NY Trial Attorney David Schwartz Talking About Diddy Trial ⁨@PIX11News⁩

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0:00 Live from Pix Plaza on 42nd Street, it's 0:04 the Pix 11 News at 4. 0:09 The Shaun Diddy Combmes federal sex 0:11 trafficking case could be in the hands 0:13 of a Manhattan jury by this time next 0:15 week. Prosecutors calling their final 0:17 witnesses before the defense gets its 0:20 turn. Prosecutors revealing graphic 0:23 photos from the raids at Diddy's LA 0:25 mansion showing a cash of weapons, 0:27 drugs, and baby oil. Jurors this week 0:30 also getting an explicit look at video 0:32 of Diddy's famous freakoffs and more 0:35 courtroom drama when the judge dismissed 0:37 juror number six, a black male stirring 0:40 controversy over diversity. When I 0:43 looked at him, I cannot tell which way 0:45 he is leaning. Even without this juror, 0:47 it still is diverse. David Schwartz 0:51 We have a lot of new evidence and 0:52 testimony to talk about as week six of 0:54 the Diddy trial wraps up. And we have an 0:57 expert panel to break it all down for 0:58 us, giving us the very latest from 1:00 court. Joining us now, New York trial 1:02
attorney David Schwarz and KTLA 1:04 entertainment reporter Jasmine Simpkins. 1:06 Thank you both for being with us today. 1:09 Thank you. David, let me start with you. 1:12 After a juror calling in sick and in the
1:14 Junth holiday, court resumed today. was 1:16 a half day of proceedings, but the week 1:18 really started with a big development 1:20 and that was when juror number six was 1:23 dismissed. Talk about that and and why 1:25 did that juror get dismissed? Well, it's 1:28 not that unusual that that a juror gets 1:30 dismissed, but if a juror is stirring up 1:33 trouble and and uh there's controversy 1:36 behind what the juror is doing, that 1:39 it's common. That's why we have 1:41 alternative alternate jurors in every 1:44 criminal case. And in a case that lasts 1:47 this long, it's not uncommon for a juror 1:50 to drop out. Yeah. And in this case, the 1:52
judge was concerned about where this 1:53 juror actually resides because be to be 1:56 on this case, you have to be a New York 1:58 State resident. Absolutely. Yeah. So, so 2:01 absolutely. You have to be a New York 2:03 State resident. So, if evidence was 2:06 brought forward to show that he was not 2:08 a New York State resident, that juror is 2:11 automatically disqualified. And the last 2:13 thing you would ever want is a juror 2:15 like that to be part of the jury that 2:18 that hands down a verdict in this case. 2:20 A big development this week. Also, the 2:22 jurors finally got to see some of those 2:24 infamous freakoff videos. There seemed 2:26 to be mixed reaction from the jurors. 2:28 One woman was noticeably uh upset. She 2:31
winced. Another she looked disturbed. 2:33 Another juror giggled. And yet another 2:35 remained emotionless. What can we gauge 2:38 from those reactions? Look, it it's 2:41 obviously relevant evidence that had to 2:43 come in. It's part of the predicate acts 2:45 which makes up the crimes that he's 2:47 being charged with. The question 2:48 becomes, as all the evidence in this 2:51 case, is are they able is is the 2:54
prosecution able to put it all together 2:56 to show this racketeering conspiracy 2:59 that he's being charged with. And I'm 3:01 not so sure where you have all these 3:03 individual separate acts. It shows this 3:06 organization, this criminal enterprise 3:09 that they're trying to get the jury to 3:12 to buy into. I'm not sure about that. 3:15 Certainly, they showed that he's guilty 3:16 of domestic violence and all types of uh 3:20
violence like that. He's not a good guy, 3:22 but did they prove the racketeering 3:25 portion of this case? I'm not sure. So, 3:27 the racketeering, the rec or so-called 3:29 RICO charges, you you're not certain 3:31 that they've proved that. What about 3:32 this the sex trafficking and and the 3:34 prostitution charges? How do you feel 3:36 about how the prosecution has done when 3:38 it comes to those two charges? I think 3:41 the one charge they made a strong case 3:43 on it's the prostitution charge and and 3:46 going and bringing a prostitute over 3:49 state lines uh in in a business 3:52 transaction. I think they have proven 3:54 that case and there is a 10-year maximum 3:57 sentence with that charge. The other two 3:59 charges I'm not so sure about. Okay, Kanye West 4:01 Jasmine, let me get to you. A week ago, 4:03 last Friday, Kanye West making quite the 4:06 splash, showing up in court. So, he 4:08 could not get into the pack courtroom 4:10 and and now he's rumored to try again. 4:12 What have you heard about Kanye showing 4:15 up again? So, just to clarify, all of 4:18 the the press, we're either in the 4:21 courtroom and if there'sn't room, then 4:22 you end up in an overflow room and 4:24 there's a couple of those overflow rooms 4:26 that press get to uh sit through. And 4:28 also when the courtroom where you know 4:32 Diddy is and the jurors and everyone
4:34 when those doors are closed the baiff 4:35 isn't allowing people to come in and out 4:37 actually out of that room. So it's not 4:38 unusual that they escorted him to one of 4:41 the overflow rooms and he actually ended 4:43 up in a private overflow room where he 4:45 could just watch by himself. He didn't 4:47 stay long. Um and I think he came to 4:50 show his support. He has been very vocal 4:51 on social media about his support of 4:54 Combmes despite all of the allegations. 4:56 And I wouldn't be surprised if he showed
4:58 up again in the next few weeks. He was 5:00 in New York City, him and his wife, for 5:02 a graduation. So, it worked out where he 5:04 was able to come, but I wouldn't be 5:05 surprised if he makes his way back
5:07 again. And we're hearing and if you know 5:09 Kanye, um, uh, he puts, you know, he 5:12 likes to support people and when he says 5:13 he's going to do something, he typically 5:15 does it. Okay. Now, David, the 5:17 prosecution is wrapping up its case. 5:18 They could rest as early as, uh, next 5:21 week. have they let's talk a little bit 5:23 more about uh you know where where 5:26 they're where they're at right now. 5:27 They're calling so-called summary 5:29 witnesses. Explain what are summary 5:31 witnesses. Well, summary just to clean 5:34 up the the the rest of their case. So, 5:37 they're going to be calling witnesses to 5:39 try to wrap up to try to clean up all 5:41 the different elements of of all the 5:43 charges. Uh we may see some more police 5:46 witnesses. I'm not I'm not sure exactly 5:48 who they're calling, but then the 5:50 question becomes, well, what's the 5:52 defense going to do in this case? Are 5:54 they going to put on any case at all? 5:55 Remember, the defense doesn't have to do 5:57 anything. And sometimes when you 6:00 minimize the defense's case, it it 6:03 really shows the the heavy burden that 6:06 the prosecution has, which is proving 6:08 their case beyond a reasonable doubt. 6:11 Each and every element of that case. All 6:13 right. So, next up will be the defense. 6:15 they get their turn. Jasmine, can we 6:17 expect any more celebrity witnesses 6:19 perhaps? 6:21 You know, I think celebrity names have 6:23 been peppered in. We've heard or at 6:24 least um you know, there's been some 6:27 mention of famous, you know, a famous 6:29 rapper here and there, but some names 6:31 have been dropped. But in terms of 6:32 witnesses, I'm not so sure. I think that 6:34 the def as as um we're hearing, you 6:37 know, the defense is really probably 6:38 going to have about a couple of days 6:40 that they're going to uh put some 6:42 witnesses on. But, you know, I I think 6:44 in the same fashion, I don't think that 6:46 they're going to be doing this for a lot 6:47 of days because they feel that it's the 6:49 prosecution has to, you know, prove 6:51 beyond a reasonable doubt that he's 6:53
guilty. And I feel like this week they 6:55 tried to land the plane. I'm not so sure 6:57 that they were able to do it. Um, but I 6:59 don't see the defense making a huge 7:01 splash next week with some big name. I 7:03 don't see that happening and I'm not 7:05 hearing that that's happening. And 7:06 David, let's look ahead at the defense's 7:08 strategy. Who might they call to the 7:10 stand to refute some of the most damning 7:12
testimony we've heard so far against 7:14 Diddy? Right. The key will be to show 7:18 the discrediting these witnesses, trying 7:22 to discredit the witnesses as much as 7:24 possible. So that's the type of 7:26 testimony that we're going to get. I 7:28 would I would say almost 100% that Shan 7:31 Combmes will not testify on his own 7:33 behalf, although he certainly has the 7:35 right to do that. But but we're going to
7:38 see witnesses that were there that will 7:40 discredit the testimony and also 7:43 discredit the the concept and the theory 7:46 of this RICO of this racketeering 7:48 conspiracy. You're going to have 7:50
witnesses testify. At least I'm 7:53 presuming that that these are all 7:56 separate individual acts. You know,
7:58 whether it was the drugs or the 8:00 prostitution, it's not part of a 8:02 criminal enterprise. This is not the 8:04 mafia that we're talking about. We're 8:06 talking about something that's not an 8:08 organized group and that although crimes 8:11 may have been committed, it's not being 8:13 committed uh pursuant to some sort of 8:16 racketeering. So, David, it sounds like 8:19 if Diddy was your client, you would in 8:21
no way put him up on the stand. And why 8:23 is that? What is the the damage and the 8:25 harm that he can do to his own case? 8:27 Absolutely not. I mean, just the the 8:30 amount of baggage that that the 8:32
cross-examination 8:34 would probably last 4 days of just 8:37 straight, you know, firing arrows at at 8:40 all the bad acts, although some of the 8:43 bad acts are probably are are precluded 8:46 from this trial, but just all the 8:48 domestic violence and and he he's not 8:51 going to have a good answer to any of 8:53 that. So, he needs to be kept off the 8:55 stand. the the the defense has to 8:58 challenge the the prosecution to meet 9:01 their burden approving each and every 9:03 element especially of the of this 9:04 racketeering conspiracy beyond a 9:07 reasonable doubt. I'm not sure that 9:09 they've tied up this package. So, if 9:11
they have the right jurors on this jury 9:13 that are going to look at this case 9:15 logically and challenged the prosecution 9:18 to their burden, that's easier said than 9:20 done, then they may have a shot at a 9:22
hung jury on some of these counts. And 9:24 Jasmine, today one of Diddy's sons, 9:26 Justin, was in court once again, as was 9:28 his mom and and also, I believe, his 9:30 godmother today. What can you glean from
9:32 the family members who have been 9:34 present? You know, the Sean has always 9:37 been very good about keeping his family 9:39 close. You know, uh that's that's the 9:41 kind of the duality of what we're seeing 9:43 with him. He was this family man, this 9:45 businessman, but he also had this dark 9:47 side. So, it's not shocking that his 9:48 sons particularly have been sticking it 9:50 out and coming to court even on Father's 9:53 Day. They all in unison posted messages, 9:55 the daughters as well as the sons. Um, 9:58 and they're showing a lot of support to 9:59 their father. His mother has been there 10:01 every day. He's even leaned over and 10:04 spoken to her uh a few times and been 10:06 able to communicate with her directly.
10:08 So, it's not shocking that he he's 10:10 always been very close to his children 10:12 and I feel like as the weeks go on and 10:14 the days go on in this trial, we will 10:16 see more and more of his family coming 10:18 out to support him. That we can count 10:20 on. All right, David Schwarz and Jasmine 10:22 Simpkins. Really great talking to you 10:23 both. We appreciate your perspective and 10:26 we thank you for joining us today.