(17 Sep 2024)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Los Angeles – 17 September 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers:
“Normally when there’s a raid, someone is indicted and arrested within a matter of days, certainly no more than weeks. This was a unique case because it took six months from the March raids in Diddy’s Los Angeles and Miami homes for him to be arrested. I think, and this is my speculation, but it’s strong speculation, is that prosecutors were concerned that the victims in this case would go sideways at trial for one of two reasons. First, Diddy is reportedly worth $1 billion. Many of these victims have sued him. He could try to pay them off through civil settlements to buy their silence. Second, Diddy could intimidate the victim witnesses. They may be scared to testify at trial. So I think the reason it took so long for this indictment to come down is that the US attorney’s office wanted to put these victims before the grand jury, have them testify under penalty of perjury, lock in their testimony, so something doesn’t happen at trial. I don’t think it took six months for the agents to review the electronic evidence that was seized from the homes. And this is a type of case that will certainly go to trial for a couple of reasons. There’s really no deal that the U.S. attorney’s office can offer, and it’s certainly not one that Diddy will accept. It would involve decades in federal prison. We’re talking about mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years for both the drug charges and the sex trafficking. So, we know that Diddy fought charges before, there were state charges that were gun related, the nightclub shooting with J-Lo, but it’s going to dig into seals and this case is going to trial. So if you’re prosecutors, you really want to make sure that your evidence is bulletproof before you go down that route. That’s why I think it took so long.”
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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers:
“The shock and awe of the freak offs was something that I think members of the public are going to take notice of. There’s cameras. There’s videos. There’s lighting. There’s lots of drugs. There’s even IV’s after the drugs. So you have these commercial sex workers who are flown in from out of state and they’re forced to participate in these sex acts. I think that was expected, some of the detail about the thousand bottles of baby oil. That was something that was surprising. But a lot of this was what we expected, because when Cassie first filed their lawsuit in November, she talked about being forced to participate in sex acts and Diddy videotaping her so a lot of that was consistent. But the level of detail in the indictment and then the force that was used upon these woman, these victims, to continue participating in these acts and afterwards to not cooperate with law enforcement. I think that was my biggest takeaway reading the indictment.”
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers:
++SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers:
++SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers:
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and President of West Coast Trial Lawyers:
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