Diddy's lawyers have asked a judge to restrict statements made by potential witnesses and their lawyers outside of court ... citing one grand jury witness in particular who keeps speaking to the press.
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00:00This is the type of indictment you would expect from someone in the mafia.
00:03I don't know that I could keep him off the stand.
00:05He is very eager to tell his story.
00:08They're going to show that video over and over and over
00:11about what happens to women that won't change their stories.
00:15His reputation is over.
00:17The United States government, they start making this case
00:20as a takedown of a successful black man.
00:24TMZ presents The Downfall of Diddy, The Indictment, now streaming on Tubi.
00:30Diddy's lawyers who are very busy trying to get a gag order in the case now
00:35because they are concerned about the grand jury witnesses
00:40speaking out about their testimony.
00:43And I got to say, I'm pretty sure that they made this emergency motion
00:47for the gag order because of an interview we got last week in New York City.
00:52We were talking to a guy named Courtney Burgess, saw him in New York City.
00:56We knew that he had made allegations in previous interviews that are online
01:02where he's claimed to have these videos of Diddy and other celebrities.
01:08A lot of it is very salacious or at least hinting at something salacious.
01:11So we saw him in New York City. We talked to him.
01:13He offered up out of nowhere.
01:15We didn't know that he'd been there.
01:16And he just said, yeah, I just got done talking to the grand jury.
01:19And yeah, I told him about my videos.
01:22I told him I got this.
01:23And then he said that they are going to another meeting
01:27where they're going to decide what evidence to turn over.
01:30So all of this was out in the public.
01:32And he said this to other outlets as well.
01:34So Diddy's attorneys are really upset about this.
01:38Yeah, so Diddy's attorneys have asked the court to issue a gag order
01:41on all witnesses and counsel.
01:42It's a big deal, right?
01:44Witnesses to grand juries cannot speak about it.
01:47It's part of preserving the grand jury process.
01:51And if you don't have confidentiality,
01:53if you don't have silence,
01:54it can really impact the work the grand jury is doing.
01:58And it can impact later trials,
02:00the evidence that's submitted at trial later on.
02:03And you just don't want this.
02:04You want these folks to keep quiet.
02:05But there's a problem with that,
02:07which is that if, you know,
02:09they come down like a hammer on any of these witnesses,
02:14it could inhibit future possible witnesses
02:18from participating and saying,
02:19look, I don't want to be part of this thing
02:21because I don't want to get ensnared in something
02:23where I get in trouble too.
02:25So it's a double-edged sword.
02:28And they're not parties to this.
02:30They're just offering, you know, testimony.
02:34So, you know, I'm not sure ultimately
02:36how the judge is going to come out.
02:37How does this work when they go in,
02:39if you're a witness,
02:40you go in and testify before a grand jury,
02:42wouldn't the prosecutors remind you?
02:45They ask you not to.
02:46They ask you not to.
02:47Right.
02:47They can't, they have no right to tell you you can't speak.
02:50They just ask you not to.
02:51They ask you not to.
02:52Right.
02:52Well, it's two things.
02:53They'll ask you not to,
02:54but if you speak about your own,
02:56what you've seen in the past, that's fine.
02:58What you can't testify or talk about
03:00is what you told the grand jury.
03:02So it's a bit of a, you know,
03:03But it's the same, it's basically the same thing.
03:05It is the same thing.
03:06Right. Exactly.
03:07And, and look, and the other part of this
03:09is sort of whack-a-mole,
03:11which is that the, some of the civil lawsuits
03:16also now involve these videos.
03:18We have a documentary,
03:21the third installment of the downfall of Diddy,
03:24which is inside the freak ops.
03:26And we get into this with some of the civil lawyers.
03:29They have a ton of video.
03:32So, you know, you can stop it at the criminal level,
03:36but on the civil level, there's no gag orders.
03:39So we will see.
03:40Hi, TMZ.
03:41Alba here from London, UK.
03:43And I'm just going to jump in on the Diddy story.
03:46So yes, obviously his legal team
03:48are pushing very hard now for this gag order.
03:50I do understand.
03:51The thing is, if these allegations cannot be verified
03:54on the very, very serious allegations,
03:56you can understand why they want a gag order.
03:59Nobody wants a trial by media.
04:01But the thing is, I do agree with what you're saying there.
04:03There's a fine line or a balance, if you will,
04:06between his right to a fair trial,
04:08but the public's right to know.
04:10And nobody wants Diddy having the power to silence people.
04:14He's a very powerful man
04:15and nobody wants witnesses being too scared to come forward.
04:19Everyone wants to have their voice heard at trial.
04:22So I just think it's actually going to be really interesting
04:24what the judge does with this.
04:26Yeah, yeah.
04:27By the way, our third installment on this downfall of Diddy
04:33drops a week from tomorrow on Tubi.
04:36It's free.