[0:00]Shawn Diddy Comb's sex trafficking and racketeering trial is dominating headlines right now and we have been covering everything going on inside and outside the federal courthouse right here on Sidebar. And with a high-profile
[0:11]defendant often comes high-profile witnesses, victims, celebrities. We have dug into the transcripts from the first several days of Comb's trial to find the celebrities who have been mentioned so
[0:22]far and maybe are going to be called to the stand. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Shawn Diddy Combmes has been in the
[0:32]spotlight for decades. It's no shocker there. He was a titan of the entertainment industry. He was the head of Bad Boy Records label, creator of the Sha John clothing line, a partner with
[0:41]Sarak Vodka. He was known worldwide for his legendary white parties in the Hamptons and beyond. that it seemed to be an open secret that maybe what happened behind the scenes at a diddy
[0:52]party was not exactly dinner table conversation before his rapid fall from grace that seems to have started with a multi-million dollar lawsuit that was filed by his ex Cassandra Ventura Fine.
[1:02]His net worth was approaching a billion dollar. But now that money is going towards a highpowered defense team made up of nine attorneys right now who are trying to convince a jury that he's not
[1:14]guilty of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, using force, fraud, or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York claimed that Combmes used his money, his
[1:25]influence, his power to force women to participate in marathon sex sessions with sex workers, some of whom were flown in for the so-called freakoffs to various hotels. They also alleged that Combmes made his employees set up for
[1:36]these freakoffs, doing everything from hiring the sex workers and coordinating travel to bringing the lighting and bringing drugs and baby oil cleaning up afterwards. And the government has called multiple witnesses so far,
[1:48]including Comb's ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura Fine, a musical artist in her own right, who goes by Cassie, testified about the abuse that she allegedly suffered while in a relationship with Combmes that lasted
[1:58]over a decade. And now the question becomes, what other celebrities may take the stand? So to talk about this, I want to bring in SiriusXM host Mina. Say what, LONA. So good to see you, Mina.
[2:09]Thank you so much for taking the time. Really, really appreciate it. You know, we have talked about this trial on the long crime lunchtime live show before. It is such a wild case, but what is your
[2:19]reaction to what has happened so far and especially the testimony of alleged victim number one, Cassie? Just shock. I think we're all in shock.
[2:30]Everybody knew about the diddy parties and the afterparty, but we didn't know about the after after party, right? Apparently the after afterparty were these freakoff sessions that were very
[2:40]selective, very coordinated uh according to Cassie's testimony, very coordinated by Diddy. And it's not something that we knew about. It's just shocking. It's shocking to know that all of this was
[2:52]going on for years. Um it was shocking to know that um you know people were witnessing certain parts of the abuse but they weren't privy to the sexual
[3:04]nature of this and you know this wasn't like an everyday couple. Diddy has been in the spotlight for that whole time. And the fact that we knew nothing about
[3:15]these these sexual encounters that he was orchestrating it's just shocking. Well, it does become a question how much people knew about alleged freakoffs. Were those things kept secret or not? I
[3:27]mean, right now at the point of this testimony, I haven't heard any testimony. Celebrity A, celebrity B was a part of the freakoffs with Cassie and the sex workers. It was like Cassie Combmes, the sex workers, right? So, the
[3:39]question that I have is who has been named as a celebrity so far in this trial and who maybe is going to testify? Which celebrity is going to testify? So, here's the thing. Cassie was on the
[3:48]stand for days, days of testimony, right? And yeah, you're talking eight months pregnant, by the way, eight and a half months pregnant. She mentioned a few celebrities and I thought this was interesting and it points to Combmes
[4:00]famous and connections. So, for example, she was asked about when a relationship with Combmes really began and she testified that they shared their first kiss at her 21st birthday party and the transcript reads Shawn was there and he
[4:12]brought Dallas Austin, he brought Britney Spears. I think those were the two people that stand out to me. How was a 21-year-old able to attract such celebrities to her birthday party in Las
[4:22]Vegas? That was all him. Yeah, I didn't know them. Also, real quick, totally off topic, but I want to thank our sponsor, One Skin, for this episode. You know, being on camera as much as I am, having
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[5:26]future self definitely going to thank you. So, Dallas Austin, this well-known music producer who dated Comb's ex Kim Porter, Britney Spears, of course, one of the most well-known pop stars of all time. to hear them there. Mina, that's
[5:38]not a surprise to you, right? No, this is the lifestyle that Diddy lived. You know, uh he had parties. A-listers were at his parties. He was very wellknown.
[5:48]He had money. There's a charisma to him. He's the life of the party, right? He attracts people to him. We talked about this on the network. You don't become this larger than- life mogul by not
[5:59]having some kind of charisma to you, people skills. So people of A-list stature were constantly around and we're learning from the trial that they
[6:09]witnessed the abuse, but from what we're hearing and to your point, they weren't necessarily a part of the sexual part of these parties, which is the freakoffs
[6:19]that lasted some of them up to four days. According to Cassie's testimony, what artist in their prime has four days to be locked up in a hotel, you know,
[6:30]participating in a freakoff? Certainly not Britney Spears, I'll tell you that. So, it's one of those things where he was around a lot of artists, a lot of A-listers and celebrities, but a lot of
[6:41]them from, you know, what I suspect were not a part of these freakoffs. They might have maybe been aware of them or heard about them, but in terms of participation, we haven't seen one
[6:52]celebrity say, "I've participated in a freakoff." I don't think we're ever going to hear that if they in fact did, to be honest. And here's the thing, we don't know the witness list. like the witness list is sealed, so we don't know exactly who's going to testify. But when
[7:03]you mention the celebrities, when we're talking about Dallas Austin, Britney Spears, and the people that are around him, I wonder if this goes to a legal point. You mentioned Cassie. So, she signed to Bad Boy Records, 19 years old. She had the hit single Me and You, 2006.
[7:15]She says she had a contract to do multiple albums, that Combmes was in control of her career, her public image, her finances. And if you're thinking about sex trafficking and you're thinking about control and power and
[7:25]using force, fraud, coercion to induce somebody to do these things to have celebrities around, right? Celebrities, you would think, oh my gosh, at such a young age, the connections I can make.
[7:36]Stick with me. I can help you go places. Do you think this helps the prosecution's case the more they talk about the celebrities that was in his uh orbit? I think it does. You know, um there's a reason why people go back to
[7:47]this kind of be this kind of abuse, sexual abuse. You talked about the financial control, right? But also the power and just, hey, you know, at 19
[7:58]years old, no one's in these rooms. So, you might be tolerant at that young age, which is still technically a teenager, right? You might be tolerant to some of the behavior because you feel special.
[8:08]You feel like you're in in the the in crowd, right? Um, but as we spoke, as time progresses, that power and that
[8:17]notoriety might not be enough to really stomach some of the the horrible things that she had to do in order to stay a part of this group. As you mentioned, he
[8:28]controlled her finances. She was under contract for 10 albums. She says she made about nine albums worth of music and none of it was released. So how is
[8:38]she supposed to move on from her life or you know work somewhere else and make music as as an artist if she's tied into this contract? So it becomes a thing
[8:48]where like if this is what I have to do in order to um you know stay in this in this circle and at first you're like okay I I'm going to do it but then after
[9:00]a while you look up and you're like I I didn't I didn't consent to any of this and that's where the pro the problem begins. Yeah, that's a really really interesting uh point about it. And talk about musical artists. Again, we didn't
[9:11]know exactly who was going to testify. So, it was a big announcement when Don Rashard, another celebrity, became remember member of the group Danny Came Con's reality show Making the Band, joined the group later, Diddy Dirty
[9:22]Money. She took the stand. She testified and she testified about the bigname artists that Cassie was able to work with thanks to Combmes. So the transcript of her testimony reads, "Was
[9:33]your understanding that many times these were artists that were further along in their musical career than Miss Ventura was along in her musical career to kind of help her whatever she was working on?" Yes. And one of them was someone
[9:44]named Kid Cuddy. I didn't know that they were working together. I think you said Lil Wayne. I didn't say that. You didn't? No. Sorry. Do you know if that's true that she worked with Lil Wayne? Not that I can. That's fine. Do you remember
[9:56]any other artists that Miss Ventura did work with? Yes. French Montana. Fabulous. Too short. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch, but she did a mixtape that had features on every song. Do you remember the name of the mixtape?
[10:07]Rockabby Baby. Now, Mina, that is huge for Cassie's career. Again, this idea of influence and control you're hearing from Don Rashard, right? And it establishes that power that you need.
[10:18]And he did that right from the beginning. This is what I can offer you. This is what I can give you. I can put you in the room with X, Y, and Z. I can put you in these parties. you know, you
[10:29]just you just have to be a part of what we're doing here. And that's how someone establishes their power and their influence over someone. You know, a lot of the commentary on social media is
[10:39]like, well, why would she do this? And you know what? You why didn't she walk away? Well, she she was introduced into a lifestyle at 19 years old, right? You
[10:49]don't even know how to make money at 19 and saw that these were the only options for her to continue, you know, participating in this lifestyle. And then she she just, you know, got wrapped
[11:00]up in it. And when you look up now, she's drug addicted as she mentioned. She's doing things that she's not consenting to, that she doesn't agree with. And she feels trapped. And it's a
[11:10]shame because you become trapped by being a lured by these things, the financial part of it, the power, and now you're in, and now you don't know how to get out. It's very sad, and it happens
[11:21]to a lot of people. And that's why the testimony of a, you know, forensic psychologist, Dr. Don Hughes explaining about power dynamics, trauma bonding, love bombing, why victims stay with their abusers is very important,
[11:33]although she did face a tough cross-examination. But you know, there was another name that came up. Talk about celebrities. This was a name that first came up during jury selection. So the jury was given a list of people and places like do you know anybody these people or places? Could it be a
[11:44]conflict? And Don Rashard testified about some drama in Cassie and Comb's relationship and it was in regard to A-list actor Michael B. Jordan. So, the transcript reads, quote, "At one point,
[11:56]Combmes was jealous, was he not, of the actor Michael B. Jordan. Do you remember that?" Yes. What do you remember about that? Let me ask you what you remember, and then I'll ask you some specific questions. I remember she had started talking to Michael B. Jordan right
[12:08]before she went to South Africa to shoot a movie. And I remember them not being together while she was in South Africa. Now, when she was on the stand, Cassie testified that Combmes was suspicious that she and Jordan might have had
[12:19]something going on on the side, but says the details of how exactly he came to that conclusion were a bit fuzzy. Mina, this goes to a larger question. A, as the prosecution would assert, was this Shawn Combmes acting violent and
[12:30]controlling to force Cassandra Ventura into sex trafficking as part of a racketeering criminal enterprise? Or was he a jealous boyfriend and his anger is
[12:40]fueled by jealousy and insecurity? and there's love and there's anger like there isn't any kind of relationship not justifying it but it's domestic violence maybe a state crime not a federal crime so when you hear something about Michael
[12:50]B Jordan what do you take away from it I don't really know what Diddy's motives were um you know I I think we're all still trying to figure that out but I was very surprised that Michael B Jordan
[13:00]and on my radio show I talked about that extensively and I kind of gave some theories as to what why he might be involved now we know Cassie had a flirtatious relationship with him maybe
[13:12]But I don't know what the basis of the reaction from Combmes is. It it's to me it's very puzzling, you know. Uh one of his bodyguards testified that he had he was in five different relationships. So
[13:23]they were five different women and he almost had like a hierarchy to them, right? Kim Porter being his family, you know, the number one. And then he he he
[13:34]said Cassie was moldable, you know? Al. So, it's like I think we're trying to understand the dynamics here. Um, was
[13:42]this love? Was this control? I I I don't know quite yet, but I do know that there's a possession there on behalf of Diddy where he's trying to possess her
[13:53]and keep her from having these other relationships. You know, he can have other relationships, but why is it that she can't? And that's really where I feel like the prosecution has an edge
[14:04]over it. you know, if this was a consensual relationship, she would be able to go off and date Michael B. Jordan and Kid Cuddy, you know, and the football unnamed football player that we
[14:14]learned about and and she could have continued her relationship with Ryan Leslie, the producer, but the fact that there was a a control element there where he was like, "No, you can't do
[14:24]that. If you do that, I'm going to release your freakoff tapes. Hey, because you've been, you know, dating Kid Cuddy, your mother has to give me $20,000 and take out a home equity loan
[14:35]to pay me so I can recoup my losses. That's the iffy part about that relationship. So, there might be some love there, but I think that there's
[14:44]also some other very toxic um behaviors and unfair behaviors on the behalf of Diddy and some behaviors that really make it question if it's consensual.
[14:55]Because if it was consensual, she would have been able to see other people. If it was voyerism, she would have been able to voyer off on herself. But clearly, it was made very, very clear
[15:06]that that's not something she could do. Mina, are you sure you're not a lawyer? That was awesome. That was a really, really good breakdown about the power dynamic. And clearly, it's not equal and exactly, I think, how the the
[15:17]prosecution is going to frame it in a closing argument. That was 100% on point. And you mentioned Kid Cuddy, right? So Comb's apparent jealousy was on full display when he and Cassie were
[15:28]on a what a break and she started apparently seeing Scott Mscuy, better known as Kid Cuddy, someone that she'd apparently met through Combmes. And by the way, as we're talking right now, I think Kid Cuddy is taking the stand or
[15:40]has just taken the stand. So according to Cassie, Combmes found out that she was apparently seeing Miss Scuddy apparently by seeing an email between Cassie and one of his staff members. And on the stand, Cassie testified that
[15:52]Combmes was livid, telling the court, "I just remember him putting like a wine bottle opener between his fingers and like lunging at me, just a whole his eyes blacked out, super angry, and I just had to get out of there. It was
[16:03]actually another time I was able to get out of a freakoff." Now, Cassie said that she left the hotel that she and Combmes were staying in and stayed that night with Kid Cuddy. And as she flew home to Connecticut for Christmas, she
[16:14]sent her mom a message about the threats or the alleged threats. And in evidence, there's an email sent from one of Cassy's alias accounts. It's from a Veronica Bang that she sent to mom new
[16:25]email just before Christmas in 2011. The subject line reads, "Threats the threats that have been made towards me by Shawn Puffy Combmes are that he's going to release two explicit sex tapes of me.
[16:36]One on Christmas Day, maybe before or right after, and another one sometime soon after that." He has also said that he will be having someone hurt me and Scott Mscu physically. He made a point
[16:46]that it wouldn't be by his hands. He actually said he'd be out of the country when it happened. So if you're talking about a racketeering charge, Mina, right, and that he's going to outsource the work and have people do it on his behalf. By the way, you know, the
[16:58]allegation was that he blew up Kid Cuy's car in his driveway. That's arson. That's one of the predicate crimes for rakateeering. You know, Kid Cuy's playing a big role in this case. You know what? The kid cuddy story is a big
[17:08]big piece because I personally found it interesting how she separated her relationship with Shawn from the freakoffs because that's something that you really have to think about, right?
[17:20]If she's no longer in a relationship with him, why is she having a freakoff? This was her job. She and and she even testified this felt like a job to me.
[17:30]This was a job in that if she stopped there were consequences. And even when she was on a relationship break from Diddy, she made it very clear, we still
[17:39]participated in the freakoffs. That is a big deal. It shows that she's separating her relationship from him from the freakoffs, which she testified that it was a job to her and she's moving on
[17:50]with her life and trying to see someone else personally. And now there's retaliation, right? I mean, the threat of, hey, if you continue to see this person, uh, there's something that's
[18:02]going to happen to him and his, you know, his car is going to blow up and I want his friends to see it, right? There's a threat and then the car blows up and then his defense team says,
[18:12]"Well, that he has nothing to do with that." I'm sure he has nothing to do with that, but how did you make a threat and then the threat was executed after you made it? You might not have been
[18:23]involved, but the question now lies. Who executed the arson? Who executed the car being blown up? Kid Cuddy's testimony is going to be crucial because I also think it's a very important part in the
[18:35]dynamic of Cassie and Diddy where she's starting to kind of pull away from him and he want she wants to see other people and there's this thing where he's pulling her back with the force and the
[18:45]threats and it really contributes to the prosecution's case here. By the way, I'm going to read you in real time him on the stand his testimony. So, the prosecution called him. Apparently, he's
[18:56]wearing a leather jacket, white shirt, blue jeans. Uh, it talks about who he is. He mentions Cassie, says we dated in 2011. Who else was she involved with? Shawn Combmes. What did you know about their status? He responds that she and
[19:08]Shawn Combmes had some problems and they weren't dating anymore. He's asked in December 2011, did law enforcement respond to your home? Yes, I had a breakin. Cassie called me at 5:30 or 6
[19:18]a.m. She said Comb Sean Combmes had found out about us. She asked me to pick her up, so I did. Yeah. Why? She was worried. What was her demeanor? Very stressed and worried. Where did you go?
[19:29]The Sunset Marquee. Why? I thought it was safe. Off the radar. Who else did you speak with? Capricorn Clark. She sounded near tears. What did she say? That Shawn Combmes was in the car near
[19:39]my house. There was an objection. It was overruled. You called Shawn Combmes. I did. He said, "I'm over here waiting for you." When you arrived, what did the outside look like? Pretty normal. Any security camera? Yes, but I found out
[19:50]they weren't working, but the security cameras had been moved. Did you move them? No. What did you see inside your home? Gifts were open. Some stuff I got from Chanel, and my dog was locked up in
[20:00]the bathroom. How did you usually leave your dog? I let him roam. How long had you had your dog? 3 years. What changes were behavior of a dog after the break-in? Jittery, on edge all the time.
[20:12]I got back in and called Shawn Combmes again. I was looking for him. I wanted to fight him, you know. Did he answer? Yeah, he said, "I'm on my way." When you saw Cassie, how did she see him? Depressed. Did you see Cassie in Connecticut? Yes, she needed it. Did Mr.
[20:23]Combmes call you? Yes, he hit me a few times. Hit. Called me. What did you say? That I didn't want to talk with him. He broke into my house, hurt my dog. Did you and Miss Ventura break up? Yes. What
[20:34]about your car? My dog's babysitter called me and told me my car was on fire. Where were you? At a relative of my ex-girlfriend. Where did you go? To my house. 8925 Hollywood Hills Road. Let
[20:44]me show you picture six. Do you recognize? And then he talks about his Porsche. Your reaction. If that's not intimidating and scary, I don't know what is. Right. Someone's like, I'm coming to your house. You show up at
[20:55]your house. Things are different. Your dog is scared, locked up. Poor dog. The dog The dog has nothing to do with anything. And the dog was
[21:07]intimidated, right? The thought the dog was scared. It's shocking that th this could happen, you know, and um because of their celebrity, no one says something, you know, as as being kid
[21:18]Cuy, what do you do? You do you call the cops and what do you say? Sean Combmes told me he was coming over and I noticed someone broke into my house and now my car is on fire and they'll be like, "Well, why do you think that happened?"
[21:29]It just makes it a bigger thing. It's so crazy that this stuff was happening and none of us knew about it in the media. Yeah, it's really something to say the least. And um you know during cross- examination the defense appeared to try
[21:40]to paint Cassie as a liar because of the things that she kept hidden from Combmes because the defense said even though you were on a break from Mr. Combmes, you still wanted to use a burner phone, right? Yeah. You didn't want him to find
[21:51]out about Mr. Miss Cuddy, right? I did not want him to find out. No. And you did not want to tell him about this, right? No. I thought it would be way too dangerous to tell him about that because you anticipated his response, right?
[22:01]Correct. Because he was insanely jealous, right? Had a temper. And by using a burner phone and not informing him of Mr. Mscotti, you were lying to him, right? I wasn't telling him everything. Mina, I mean, that poor
[22:12]woman can't even date someone else without being scared for her life. There's a lot of control here. There's a lot of threats. I'm in shock and awe that all of this happened that he's currently on the stand cooperating this
[22:23]information. You know, when we first found out about this trial, there were those rumors, right? Like there were different rumors about things that Diddy might have done. You know, I had um read that there were, you know, Diddy had
[22:34]hung Wall, which is another hip-hop artist and singer, hung him off the balcony at one point and Wall was like, "No, that never happens." Then there was the piece about Kid Cuy's car being
[22:45]burned right after the threat. And then Kid Cuy came out and was like, "No, my car was, you know, was burned." So, um, it's just interesting to hear those rumors. And this this didn't come out
[22:57]back in 2011 when it happened, right? This came out recently when we started to learn of the the the counts that Diddy was being charged with. Different stories and speculations started to come
[23:08]out about things that he had allegedly been done. Then the conversation became, well, how about Justin Bieber or how about Usher? Because Usher lived with
[23:18]Diddy as a child because Diddy at that point was so a part of the music world. Every single song on the chart had his influence in some way. whether it was
[23:28]one of his artists being featured, whether it was his production, you know, or him being an artist as well or him, you know, managing an artist or something. So, it's like at one point
[23:39]every there was a tie to Diddy in every aspect of music. So, it was one of those things where like people started to speculate, well, Usher was there. What happened with Usher? Justin Bieber was there. Is he Can we talk about that? Can
[23:51]we talk about that? Because Don Rashard said she witnessed Combmes punch Cassie and this was in front of uh Usher, Jimmy
[23:59]I Neo. So I wonder if they're going to testify. Yeah, I wonder if they're going to testify and I wonder again goes back to your larger question. Why did no one
[24:09]speak up if this is true? Well, we have to separate the domestic abuse from the the sex trafficking, right? I don't think it helps the case for them to
[24:19]bring on Usher or Neo if they're just going to say they witnessed more abuse at this point. I don't I don't think anybody is doubting that this woman was abused. They need to prove the sex
[24:29]trafficking piece and obviously not only just the sex trafficking. I think the transportation of prostitutions is pretty solidified at this point. He has five counts. So the transportation of prostitution, the racketeering
[24:40]conspiracy, the RICO. So, at this point, any witness that they bring on the stand has to fall in line with those charges, either the sex trafficking or the racketeering conspiracy. We're seeing so
[24:52]much talk about the domestic violence and the abuse, which is part of the power dynamic. You do have to control your victims if you're uh an abuser. And
[25:02]and this is the tactics that you do it, but now we have to move on to the actual the actual crimes here and and the things that he's being accused of. So, I
[25:11]wouldn't really want Usher and Neo on the stand talking about, "Hey, yeah, we saw Cassie p did Diddy punch Cassie." I only want to see them on the stand if they could cooperate any of the other crimes that we're talking about. Well,
[25:23]the counter arguments to that would be, look, I think that they've established and I think the defense is conceded there was physical violence here and that he was abusive. Okay, I think that that they've established that. Look, he's still innocent, still proven
[25:33]guilty. But yes, however, however, the argument could be, you know, why it's important to have Usher and Neo and Jimmy Ivine, these major major
[25:43]celebrities testify because if Cassie's being beaten up in front of them and no one does anything, that amplifies the power. That amplifies the idea of she couldn't leave, who is she going to go
[25:55]to? And by the way, that's what Dr. Don Hughes testified too. There's no one that she can go to. And you know, I think to no one stepping in, it's like he can commit what he can do whatever he wants and no one's going to stop him. I
[26:06]think that power dynamic might be something that would be beneficial to them. Maybe I could see that when you when you paint it that way that ab that absolutely is the case. I mean, you have these A-listers that are just turning
[26:16]the blind eye. But I think that speaks to that culture of silence when it comes to abuse. You know, it's one of those things because domestic abuse is one of those things where if you get involved,
[26:26]you kind of become part of it and then a lot of the times the abusers go back to, you know, the people being abused go back to their abuser. So there becomes this culture where they're like, I'm not getting involved because this is
[26:37]personal. This is between them. Um, you know, nine times out of 10 they do go back and um, you know, there there's there you can ask anyone that has been a witness to domestic abuse. Some people
[26:49]just won't get involved because of how difficult it is for the abuse to leave. Look at Cassy's friend. She tried to get involved and literally got choked. She
[26:59]got Yeah. So, it's like, you know, people just stay away from getting involved. But to your point, it would be interesting for them to be on the stand
[27:10]because it just shows Diddy would do anything in front of anyone. And why? because he probably felt like he can cover it up in some way or or people would be silent. So, let me ask you
[27:20]about one more high-profile person that came up. Harve Pierre. So, he's a record executive. He's the former president of Bad Boy Records, now Bad Boy Entertainment. He's been friends with Combmes since the '9s. Don Rashard spoke
[27:32]about some of her experiences with Pierre, saying that she knows he saw Combmes hit Cassie, but didn't do anything to intervene in the violence. And she also testified that Combmes would often raise his voice to artists
[27:42]who were part of his label. And when Rashard was on the stand, the prosecution asked her, quote, "Specifically, what if anything do you recall Mr. Combmes telling you?" Rashard responded, "Oh man, stay the f out of my
[27:53]relationship. You b-words are here to work, not be a part of my relationship. Um, you mfers don't know real work, man. What if any threats would Mr. Combmes make to you that we would it would be or
[28:04]else we would pay for it?" That was always you're all going to pay for it or keep doing it. All right, that kind of thing. It's always you do this or else something bad will happen to you. It was always that like a threat that if you
[28:16]didn't stay in line, there was consequences. What was Mr. Comb's demeanor when he made these threats? That varied. Again, sometimes it was a stern like moment to say it and other times it was loud, angry, violent, and
[28:27]like it's mean, it was mean, it was mean. Did anyone else speak to you specifically about your discussions with Miss Ventura? Yes. Who was that? Harve. Harve Pierre. And what, if anything,
[28:36]would Mr. Pierre tell you? Harve said it gets dark and lonely and Mr. Combmes used to say this too. It gets dark and lonely if you don't listen. It was very much like you all need to listen to him. You all don't want to deal with what
[28:48]happens if you don't. And that was stated by Harve and Mr. Combmes. Mina, your thoughts. So, I was going through my notes here because I wanted to look up who said this. I think it was it
[29:00]might have been David James, Diddy's former assistant. Someone talked about the culture um at Bad Boy and Combmes Enterprise, the kingdom, right? The kingdom. He talked about there being the
[29:10]kingdom. There was this culture of this, you know, you listen or things happen to you, right? So, I don't that wasn't just particular to Cassie. I think this is
[29:20]how Diddy ran his enterprise and we saw a lot of that on the TV shows Making the Band, you know? I mean, uh, infamously people talk about how he used to send his assistant to go get, you
[29:32]know, random things and he had to come back in in in a certain amount of time, you know, or or there were consequences. Um, Bentley was his name. So, it's like there's people that have been around
[29:42]that have been a witness to the culture. Hav Pierre, um, Bentley that people are wondering what else did they witness? Do they know anything? But there was definitely a culture there that was
[29:53]enforced by the people that were a part of those organizations and it started at the top with from what it seems like the direction of Diddy. Interesting case.
[30:04]Mina, you are all over it. Thank you so much for coming on to talk about the celebrity aspect of it, the high-profile names who are part of the trial right now and maybe will be part of the trial moving forward. Amina, thanks so much.
[30:15]Appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us and as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse
[30:27]Weber. Speak to you next time. [Music]