P. Diddy Sex Trafficking Arrest: Everything You Need to Know

a year ago Shan comb stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City today he's been indicted and will face Justice in the southern district of New York one of the most famous names in the hip-hop world is now facing three charges in federal court many people have come forward in recent months to accuse Shawn Diddy Colmes of abuse sex trafficking drug possession and more but now the federal government is getting involved and promising to bring down the rat Moguls alleged criminal Empire welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime I'm

Jesse Weber this office is determined to investigate and prosecute anyone who engages in sex trafficking no matter how powerful or wealthy or famous you may be no one should doubt our commitment on that talk about a day in the legal and crime world and today it all centers around Shawn Diddy comes and all of these details and filings in his new criminal case and we're going to break it down for you right now give you everything you need to know so the southern district of New York is promising Justice for multiple victims who say that

rapper producer businessman Colmes used his power influence and wealth to intimidate them into doing his bidding whether that was obtaining drugs or performing sexually or cleaning up after apparent sex acts now we've of course been reporting on combs for months here on sidebar in November M of last year Cassandra Ventura Cassie comes' ex filed a huge lawsuit against him claiming that he abused her physically sexually emotionally for years before she was finally able to get away now Colmes denied everything she had to say in her filing settled the lawsuit with her just one day after

it was filed but we know that set off a chain reaction multiple other lawsuits against him and even against his son were filed alleging sexual abuse sex trafficking illegal narcotics possession violence then in March of this year Homeland Security agents they show up at com's homes in both Miami and Los Angeles search warrants in hand they raided both locations seemingly collecting a huge amount of evidence which we will get through in a moment and we learned at the time that this was connected to a sex trafficking investigation out of the southern district of New York

but we didn't know all the exact details well you fast forward to this week and Colmes was officially arrested Monday night at the park height Hotel in New York out Manhattan according to his defense team he had been booked there since September 5th that was nearly two weeks ago and he was in town in anticipation of the charges being filed which is important because now that Colmes has been arrested in charge he says this is an example to show he's not a Flight Risk he's been Cooperative however when us attorney Damen Williams again from the

southern district of New York held a press conference and was asked about col's cooperation in this case he seems skeptical let me just say this I think that um generally uh and with increasing frequency the the word Cooperative or cooperating has taken on tremendous elasticity and no longer really Bears any relation to what um uh the word means when we use it um in a very specific context so um uh responding to lawful process um and the like um does not qualify as cooperation when we use that term here now there are still questions about

future filings possible charges against co-conspirators whether comes will be hit with additional charges what we do know is we are now getting a look at what the prosecution believes they can prove and that brings me to this major indictment against sha combes so prosecutors file documents in federal court that lay out the accusations against comes and his associates although to be clear Colmes is the only one named in this filing for now he faces three charges racketeering conspiracy sex trafficking by force fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution now during a hearing on

Tuesday Colmes entered a not guilty plea to every charge if he is convicted of all charges Colmes faces a minimum of 15 years in prison with the possibility that the 54-year-old could spend the rest of his life Behind Bars that's what we're talking about here so we're going to break down each of these counts for you as well as more on why com says he should be allowed out on bail while he waits trial and let's start with the indictment it's 14 pages jam-pack with information I want to hit the Highlight so first right out

of the gate the government lays out some pretty damning accusations quote for decades sha combes AKA Puff Daddy AKA P Diddy Diddy AKA PD love they throughout the course of this indictment referred to him by as many monikers the defendant abused threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires protect his reputation and conceal his conduct to do so Colmes relied on the employees resources and influence of the multifaceted business Empire that he led and controlled creating a criminal Enterprise whose members and Associates engaged in and attempted to engage in among

other crimes sex trafficking Force labor kidnapping arson bribery and obstruction of justice which brings me now to count one racketeering conspiracy so the main idea here is that there is a criminal agreement an agreement to engage in racketeering and racketeering is when there is a criminal Enterprise it's like organized crime a grouping of people who break the law they commit crimes now it doesn't need to be sha Colmes breaks the Law LLC you don't need an official company just an organized group of people organized crime and a criminal Enterprise is supposed to have a common

goal so whether it was to benefit financially whether it was to satisfy sha com's sexual desires was it whether it was to protect him there has to be a common goal in mind we saw this we're seeing this actually I should say in the Young Thug trial out of Georgia big thing for the prosecution is they have listed a number of different crimes they're trying to say this wasn't done in an individual capacity but it was done to further that gang similar idea here okay now also as you're going to see here in AQ rering

case there are numerous predicate crimes these are underlying crimes that coms is not specifically charged with like arson or kidnapping or forced labor but they are crimes Under the Umbrella of the larger criminal Enterprise by the way I should tell you the racketeering allegations that we see in this indictment are very consistent with the allegations put forward by Rodney little Rod Jones com's former producer who was one of the people that filed a sexual assault lawsuit against him and said there were violations of racketeering law in fact although no one is specifically named in this

indictment you can kind of see who those alleged victims of combs are their allegations that they were the basis for the charges here especially Cassandra Ventura because we all know that when that video back in 2016 was released uh by CNN a few months ago of sha Colmes purportedly beating Cassandra Ventura in a hotel elevator bank that was publicized for the whole world to see and he apologized for an Instagram that is mentioned specifically in this indictment now reading from the indictment it says quote the defendant and others known and unknown participated in unlawful and

other activities related to the conduct of the com's Enterprises Affairs these individuals included certain com's business employees such as members of com security staff household staff personal assistants and high ranking supervisors as well as other Close Associates of combs now one of the most startling examples of com's alleged control over those around him came from the description of apparent sex parties called freak offs this is something that Ventura and others alleged in their lawsuits what are they well the indictment says Colmes and other members and Associates of the com's Enterprise wielded the power and Prestige

of com's role at the com's business to intimidate threaten and lure female victims into com's orbit often under the pretense of a romantic relationship coms then used Force threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that combms referred to as among other things freak offs freak offs were elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged directed I'm not going to say the next part basically basically pleasured himself during and often electronically recorded in arranging these freak offs coms with the assistance of members and Associates

of the comes Enterprise transported and caused to be transported commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally freak offs occurred regularly sometimes lasted multiple days and often involved multiple commercial sex workers so this is also kind of a flavor of the sex trafficking charge which we'll get to a little bit later during freak offs Colmes distributed a variety of contr substances to victims in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant sometimes unbeknownst to the victims Colmes kept videos he filmed the victims engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers after freak offs Combs and

the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use the indictment then provides more details about what Colmes expected his employees to do before during and after these sessions now coms did not do this all on his own as I mentioned comes has been charged with Rico conspiracy he used his business and employees of that business and other Close Associates to get his way those individuals allegedly included high ranking supervisors in the business personal assistance security staff and household staff the indictment alleges that those individuals facilitated the freak offs they

booked the hotel rooms and stocked them with the supplies including drugs baby oil personal lubricant extra Linens and lighting when the hotel rooms got damaged they helped clean it up they arranged for victims and Commercial sex workers to travel for the freak offs and they delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers according to the indictment in about March of 2024 during searches of com's residences in Miami Florida and Los Angeles California law enforcement seized various freak off supplies including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and

lubricant wow you talk about physical evidence here to prove these claims now Federal prosecutors alleg that comes used the threat of violence as well as actual assaults to keep his alleged victims in line the indictment reads quote Colmes maintained control over his victims through among other things physical violence Promises of career opportunities granting and threatening to withhold financial support and by other coers of means including tracking their whereabouts dictating the victim's appearance monitoring their medical records controlling their housing and supplying them with Controlled Substances during and separate from Freak offs Combs among other things hit

kicked threw objects at and dragged victims at times by their hair these assaults often resulted in injuries that took days or weeks to heal Combs also threatened victims careers and livelihoods including if they resisted participating in freak offs so a majority of that indictment covers that first count racketeering conspiracy now I want to talk quickly about the other two counts that he faces so count two is a charge of sex trafficking of a victim by using force or coercion or fraud to have that person engage in commercial sex acts sex acts that are either for

money or something of value is Promised or given and there were allegations that coms had made promises of opportunities and so forth to get what he wanted he's also charged with count three which is related to the transportation of people for purposes of prostitution now quick side note about this this is a comprehensive indictment but it doesn't have a lot of details about what evidence prosecutors have to prove all of this it also doesn't include every allegation that has been asserted against combs in numerous civil complaints for instance there is nothing regarding minors you know

there's been a lot of allegations that there were miners at these combes parties which we had heard before in these other allegations and these other uh complaints nothing about minors here now Damen Williams the US attorney for the southern district of New York said that it's possible more charges could be on the way he wouldn't confirm it one way or another said nothing's off the table so we don't know but maybe there wasn't enough evidence to prove that there were minors at these parties or combms did anything criminal related to minors but I tell you

what we did get a lot more information from another filing from the prosecution I'll get to that in a second first I have to get to the defense because in a letter filed with the court on Tuesday com's defense team laid out a proposed bail package for their client why he should be released pending trial and they explained why his actions over the last six months Point toward cooperation not avoidance they also call out the government for seemingly making things more difficult than they had to be his team writes quote through Council Mr Colmes promptly

told the government that he had voluntarily come to New York offered to tell them specifically where he was and offered to turn himself in at the appropriate time even though Mr comes came to New York authorized his lawyers to tell the government of his location and offer to self-surrender the government affected an arrest last evening this we know is the government's right however that he traveled to New York to self- surrender is also something the court should consenter so what is this bail package that the defense outlines well here are some of the main points

one a $50 million bond co-signed by Colmes his mother his sister the mother of his eldest daughter and his three adult sons that 50 million would be secured by the equity in com's Miami home the appraise value of that home on Star Island is 48 million so in other words this is what he's saying uh you can secure this you can know that I'm not going to flee the country I'm not going to break the the bail conditions I'm putting this home up the defense says that Colmes paid off the remaining mortgage $18 million so

he could use it to secure a bond the equity in his mother's home in Miami could also be used as collateral and the letter goes on to say that com's travel would be restricted to the southern district of Florida and the southern district of New York comes apparently surrendered his passport to his attorneys right after the raids on his home and several of his family members including his children have surrendered their passports too colm's Council says he is currently working on selling his private planes so he wouldn't be able to just jet off to some

exotic local that has no extradition with the United States in the B package in it's also revealed that comes wants to be under house arrest and would agree to GPS monitoring the letter from coms attorneys also fires back at the assistant us attorneys working on the case saying they reached out to him in the days before the raids but never got any reply and then on March 25th agents swooped in with a big show of force which the attorneys insist was unnecessary the filing also goes into com's philanthropic Works including his work with the Boys

and Girls Club of America his donations to open a charter school in New York and his work fundraising to get PPE for Frontline workers during the covid-19 pandemic at the end of the document the defense team States Shan Colmes has never evaded avoided eluded or run from a challenge in his life he will not start now as he has handled every hardship he will meet this case headon he will work hard to defend himself and he will prevail now the prosecution had a different view so the prosecution team also sent a letter to the judge

defending their assertion that com should be locked up with no Bell their letter States quote as reflected by the gravity of the charges in the indictment the defendant is dangerous and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community If released he remains a serious risk of flight despite the conditions offered by his Council most glaringly the defendant also poses a significant risk of obstructing justice the letter also goes into more detail about some of those specific situations that coms was allegedly involved in that point to the lengths he would reportedly go to to

get what he wanted for examp example quote the defendant ensured the victims would participate in freak offs through coercion and violence for instance the defendant provided Controlled Substances including ketamine ecstasy GHB to female victims so that they could and would continue to engage in freak offs despite fatigue physical and emotional exhaustion and pain additionally both during freak offs and separate from Freak offs the defendant subjected female victims to physical emotional and verbal abuse in part to cause them to engage in freak offs the defend hit kicked through objects at and dragged female victims sometimes by

their hair at least a dozen witnesses will confirm that they personally observe the defendant's violence towards women and or the injury sustained by women at the defendant's hand now back to that 2016 video that I mentioned of comes allegedly attacking Cassandra ventur out in La they say in this letter prosecution they claim that coms use money and influence to try to keep that video from getting out quote when a member of hotel security St staff intervened the defendant attempted to offer their hotel security officer a stack of cash to ensure his silence after the security

guard refused the defendant's bribe and after coordination between the defendant and his employees the defendant staff contacted other members of hotel security within days of the incident the surveillance video disappeared from the hotel's server now this is the exact allegations put forward by Cassandra ventur which makes you wonder is she one of the cooperating Witnesses with the government you have to believe so and clearly there is something to be said that the prosecutors here are believing the account of Ventura and possibly these other alleged victims it's not just them filing a lawsuit against Shan comes

they are believing these allegations to substantiate criminal charges that's big now the letter also references another alleged incident that was first revealed in Ventura's lawsuit last fall when she alleged that comes set fire to fellow record artist kid C's Car when he seemed to show interest in Ventura according to the filing quote in the early morning hours of December 22nd 2011 the defendant and a co-conspirator kidnapped an individual at gunpoint to facilitate breaking into and entering the residence of individual one multiple Witnesses would testify a trial to the events surrounding the kidnapping and Breakin the

latter of which is corroborated by police reports and other records approximately two weeks later the defendants co-conspirator set fire to individual On's vehic vehicle by slicing open the car's convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the interior police and fire department reports extensively document the arson and conclude that the fire was intentionally set multiple Witnesses would also testify to the defendant bragging about his role in destroying individual ones car so again prosecutors really taking Cassandra Ventura's allegations as true and again while he's not specifically charged with arson that is a part of the racketeering

charge goes on the prosecution they uh ra raed concerns about com's access to weapons as well especially Firearms the letter includes photographs of weapons found in com's homes again this is all reason why they believe he should be denied bail in March of 2024 during searches of the defendants residences in Miami Florida and Los Angeles California law enforcement seized firearms and ammunition including three AR-15s each with defaced serial numbers as well as a large capacity drum magazine as pictured in a close-up image the serial number of one of the AR-15s is visible bored through and

obscured by the way that in and of itself is a federal crime we did an episode about the recent uh potential shooting of uh former president Donald Trump that individual is charged with that crime the filing goes on to State quote two of the three defaced AR-15s were found in the defendants Miami bedroom closet stored broken down in Parts along with magazines that were loaded with ammunition in addition six legally purchased guns with serial numbers some of which were stored in gun safe were recovered from the defendants residences now from there in this bail letter

comes is also accused of trying to influence Witnesses prosecutor State quotes specifically following the November 2023 lawsuit the defendant and intermediaries acting on his behalf reached out to potential victims and witnesses to the alleged conduct including individuals he did not speak to regularly and have not spoken to in years to attempt to feed those victims and Witnesses false narratives about the defendant's criminal conduct for example on or about November 19th 2023 just 3 days after the filing of the lawsuit described above this is the Cassandra ventur one the defendant made multiple calls to another victim

of his sexual abuse and recorded certain of those calls under the cell phone using the cell phone of a co-conspirator during the calls the defendant repeatedly asked for the victim's support and friendship and attempted to convince the victim that she had willingly engaged an acts constituting sexual abuse the defendant also assured the victim that if she needed the defendant to she ain't got to worry about nothing else quote even more concerning since learning about the criminal investigation including following the execution of the search warrants at his residences Colmes contacted other Witnesses on multiple occasions including

other Witnesses who had received grand jury subpoenas basically accusing him of obstruction and by the way the prosecution also points out that many of the crimes that comes is accused of happened in his home so putting him on house arrest they would say doesn't do much to mitigate a potential wrongdoing inside his residence now they talk about the weight of the evidence how much they have remember I said there wasn't a lot in the indictment well here they talk about the weight of the evidence as a factor to consider in whether to deny bail quote

as to witnesses to date the government has conducted interviews with over 50 victims and Witnesses many of whom saw or experiened the defendants abuse many of these Witnesses corroborate one another and their accounts are consistent with the other types of evidence discussed below the government only expects that number to continue to grow given that the investigation which is now public is ongoing and also the prosecution revealed in its filing that the government has seized more than 90 cell phones laptops cloud storage accounts hard drives thumb drives cameras a surveillance system that they say shows this

criminal activity So based on that we can assume that the evidence the southern district of New York has against Combs is likely vast quote the evidence also consists of physical evidence which was seized pursuant to search warrants executed at the defendants residences in Los Angeles and Miami as well as on his person and the persons of certain co-conspirators in addition to the firearms and electronics discussed above the physical evidence also includes other evidence of freak offs including over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and personal lubricant pretty disgusting now we've gone over the 14-page indictment filed

against combs in the southern district of New York plus letters regarding bail sent to the judge by both the prosecution and the defense you can check out out the sidebar episode that we did there we kind of did a deep dive uh you can check it out on the LA crime Network YouTube page but right now what we want to talk about is something else so the documents what they do is they give us a better idea of what Homeland Security agents found inside of com's homes and Los Angeles and Miami when they were raided

back in March as well as other evidence that they have collected during the course of this investigation the southern district of New York is well known for being one of the top courts in the country according to statistics from the United States sentenc Commission in fiscal year 2023 the sdny had more than 1,000 cases and of those cases 94% of the defendants ended up taking a plea while only 6% chose to take their case to trial and the Court's conviction rate is reported to be 95% so in other words if the southern district of New

York prosecutors file charges against you it's safe to assume they've done their homework and think that they have a really solid case so the US here was asked during a news conference on Tuesday why the charges against comes were brought in New York instead of Florida or California well um I'm I'm bias I'm the US attorney in the southern district of New York I think that we um have an outstanding track record of bringing some of the most impactful sprawling complex difficult um sex trafficking uh human trafficking labor trafficking you name it um the southern

district of New York can do it and so we're very proud out of that and so the scope and complexity of this investigation isn't something that we ran from it's something that we Embrace and we will continue to do that okay I want to talk about some of the strongest pieces of evidence right now against sha comes the rapper producer and to do that I want to bring in two special guests I'm joined by Colin Schmidt retired FBI agent CEO of Kronos investigations and Robin nun trial attorney and federal litigator it's great to have you

both here so first um Colin what is your reaction to com's arrest and indictment well I I I think I was on one of your shows at the very outset of this when the search warant occurred and I was asked okay why didn't they arrest him and and died him right on the spot and my statement then was they're they're putting their case together because he's such a public figure and he has so many resources they want to make sure they get it right so when I saw this indictment as well as the uh the

detention memo that the prosecutor put over it looks to me like they really really did their homework and they're really making sure that these charges stick so Robin what do you think because this is interesting you heard Damen Williams say they're confident their office should handle it you know there were raids in California and Florida um there seemed to be a connection to New York saying that this criminal organization this criminal Enterprise U was based or had headquarters uh in the southern district what do you make of this case being spearheaded by them and what

do you make of the indictment that we saw yeah um there are no stronger prosecution unit than the southern district of the UN New York they have a special unit that is designed to take cases such as these sex trafficking Rico organized crime rings so I think Damen Williams is is is stating it pretty clearly and correctly that the southern district of New York would be on anyone's top list of of units um of government agencies that would be able to handle something like this with a celebrity and the complexities and number of witnesses um

because it is such a elite um and and heavy conviction um centered um prosecution unit the look The the indictment and the bail letter that was put forward by the prosecution serious accusations I mean disturbing to say the least and even though we don't know all the evidence and we're going to get into some of it they seem to be very confident in their case but it also we didn't know how many victims there were that seemed that one of the charges is is at least with respect to just one victim um racketeering cases can

be complicated but saying that do you feel that this is a strong case based on the allegations put forward yeah this is one of the strongest sex trafficking cases that I've ever seen while the indictment was not as detailed as I was expected and there were some allegations that I suspected might be made that were not such as you know underage victims or you know perhaps murder or you you know things like that this was focused enough um and had enough meat that I feel like it'll be very difficult I feel like to sort of

get out of these allegations it seems like they've interviewed a number of witnesses I think they said at least 50 victims and witnesses that have already been sort of um interviewed and have agreed to cooperate in this and I'm sure that there are many more and they're even looking for more so I I I think that they feel pretty strongly that they've put together a a strong package and I think they're pretty confident do you agree the way he was arrested this has became a big issue yesterday he came to New York was at the

Park Hyatt he his attorneys knew he was going to be hit with charges in fact his attorney uh said to the media before the indictment was unsealed we anticipate racketeering and sex trafficking charges but yet despite that they took issue with the way that he was arrested and he was apprehended and taken into custody I think he wanted to surrender himself do you disagree or agree with the way that it was handled I'm a little agnostic on that the bottom line is uh he's he's accused of very very serious crimes I mean there was harm

allegedly harm done to people and if they want to go out and arrest him and do it in that manner that's their prerogative and frankly that's their right so for them to say well he was going to turn himself he was going to do this he was going to we don't know what he's going to do because he right after or near the time of when this first search War was done at his place in La apparently he got on a plane and flew down to Florida so he's already shown a propensity to move when

there's pressure so I think the New York authorities thought well we got to make sure we get this right we want to take any chances of a flight uh from this guy because if they triy to track him down in a foreign country it would be an absolute nightmare by the way I was talking um last night about this and I was asked why didn't he just leave the country right he knew charges were coming why didn't he just leave the country and I said well they you know authorities could have arrested him immediately on

the spot if they knew but would that mean that they were tracking him beforehand they knew when he was boarding a flight and he is he's been moving around right he hasn't just stayed in one place during the course of this investigation what would have prevented him from getting on the plane having a flight plan for I don't know let's say California let's say Colorado let's say New York and just saying keep going and go to some country that doesn't have extradition what prevented him from doing that and what would be the way authorities could

track him and stop him from doing that well there to do that there it takes a lot of moving Parts because he's goingon to have to get Pilots that are going to participate in in that you know conspiracy to to flee the pilots also have to fly file a flight plan they also have to pick a country to go to that's going to be friendly to his uh issues it's not going to extra him and he also when that plan is uh filed then he has to go through a process proc with uh Customs and

Border Protection to be in terms of being able to go to the next country so I think I'm sure he had considered that and I'm sure he took the advice of his lawyers and decided not to do that because if he had fled then that this would have Amplified and then the full force of the United States government would have come down on tracking him down and bringing him back do you think they were tracking him though like not necessarily like they had a surveillance team watching him at all time but do you think um

investigators do you think Federal authorities kind of knew what he was doing well I think based upon the number of people who have come forward in terms of the indictment I think they had people that were likely reporting on him reporting on his uh his U actions and his movements as well as the fact that they put so many resources to this it would it would be reasonable for them to be uh watching his phones watching his computer activity and and frankly having more people around him who are are who are informing on him and

his behavior uh I want to go into some of the evidence now and talk about what could be the strongest pieces and and to be clear it's not entirely evident what the prosecution has what people said to them what the physical evidence is what the digital evidence is but let's go through it so the prosecution says that many of the accusations against Combs can be corroborated by Witnesses and this is mentioned several times in the prosecution's letter to Judge Robin tarnavski where they were arguing against baale for example on page two of that letter it

says quote at least a dozen witnesses will confirm that they personally observe the defendants violence towards women and or the injury sustained by women at the defendant's hand then on page 11 it says dozens of victims and Witnesses have provided detailed credible and corroborated information against the defendant page 13 quote as to witnesses to date the government has conducted interviews with over 5050 victims and Witnesses many of whom saw or experienced the defendants abuse the government only expects that number to continue to grow given that the investigation which is now public is ongoing so Colin

how does law enforcement even go about this finding these people conducting these interviews what do you think that's about well uh two points here number one he cooperated his behavior himself with that video that came out of him assaulting his girlfriend in that the hotel which was somewhat hard to watch as a father of a daughter and and uh somebody who's been in law enforcement secondly you talked to one person and the the most basic question you asked at the beginning middle or the end of the interview is there anybody else oh yeah I have

this girlfriend that also uh suffered this uh this type of behavior from him and then you go to that person oh yeah I got this person I get this so it ends up being a string or a network of people because Frank frankly these women are are most likely associat Associates with each other or know each other and they may even be uh close friends and they've been in the circle that was basically uh targeted by uh Sean uh p didy combes as well as the people around him that were assisting him in this this

behavior and we're going to also get to this a little bit when we talk about the digital Evans but how does how do authorities corroborate what they're being told is it they hear a consistent pattern over speaking to multiple people if five people say the same thing okay unless they coordinated this it looks like it might be true or there looks like there might be probable cause here um or is it also looking at their phones looking at other evidence that was collected during the course of the raids and saying that matches up to their

story um I imagine the fact that you know I say this I said this before and I'll say it again the idea that anybody can sue anybody I mean you're supposed to you're not supposed to file frivolous lawsuits but it seems on the outset that you have prosecutors who are believing the accounts of these accusers the very least it seems Cassandra Ventura um and filing criminal charges based on those accounts so it seems that you know authorities are believing what's being told and they have the corroboration it's not just the accounts of these people but

other evidence to back it up now again their stories might be similar but I guess the question is how do authorities corroborate what they're being being told well first thing pattern is cooperation so if you have 50 people saying the behavior was the same same pattern or same he took the same actions and that and I and he's in uh he's been accused we don't know until he's seen his day in court what really happened but that's the first level of cooperation the second thing is apparently They seized videos from his house in uh California

and that's going to be extreme cooperation right there because you know it's going to play out right in front of them and then the third piece of this is the digital evidence is the text messages is the is the communications that he had with these women based upon and every one of them is likely save those text messages on their phones and were able to give screenshots to the authorities so it appears to me that the evidence is overwhelming however we're only going to know what that if it truly is overwhelming once uh he has

his day in court you know I think it is interesting how many people were apparently interviewed and we we're not entirely sure if all the people who filed lawsuits against Shan Colmes are the main accusers that but it seems it seems to me at least from Cassandra ventur point of view it seems that prosecutors have built their case based on those allegations and I said this yesterday and I say it today it's one thing for somebody to sue somebody else right we have a lower standard they shouldn't file FIV lawsuits but you have to you

know filing a civil lawsuit is very very different than criminal charges for prosecutors to believe these accounts and seemingly have it you know people who are corroborating one another there's a pattern there but also maybe corroborated by the physical the digital evidence that is very significant that you have civil lawsuits that may have triggered a criminal prosecution I think that's right I think that the Civil complaints which we saw there were many definitely got the ball rolling but I would say that it was the video of Cassie that violent incident that we saw in that

hotel lobby that I guess was came out of the blue that really was what I think put the nail in the coffin that was actually cited to in the indictment as something that they plan to use as evidence and actually I believe led to the enhancements that we saw on what they're seeking as far as prison time and and essentially he could be looking at life in prison if he's convicted across the board I am curious does it a clear case for you when you hear the different accounts because they're saying there's a lot there

they're saying he operated a criminal organization that um engaged in force labor kidnapping arson violence um they're saying that it was a common purpose to protect Diddy to satisfy his sexual desires to make money um there's a lot thrown out there is this a tough case to ultimately prosecute um and then you have the sex trafficking charge you have the transportation of prostit transportation for purpos of prostitution charge is this a tough case to prosecute is it a clear case to prosecute yeah I think it's always a tough case right I think that a lot

of work in evidence has gone into leading up to now in terms of bringing this indictment in terms of having that initial hearing and sort of having him arrested and bringing these charges however I I I do think that Diddy has very competent legal counsel I think that they have seen this probably coming for some time I think that while this case feels like R Kelly all over again to me where you obviously have you know sort of a video of an underage person um you know that was involved and introduced I think that this

has you know sort of samplings of that but I assume that the defense is going to say that he did not do this right that this wasn't an organized crime syndicate that the prosecutors are accusing him of this is a group of friends having a sex party yeah it's not what you want to necessarily hear about no one really possibly you know likes it but it is what it is people like Diddy people wanted to be around him and they allowed themselves to be sort of manipulated sometimes into perhaps doing things that sound unsavory um

when when heard in the news I think that is the Crux of what the defense's sort of argument will be and I guess the question will be what do you believe continue on with this when agents ended up searching col's homes back in March they left with a lot of evidence there were weapons both seemingly legal and illegal us attorney Damen Williams showed photographs of some of them during that news conference here are some of the items that we recovered during the searches as you can see here this is a drum magazine large capacity and

it contains I believe 59 rounds I mentioned as well we recovered three AR-15s this is a closeup shot of one of the AR-15s and you can see right here the serial number has been thoroughly defaced another picture of more ammunition and parts of two AR-15s right there so the government is making the case that he did not do this on his own he did not act alone there were people who were around him there were people who were helping him and at the very least there were witnesses to what was going on I mean for

a conspiracy and criminal Enterprise racketeering those kind of charges itself you need more than just yourself you need others then someone needs to be a part of it and just to go back to the indictment with one of the central allegations are these alleged illegal sexual events so coming from the indictment it says quote Colmes and other members and Associates of the com's Enterprise wielded the power and Prestige of com's role at the com business to intimidate threaten and lure female victims into com's orbit often under the pretense of a romantic relationship coms then use

Force threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that coms referred to as among other things freak offs freak offs were elaborate and produce sex performances that Combs arranged directed pleasured himself during and often electronically recorded in arranging these freak offs comes with the assistance of members and Associates of the coms Enterprise transported and caused to be transported commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally freak offs occurred regularly sometimes lasted multiple days and often involved multiple commercial sex workers during freak offs coms distributed

a variety of Controlled Substances to victims in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant sometimes unbeknownst to the victims comes kept videos he filmed a victim of victims engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers goes on to say that members and Associates of the coms Enterprise including high-ranking supervisors security staff household staff personal assistants and other com's business employees facilitated the freak offs and that has become the question could other people be in trouble could they be prosecuted too now to be clear Colmes is the only one who's currently charged right now he's

the only one named in that indictment no one else is actually listed in that indictment no one else's reference by name it is very general but in the government's detention memo to the court arguing why com should be denied bail and by the way he's since been denied bail twice they write quote the investigation into his and other co-conspirators conduct is active and ongoing and you know what spurned that question for us about whether other people could be in trouble too some of the reaction that we have been seeing post indictment sports analyst Stephen A

Smith asking if people in Hollywood are scared are the folks in Hollywood lying back in wait wondering who's next if you have workers that you can Target and they can be punished it's it's presumed they're going to Dime him out and ultimately they're going to force him to comply and Diddy is going to Dime out a whole bunch of people then we have broadcast personality Charlemagne who said on The Breakfast Club that others could be in trouble if he gets racketeering and sex trafficking for uh freak offs it will be others involved if you ever

been butt necked any way with Diddy or have half butt necked with Diddy and there was some women around awesome men around that he told you were part of the party party you probably going to jail rapper Foxy Brown wrote on her Instagram story s about to really get crazy so I guess the Imp implication is maybe other people might be a part of this now to be very clear they're just commenting on the indictment they aren't accused of being a part of this case in any way and to couple that here's what rapper 50

Cent had to say before the indictment uh back in August in an interview with US Weekly he wrote I'm the only person in hip-hop culture who has produced any hit television why wouldn't I be the person to produce it and I'm not on the tapes see some of the people who have been around in the culture who are not saying anything that's because they've been to the parties they don't know what part of their experiences are on tape so it keeps them quiet and it looks like I'm the only guy but I've been for years

that something's not right and again he's not been implicated in com's alleged criminal allegations in any way he's just commenting on it and when you think of comes he has always been known for his extravagant parties the white parties we talked about this on a previous cbar that in light of these disturbing allegations that were made in the multiple lawsuits that he faced accusing him of sexual assault and sex trafficking that this is something that became an issue in fact here's what Ashton Kutcher said about com's parties on the show hot ones okay I've got

a lot I can't tell so um I can't tell that one either then this was NBA star LeBron James comment oh hey everybody know ain't no party like a diddy party so yeah that's what's up yeah we heard from rapper Uncle Luke who spoke with the podcast we in Miami she party with Diddy a lot oh no not really I would go to the party and and leave early why wouldn't you stay L I go to the party and leave early I'm sorry yeah I don't know what goes on after part after hours but he

wasn't trying to find out I wasn't trying to find out now to be clear these statements from Kutcher James Uncle Luke they were before this criminal indictment and some even before these allegations of combs even surfaced and we have no indication or evidence that they knew anything that's being alleged or an any way a part of this case whatsoever I just want to be clear about that so as Colmes currently sits behind bars after being denied bail twice and as this case and investigation continue I want to talk about this so for that I want

to bring on aie Patterson uh attorney out of Los Angeles litigation attorney out of uh Los Angeles uh I like to think of her as our resident hipop expert she knows so much this A A hip-hop trial expert I should say knows the ins and outs has been following a lot of these cases recently uh aie thank you so much for coming on it's good to see you as I said it's been a minute since we've had a chance to talk I'm going to ask you the question I've asked every single person I've asked this

week your reaction to the arrest and indictment of Shan Colmes is it what you expected I said this um back in November yes absolutely it's what I expected I think that um he was indicted a long time ago and he uh the indictment was held I think they they've had this um you know they've had this for a minute um you know the question is you know that's everybody's asking right now is are there going to be other people but what we've seen right now is just one person when people think of Rico they think

of course of a huge Enterprise but all you need with Rico is one person two acts over a 10year period it's super easy to get a RICO uh RICO charge and super easy of course to get an indictment so it's absolutely what I expected and um I also expect a conviction um a Swift one but but in the indictment they mention not one or two people they mention a network they're mentioning a lot of people who helped be a part of this or facilitated this so is there a feeling right now and I guess the

question could be when you hear these statements being made uh by prosecutors in their filings and and the United States Attorney in the this press conference the argument is and you correct me if wrong is this a a a siren out to everybody listen he just got indicted you come to us before we come to you do you get that sense no I think that um when you put the the full weight of the US attorney's office behind any statement it's intimidating I think that um you're it was more like you'll be in trouble if

you don't um respond favorably to us um and we see that in that only one person was charged uh you know only puffy was charged with in in this Rico issue and I think more than anything they want people to participate uh they want people to uh willingly provide information you know they don't want to have to bring down the full weight of the office and um you know use unnecessary resources you know come forward if you have information um if we know who you are and where you are and we come to talk to

you play nice with us um and nothing will happen that's what I got from that I mean why do you think there was only one person mentioned in this indictment obviously there could be a superseding indictment there could be other people who are additionally charged we've seen that in cases before do you think that this is this is common to just indict Shan Colmes the head the alleged head of this organization and that we might see other people indicted or do you think it's there's something else there um that they already have everybody that they

need they are going to be cooperating Witnesses there's nobody else to charge at this time I don't think there's anyone else to charge at this time I think they uh want it uh puffy and they went after him and they got what they needed and now all they need is uh more support to buy their position you know I think that if anything with the more people that come forward um there could be more charges I'll tell you when I read the indictment I thought that there would be more financial crimes more drug crimes um

I was a little shocked that it was mainly surrounding um uh the facts that we saw in Ventura's uh complaint back in November so um if anything I think more charges are possible well I guess the question is you can know Shan Colmes and not be indicted you know there there has to be more to be criminally charged you don't believe that they've spoken to the people who have been working with Combs and saying listen I can prosecute you if you are facilitating these freak offs and you are drugging people or you're bringing people across

lines for commercial sex and you're engaging in this I could easily charge you with racketeering but I'm going to work out a deal with you where I won't prosecute you you just have to testify against com you don't think that's happened behind the scenes already absolutely that's happened oh cuz you CU you said you said before I don't think there's any deals to me I don't think anybody else is to be charged they're people who could be charged no I don't think anybody I don't think anybody else is going to be charged but you say

that there people who could be that the government knows absolutely okay okay absolutely and I think that they'll be testifying and if he does not take a plea if they don't offer him anything um you know there's going to be so much that comes out that just shocks everybody so AIA let's say you have a client and they say to you listen oh my gosh you know look I went to 12 of Diddy's parties um how do I know I'm in trouble what makes someone in trouble if they're at these parties is it that they

attended them is that they witnessed it they didn't do anything is it that they partook in it what would make somebody in uh legal trouble from a criminal standpoint well if we look at the indictment and um you know look at the charges and it's all about facilitation so I wouldn't NE necessarily be concerned if you were an attendee I don't think you're a Target if you're an attendee I don't think that supports um their prosecution of uh puffy Char cones I think um I would say it's nothing I would worry about and I wouldn't

go ahead and volunteer any information nobody's looking for you if you're just a participant at a party be quiet sit down relax your nerves and I just probably counsel them on that um but I think that if you were an any type of employee um if you were there if you were um you know a driver a bodyguard a chef if you were a trainer you know any of the service workers who are around anybody um a publist anybody who worked on behalf of the comes Empire they should be concerned but attendees I I wouldn't

say it's a big deal because it's aiding and a betting right essentially if you're you're facilitating if you're if you're um working with the comes Enterprise I think that's what the prosecution would be looking at you are facilitating um these criminal activities let's say you engaged in one of these freak offs do you think you could be prosecuted for it I don't think so um I think you know freak offs prostitution you know it's it's such a interesting line you know when we're talking about uh morality versus um illegality um participating in a freak off

to what extent did you participate in it what role did you play was it um willingly uh did you willingly play a role were you for you know what did you do you know there it's now if you were my client and you participated I'd have a ton more questions but if you are just an attendee at a party consuming you know any type of um illicit drugs or alcohol or participating in any sexual activity I don't think that that's a big deal in this case let me ask you this people have been quite vocal

since the allegation surfaced against uh Combs people have been quite vocal after the indictment but it's also been interesting to see the people who have been silent and who haven't said anything and these are people who used to you know associate themselves with Combs is that because from a PR point of view they don't want to say anything about him or if I had a list of the over 50 Witnesses and alleged victims of comes that the government says that they've already interviewed and I look at that list there's a lot of people I recognize

what do you think I mean that's such an interesting question you know they've been silent silent how like what do you want from a person do you want them to make a press release about their support of him or their innocence it's like um I don't know if you've ever heard the saying a hit dog hollers I would be quiet as well you know i' I'd stay out of it until I'm summoned um well I tell you this when Harvey Weinstein what the allegations come out when he was charged you had a lot of high

profile people who came out and talked about him and said what they observed about him they some regretted their decisions their ass iations I don't know if you're seeing that so much with Combs and that's why I think you're seeing people say maybe they're afraid to speak up and maybe they're about to run to the government and with information or maybe they're one of their cooperating witnesses that the they've already spoken with the government I think that's why yeah so what's so interesting is I think that we have been seeing people who have been affected

by shanes we've seen it in the lawsuits he's got innumerable lawsuits out you know we've got people who have been speaking speaking out on the blogs who've been doing interviews on the blogs people have been ringing the bell for years but even more recently um you know you've got people who are in have been in his inner circle um who have been uh opinion treated unfairly who have been ringing the alarm and saying things and I think that you know just because um the most high-profile person you can think of hasn't said anything you know

I don't think that that doesn't mean people aren't saying things uh again if you're my client you know please don't be a hit dog holling out here I would say rest your nerves and wait until you're summoned or if you have anything that you know you think is vital and you want to be involved in this investigation like let's talk about that at the time we only speculated that investigators collected electronic evidence but now we know for sure according to the indictment against Diddy investigators seized more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant

from his home the court doc States these items were used in something referred to as free golfs which were a elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged directed masturbated during and often electronically recorded in arranging these freak offs Combs with the assistance of members and Associates of the Combs Enterprise transported and caused to be transported commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally during freak offs Combs distributed a variety of Controlled Substances to victims in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant sometimes unbeknown to the victims comes kept videos he filmed of victims

engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers after freak offs comes and the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use so Diddy's business employees allegedly facilitated these freak offs by stocking the hotel rooms in advance with the required freak off supplies including Controlled Substances baby oil lubricants extra Linens and lighting cleaning the hotel rooms after the freak go to try to mitigate room damage arranging for travel for victims commercial sex workers and combs to and from Freak offs resupplying Combs with the requested supplies delivering large sums of cash

to combes to pay the commercial sex workers and scheduling the delivery of IV fluids so these items were collected during the federal raids including narcotics and hundreds of bottles of lube and baby oil there were also electronic files of these freak offs and the FEDS collected those too in addition to all this investigators seized ar-5 guns ammunition and a large capacity drum magazine from Diddy's home since those raids in March Federal prosecutors have been crafting their case against Diddy which led to Grand Jury proceedings against him so he was indicted on Monday and taken into

custody and on Tuesday that indictment was unsealed also on Tuesday Diddy appeared in federal court where he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him during the hearing Diddy was also denied bail a federal judge ruling he must remain in custody until trial with all that that in mind let's take a closer look at what exactly the feds collected from Diddy's homes for that we turn to former CIA officer and FBI agent Tracy Walder this indictment that just came down I know we were kind of expecting it to happen but when it did what were

your thoughts yeah you know I had expected i' said before that I thought we'd get an indictment within 6 to 9 months people weren't happy with me because they thought that was just too long um but it was almost exactly six months actually since the warrant were served on both of his homes I think it's not a surprise to me because because I'm glad he's being charged with this um I wholeheartedly thought that he would have a RICO a racketeering charge I I knew that that would be something that they would get him on I

was concerned that they wouldn't get him on human trafficking because sometimes that can be really difficult to prove and I just always worry that those cases fall through the cracks and then Justice isn't served for the victims and so I was pleased to see that he was charged with that um so that hopefully he could be held accountable much of the evidence that the prosecution now has against Diddy came from the federal rates talking about a federal search warrant what does that look like just generically right so in this case and I I don't recall

if I talked to you about this or maybe Jesse but in when that warrant was served back in March but you know the question was is if they served the warrant why can't they just arrest him and again as you mentioned they probably didn't have enough evidence at that time to do so however to get a warrant like that where it served simultaneously and you know in a surprising manner they really had to prove two things one of two things excuse me the first being that evidence was imminently going to be destroyed or that the

lives of people were in danger I believe that it was the former that they were probably able to prove is that evidence may have been going to be destroyed and that's why they served the warrants and that's why they were able to serve the warrants to preserve that evidence I feel like a lot of us who don't have experience in the FBI or CIA we just picture movies or TV shows when you see people come in and going opening drawers and closets and going through everything but what does it really look like when they're there

on the ground serving these Federal warrants yeah I mean in a case like this obviously you're not making any kind of a dynamic entry this isn't a hostage situation right where you're that's that's not what's happening here however they did know that there would be weapons there armed security those kinds of things that's why you saw those warrants being served um by for the most part a tactical SWAT team um simply that is procedure to keep everyone safe um a lot of people were frustrated when they saw the video that came out of the warrant

that his home was you know in I guess disarray but again and I had said this before my my gut said they were looking for digital evidence which is in that indictment there's a lot of mentions to digital evidence and that's why they tore up couch cushions that's why they made holes in walls they were looking for flash drives tiny devices uh where these things were stored and so all of that is done methodically it's all cataloged and in a case like this where you're not necessarily rushing you know to put out a fire or

something like that it was all done in a very methodical way you typically go through uh room by room to catalog all of that evidence taking a closer look at all that evidence Diddy had three AR-15 C's during the federal raids that had been defaced what do you think that would look like though because weapons obviously are very dangerous we don't want them to go off how is how is that collected well they typically clear the weapon right they're going to go ahead and take the cartridge out of it and make sure that there are

no rounds obviously in the chamber um and then disassemble it to be taken back um as evidence what's interesting is the AR-15s that they found some people have AR-15s it's it's legal in some places um but they found that the serial number was was scraped off of them um and that I thought was interesting because I don't know if Diddy didn't want those traceable to him or if he had received them on on the black market you know what's interesting is that we just recently in the second attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump we

saw those federal charges for tampering with the weapon where he the um alleged attempted assassin scraped off or made not legible the serial number so why is it that Diddy might not have received charges like that so in terms of Mr Ralph that's the individual um currently charged um and that I believe those are just simply placeholder charges if you want me to be honest with you I don't think they're really going to move forward with those I think they're going to go with much larger charges but they haven't had the element of time right

that they've had with Diddy they arrested him immediately after 45 minutes after um this attempt and so they did what they could with what they had at that particular moment in time to keep him in custody and so I think that's why you didn't see those with Diddy these are much larger charges with Diddy they don't need those kind of placeholder charges to keep him in jail um until they can get more so that's that's why I think you don't see those as far as the AR15s ammunition I know that they mentioned a drum magazine

as well where are those stored now where does all of that go um an Evidence Locker of some sort I'm assuming to the FBI the FBI their local office will have an Evidence Locker that takes in all of that cataloges it and keeps it together basically by on a Case by casee basis it's all labeled based on a Case another thing that was collected during all of this is narcotics so there are illegal drugs like meth and also prescription drugs too I'm wondering if Federal investigators are going to look and track down Who provided these

to Diddy where was the source for these prescription or other street drugs that were in the homes you know I think that that's a possib ility especially based on what we saw with Matthew Perry and the camine queen and the doctors and all the other I think five individuals who were ultimately charged um in that they may be going on different sort of avenues uh in terms of charging I don't think they're done in terms of of charging and I I do think with this recent Crackdown um on this that they very well may go

after those individuals whomever the suppliers were another thing that everyone seems to be talking about from this indictment is the 1,000 bottles of baby oil and personal lubricant that were collected between Diddy's two homes this one really stood out to me I guess what do you just make of that I don't know a way to say this based on what was in the indictment regarding these freak offs that were that's what they call them in here I think that's what Diddy call them quite frankly the severity at which they were the length and duration at

which they were I'm actually not surprised that that's what was collected ultimately from his home it's absolutely horrific the fact that some of these people needed that some of these victims needed IV rehydration afterwards couldn't go out because they were so injured um as a result of this it's it's absolutely horrific and now based on what we've learned of the magnitude of those freak offs it's unfortunately not surprising what would it look like for investigators to go through and I guess document everything that they have as far as the electronic evidence while maintaining the anonymity

of the Survivor I guess right and I think that's why in the indictment you really don't hear much mention of victims if you know for those who have read it there's victim one that is mentioned in it but there are no names um that are mentioned and I believe that that's done on purpose the prosecution wants to have a rapport with these victims to continue to get information from them and we don't want to revictimized them no one deserves that and so I think doing this in an anonymous way um is what we should be

doing uh with these victims but I I think part of the issue part of what took some time actually in terms of going through all of this as you mentioned there was video evidence of these freak offs you have to go through now and identify everyone who is in those videos and that really can take some time it's a very tedious task I don't know that they were able to identify every single person um that appeared in these videos but I am certain that they were able to identify some of them and those are the

interviews that they did and that's what ultimately led to an indictment these are some of the major things that people are talking about because they were mentioned in the indictment but is it possible that the thuds collected even more information that we don't know about yet it may come out at trial 100% I'm certain of it um someone I think someone said oh this this is a big indictment 14 pages in my opinion it's actually not that big um I I've seen bigger indictments um which in my opinion also leads me to believe that all

of the evidence is not included in it um and they're entitled to do that if you actually look at the Brian cerg case they didn't include all the evidence in the indictment yes it needs to be handed over to the defense obviously um but it doesn't need to necessarily be in the indictment you only need to put in the information that led to it um and so my guess is they have more uh they just didn't put it all in there then there's the time frame to consider from the raids in March all the way

to the grand jury and indictment in September so that's six months of prose uors Gathering evidence investigators going through it you said methodically making sure that they have all their ducks in a row so to speak what would that part of it actually look like would they highlight or flag something that they thought would bolster the prosecution's case when they came across it I've never thought about it from you know the prosecution defense point of view I just thought about it from the FBI agent point of view because um obviously our biggest thing is making

sure that we collect the evidence properly log it properly and process it properly because if we don't it cannot be used by the prosecution or by the defense so then that is problematic also the biggest thing you know if you are looking at bringing someone up on charges particularly Federal ones the reality is is we want to make sure we almost have overabundance of evidence to almost over convict um the individual and so I think that's from an FBI perspective what they were working on on top of Diddy's three federal charges Tracy says other charges

could be on the way yeah I think one of the things in reading the indictment you know this is all in video right a lot of this is on video and I would be interested to see if other people are going to be charged um I know they talked about the fact that people procured uh some of these individuals for them and and drugs and all of that and so I would be interested to know if any of those people uh will face charges at some point um I I don't know the answer to that

but I think that these victims deserve that uh quite frankly because of of what was done to them so I'll be interested to see if more charges come out um against some of the individuals who facilitated this following Diddy's indictment on Monday he pleaded not guilty to charges on Tuesday a statement from his legal team reads quote sha Diddy comes is a music icon self-made entrepreneur loving familyman and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire adoring his children and working to lift the black community he is an imperfect person but

is not criminal to his credit Mr Colmes has been nothing but Cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts these are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide and he looks forward to clearing his name in court for more Diddy content and every update that develops make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel reporting for long crime I'm Sierra Gillespie