Sean "Diddy" Combs is now a criminal defendant in a sex trafficking, racketeering and kidnapping case after a grand jury indicted him ... this according to official documents.
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00:00So I gotta tell you, last night, I was actually doing a lecture at USC, and I got a call from
00:09one of our producers, and apologies to the students that I bailed, but we broke a story
00:15that Diddy got arrested last night.
00:18Arrested last night in New York City by the feds.
00:20And I gotta tell you, Charles, I have never read 14 pages that contained so much shocking
00:28information and allegations.
00:31Diddy, among other things, he has been accused of sex trafficking, engaging in a conspiracy
00:40to foster prostitution, racketeering, kidnapping, narcotics offenses, arson, bribery.
00:48That is the beginning.
00:49And the feds lay this all out, and they say that basically his organization, his company,
00:54which they refer to as the Combs Enterprise, which certainly sounds more like a mob outfit,
01:01that it existed mainly to fuel his desires, often his sexual desires.
01:08And they lay out in detail a lot of those sexual desires in this indictment.
01:15So one of the centerpieces, and we've talked about this before, are these freak-off parties
01:24that Diddy hosted.
01:25And we all knew-
01:26That's the allegation, and remember, Cassie made, that first came to light in Cassie's
01:30lawsuit where she talked about these freak-off parties that he would have at hotels in, she
01:37said, in Atlanta, Miami, LA, and New York.
01:40And they were essentially orgies.
01:42But the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who filed this, laid this out
01:48at a press conference and specifically addressed the freak-offs.
01:52The freak-offs sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers,
01:58and often involved a variety of narcotics, such as ketamine, ecstasy, and GHB, which
02:04Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant.
02:10As alleged, when Combs didn't get his way, he was violent.
02:14And he subjected victims to physical, emotional, and verbal abuse so that they would participate
02:20in the freak-offs.
02:21In addition to the violence, the indictment alleges that Combs threatened and coerced
02:25victims to get them to participate in the freak-offs.
02:29He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak-offs as collateral against
02:35the victims.
02:36Now, they say they found those recordings of the freak-offs during the raids on his
02:42homes in Miami and here in LA.
02:44Which opens up a whole Pandora's box of who is in this.
02:49One of the things they are alleging, and this is the prostitution charge, which is
02:54that Diddy would bring male porn stars across state lines to participate in these freak-offs
03:03and essentially victimize, I mean that's the way they're putting it, some of the women
03:08who were pressured to be part of this.
03:11The feds are alleging, Harvey, a full-scale criminal enterprise here.
03:15They say that Diddy was conspiring with many people, mostly his employees, to engage not
03:19just in drawing people out across state lines for the purpose of prostitution, forcible
03:24coercion of sexual acts, forced drugging and raping of women, guns, all sorts of crimes.
03:33Drugs.
03:34Drugs.
03:35Huge quantities of drugs.
03:36You heard Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney, talk about these.
03:39GHB, oxyketamine, which he mentioned.
03:42Yes.
03:43Huge quantities of drugs.
03:44I mean, just really, Charles, this 14 pages is shocking.
03:49It's shocked a lot in those 14 pages, and it is now, you know, Diddy's, we should say,
03:56his side, his attorneys have said that they're disappointed.
04:00I always find that weird when they say, we're disappointed that they decided to pursue this.
04:05Well, of course you're disappointed they decided to pursue it, but they say they will fight
04:10this in court, and they say that he will plead not guilty, and they're going to fight it.
04:15So we actually got his lawyer going into court, and not only said he was not guilty, said
04:20he didn't do it.
04:21He came here to surrender at a time agreeable to the U.S. Attorney's office, and then they
04:28arrested him last night.
04:30I spent the evening with him, I was with him until about 1 o'clock.
04:33His spirits are good.
04:34He's confident.
04:36He is dealing with this head on, the way he's dealt with every challenge in his life, and
04:41he's not guilty.
04:42He's innocent of these charges.
04:44He's going to plead not guilty, obviously.
04:46He's going to fight this with all of his energy, and all of his might, and the full confidence
04:50of his lawyers, and I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Holmes.
04:56So if you, I'm going to fight like hell to get him released, and he should be released.
05:01So when we broke this story, what happened was, Diddy was staying at the Park Hyatt Hotel
05:11in Midtown Manhattan.
05:13He apparently knew this was coming.
05:16Yes, he's been preparing for this.
05:19Now the weird thing is, we found out the plan was to arrest him today, and for some reason,
05:26they decided to accelerate it and do it last night.
05:29The U.S. Attorney will not say why they did that.
05:31We asked.
05:32They wouldn't say.
05:33Harvey, I find this the single most interesting thing that has happened today.
05:36The fact that they expedited the arrest of him and wouldn't let him turn himself in,
05:41instead went and got him at his hotel yesterday, says to me that they were fearful that maybe
05:46he was a flight risk.
05:47He obviously has all the resources at his disposal to leave any time he wants, and I
05:53think they were concerned about that, and I think it's going to go directly to the bail
05:57that he may or may not be provided.
06:00Well, the U.S. Attorney addressed this, the use of the word cooperation that he had heard.
06:06Damien Williams, the U.S. Attorney, said he had heard the people using the word cooperate
06:10that Diddy had come to New York, which he did, by the way, and just hours before his
06:14arrest was walking around the streets of New York talking to fans, taking selfies with
06:21them.
06:22He and his son, Christian King Combs, were walking around talking to fans, so he seemed
06:26like he didn't have a care in the world.
06:28He'd been there earlier in the week.
06:30He was, over the weekend, was in Central Park hanging out, so they have said, his team has
06:35said, look, he came to New York voluntarily because he was cooperating.
06:41So now you've got to wonder, though, why accelerate?
06:42The U.S. Attorney said, I don't know if I'd use that word cooperate.
06:44Right, and then you've got to wonder what this was about, but they arrested him at the
06:49hotel.
06:50They took him downtown, took him into custody, and there was a dogfight over bail.
06:59He said, I will post $50 million in bail.
07:02Let me out.
07:03So the $50 million bail package that he offered is also interesting because it does show he
07:08did know something was coming up.
07:10His attorneys clearly gave him the heads up, they're going to indict you.
07:15You've got to get ready for this.
07:16In this letter to the court, in the $50 million package, he says, I will offer up my Miami
07:23home for $48 million.
07:24It's worth $48 million.
07:27He paid off, in August, they have the date, that he paid $18 million so that he would
07:32own the house free and clear and be able to offer it as collateral.
07:35And the other $2 million, he's offering his mother's home.
07:38But the prosecutors say they didn't want to release him.
07:40They don't want him out.
07:41No bail.
07:42There are two other things I want to get into, and I think the most important is the Cassie
07:47video, that they don't use her name in this indictment, but it's clear they're talking
07:54about that video.
07:56They talk about him beating a woman at a hotel.
07:59And also important is that they talk about the fact that the victim was trying to flee
08:04and that he forced the victim back.
08:07That's the kidnapping, the kidnapping allegation.
08:10That's right.
08:11And it seems when you read the indictment that they are referring to that video and
08:15what happened to Cassie.
08:18So look, we kind of knew this, but it's very clear, Cassie is their star witness.
08:23Cassie is their star witness.
08:25And I think this goes directly to the conspiracy and directly to the long criminal enterprise
08:31here.
08:32Remember, Cassie happened eight years ago.
08:33I'm not even sure you could prosecute him for those crimes against her.
08:37But as part of-
08:38Well, the kidnapping, you can.
08:39The kidnapping, you can.
08:40Right.
08:41Just not the abuse.
08:42Not the battery.
08:43Absolutely.
08:44But that all goes to a grand scheme that he's been perpetrating, allegedly been perpetrating
08:48for a long, long time, and all of this is evidence of that scheme.
08:52Speaking of a long, long time, Aubrey O'Day has talked about this for a long, long time.
08:58Yeah.
08:59And she told us something today after the arrest.
09:02Yes.
09:03She said she feels vindicated.
09:04I never thought I would see this day.
09:07We all buried this inside of us in order to be able to keep going.
09:11And not just me, but victims you don't even know yet.
09:14We are all processing what that type of vindication can actually feel like now.
09:20Every conversation I've had with victims last night has been beyond moving on all levels.
09:25So let's get into just one other thing quickly, which is the arson claim.
09:30And it seems to align with the Kid Cudi allegation.
09:34Right, that Diddy had someone blow up Kid Cudi's car.
09:40In the indictment, they refer to a Molotov cocktail being thrown at this vehicle and
09:45it blowing up.
09:46Cassie is the one who made the Kid Cudi allegation in her lawsuit.
09:50And you remember at the time, Cudi, his reaction to it was to say nothing, but in a very coy
09:57way, had no comment.
09:59So.
10:00Hey, I'm Brianna.
10:01I'm in Kansas City.
10:02I think it's great everything that's happening with Diddy right now.
10:04Just goes to show that everybody has to be held accountable.
10:07Even if you're rich, it doesn't matter.
10:09You're doing wrong things, you will be held accountable.
10:12And a lot of victims are coming forward properly.
10:14That's great.
10:15He has a lot of civil lawsuits.
10:17Those will be put on hold for the criminal trial.
10:20But that doesn't mean the people in those lawsuits who filed them would not be testifying.
10:26Right.
10:27Right.
10:28And it does seem that a lot of the allegations we've seen in those lawsuits are being referred
10:32to in the indictment.
10:33Yeah, absolutely.