mia said she thought her sexual abuse was sporadic enough that each time it occurred, she thought it would never happen again. She said she put on a brave face and continued to work for Combs, in part because she felt shame, blamed herself and feared what would happen if she reported him to authorities. Cassie testified previously that Combs raped her after she broke up with him in 2018. Mia said she witnessed Combs physically attacking Cassie 'all the time' at his houses, her apartments, hotels, events and while traveling. She said Combs also turned his wrath on her, throwing her into a swimming pool, dumping a bucket of ice on her and hurling a bowl of spaghetti in her direction. As prosecution's case shrinks, defense's may expand Prosecutors insisted all week that they are ahead of schedule in presenting their case and said they could be done calling witnesses by mid-June. But Combs lawyer Marc Agnifilo said the defense's presentation might take longer than expected — particularly after prosecutors revealed they were making 'fairly substantial changes' to their plan. 'It may be that because of witnesses the government is not calling, we might have more on the defense case,' he said. As a result, he added, the trial might run to the start of July.
