The Trial of Sean Combs Episode Four | Key Witness Missing

0:10 Get ready to dive deep into one of the most gripping legal battles of our time. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today we're unraveling the high stakes drama surrounding one of the music industry's most enematic figures, Sean Diddy Combs, in a case that has captivated millions. The courtroom has become a battleground for fame, fortune, in the dark secrets that lurk beneath the glittering surface of celebrity life. As the gavel comes down, we'll explore the allegations, the testimonies, and the shocking twists that could change the course of Ditty's legacy forever. Was this case merely a clash of lifestyles or something much more sinister? With each episode, I will bring you exclusive insights, analysis, and witness testimony accounts that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

1:15 So buckle up as we embark on this thrilling ride through the trial of the century. Where the stakes are high, the drama is real, and the truth is anything but certain. This is the Trial of Sean Combs. Let's get started. We're going to talk about a key witness missing in this trial really the bombshell of day three of jury selection. We're also going to talk about more comical responses in those juries election questionnaires, as well as a smile that did he cracked during one of these jurors' responses. We're also going to talk about what's next. When can we expect opening statements to begin? We do have a date, it's set in stones, so we're going to discuss that.

2:20 And finally, I'm going to give you an overview of everybody that makes up the defense team for Sean Combs. This may rival the dream Team defense that OJ Simpson put together in the nineties. We're going to talk about all that today. The third day of jury selection did conclude, and the process to forty five perspective jurors has been reached in quick order. And I discussed with you on yesterday's podcast how with these federal cases you're typically going to see a speedy jury selection process. Now, this Friday, May ninth, court is set to resume at nine o'clock am, and at that point, the attorneys they're going to take turns executing what is known as preemptory strikes on the jurors they want eliminated. From that pool of forty five and that will continue until that pool of jurors is ultimately selected as a panel of twelve active jurors and six alternates. Now at this point, that pool is narrowed to forty five, So the prosecution they're going to get six total strikes on Friday, the defense team will have ten total strikes from that jury. And when I say total strikes, what I'm referring to is people that they are striking from that jury and sending home. And as

3:51 it relates to alternates, each side gets three total strikes and at the end of all that you've got your twelve in your six alternates. So it looks like the opening statements will start as scheduled on Monday of next week. Now, on Wednesday, Combs he was again present in the courtroom alongside his attorneys, and they started narrowing down that pool. Some comical and interesting discussions during this day of jury selection included what is now known as the doom scrolling perspective. Juror, let me explain this, juror confess to quote doom scrolling on social media. Now, the judge in this case a little bit older. He wanted clarification on what doom scrolling actually meant, and the jury explained to the judge that doom scrolling is just another term for mindlessly swiping through your social on TikTok or on Facebook reels. And he was making that point because he was asked if he had seen a whole bunch of social media regarding the case, and that's when he said he was doom scrolling. He said, he's not really paying attention. He's just kind of mindlessly scrolling through those reels. So while he saw some, he wasn't so into the case that he was taking note of what those reels or what those tiktoks were showing.

5:20 Another juror who was questioned on Wednesday was dubbed the Star Wars binging juror. Now, this guy was questioned about why he didn't answer all of the questions on the jar questionnaire. He left some of those blank. You can't really do that, and he stated, I was tired because I was binging the new Star Wars and or that just came out, apparently a new Star Wars movie of some sort, which he did get a chuckle out of the judge. And I'm sure some bonus points for honesty for that perspective. Juror and a pretty cool nick name as the Star Wars Binging Duror, and he was not kept for the remainder of the trial. Another juror actually got a smile out of Sean Combs when she was asked whether she recognized celebrities whose names may come up during the trial. Now, this was an older lady, and her response was, I wish I did. Now, obviously she's making a play on the fact that she is older and had no idea who most of these people were.

6:33 Apparently she don't listen to a whole bunch of rap music, and Diddy smiled. He almost started laughing from what I'm told when she made that comment. Now, the judge in the case brought up the Lord of the Rings. He made that reference when the many celebrity names were mentioned. He was quoted as saying, when I went through the people and places list, which is several pages long, I felt like I was reading an appendix from Lord of the Rings, and I got to say, there's probably not many cases where Lord of the Rings comes up. So that was pretty interesting. Now, at the end of this third day of jury selections, six women and five men were given the green light to enter that final pool of forty five potential jurors. Their ages ranged from mid twenties to early seventies. And as in the prior two days that I reported on this, they ran the gambit as far as what they did in their professional lives.

7:35 They had graphic designers, building contractors, and they even had a juror that worked in the Counter Terrorism Office of the United Nations. Now one potential juror, he had a conflict of interest, and I mean an obvious one. You might say, he and the judge were actually friends. He actually served as the judge's co council in several case when the judge was still an attorney. So he walked in the courtroom when his name was called, and the first thing the judge asked him was what's your opinion on the judge in this case? And this potential juror answered, quote, I think he's brilliant. Now, because of that relationship, he was obviously dismissed from the jury. And also, if you'll remember from yesterday's podcast, I told you about a juror who worked for HBO. Now, originally the judge did not allow the dismissal of this jur which the defense was arguing that this person worked at HBO and HBO produced a documentary on Diddy and they didn't feel comfortable with this person being on the jury. The judge actually overruled that because this particular person didn't work on that documentary, they just worked at HBO. Well, Wednesday, the defense council brought it up again that objection, and the judge went ahead in area to dismiss that juror, which is probably the right decision. Again, if things don't go Diddy's way

9:07 and he's convicted in this case, that could be something you could possibly bring up an appeal over. That person's probably a little too close to the case now. Likely The biggest news, as a matter of fact, not likely, Definitely the biggest news of this entire day took place when it was discovered that one of the three victims set to testify in this case may not appear now. This woman, who has not yet been identified, she's only known as Victim number three, was set to testify that Combs had coerced her into sexual acts, but prosecutors told the judge in wednesday's jury selection that they're having a hard time contacting the accuser, and they're having a hard time contacting her attorney now in the affid David for this case, as I mentioned, she's just not as Victim number three. Nobody knows who she is outside of the court now. The prosecution said, we don't know whether she intends to appear, and we are trying very hard to find out because we're having trouble communicating with her counsel.

10:18 They went on to say that Victim number three does not live locally in New York and may not show up even if they tried to enforce a subpoena and wanted to call her to the stand. And it's important to mention she's already subpoenaed, but there's a difference between being subpoenaed for court and the court actually trying to enforce that subpoena. They're saying they don't think even if they try to enforce it, she'll show up. Now, that is a huge victory for Sean Combs if this person ends up not testifying. Look, I'll be honest. It's also somewhat of a victory in the court of public opinion, because if you'd I don't show up for court. It makes it look like you're not willing to go under oath with what you're accusing someone of. Now, there's two sides to that. It could be she's just scared of retaliation from sewing combs, and likely that's the case, But then it starts to become it could go both ways type of thing. The optics just don't look good, and no matter what way you slice it, it's a major win for the defense if she ends up not testifying. Now, the prosecution did note that Victim number three's allegations were not immediately pertinent, and they said they weren't planning on hearing her testimony until the second part of the case, and they said her story is not going to be

11:49 included in the opening statements on May twelfth directly, but rather referred to amid a slew of allegations against Diddy. Now talk about Diddy's defense team quickly, which, in my opinion, rivals OJ Simpson's quote dream team defense in his trial. This team may even be better. They have over one hundred and fifty years of legal experience. They've defended everyone from alleged United Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Magi on to disgraced financi year, Martin Shirkelly and rapper young thug in his Rico trial. Now lead counsel for the defense is a guy by the name of Mark Agnafilio, and he brings with him a massive amount of experience. He defended in EXIVM leader Keith Ranier and if you don't know who that is, I'll tell you in a second Big Pharmer boss, Martin Shirkelly and Goldman Sachs Banker and G so 'anier. He was convicted for creating what prosecutors described as a sex colt in which female members were branded with his initials and kept in line through blackmail. He was sentenced to one hundred and twenty years in prison.

13:18 And I may do a podcast on his case. It's pretty wild now shir Kelly. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud and conspiracy. And he was a big pharma boss. And of course Roger and g was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in a money laundering and bribery scheme that included paying more than one point six billion in bribes to dozens of government officials. In this attorney he also has experienced working as a federal and state prosecutor, and he has tried more than two one hundred cases over his thirty year career. Those are tried cases, not things that were pleted out. He's also half of a legal power couple.

14:11 His wife's name is Karen Freeman Agnofilio, and she is a former prosecutor who investigated the Trump organization while with the Manhattan DIA's Office and since leaving government service, her most high profile client has been that twenty seven year old Luigi Maggione who is accused of gunning down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. And then you have Teeny Garrigos. Now she's the founding partner of a New York based law firm and she also assisted the lead counsel in defending Rainier and shir Kelly. She graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in twenty sixteen. And if you'll remember in the last up or it might have been the Prayer episode to that I mentioned her father, who is famed defense attorney Mark Gergos, Hunter Biden, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, all defended by Mark Gergos, And I told you he's not representing Combs directly and got into a bunch of trouble because they were seeking his advice a couple of days ago. Same guy, and incidentally, he also is involved in the Eric and Lyle Menendez case. And then we'll move on to Alexandra Shapiro. She brings over thirty years of appellate experience to the legal team, so

15:44 she specializes in appeals. She was actually the Deputy Chief of Appeals for the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, and she was an advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel for the US Department of Justice, so she knows how the other side were. She represented Sam Bankman Freed, who is the multi billionaire who got in a ship pile of trouble for a big scheme he was running regarding cryptocurrency. That was his attorney, Brian Steele, an Atlanta based attorney. He joined Comb's legal team last month after he gained national attention by getting Rapper Young Thug off the hook in his reco case that was the second longest trial in Georgia history. And I say off the hook, he wasn't completely out of trouble, but he worked out a plea deal in which young thug eventually played guilty to gun, drug, and gang charges, but he got a very short sentence.

16:50 I mean, he worked out a hell of a deal. And now he has joined Seawan Combe's team. Xavier Donaldson a New York based criminal defense attorney. He joined Combe's legal team on the eve of the trial. He has nearly thirty years of criminal defense experience and he was a former prosecutor. Anna A. Stevo is a partner at a New York law firm. She graduated from New York University School of Law and she briefly worked as a federal defender in California. Jason drescol is an associate at Shapiro's law firm and is one of the most junior members of Combe's defense team. He graduated from New York University School of Law and they say he's really good with research. Now. Linda Marino, she's a high profile legal consultant as well. She joined Combe's legal team specifically to help with jury selections. She's none as an expert with picking jurys. So there you have it. That is the dream team for Sean Diddy Comb's and we'll see how that all works. Out and Monday opening statement, folks, and shortly after those opening statements, look for another episode to drop.

18:12 I mean very shortly after, as in the next day. In all likelihood, can't wait to bring you that can't wait for these opening statements to start. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to follow wherever you're listening, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever it is. It's free to follow me on those listening apps, and those apps will alert you as soon as I drop episodes for this case, because they're going to be sporadic throughout the week, so look for that. Consider joining the Patreon commercial free early releases even of these The Trial of Diddy series episodes all included in your Patreon membership, commercial free and early and it starts for as little as two dollars and fifty cents a week, and you can really help support the show. It is how I'm able to do this quite frankly. Check it out, a ton of benefits, Patreon dot com, slash exposed podcast files and until next time, I'm Jim Chapman. I'll be with you soon with another the Trial of Sean Combe's update much Love the seat

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