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May 16, 2024 - The Megyn Kelly Show
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Civil Allegations and Legal Trouble 00:14:31
Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at Meast.
His homes, not no arrest of Diddy since then, but we are waiting to see whether there will be one.
And then yesterday, he shared a mysterious post online, a cryptic message on social media that reads as follows: Time tells truth.
His picture is captioned love and accompanied by various emojis, including a black heart.
So, what does that mean?
Time tells truth.
And what kind of trouble is he in?
Somebody who I have come to trust and listen to on a lot of legal cases, but especially this one, he's been following this very closely, is attorney and host of the Law and Crime Network's Sidebar, Jesse Weber.
Jesse, great to have you.
Megan, thanks so much for having me.
It's a pleasure to be on with you.
I've been a big fan for a long time.
I don't think we've been on together, so it's a pleasure of mine today.
Thank you very much.
No worries.
Thank you very much.
I do enjoy Sidebar.
It's a good quick update on the legal cases of our day.
And I find your questions and analysis always very sound.
In this case, there was like a two-week period where every day I went to law and crime and it was like diddy, So I do think you're you've become a bit of an expert in what's happening with him.
You know what's interesting about that?
You say that we were into this Diddy story before the rates.
And so we were following all of these lawsuits that were happening since early, late to 2023.
And I did literally a breakdown of one of the lawsuits.
No sound, literally me on camera going through the lawsuit.
I said, You think there's going to be any interest in this?
We put it.
I had like a million views in a week.
People were so fascinated with trying to understand what exactly is going on here, what's being alleged.
So there's a fascination here, and clearly, people want answers as to what's going on.
All right.
So I'm not going to say start at the beginning because we don't need to go back to birth.
But can you start at the beginning of his most recent legal troubles and set the scene for us?
And then we'll just go through how they began to escalate.
Right.
So everybody knows that Sean Combs has been in the entertainment industry for decades.
People have seen movies he's been in, music he's been a part of.
He's a juggernaut.
He's a juggernaut.
There's no other way to explain it.
He's a report-purported billionaire.
Now, we know that he got into legal trouble back in the day.
I mean, there was the infamous 1999 nightclub shooting that he and Jennifer Lopez were involved with.
Significantly, I should tell you, he was brought up on charges: gun possession, bribery.
He wasn't charged with attempted murder, but he was brought up on the...
Because a woman got shot in the face.
Yes, a woman got shot in the face.
She's actually recently come out and said she would have the bullet removed to further prove that he was the shooter.
He was acquitted of those charges.
He was infamously represented by Ben Braffman and Johnny Cochran back in the day.
And a little side note about that, by the way, Megan.
I think it's really interesting.
She says she would want the bullet removed because she feels that he wasn't charged properly.
If he was acquitted of gun possession charges, I'm not really sure how you could then try him for attempted murder or, you know, reckless endangerment.
If he was acquitted of having the gun, I don't know how you try him for shooting the gun, but that's a separate thing.
For shooting a stamp, stand by, because we actually have her on camera.
Let's take a listen to her.
Natania Rubin.
If I'm willing to have a doctor remove a part of the nine millimeter bullet in my face so that they can use it as evidence if need be for this trial.
You would be willing to do that now.
I'm willing to do it.
Oh my God.
So what do they have to say to that?
Oh boy.
Has she been claiming since the beginning that Diddy is the one who shot her in the face?
She testified at trial that that was what happened.
She said that she saw two muzzle flashes.
So one allegedly held by Sean Combs, the one of the guns being held by Combs, and then another by this individual named Shine.
Now, we know that Shine was actually convicted and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The reason we're having this conversation before we move on about we're talking so much about the 1999 nightclub shooting is it's referenced in one of the major lawsuits that Combs is facing.
And it's being brought to the forefront.
And there's this allegation that Combs confessed to one of the people that's suing him.
Yeah, I was really part of the shooting and I had Shine take the fall from me.
So that's why people are talking about it.
Now, she actually settled a civil lawsuit with Sean Combs.
I'm not exactly sure if she, by the way, not recommending she get the bullet removed, but even if she were to do that, what evidentiary value that would have?
Are they going to retry him?
They can't retry him on the charges he was acquitted of.
Are they going to bring attempted murder charges?
Is she going to be part of this new civil lawsuit?
She's not going to file another lawsuit against them because they settled.
So you put that to a side, not sure where that's going to go.
We know that over the years, there have been allegations of violence.
There's been East Coast, West Coast.
Sean Combs had actually pled guilty to a lesser charge regarding an assault of one of the people that he worked with.
But then you really fast forward to November 2023 because that's when everything happened.
We had a lawsuit filed by Diddy's ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, Cassie, and it's bombshell.
It alleges when I say sexual assault and abuse and sexual slavery and sex trafficking, it's not doing justice to what I read in that complaint.
What she accuses him of is basically against her will, forcing her into these sexual situations that I'm not going to repeat to you.
And it's a bombshell lawsuit.
She is suing him for everything.
And then she settles with him the day after.
Now, when I said to myself, I said, you know, that's not uncommon.
Sometimes that happens.
Do you really want to go through a litigation?
Do you want to go through a full case like that?
But the fact that it's settled the next day after such strong language in that lawsuit.
And when they settled the lawsuit, she didn't say this, you know, this clears Diddy.
He said this doesn't clear anything.
It was just we've decided to resolve this amicably.
As these raids have happened, I've always been of the opinion that she may be a key witness who is cooperating with law enforcement because of that.
Yeah, because for the record, you can sign a settlement agreement in a civil lawsuit or an employment matter for that matter.
And that doesn't preclude you from telling all to the feds.
Absolutely.
You can't.
It's against the law.
You can't sign some sort of settlement agreement or an NDA that says you can't cooperate with law enforcement in an ongoing investigation.
So that's what started it.
And the first, when we read the lawsuit and we saw the settlement, one of the reasons that celebrities would settle is because they don't want the floodgates to, well, actually, I should say one of the reasons they don't settle is they don't want the floodgates to come open.
Well, he settles.
And after that, we saw lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit against Sean Combs, sexual assault, rape, sex trafficking.
And one of the most bombshell lawsuits is filed by his former producer named Rodney Little Rod Jones, where he claims that he was sexually abused and harassed by Diddy, that he was forced into sex trafficking, forced to recruit sex workers.
He alleged violence, illegal gun possession, illegal narcotics possession.
In one of the lawsuits, it was alleged that Diddy blew up rapper Kid Cuddy's car.
So he's facing all of these lawsuits.
And then a few months ago, the raids happen.
And, you know, somebody who's been following the lawsuits religiously, I said, oh my gosh, this is it.
Like they've taken everything they've seen as true.
They're now going to arrest him for sex trafficking.
These people who are suing are cooperating witnesses.
But I wanted to caveat it because sometimes these raids can be just collecting information.
It's collecting evidence.
It's working to build a case.
So the fact that Diddy wasn't arrested and hasn't been arrested doesn't mean that he won't be, because sometimes these cases do take time and they take time to build.
And I believe that behind the scenes, there are a number of people who have been issued subpoenas and law enforcement and prosecutors are trying to corroborate the information they currently have.
So I think that's probably the best place to explain what's currently happening.
He's facing a number of lawsuits and we're waiting to see if he will face charges, but he's not been charged and his sons have not been charged, even though they have been also brought up in these allegations as well.
Describe what the possible sex trafficking claim would be based on.
So when we talk about sex trafficking, we're talking about harboring, recruiting, enticing individuals for commercial sex.
You are offering them something of value, whether it's job opportunities, whether it's gifts, whether it's money.
And you're doing this through fraud or coercion.
And a big theme that we're seeing from these lawsuits is that Sean Diddy Combs used threats of violence, used actual violence, used dangling opportunities in front of people to force them into sexual situations that they did not consent to.
And there's recurring themes that we're seeing here.
If people also were transported across state lines, that can be a big theme.
You know, Rodney Jones says that he was forced to do all of these illegal activities on behalf of Diddy while he was being transported across different states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
And so we see that potential sex trafficking charges could look like that.
And I should also tell you, Megan, that in the federal code, if you are talking about sex trafficking of minors or recruiting people for prostitution who are underage, that tacks on.
That's other additional charges.
And in one of the lawsuits, he's also been accused of operating a racketeering enterprise, which is a criminal enterprise.
Now, it's interesting I say that because I think it was just yesterday that in the Rodney Jones lawsuit, the company defendants, so it's not just Combs who's been sued, but his companies were sued or affiliated companies were sued.
They were dropped from the lawsuits.
And I think that says something about even though these allegations are quite compelling and quite incredible to listen to, they are allegations at this point and they're civil allegations.
So we have to always be careful that it might look like Diddy did something and he's accused of doing something, but right now he's innocent until proven guilty and he hasn't been found liable in a court of law.
Well, on that front, the best thing I've seen for Diddy so far since this all started breaking in November was this admonishment of the lawyer who represents both Rodney Little Rod Jones and I think represented Cassie.
He's now had his hand really slapped in some very explicit language by, was it the bar or was it a judge?
But they basically said, you need to stop with the salacious allegations.
You're clearly going for PR here.
And I've never seen anything like that in a case.
So tell us about that.
His name is Tyrone Blackburn, and he represents several of the plaintiffs that are suing Diddy.
He not only represents Rodney Jones, he represents Grace O'Markey, who is a woman that has accused and sued Christian Combs, Sean Combs' son, of sexual assault.
And it was a judge.
It was a federal judge in New York who actually issued a complaint to the grievance committee saying when you're looking at what Tyrone Blackburn is doing, a reasonable inference can be that he deliberately files cases in federal court in order to gain media attention, to pressure plaintiffs to settle, to embarrass them.
And I'm saying to myself, I haven't seen that.
And I haven't seen something like that in a long time.
And, you know, there was one thing that every one of the defendant attorney, defense attorneys who were representing Diddy and were representing his son have come out and said, obviously they say the allegations are fake, but the fact that they've spoken so out against Tyrone Blackburn is something that, again, I haven't seen.
They've basically been accusing him of malpractice.
And just yesterday, as I mentioned, one of the lawsuits, Tyrone Blackburn dropped the claims against a number of the companies.
And when he, I actually want to pull up the language because he basically said, I read everything that was in the opposing counsel's filings and I've decided that it's best to dismiss the cases, dismiss the claims.
I was like, okay, I mean, that's interesting.
That's an interesting thing to do.
I mean, you're basically saying, yeah, I agree with opposing counsel, probably shouldn't have done that.
And it's just, it kind of gives a little, I don't know Tyrone Blackburn.
I'm just reading what's happening here.
It just kind of gives a little bit of context to what we're talking about.
Well, and it's good to pump the brakes a little because there is, whenever there's a celebrity, an envy factor, a sort of F them factor.
They've got everything.
I don't feel sorry for them.
And yet they can be the victims of shakedowns.
I mean, we've seen that happen repeatedly.
So it is possible that there is a lawyer who sees the dollar signs in his eyes and knows, especially as you point out, because he settled the first lawsuit, that he's potentially a big cash register and just continues to make these allegations.
Like it's extraordinary that a judge would do this, would say about a lawyer, this guy's not ethical and he should be submitted for a bar review.
I've never seen that.
So that gives me a lot of pause.
I will say, having said that, the fact that Diddy settled the Cassie lawsuit within one day is not a good fact for Diddy.
Not at all.
Well, he could be embarrassed.
He's like, I don't want this going out.
I don't want to go through discovery, which is when in a litigation, you exchange materials.
He doesn't want to this amplified.
He doesn't want this broadcast for everybody to see.
SiriusXM Offer and Discovery Fears 00:03:01
And he was probably, it was interesting.
It's actually the reverse effect of the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial, which we covered on Long Crime and Sidebar, because at the time, I said, why would Johnny Depp decide to take this to court?
All of his personal details are going to come out.
And then during the course of the case, you realize why.
He wanted to clear his name.
He wanted everything to get out for people to get that concept of I'm innocent.
Diddy could be the complete opposite saying, I don't want any of these details revealed.
Now, one of the interesting things is we've been trying to see have people come to Diddy's defense.
There are some people who say this is made up.
Some people say I've never seen it.
But then you look at somebody like Cuba Gooding Jr., who is an actor that's named in one of these lawsuits.
And he said, this is a money grab, what Rodney Jones is accusing both Cuba Gooding Jr. of and Diddy of.
So the motivations are definitely always a key component in any case.
And as we see so many lawsuits coming out, and by the way, from a legal point of view, I just have to make this clear, Megan.
The reason we saw so many lawsuits happen towards the end of 2023 is because out in New York, there was a law, and it was called the New York Adult Survivors Act, and it gave victims of sexual assault a one-year look back window to file lawsuits against their abusers if their claims were otherwise time barred.
And that's how Michael Jean Carroll brought her case against Trump.
Right.
Now, in theory, great thing, right?
Sometimes we've learned over the years that people who are abused, they won't go to law enforcement immediately.
They won't tell their story immediately.
There's a number of reasons why people don't speak up.
So giving them an opportunity to seek some justice is great.
With that, of course, comes a question mark.
Are they just rushing these claims in right before the deadline for a cash grab for something else?
Or is there something legitimate here?
And that's something that's going to be explored always in a court of law.
All right.
We're going to continue to dive into the details here, including what about Usher?
What about Justin Bieber?
We've played some of that tape in the past.
What's being alleged with respect to them, if anything?
And how are these cases likely to wind up?
I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.
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Gardner Lawsuit Timeline Context 00:09:09
Jesse, let's get into the specifics of some of these many cases because I will say, as much as it's true that big celebrities are big targets, there's a pattern, certainly, from a number of different complainants who are all claiming he behaved similarly.
I want to state for the record, he's denied all of this vehemently and said this is ridiculous.
He calls these claims fabricated, bogus, a money grab.
He's denied and rejected the allegations of misconduct and pointed out that he's an easy target for accusers who will falsify the truth.
So in none of these is he giving one inch.
And this settlement, we don't know why he settled so quickly with Cassie.
That's up to the audience to decide for themselves.
But let's just start with her case because without getting into the most graphic details, it's disturbing.
Her 35-page federal complaint accuses him of sexual assault, battery, and sex trafficking and saying that he forced her to engage in forced sexual acts.
She says that he signed her to his record label when she was 19.
He was 37.
She claimed he was physically abusive throughout the relationship.
Quote, Mr. Combs asserted complete control over Ms. Ventura's personal and professional life, thereby ensuring her inability to escape his hold.
He demanded that she carry a firearm for him in her purse, she claims, forced her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers, according to her complaint.
She claimed his staff and bad boy entertainment employees were aware of the abuse.
Ultimately, she left her long-term abuser, according to her, in 18 after an alleged rape.
That's her.
Then comes Liza Gardner.
She filed a 22-page lawsuit against him and a man named Aaron Hall, Accusing them of forcing her to have sex with them against her will when she was only 16.
She says she was at an event in New York for the album release for somebody else.
And at a dinner for the event, Combs allegedly invited her and her friend to this Aaron Hall's apartment for an after-party.
She went, dumb move, and she alleges it was there that Combs coerced her into having sex with him while she was getting dressed.
That this man Hall allegedly barged into the room, pinned her down, and allegedly forced her to have sex with him.
I haven't seen Hall's response.
I assume it's a denial.
She says Combs came in after the day after the assault to her home and began assaulting and choking her to the point where she passed out.
He responds, this is fabricated, bogus, and a money grab.
So let's just start with those two.
What we're getting to here is he likes young girls.
He brings them back home.
He and associates may engage in forced sex, also known as rape.
And then they go back for more while the girl is either still incapacitated or incapacitated or in their custody and control to the point where they actually show up allegedly at the second girl's home the next day for more.
Now, these things happen where a woman willingly says yes to a celebrity like Sean Combs and then later says, maybe he wasn't so willing.
We don't know here.
But by my count, Jesse, there's at least five lawsuits now against him with very similar allegations and they get worse.
And we'll get to that.
So what do you make of the first two?
Look, I think that some of these allegations are things that I've heard of before in other lawsuits and in other cases.
And I say to myself, I can, you know, it seems to be symptomatic of something that's maybe a larger issue.
Then there are details in this that are so graphic that I say to myself, if Diddy's going to say this didn't happen, how does someone even make this stuff up?
And the more that you hear about the lawsuits is why I think it's really interesting because on the outside of the courtroom, you're hearing a lot of people talking about Diddy's personal life and the parties and what he's been a part of.
And we're getting kind of this glimpse into the lifestyle.
Now, these are allegations and these are civil allegations.
What I mean by that is, remember, this is not a court of law, this is not a criminal case.
They don't have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed a crime.
These are civil allegations.
The burden of proof is much lower, but it's very serious and very troubling with what we're hearing.
You know, it's interesting when I read the Cassandra Ventura lawsuit and I read these allegations, a part of me thought, Diddy's going to have to take this to trial to deny it.
It's so bad.
And when he settled, I remember that Ben Brafman, who was his attorney at the time, said, let's be very clear, just because we're settling doesn't mean we're admitting any of this.
And remember, Diddy's fighting this not only in the court of law, but the court of public opinion.
The Liza Gardner lawsuit, although old, right?
We're talking about something from many years ago, is incredibly troubling.
And if allowed to proceed, her testimony alone could result in finding that he's liable.
But he's facing very similar claims here of sexual assault, sex trafficking, sexual harassment, violations of the Trafficking Act.
And so it's troubling to see.
We don't know the merits of it.
I will tell you, I find it very interesting what's happening with the legal cases in the sense like the Liza Gardner one.
I remember when we talked before about you have to look at the legal filings to determine if there's something more here.
Well, in the Liza Gardner case, Diddy filed a motion.
Well, let me rephrase.
She wants to now move this case from New York to New Jersey.
Happens all the time.
We see it a lot of time in civil cases, but why?
Well, it turns out she's, well, you know, we got all this new information.
By the way, she's represented by Tyrone Blackburn, that controversial attorney that we mentioned, wants to move the case from New York to New Jersey because we just got all of this new information.
It kind of clarifies the timeline, clarifies a little bit of the context.
It seems that the rape didn't actually occur in New York.
It happened in New Jersey.
Again, I'm questioning.
That's a big fact.
Shouldn't have that been right from the very beginning.
And then I think to myself, the timing of it was interesting because Liza Gardner at the time was being pushed by the defense, by defendants in this case to answer one of their legal filings.
And she was running up against the extension.
They were saying she shouldn't be granted another extension to respond.
And from a legal point of view, I wonder, hey, we're going to file this motion to switch the case to another jurisdiction.
It buys us a little bit more time to respond.
We're going to say we're going to have all these new allegations.
It was just something I thought of, particularly since she's being represented by Tyrone Blackburn and there were questions in his past.
So I think some of the legal filings, and if you want to get into it too, Megan, I mean, one of the other lawsuits that she's facing, that Diddy's facing, I did a whole sidebar on it.
I think Diddy's legal response to that was so sound that almost all the claims are going to be thrown out.
So again, there's something to be said about what's being accused and what's being alleged and what can actually make its way to trial.
When she moved to have the venue switched to New Jersey, how recently was that?
Oh, I think it was only a couple of weeks ago.
Was it post the Harvey Weinstein reversal?
I mean, because, you know, that was an important ruling saying you can't in New York State, you can no longer bring in every woman the defendants ever, you know, had an interlude with.
The things got harder for women post that decision.
Well, let's be clear about that.
So a couple of things.
One, it might have happened after.
I don't want to be held to that, but it might have happened after.
The Harvey Weinstein situation, and you might not know this, Megan.
I was in that courtroom for every day of that trial.
I was covering it.
And I thought the allegations and the testimony were so compelling.
But having said it from a legal point of view, I wasn't surprised it got reversed.
I wasn't surprised it got thrown out.
I thought the judge in that case was so anti-defense.
I remember being in that courtroom.
It was freezing.
The defense counsel said to the judge, you mind closing the window.
He wouldn't do it.
And that's just a small little symptom of it.
But the idea that you had a number of those witnesses who testified about conduct that really wasn't quite the exact same conduct, what he was actually being charged with.
And that if he wanted to take the stand, he would be questioned about things that were entirely irrelevant, whether he blew up at a board meeting, whether he threw things.
The fact that he'd be questioned about anything affected his ability to take the stand.
So I wasn't surprised that that conviction was overturned.
I don't know if there's a connection between what happened there and what happened here, but it is an interesting thing to think about.
Always, my teams tell me she filed paperwork on May 4th.
And I believe, wait, I think that, what date was the Harvey?
Now I want to see.
Now I want to see.
End of April.
The Harvey decision came down end of April and she filed May 4th.
So that could be another, I don't know what the New Jersey law is on letting in the parade of prior bad acts, which is generally barred by law.
You have to look into it.
But anyway, just a question I had.
Okay, so let's talk about two more because we're also, we're just trying to give the jury, the jury, the audience a feel for what he's facing here.
So it's the court of public opinion, too.
So yeah, that's a joke.
That's right.
So is it Joy Dickerson?
Joy is J-O-R.
Yep, Joy Dickerson, Neil.
Okay.
Joy Dickerson-Neal.
Doe Accusations and Public Opinion 00:15:20
She's filed a lawsuit, 22 pages, and she alleges she met Sean Combs after she had appeared in a music video with him while she was a student at my alma mater, Syracuse University.
She claims she later agreed to go out to dinner with him on January 3rd, 1991, while on a school break.
She and I were probably at school at the same time.
I graduated at Syracuse in 92.
During their date, Dickerson alleged that Colms intentionally drugged her.
This is another theme we see through the complaints that there was intentional and surreptitious drugging by Sean Combs.
She accused him of sexually assaulting her and then video recording the sexual assault.
That's another theme that we see through the allegations unproven.
Days later, a male friend allegedly revealed to her that he, along with other men, had viewed the sex tape, quote unquote, sex tape.
She asked her friend who had seen it and the friend told her everyone, she alleges.
She claims from that point, her life went into a tailspin and things went down.
From there, she's alleging assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking, and revenge porn.
He's denied it and rejected the claims of misconduct and said he's an easy target for accusers who will falsify the truth without conscience or consequence for their own financial benefit.
Then there's Jane Doe, who's 17.
And she's alleging she was gang raped and sex trafficked by Sean Combs and the former president of Bad Boy Records, Harvey Pierre, when she was just 17 and in the 11th grade.
She claims that she met Pierre in a lounge in Detroit and he told her he was best friends with Combs.
Doe claims Combs convinced her to accompany Pierre and a third assailant on a private jet to come to his studio in New York City.
I must say for the record, these are all terrible decisions by these young women, just terrible.
There is a reason why you don't say yes to this when being asked to go on a private plane or to a private hotel room or a recording studio owned and controlled by said man when you're a young woman and you're alone.
There is a reason why you don't do that.
Not blaming the victim.
I'm saying we need to take some responsibility for putting ourselves in dangerous situations.
And honestly, trust no one.
Just trust no one.
Use the buddy system.
Go with somebody else.
Don't drink and make sure that you're above age before you agree to any of this stuff.
She claims she agreed and boarded a jet that flew to Teterboro, New Jersey and was taken to Combs' studio.
She alleges that once there, Combs and his associates, including this guy, Pierre, plied her full of drugs and alcohol and alleges she was subsequently gang raped at the studio by Combs, Pierre, and this third assailant.
Her complaint states that while Combs was raping Ms. Doe, the 17-year-old, he complained that he could not achieve climax unless she pinched his nipples as hard as she could, and that Combs then allegedly watched as the third assailant raped her while she told him to stop.
Quote, after third assailant was finished, Mr. Pierre took his turn at raping Ms. Doe and then violently forced her to give him oral sex during which Ms. Doe was choking and struggling to breathe.
Once again, extreme detail.
Is this another one by our friend Tyrone?
Yeah, so let me just say this from the outset about this.
These are harrowing accounts and there's a level of specificity in these accounts that I think we have to note as well.
And I mentioned that you see lawsuit after lawsuit, A, because the clock was about to run up on that New York law that allowed people to file old claims.
But I also want it to be clear that sometimes people may feel more comfortable coming forward with allegations against somebody like a Harvey Weinstein or a Diddy, even though Diddy has not been charged, not been found liable, because they see other people coming forward.
So I want to make that clear.
Yes.
And here's something to note too about the weakness of these legal cases.
And when I say that, let me be clear.
The Joy Dickerson-Neal case, I did a whole sidebar on this.
Diddy filed a response and said almost 80%, 90% of the claims in that case should be thrown out.
Why?
Because the statutes that she is suing Diddy under weren't even the law when this assault took place.
So yes, you can bring a lawsuit against somebody through the New York Adult Survivors Act, sure.
But what you can't do is sue somebody for saying they did something illegal that wasn't illegal at the time.
And they're all the companies that she's suing as well.
They weren't even in existence at the time this alleged assault happened.
And there's more arguments that they make too, that he's not an employee of the company.
Bottom line is I think there's a strong argument that a lot of those claims could be thrown out with the 17-year-old.
This is the Syracuse University alumni.
You're correct, the Joy Dickerson Neal one.
And then the 17-year-old, Diddy made a legal argument that those claims are time barred under the statute.
They can't be revived.
And I read through the filings, an attorney.
I think there's a lot of ground there.
There's a lot of water to those arguments.
And so, again, it becomes a question of why were they filed?
Was there a rush to file them?
That was something that made me think too.
For example, we don't know when these women came forward with their accounts and spoke to legal counsel and had a lawsuit.
Was there a rush to get the lawsuits filed before the deadline closed?
Was there an ample time to do due diligence about this?
Something I've suspected because these seem to be some legal issues that could have been flagged at the very beginning.
We don't know.
But having said it doesn't take away from the very chilling and harrowing accounts from these accusers.
Yeah.
In that last case, the Jane Doe, who said she was 17 when this terrible thing happened to her, and the defendants state that she cannot allege what day or time of year the alleged incident occurred, yet purports to miraculously recall the most prurient details with specificity.
And then they do argue that it's time barred and just brought you late so that she's out of time on it.
Okay, so that brings us to Rodney Jones.
I did read this one myself, this complaint, and it was a stunner.
It was absolutely horrifying, although also confusing.
If I remember correctly, Jesse, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it this complaint that alleged that Combs like suddenly touched in some way this guy's anus?
Like it was a surprise.
I'm sorry to get graphic, but I remember reading like, how does that happen?
Just out of the blue.
And the whole complaint reads like this.
He says he was a videographer for Combs and a producer, and he's got a lot of this stuff on tape.
But give us a feel for the Rodney Jones lawsuit also being handled by Tyrone.
Okay.
So he is alleging a number of things.
He is saying that, yes, he was sexually harassed and assaulted by Combs, that he was groped, fondled, that he was forced to watch Diddy naked taking showers, that he was forced to recruit sex workers to perform sex acts with them for the pleasure of Diddy, that he was drugged at one point, found himself in bed with sex workers.
So you already see flavors of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
He also says he witnessed acts of violence.
He said that he was involved, sorry, Diddy involved in a shooting at a recording studio, that Diddy admitted to his involvement, as we mentioned before, the 1999 nightclub shooting, that he's seen drug abuse, that he's seen illegal weapons possession.
He is alleging everything.
And big theme from that too, is he is alleging that Diddy groomed him for homosexual sex.
The reason I bring that up, Megan, is because there's been a lot of rumors and speculation about Diddy because of things like that.
And one of the things that he says is Diddy showed him a video of a prominent person in the music industry having homosexual sex.
He mentioned how he was a victim of Cuba Gooding Jr., that Cuba Gooding Jr. one night was on a yacht and Diddy left them alone and Cuba Gooding Jr. fondled him and made him uncomfortable.
And then he's now suing Cuba Gooding Jr. for that.
And yes, Rodney Jones, it's a big lawsuit, but not only has Diddy's counsel come out and completely denied it, but several of the high profile people who are named in that lawsuit, not as defendants, by the way, but just named.
They're accused of being these sex workers that they were paid by Diddy to perform sex acts.
They said this is complete lies.
These are well-known artists like Young Miami.
And so the fact that you have people who are not even named as defendants, but just mentioned in the lawsuit saying this is not true, again, kind of gives you a little bit of pause to think about what's going on.
And Cuba Gooding Jr. came out.
I thought this was fascinating because Cuba Gooding Jr. has been quiet since all this happened.
And he sits down for a podcast interview with Patrick Bett David.
We have this actually.
Let me play it and then you take it on the back end.
Take this out 21.
What do you think is going on with all the stuff with Diddy, with Little Rod, with all the stories that everybody's hearing about?
You mean, in terms of what?
I mean, you know, being raiding his, you know, his house being raided.
I mean, that's crazy.
That's the craziest thing I'd ever.
And then, hey, how about me?
I wake up in the morning, I turn it to show, Hector, Cuba Gooding Jr.
I was like, excuse me, pull me in.
I can't imagine that he's stupid enough to do whatever he's doing and keep it on his premises.
I think that the raid and all of that stuff, only time will tell who was involved, who had been a frequent guest in these places and areas.
It's funny because my lawyers said, you know, every outlet in the world wants to talk to you.
And again, I'm like, I'm not defining myself from some headline in the press.
So I stayed quiet.
Go ahead, Jesse.
I think we tried to get him on sidebar, by the way.
So we're one of those outlets.
But, but no, look, I thought that was really interesting because he's not outright denying everything about Diddy.
He's not saying the guy's completely innocent.
But what was really interesting in the interview, he says, I really don't know Diddy.
He's an acquaintance, met him two or three times.
You know, I can't speak anything more about that.
In regards to me, and this was fascinating in that interview, he goes, that night, I was jumping from yacht to yacht.
It was New Year's Eve.
I ended up on Diddy's yacht.
This guy's listening to music.
We're listening to it.
And there's a picture, by the way, in that lawsuit with Cuba Gooding Jr. next to Little Rod Jones.
He's got his arm around him, looking very close next to him.
And he goes, you know, that photo that Jones put in his lawsuit, let me show you something else.
And he shows Patrick Beth David another photo.
We don't see what it is, but it's apparently a live photo.
He goes, look, this is a different angle.
He goes, so they decided to put this one photo in to make it look like something.
There's another side of the story, said that this is a money grab.
So he was defense.
He came out on the defensive against what he's accused of, but not so much against all the allegations for Diddy.
And he definitely tried to distance himself away from him.
I'll bet.
This, this guy, Little Rod, he's also alleging that Diddy would lace liquor bottles that he had in his house, specific bottles of alcohol designed for females, would lace them with ecstasy.
And that ties in, I mean, potentially with some of these early accusations earlier that the women had been drugged.
Again, all of which are denied.
And Megan, let me just jump in.
I think if you take his allegations as true, he is a star witness for the prosecution in this back to the raids.
Oh, yeah.
I have to imagine they are speaking to him because he was the one who said Diddy's got videotapes, cameras in all of his houses that records a lot of this illicit activity.
That we've wondered was one of the things that they obtained from the raids on his LA and Miami homes, videotapes, camera systems, based on what Little Rod said.
I have to imagine he has at least spoken with the government or might be a cooperating witness.
I know.
Although it's been a while since the raid, do you think he's going to be arrested?
There's a strong chance.
I say that not only as a lawyer, not as somebody who's only covered the cases, not only seeing comparisons to other cases, but I've spoken to former federal prosecutors, spoke to the former federal prosecutor, put R. Kelly away and said it is a matter of time.
In the sense that, look, there could be absolutely nothing.
Let me make that correct clue, absolutely nothing, right?
They could look at this and say these allegations were just allegations.
We have nothing to corroborate it.
There's nothing here.
But could there be, and one of the things they're looking at, illegal firearms possessions, was Diddy's fingerprints on any of those weapons?
Are there videos of him?
Was there illegal substances found?
Do the videos show or anything from that house show sex trafficking or sex crimes of any sort?
We just don't know.
But having said that, what I keep being told is the feds don't come in like that.
And with the level of force, yes, they're dealing with massive properties.
They don't know who's in there.
There's been allegations of firearms and violence.
They didn't know what they were going into.
But the feds don't go in and do this unless they have something and they're going to find something.
So we don't know.
We shall see.
But it's definitely possible that Diddy and perhaps his sons or associates could ultimately be charged.
We just don't know, but it's possible.
There's at least one lawsuit against one of the sons with disturbing allegations.
But can I last, before I let you go, Bieber and Usher were both two up and coming stars who were taken under the wing by Diddy.
There's some weird tape of both of them talking about some experiences with Diddy.
Usher was like, it was crazy.
It was, you know, bizarre land inside of Diddy's home.
And Bieber was like 15 years old with Diddy.
We've got the Bieber.
Let's watch that.
That's SOT 22.
Justin, he's in, you ever seen the movie 48 Hours?
Right now, he's having 48 hours with Diddy, him and his boy.
They're having the times of their lives, like, like, like, you know, where are we hanging out and what are we doing?
We can't really disclose.
But it's definitely a 15-year-old's dream.
You know, I have been given custody of him.
You know, he signed to Usher.
I'm signed to Usher.
I had legal guardianship of Usher when, you know, he did his first album.
I did Usher's first album.
I don't really, I don't have legal guardianship of him, but for the next 48 hours, he's with me.
So we're going to go full, buck full crazy.
I'm going crazy.
Oh, God.
And when he had Usher, Usher was only 13.
So what are we to make of those two people and their relationship to Diddy?
Look, if you look at that video without knowing anything else, you'd say not make much of it.
Maybe a weird video, a little strange.
But we look at it with a different lens because of everything, all of these allegations.
And Usher is indirectly named in this lawsuit as somebody that Combs admitted to little Rod Jones that he was had a relationship with.
And when we talk about these allegations of grooming, homosexual sex, obviously we're looking at videos and going through past videos of Diddy with a different eye.
Will this video be relevant?
Will it be relevant in an actual criminal case against Diddy?
Grooming Claims and Video Evidence 00:01:25
Probably not.
Will Justin Bieber be questioned by the feds about his relationship or contact with Diddy?
It's hard to say, and probably not.
But it's just we look at things like that.
When anybody is accused of something or anybody is charged with something, we go back, we look at the past, we look at the videos, and we try to see if we can find clues of something that was going on.
But we don't know what that was really about.
I don't know.
It's just tough.
He is a huge star with a very deep pocket, but this is a lot.
This is a lot of smoke if there's no fire, a ton of smoke.
I can state affirmatively that Jesse and I are not going to have six people come forward and allege that we drugged people and that we had gang rapes and that it's all on tape and that we, you know, like there's just, there's a pattern that I find very disturbing.
And I don't think this is going to end well for Diddy.
I think he's got some defenses to some of these, but I think you're right.
He's probably going to be in custody within the next four months, but we'll see.
I've been wrong before.
Could be wrong on this one too.
Jesse, thank you.
Thank you so much.
My pleasure.
Thanks so much for having me.
All right, check them out on Lawn Crime Sidebar.
And thanks to all of you, I want to tell you that tomorrow we have my pal Dan Bongino back with us again.
Looking forward to that.
We'll see all of you then.
Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.
No BS, no agenda, and no
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