Race, gender row erupts after Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' affiliated lawyer targets all-white female prosecution team in podcast
Mark Geragos called prosecutors 'six-pack of white women'
Lawyer is close to the hip-hop mogul's defense team
Judge Arun Subramanian calls comments 'outrageous'
Combs has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking
NEW YORK, May 9 — The judge overseeing Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial admonished a lawyer close to the hip-hop mogul's defense team for referring to the prosecutors in the case as a 'six-pack of white women' in comments on a podcast.
The lawyer, Mark Geragos, said in a May 2 episode of 'Two Angry Men,' a podcast he co-hosts with celebrity news website TMZ's founder Harvey Levin, that the racial and gender composition of the six-member prosecution team was 'interesting.'
Geragos said race may be an 'undercurrent' at the trial, but would not be a focus of Combs' defense.
'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,' US District Judge Arun Subramanian told Geragos in a private conversation in his robing room on Tuesday before jury selection resumed, according to a trial transcript.
'Referring to the prosecution in this case as a six-pack of white women is outrageous,' said the judge, who is of South Asian descent.
Combs, who is Black, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prosecution. Jury selection is expected to finish on Friday, with opening statements scheduled for Monday.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office say Combs used his business empire to coerce women into taking part in days-long, drug-fueled sex parties known as freak offs. His defense will argue that the sex acts prosecutors described were consensual and that the alleged victims expected to testify against him cannot be trusted.
Combs' lawyers have said in court papers that he is being unfairly targeted for prosecution because of his race, but will not make that argument at trial.
Lawyer has represented Hunter Biden, Menendez brothers
Geragos, who is white, is a well-known Los Angeles-based lawyer who has represented President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden as well as Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989.
He is not representing Combs in his criminal case, but told Subramanian he speaks with the rapper frequently and represents his mother in a matter which he did not describe in detail. Geragos' daughter, Teny Geragos, is one of Combs' defense lawyers at trial.
Mark Geragos told the judge that he was not trying to interfere with either side's right to a fair trial but that defendants had the right to respond to negative pre-trial publicity.
'When you've got a Black man who's being prosecuted and the client feels like he's being targeted, it's a, it's an observation,' Geragos said, according to the transcript.
Geragos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Manhattan US Attorney's office, declined to comment. Prosecutor Christy Slavik told the judge the TMZ podcast had millions of subscribers.
'The danger of Mr. Geragos' statements infecting the jury pool I think is very serious,' Slavik said in Subramanian's robing room, according to the transcript.
Subramanian told Geragos he would be monitoring his comments.
'You have one more listener for your podcast,' the judge said.
'As long as you subscribe,' Geragos replied, 'I'm all for it.' — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
4 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Cassie's friend testifies Sean ‘Diddy' Combs dangled her off balcony, hurled knife in violent outburst
NEW YORK, June 5 — A woman told US jurors Wednesday that hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs dangled her over a 17th-story balcony before throwing her onto furniture in an attack that left her traumatised and bruised. Bryana Bongolan testified in the music icon's ongoing federal criminal trial in New York that she was staying over with her friend Casanda 'Cassie' Ventura — Combs's ex and a key trial witness who recently delivered searing testimony of abuse and coercion. While she was at Ventura's place, Combs burst into the apartment and seized Bongolan on the balcony. Bongolan, a designer, said Combs repeatedly shouted with expletives that 'you know what you did' — and she said she repeatedly told him she did not. The witness also recounted an incident when she saw Combs hurl a knife at Ventura, which Bongolan said Ventura then threw back at him. Bongolan told prosecutors she did not go to the police out of fear: 'I was just scared of Puff,' she told the court, using another nickname for Combs. But a defence lawyer for the musician, who faces racketeering and sex trafficking charges, cast Bongolan as a drug abuser and unreliable witness whose story was shifting. Bongolan is among dozens of people who have filed civil suits against Combs in recent years, legal action she told jurors she took 'because I wanted to seek justice for what happened to me on the balcony.' Bongolan, who remains friends with Ventura, says the incident left her with post-traumatic stress, including recurring night terrors and paranoia: 'Sometimes I scream in my sleep,' she told jurors. Defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland bluntly indicated that Bongolan was lying, and implied that the witness had compared notes with Ventura to get their stories straight as the two filed separate civil suits against Combs. Ventura alleged that she suffered harrowing abuse under Combs, her former on-and-off partner of more than a decade, opening the floodgates against the one-time music powerhouse when she first filed suit against him in November 2023. That suit was settled out of court in less than 24 hours. Westmoreland on Wednesday pushed the narrative that Bongolan's heavy drug use, including with Ventura, clouded her memories of the alleged events. Bongolan was testifying under an immunity order that protects her from incrimination if she speaks truthfully. She frequently responded to Westmoreland by saying she could not remember every detail — and the occasionally brusque defense questioning of her will continue Thursday morning. Afterwards, the prosecution is expected to call Jane — long-anticipated testimony from a woman who will speak under a pseudonym in relation to one of the sex trafficking charges against Combs. $100,000 in a paper bag Combs, 55, faces upwards of life in prison if convicted of crimes of sex trafficking and racketeering. Prosecutors say he ran a criminal enterprise of high-ranking employees and bodyguards who enforced his power with illicit acts including kidnapping, bribery and arson. On Tuesday, a hotel security guard said he received $100,000 in a brown paper bag from Combs in exchange for now-infamous surveillance footage that showed the artist-entrepreneur violently kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel. Jurors have repeatedly been shown the disturbing clip in open court. The security officer, Eddy Garcia, said he initially rebuffed an attempt from a Combs employee — Kristina Khorram, who has been described as the music heavyweight's 'right hand' — to obtain the video. After repeated calls, including from Combs himself, Garcia eventually agreed to sell the tape, with permission from his supervisor, who got a cut. ''Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it,'' Garcia recounted Combs telling him. Garcia — who was also speaking under an immunity order — testified that he signed a non-disclosure agreement. Last week a former assistant speaking under the pseudonym Mia described violent acts Combs committed against her and also recalled many times that she saw him beat Ventura. Now in its fourth week of testimony, witnesses have included alleged victims, former high-ranking employees as well as assistants and law enforcement officials. The trial in Manhattan is expected to last well into the summer. — AFP
Malay Mail
4 hours ago
- Malay Mail
‘We don't want them': Trump signs travel ban on 12 countries after Colorado attack
WASHINGTON, June 5 — US President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban Wednesday targeting 12 countries, saying it was spurred by an attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally. The ban, which strongly resembles a similar measure taken in his first presidency, targets nationals of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It will go into effect on June 9, the White House said. Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, the White House said. 'The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,' Trump said in a video message from the Oval Office posted on X. 'We don't want them.' Trump compared the new measures to the 'powerful' ban he imposed on a number of mainly Muslim countries in his first term, which he said had stopped the United States suffering attacks that happened in Europe. 'We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America,' Trump said. 'We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen. That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others.' Rumours of a new Trump travel ban had circulated following the attack in Colorado, with his administration vowing to pursue 'terrorists' living in the US on visas. Suspect Mohammed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022. 'President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,' White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said on X. 'These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information.' — AFP
Malay Mail
18 hours ago
- Malay Mail
From China, with spores: US charges two scientists with sneaking in toxic fungus as potential bio-weapon
WASHINGTON, June 4 — Two Chinese scientists have been charged with allegedly smuggling a toxic fungus into the United States that they planned to research at an American university, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, are charged with conspiracy, smuggling, false statements, and visa fraud, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a statement. Jian is in US custody while Liu's whereabouts are unknown. The Justice Department said the pair conspired to smuggle a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the United States that causes 'head blight,' a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice. The fungus is classified in scientific literature as a 'potential agroterrorism weapon,' it said, and causes billions of dollars in losses each year. It causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock, it said. According to the complaint, Jian and Liu, her boyfriend, had both previously conducted work on the fungus in China. '(Liu) first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America... so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,' the Justice Department said. US Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr described the smuggling of the fungus into the United States as a 'national security' concern and emphasized Jian's membership in the Chinese Communist Party. 'These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a 'potential agroterrorism weapon' into the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme,' Gorgon said. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said he was not aware of the case when asked for comment at a regular news briefing on Wednesday. 'The Chinese government has always required Chinese citizens overseas to strictly abide by local laws and regulations, and at the same time safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens overseas in accordance with the law,' he said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed last week to 'aggressively revoke visas' for Chinese students, a move condemned by Beijing as 'unreasonable' and 'discriminatory.' Kseniia Petrova, a scientist from Russia at Harvard, is facing potential deportation after she failed to declare biological samples in her luggage upon returning from a trip to Paris. — AFP
