I Spent 8 Hours In A Courtroom w/ Diddy & This Is Everything He Did
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Tuesday, May 6th. I walk into this room in New York City. I'm already nervous. My plane was delayed. I was supposed to be here yesterday. The room itself is so daunting. It's

It's huge. It feels like it could fit 100 people, 200 people. I have no spatial awareness. It feels like a cathedral church without the peaked ceilings. The ceilings are tall. They're made out of wood. And everything about it feels like you cannot talk above a whisper.

That's the energy of this room. So right when you walk in through the double doors, you've already walked through this like carpeted hallway where you can hang your coat. Double doors open up. There's two retired law enforcement officers next to you. They're wearing bulletproof vests. They're retired? Yes. And now this is their job. So all of them are retired law enforcement.

So you walk in and the first thing you notice are church pews, just rows and rows of church pews. You got the left side and the right side. And then above that, and I'm just trying to paint the picture. There are 10 massive chandeliers, huge lights, but chandeliers makes it sound very fancy. And there's crystals hanging off of it. They look like the ceiling boob lights everybody hates, but they're huge. I don't even think I could hold it with my arms all the way stretched out.

And there's 10 of them. So to give you scale of this room, it's grand. Interestingly enough, magnifying these ugly ceiling boob lights tenfold actually does make them look prettier. So there's 10 of them lined up in rows of two right above the church pew. So five on the right side, five on the left side. And

And then you have this like wooden little barricade, like a little wooden fence. I mean, you could easily jump over it. There's a little door, but beyond that, there's more rows and rows of seating, but they have computers and they have better chairs with cushions. And at the very front of the room, you have this podium and this rope painting. It's a massive artwork that takes up the whole wall and it's made out of rope that's been tied together and it's different colors. And it's probably...

two of me standing tall and you walk in and it is incredibly awkward. The church pews are just rock solid wood. You know, it's good wood, but every time you inch your butt, you feel like the whole pew is vibrating. You can feel other people moving and by hour four, everybody's inching their butts because it's so sore from the solid wood pew. And it's awkward because almost everyone just sits uncomfortably on one side.

Now this is going to probably change on Monday, but during jury selection, we're all seated pretty much on the right side.

So the left is empty? The left side has a few people but barely any. So we're all gathered on the right side and we're not even condensed to like, "Oh single file, let's fill out the first few rows." We're all scattered around the right side. So at the very front row, you have the court sketch artist. And they're going to be looking at Diddy diagonally. So he's sitting right in front of the left side row of the pews.

And so we get like a diagonal from behind view of Diddy. I see. So the court sketch artists are at the front. There's about two to three and they have, I didn't know it was this big because when I look online, it looks like a little thumbnail. I thought they bring in a little notepad. It's like two feet. It's not canvas. It's like a paper.

And they have chalk. They have pastels. They have the surgeon binoculars that they put on their head to stare into Diddy's soul. Yeah, I guess. They're trying to get all the details of every defense attorney, the judge, the prosecutors of Diddy. And then behind them, you have a few empty rows and then like a few scattered people. These appear to be people associated with Diddy's legal team.

Or supporters of Diddy, a.k.a. his friend was there. So his family aren't there yet. They're going to show up for opening statements, but they're not here for jury selection. One friend is there. He was sitting two rows in front of us. And then you have the in-house. Was he the one wearing the free Diddy shirt? He was pleasant. He didn't really talk to anybody, but yeah, he was sitting there. And then behind him, you have the court reporters. And then behind that row,

You've got us, members of the press. That's where I was sitting. And when you get there, you sit down and the place feels like 90% of church, 10% the back rooms. It feels intentionally uncomfortable. And you're just sitting on this rock solid pew. And the one saving grace of this entire place is...

there's massive windows that are covered in sheer curtains so you can't really see out but if you do take a peek it's the most beautiful view of new york city and the hudson river but nobody is looking outside we're staring at this one door near the front of the courtroom because that is where sean diddy combs is gonna walk out of

The man on trial for racketeering two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. It's interesting because when he walks in, his presence is kind of like a shrug. My researchers and I were staying up all night. We're trying to find analogies because there's no cameras allowed. And I want you guys to get not even just like the visual because clearly you guys know what Diddy looks like. But the feeling that I personally got, it's like a shrug.

When someone walks into a party, there's a few ways that people react. I feel like the first way is, oh my God, who is that? Who is that person? And people start asking and you're like, oh, that's that person. And then you have times where people walk in, you look at your friends and you just go, you just shrug. Like, I don't know who that person is. Do you know who that person is? I don't know why they just walked in here.

What? It's just very unassuming. There's no strong presence. He just walks in. So it wasn't as intense as you thought it was going to be. Yeah, there was nothing. Less presence. Way less presence. Because you hear all these reports about how he does have this very magnifying, electrifying star power. None of that.

But there is a lot of tension. And it's interesting because this room is massive, but all of the tension, all of the energy is just lopsided to the front of the courtroom because that is where the judge, the prosecutors, the defendant, Sean Diddy Combs, the defense team, they're all there. And at some point during the many hours that you sit there, it kind of starts feeling like a one-way window or a one-way mirror. I overheard some people say it feels kind of like we're watching a movie or we're watching fish in an aquarium.

there's no interaction between the two sides of the room. There's no conversation, obviously. There's nothing. It just feels like we're watching something that maybe we're not even supposed to be watching. Like we're silent flies on the walls and we have to be silent and we can't comment and no one's talking and we don't exist to them. That's interesting. It's a very, it feels like an individualistic

Invisible force field in the middle of the room. Just boom. There's the force field Yeah, because you know like when you're even in public you don't want to stare at people No, but all of us are just staring down. I wonder if that's why it feels so intriguing because you're not supposed to staring at someone Yeah, like analyzing everything they're doing and you know, it's crazy I did catch myself staring so intently because i'm jotting down notes And i'm watching because I want to make sure that I get all my notes accurately, right? So i'm staring up like this

And then I made eye contact with someone who works at the court. It is very weird. I did feel like I'm breaking social norms. Yeah. And it feels very uncomfortable. It feels like a force field. And then all of a sudden, it breaks. Because Diddy will turn around or tilt his head and he will stare back.

And this is a man and my researchers warned me because their flight did not get delayed. So they came on Monday and they said, it's not like he's looking at one person specifically. I mean, I'm sure he's looking at his friend. I'm sure he's looking at the people that he works with. But it's not like he's looking at the members of the press. Like he doesn't really care about the members of the press like that. He's not like, hey, that one person, I'm going to stare at you. But he will look at all of the members of the press. Like one by one. Yes, it feels like one by one. Now, it's not like he can spend a lot of time looking.

It feels like he's doing maybe a few faces and then he'll wait, turn around, do another few faces. Yeah, but there are, I would say I could count many times I felt I made eye contact with Diddy. And I'm not saying this as like he wants to look at me or he was specifically looking at me, right? But it's just he's trying to see who's in the courtroom.

and the way he makes eye contact, I think that was more jolting. His presence was a shrug but his eye contact is very intense. He reminds me of someone who just does not break eye contact. It feels like he's staring into your soul. There was one point where I thought I was going crazy and I looked at my researcher who's sitting behind me and she was like, "She's mouthing. What?"

There was once where he's looking in maybe me, the person next to me or the person to my right. And he just wouldn't look away to the point where I felt like all of us started looking away first.

Wow. You know, we were talking to other people and there were a lot of people that felt similarly. It feels very challenging when he looks at people. It doesn't feel like zoning out. It doesn't feel like, huh, I wonder why these people are here. It feels challenging. That's the best word. Is he doing this on purpose here or is this how he always... I personally, I don't know him. I personally feel like this is how he is.

I don't think that he's like cares about the members of the press that much. This is just how he always looks at someone. He holds his eye contact and he doesn't break it. No, it feels like he sizes up everyone. And it's not even like we're important or anything to him, but it just is very interesting. So this is week one of jury selection for the Diddy trial. Diddy trial.

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As always, full show notes are available at rottenmangopodcast.com. A few disclaimers before we get started. Regarding content warnings, there are themes of essay and DV. Secondly, certain portions and quotes have been shortened and condensed and or combined for brevity. Now third, this is a very thick disclaimer, but Sean Combs is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Everything reported on in this episode and throughout the trial is public information. Any descriptions or

observations regarding the defendant are personally noted by myself or my two researchers who were present in the courtroom. Seeing these things happen in real time with our own eyes

that's what we're telling you, but just because we feel something and see something does not mean that our experience and statements are valid reflections of the truth. Our interpretations of random things that we saw in the courtroom are our own opinions shared for the purpose of reporting on current events because they don't allow cameras. None of this should be used as a definitive source for how someone feels about Diddy and especially not for deciding if you think he's innocent or guilty as the trial is ongoing. So with that being said, let's jump into a super brief recap.

We did four deep dives into Diddy's case in 2024 after his arrest. Part one, we cover the FBI raids of his mansions, the leaked hotel security footage of Diddy allegedly physically assaulting Cassie, his girlfriend at the time, and multiple accusations from victims allegedly harmed at Diddy's infamous so-called freak-off parties.

In part two, we cover Diddy's history and lore, including allegations against Diddy's son, their yacht parties, the untimely death of Diddy's ex-partner and mother to his children, Kim Porter. Part three was an interesting one. It covers a lot of different connections that people have made between Diddy and 13 people who have mysteriously passed away, including Biggie, Tupac, and the 1999 City College incident that killed several people in a crowd crush at an event promoted by Diddy himself.

Then part four, we went over the rumored Diddy's list, which includes all the internet allegations about celebrity friends who internet users believe may be connected to Diddy's infamous freak off parties. And now starting Monday, May 12th, we're going to be doing daily episodes, daily updates on Diddy's trial. There are no cameras, no live streaming allowed in federal courtrooms. There's no way to really get that type of information. We can't even bring our phones or laptops in. Everything is even just hand notes. It's

It's very serious. He is facing one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation across state lines for the purpose of sex work. Diddy has rejected a plea deal and he is facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if found guilty on all charges. So this week, this past week was jury selection. Opening statements are projected to start Monday. And in some sense, it kind of is Diddy fighting for his life.

There will be multiple in-person witness testimonies including Cassie, Diddy's ex-girlfriend from the hotel video and we will be giving you guys daily updates on all of that as well. So with that being said, let's get started.

I think the only thing that matters in a courtroom, and I was doing so much research about this before we went into jury selection, not we, but you know, is that the 12 people that are on the jury, this is the only thing that really matters, is that they like the defendant more than they like the prosecutors or vice versa. That's what the government, that's what the defense are trying to do. Does this person like us maybe a little bit more than they like the other person?

Obviously, that's very simplified. But is it? Some jury experts believe trials can be won or lost in jury selection. The first week, the first few days. I was watching a ton of videos, reading articles written by attorneys, and I find it fascinating that most of them say jury selection is not about selecting a juror. It's about deselecting jurors.

One jury expert puts it a little more blunt. You're trying to get rid of the jurors who are going to ruin your case and will not be receptive to your arguments. Don't focus on jurors you want. Focus on jurors you don't want. But in that same regard, you have to ask yourself, if I try to get this person out of the jury, am I going to have a less desirable potential juror replace them?

Other attorneys candidly write on Reddit, pick your leaders and pick your sheep. That's the rule that I live by. You need four people who you think you can really speak to and they got to be leaders and they're going to listen to you. And then later when they deliberate, they're going to lead the followers to the answer that you want. Wasn't one of the latest addition to Diddy's team a... Yes, a jury consultant. So her whole job is this? Yes. Okay.

That's all she's doing. And she does that for many trials. Now, others say pick your leaders. Yeah, that's true. But also pick them wisely. You want strong thinkers, strong leaders that are great at advocating and leading conversations that also like you. But you don't want strong willed jurors.

According to one attorney, strong will domineering jurors are the most dangerous because they try to drag the others with them. Letting one of these into your jury can ruin the entire jury. Pay attention to the degree of certainty and confidence in which they respond to questions. If in any way, it's not even about the question being asked because a lot of the questions being asked during jury selection are very repetitive. Are you going to be able to not be biased?

Yes, you saw the hotel video, but are you going to be able to put that aside and not be biased? The questions themselves don't say a lot, but attorneys say it's the way the jurors answer the questions. If in any way they exhibit a tendency to challenge the question,

Strike him. Get him out. One jury consultant says, trials aren't completely won in loss injury selection, but all lawyers acknowledge it's a big part of winning. Pick the perfect jury and your job gets so much easier. Make some mistakes in jury selection and you're essentially down 10 points with a minute to go because how jurors' brains work matter more than how you present the case. I believe that is the most important phase of the trial. To which one famous jury consultant says, jurors are not empty cups.

They're not little empty cups where lawyers get to pour their information in from both sides and see which one they like. Jurors serve as filters. The way they process the information distorts some of the evidence before arriving to their decision.

Basically saying, it doesn't really matter how good your case is. If someone has such a strong fundamental bias against your case that you did not catch during jury selection, you might as well quit and move to Florida and change your government name because you're not going to be able to convince them. That's how these attorneys describe it. Surveys done on jurors, a lot of them, they actually start forming opinions on everyone in that courtroom. I mean, obviously not everyone.

people in the pews, everyone in the courtroom before the trial even starts. They're typically looking at a lot of the times the prosecutors and the defense attorneys and obviously the defendant. They're typically looking for competent, energetic, organized attorneys who seem appreciative, patient, sympathetic, good listeners. They're looking for a pleasant presence.

not the shrug presence that Diddy brought, but I don't think they care for that for him. Progressively as the days go on, Diddy does seem to get a lot more confident. The first day that he walks in, he's wearing a white collared shirt, dark navy sweater on top. It's your very typical court defendant outfit. His hair is grayish white.

And the way that my researcher describes it the very first day, because his demeanor does change a little bit the second day, she says, she says, this is not Puff Daddy. This is a man named Sean Combs. This is a 55 year old man with probably a bad left knee, which I would say is very accurate. There were multiple times throughout the first week of trial where either did he start slapping his left knee under the table, like just really slapping it. It's not loud, but you can see like he's slapping it or chopping it.

Or where there's brief moments where everybody stands up and stretches to use the restroom, he will start stretching that specific left knee. He'll like lift it up in a 90 degree angle and kind of move it in circles and then back down. I digress.

Now, since cameras are not allowed in the courtroom, I think the courtroom sketches, they're incredible. I think there's some debate about them online. I think they're beyond the scope of my capabilities, so I can't say anything, but sometimes maybe it's my brain rot frontal lobe. I just have a hard time trying to picture him from the courtroom sketches. Like even during his previous court appearances, I just couldn't understand what he looks like. So we have an edited picture for you. This was done using Photoshop. This

This is not like an AI generated image. It's literally a photo of Diddy and we, and by we, I mean the RMT members who actually know how to use Adobe unlike me. He does look pale. He looks like he could use a lot more vitamin D, but it's not like he can put in a request for that. A lot of people say that he's lost weight. I think that he gained quite a bit of weight before getting arrested and compared to that timeline, he did lose weight, but he doesn't look particularly frail or anything of that sort. He's still quite the sturdy looking guy.

I thought it was interesting because visually he looks a lot older than 55. He looks a lot older than he is. Really? Yes. He looks like he's like jail is doing a number on him. However, however, this is the weird juxtaposition. I felt when he moves around minus his bad knee, the visual, he looks a lot older, but he's, he's not slow. He doesn't seem physically unwell. Like I feel like he could run a mile. Hmm.

Maybe it's the hair. Maybe. And I do think it's the lack of sun, probably. And when he needs to get up from his chair, I mean, this man is up. For example, when a juror walks in or when a juror walks out of the courtroom during individual questioning, so it's one juror at a time, Diddy and the defense team typically stand up. He's pretty quick with it. He's not gripping the sides of his chair or the table to get up. He's not even slow. He's trying to make a good impression, is the feeling I have. He's very, he's up.

He's very respectful. On two specific occasions, my researcher and I were scribbling in our notes and we both looked at each other because Diddy, we felt, in our opinion, shot up out of his chair quicker than he normally does. And we look and it's a very beautiful female juror with a lot of assets.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. And we were, we both wrote it individually in our notes. Like the way he just shoot up. Yes. And the way he just kept lingering and staring. Like all the other attorneys sat down first and then he sat down. I mean, he could have been zoning out and thinking about lunch or the case. I don't know.

So the white hair does kind of throw it off. It seems like he's turning into a full-blown grandfather, but physically he seems fine. Day one, he walks into the courtroom and my researcher was telling me, and he did this again day two, he does this practically every day in court. He starts coming out into the courtroom, shaking all of his attorney's hands, hugging them. Then he puts his hand to his chest and mouths, thank you to the people who came to support him. So other people, I guess, related to his legal team or his friend, right?

and they're in front of us and he's like saying thank you sometimes he'll look around and put his fist to his chest for his friend again his family will i believe be there on monday so we'll see what his interactions with them are diddy mouths thank you and you can't really hear it and with that day one starts it's a pretty big day a whole group of jurors are going to be brought into the courtroom so this is again same thing but they're going to sit in the church pews directly behind diddy

So they all get brought in behind Diddy using the massive two doors that I came through. And I sit right. They come and they sit in the pews right behind Diddy. How many came in at the time? Like 40. Oh, wow. And they just single file come in and they just line around the pews. Okay. So they take up like five, six pews and they're going to be sworn in. But while they're coming in, in a single file line, Diddy and the defense are staring at them.

Which makes sense because a lot of these attorneys, they write online and they write articles. You want to know their age, race, gender, probably even the way they're dressed to get a grasp of do they have any certain hobbies, socioeconomic status. What do their attires say about them? What does their posture say about them? Do they look annoyed to be here? Do they look too enthusiastic to be here? Hmm.

The jurors get sworn in and then they get brought back out of the courtroom and then they go wait in another courtroom. So then they're each called in one by one for individual questioning. They are very serious because some of these people is going to determine Diddy's fate. Yes. They only have that window of time to decide. Yes. I will say out of the... I couldn't... So Diddy and his attorneys take two rows of the...

the desks and chairs. Linda Moreno, which is his jury consultant, was, to me, closer to the judge. So she's behind Diddy. I couldn't get a good look at her, but from his, the like four attorneys that sat on Diddy's row, Diddy and Brian Steele, Young Thug's former attorney, they looked the most intense when they stared at the jurors. Whereas the other attorneys, they were looking, but it wasn't like...

It didn't feel so intense. Diddy and Brian still, I'm like, whoa. Just staring at their faces is very intense. Like, they're locked in. I'm sure everybody is, but they look extra locked in. They walk in one by one, and this happens multiple times, but it almost seems like every time the jurors come in, Diddy kind of nods.

It's like he's doing a head count, but I don't think he's doing a head count. It's just a thing he does. He has moments where he just nods, it feels, to me personally. And it's not a big nod. It's like an ever so slight nod.

Like you're thinking to yourself, you're nodding to yourself. You're not like confirming like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that nod. It's like to myself. Does it happen to everyone or most of them? When all of them come in in that single file line, he's kind of nodding the whole time. Day one, both of my researchers were freaking out and telling me, I'm like,

in the car on the way to meet with them. And they're like, there's this moment where after the jurors leave, he turns around and his hands are at hip level and he kind of rubs them slowly. It's not sinister. It's not like creepy. Like it just felt like, okay, let's do this. It didn't feel like, yeah, I'm going to take them. It just was like, all right, let's go. So now the jurors are going to come in one by one for individual questioning. But before they can even bring in the first juror,

You know when you're in a classroom for the first time and you've walked in, you sit down, you haven't spoken a word. Suddenly the teacher calls on you and you have no idea how to project your voice because you're like, I don't know if this is loud enough when my teacher is all the way over there. Like, I don't know. But then I don't want to scream because that's embarrassing.

It's just like, how far is my voice going to travel? I don't know. You're trying to grasp it. Diddy's lead attorney, Mark Agnifilo, stands up to ask the judge. I'm constrained to ask for another two minute bathroom break. I apologize. The judge is confused. Well, why don't we try to get through at least 10 jurors? So previously they already had another bathroom break. And my researcher said it was so quick. I mean, it just looked, they were like, I don't even know if Diddy peed.

They also said, we also don't know if he washed his hands because it was just too quick. Like, did he not pee or did he not wash his hands? Because they think in their timeline, maybe we're slow movers.

that they're like, I couldn't have peed and washed my hands like that in that amount of time span. It was just so quick. It was super brief. Yeah. And then they have, and then court is back in session. Then he's asking for another bathroom break. So the judge is like, well, why don't we try to get through at least 10 jurors where, I mean, do we really need to take one now? Did he lift his butt up from the chair a tiny bit? And I cross-referenced both the researcher's notes. He raises his hand near his head level and the pointer finger, the index finger is slightly upwards, but it's not like pointing.

It's kind of like, oh, excuse me. But he's barely looking up at the judge. He seems very meek the first day. He barely raises his voice. And this is when he says the nine or so words that everybody was talking about. I'm sorry, Your Honor. I'm a little nervous today.

this is considered the first thing that he has said in court and did he get a bathroom break after that yeah he did how long does usually one individual jurors session take it really depends um

39 a day. And then there's group questioning. Yeah, yeah. And then there's also a few breaks and like lunch. Okay. So it's like 5-10 minutes? Yeah, and then it really depends. Like some jurors, if they don't answer yes to specific questions, they don't really ask anything more. I see. Recently, Drake released this new song and...

Okay, it's just not been a good year for Drake. I mean, I feel like years ago, he, all the titles are like the new face of hip hop. Now the article headlines are, are we sure Drake is okay? But maybe this is his comeback. Maybe this is his partial recovery from what happened with Kendrick Lamar. He's going to release new music with engaging lyrics. And this one song, the lyrics read, I've been in the house, but I'm coming outside tonight. Yeah, I love how you always be speaking your mind. People want to meet up.

Talk about shit. I'm vegan now. Evil eyes are staring at me and I see it now. Shout out to Brian Steele. Take off the cuffs. We leaving now. The whole song is called Brian Steele. So who the hell is Brian Steele? And why is there a song named after him on a Drake album?

Brian Steele is one of Diddy's defense attorneys, but he's most well known for being Young Thug's attorney. This is the man that with his full chest said, Your Honor, Young Thug? More like Young, Truly Humble Under God. That's what his name means. Okay.

Okay, he didn't say it like that. He said it much more eloquently, but it was equally goofy. He also shows a picture of Young Thug that supposedly shows him making the letter B with his hand, which I guess the prosecutors were trying to argue that means a gang, that like that's a gang sign. Pretty much, that's a B, which I think by a lot of netizens...

or really anyone with some ocular capacity could see that it does indeed probably look like a B. It's like an eye exam, and you put the super clear slide, and you're like, oh yeah, that's a B, right? I'm being dramatic, but Brian Steele disagrees. He said, that is not a B. That is a P, because my client, Young Thug,

Truly humble under God is pushing positivity. P for positivity. Listen, I don't know. You know, I don't even want to get too deep into the Brian Steele lore and the young thug case because I might do a whole separate deep dive on that one. But now that same attorney is sitting on Diddy's left side. He's sitting right next to Diddy for jury selection. And he is interesting. He's so fascinating.

And this is the part where I feel like, please listen to the wording in all of this. I'm trying to describe exactly what I saw in that courtroom. And there, like we went in with the idea of, especially for jury selection, um,

We wanted to see how the jurors would react to the defense and the prosecutors. So yeah, I could have walked in and been like, I personally don't like Diddy. So I personally wouldn't defend him if I were an attorney. So I personally don't like the defense attorneys. Like I could have just walked in like that, right? But I did want to see from a more neutral perspective of maybe how some of the jurors would feel. And I will say Brian Steele is very likable.

All of Diddy's attorneys are incredibly likable if you remain neutral. How, in what sense? Yeah, let me run you through it. And this is very interesting because there is a poet that reportedly even said a jury consists of 12 people who decide who has the better lawyer. And if that's the case, the prosecutors, they're also a dream team. They're like heavy hitters. But the defense...

They're basically courtroom predators. They look like the popular kids. How many were there? Oh, there were a lot. So on the row that Diddy was sitting, it was his two main leads and then two to his left. And then there were three in front of him. And then there were a few in the pews. I mean, he's spending a lot of money.

A lot of money. It's reported, alleged by a Young Thug song that Young Thug spent $2 million for Brian Steele. And I'm sure it was more because that trial was the longest trial, I think, in Georgia history or something crazy. His defense team are courtroom predators. And I say that with respect and a lot of fear. Have you ever heard the quote, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression? Mm-hmm.

That's the feeling. So according to one attorney, trial attorneys are professional communicators with their body. That's what they're supposed to do, or at least the good ones. According to some jury experts, they believe at the very least, this is a very conservative number, a defense attorney's message is conveyed 55% through their body language and tone and not the words. I'm not insinuating that that's what's happening here with Diddy's team, but yeah, I think they're all incredibly successful for a reason.

One attorney says when you walk into that courthouse, you're on. Everyone is watching in that courtroom. The jury is watching you, not when you start talking. They're watching you from the moment you walk in long before you say anything. They will notice everything about you and draw conclusions about who you are.

It is advised that trial attorneys, especially in the beginning, perhaps practice smiling, a soft smile in the mirror, so they have a neutral, natural resting facial expression. I don't know if any of Diddy's defense attorneys stare at a mirror when they get home, but I would believe it if you told me they did because they're incredibly polished. They're friendly and

And aside from Diddy just sitting there at their table, a lot of people in the courtroom seem to like the defense team. They seem to have good relationships with the prosecutors. A lot of them used to work at the DA's office.

Yeah, it seems... I mean, not the defendant. I don't know about that. But the defense team. So you have his lead attorney, Mark Agnifilo. Appearance-wise, he has salt-and-pepper hair. I would say more like 70% pepper. I'll keep you updated on if that progresses one way or another during the trial. He has a bit of a rounder face.

which actually makes him look a lot more approachable and younger. In a lot of the pictures I find of him online, he looks kind of angry. I think he usually gets his picture taken when he's mid-sentence talking about clients outside the courtroom. So he does look kind of his eyebrows are crunched together. He doesn't look nice in court. He looks nice. He looks mainly focused. He doesn't look particularly stressed or angry ever.

And I'm sure that's something that all the defense attorneys are trying to show in their demeanor. He's got more of a geeky energy to him. He walks in with one of those backpacks that are like double the size of his back. It's like the backpacks that the smart kids have in school, the one with 10,000 different zippers, which I feel like is less utilitarian and more like bragging about one's finger dexterity. But he has one of those backpacks. His energy overall is...

Is the dad that you asked to take a picture of you on the iPad and then he'll take a picture of himself and he he ha ha to himself. That's the energy. I'm not saying this is who he is. I'm not saying he's a great person. He has defended lots of questionable people.

I'm just saying that's his energy. If I know nothing about him and I walk in as a potential juror, that's the energy I would get personally. Mark Agnifilo is known for representing Keith Raniere, NXIVM cult leader who was sentenced to 120 years in federal prison for similar charges, charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. Keith Raniere also...

He liked to wear the defendant's starter pack, white collared shirt, blue sweater. And the way that Mark represented Keith could tell us maybe about how he's going to talk about his new client, Diddy. He does the very typical, you might not like Keith Raniere. You might not like what he did. It's disgusting. It's offensive. It's gross. Ooh, all that sexual stuff. But you can't convict him because everyone was a willing participant. You can't convict someone for being disgusting and repulsive and offensive. It's not against the law.

A.K.A. a lot of people think that the defense is going to try and say that there's no sex trafficking in Diddy's case, that it's just Diddy being a swinger. A.K.A. jurors, you might not agree with the lifestyle, but that doesn't make it a crime.

Now, despite Mark's slightly approachable, unassuming look, he clearly is a very intense man. One person describes him as a boxer moving through the courtroom, controlled, watchful. Every word is a jab. Every cross-examination is a calculated strike. He has an unimaginable ability to navigate high-pressure cases. One person says he's built a reputation off of taking cases to trial rather than settling. He prefers to challenge government allegations head-on.

To put it simply, this man is probably a tank in the courtroom, but this is still probably one of his most challenging cases yet. Now, side note, he has now joined his wife, Karen Agnifilo, in defending Luigi Mangione, so he is officially on that legal team. Really? Yes. And Luigi Mangione and Diddy are in the same prison. Or jail.

One netizen comments, people have mixed feelings about all this. You know, fact, people in America are constitutionally allowed to have representation, so you guys need to stop being mad at his defense attorneys. Another comments, people trash attorneys until they need one. Then they'll find out the true value.

But another netizen argues, just because someone has a right to an attorney does not obligate any particular attorney to represent them. Agnifilo represents wealthy criminals because it's a good payday. But another netizen has the opposite sentiment. Lawyers are going to lawyer. Believe it or not, defending criminals is not a crime. You seem to be arguing in bad faith from a position of ignorance.

They argue back. I also believe everyone deserves a defense attorney, but I also believe defense attorneys that defend obvious monsters like P. Diddy will gain some bad monster baggage. If he really believes Diddy's innocent, maybe he should defend him for free. Others just say, seems like the Agnifilos are going to have a very prosperous year. Financially. Another netizen comments, I'm not shocked by this in the slightest. He defends the worst of the worst.

Along with Mark Agnifilo, you have Tenny Garagos. Tenny is, she's so put together. I mean, she walks in four inch heels. She's ready for the day. She's probably most well known for posting a few TikToks last year, more or less defending Diddy on social media, which you can imagine social media and TikTok did not like.

Some accuse her of being a sellout, others point out that in one particular interview it appears that she's wearing white nail polish. I will say it looks a little more baby pink. And some just comment, you know what, no shame in her game. A lot of people, regardless of her own success thus far though, she's kind of known to be a nepo baby. But other people say, well yeah, she's a nepo baby, but she still is pretty accomplished in her own right.

Others comment, I love that she's following in the footsteps of representing the scum of the earth just like her father did. I mean, somebody's got to do it. I do think that watching her in the courtroom, she might be an Epo baby and maybe you can tell by some of her outfit choices or her bag choices. She looks...

She looks really rich. And we might all have our opinions on people who defend Diddy, yes. But the way she works, I think objectively, she's very good at what she does. But what do I know? She seems very in control. She's poised. She's sharp. Her father is famous attorney Mark Garagos.

He's known for a lot of cases. He represented Hunter Biden, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, the Menendez brothers. He actually just took them on in 2023. So he was I don't believe he was part of the original trial. So he is advocating for a new trial. Then he represented Scott Peterson, who is actively seeking to overturn his murder conviction, by the way. And we might do another deep dive on that. But Mark Garagos has a whole podcast. So he's not officially on Diddy's legal team.

His daughter is. Yes. And he's a long term legal consultant for Diddy. He has a podcast with TMZ called Two Angry Men, which got him into a lot of trouble recently. He goes on there and he calls the prosecution team a, quote, six pack of white women.

To which later, according to court transcripts, the judge tells Mr. Garagos, when you say things on a podcast like six women, all white, my understanding is that you got a six pack of white women. That's not that's something that you shouldn't that no one should be saying as an officer of the court and a member of the bar. Right. To which Mark Garagos responds. I think when you've got a black man who's being prosecuted and the client feels like he's being targeted, it's an observation.

The judge doesn't seem to be having it. I think this is ridiculous. I think referring to the prosecution in this case as a six pack of white women is outrageous. All right. And I understand what you're saying about the cases and everything else. But I think this is outrageous. And this would not be tolerated in any court from any lawyer anywhere across the nation. And I'm going to be watching and I'm going to be listening. All right. You have one more listener for your podcast to which Mark Geragos responds. As long as you subscribe, I'm all for it.

The judge hits back. You heard me and you've heard what I've said. You know, I'll be watching this. This judge is very intense. This is the same honorable, sir. That just looked like he biked to work. This judge is very multifaceted. There's a clip of him walking into the courthouse and he's wearing athletic wear. He has got his big headphones on and it's very different from when he's in the courtroom. He so far.

is a very compassionate, fair, firm, incredibly sharp judge. He's so sharp. His brain runs on five times speed. Really? And he's like a tank. He's like, you guys have to tell me about lunch because I'm just going to keep going.

Yeah. He's a judge subramanium. He is a former clerk for Justice RBG, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He's the first Indian American to be the New York District Court judge. He was nominated to SDNY in 2022 by former President Biden. And now the clip of him walking into the courthouse for work, it starts going semi-viral. He looks so young. He looks like an intern. And I say that in the coolest, most respectful way. He's so multifaceted, Your Honor. The comments to him, however, are unhinged. They read, he's bumping to Cassie's songs.

He's listening to Diddy's No Way Out. Some comment, I don't know why, but this makes me trust him more. Others say, I feel like the judges who take on serious cases like this should be provided security.

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But back to the defense attorneys, you have Mark, you have Tenney, the lead attorneys, then you have Diddy. So this is the seating order. It's like, and I'm sure this is going to change depending on what they're talking about. But Mark, Tenney, Diddy, and then Brian Steele sits on the left of Diddy for jury selection week. And according to the New Yorker and a defense attorney from Atlanta, Brian Steele's from Atlanta. According to a defense attorney that worked with Brian Steele for 30 years, he says, Brian doesn't drink. He doesn't smoke. He

He can't believe anybody would. He won't curse even in court, even if he's reading from a transcript. So when he's cross-examining, he will say so-and-so F word. The court will say, you can read that out loud and he won't do it. He only drinks water. His lunch is tofu or salmon, maybe a salad, no bread. I've never seen him eat out. He'll bring a toothbrush to court.

He exercises daily before and after court, running, swimming, weights. He has three kids, a wonderful wife who is also his law partner, and they kind of idolize each other. So his wife's name is Colette. And just a side note, I'm going in depth on all these attorneys, and I will go in depth later on the prosecution team as well. They, I'm not entirely sure what the word would be. They were less notable during the jury selection, I'm sure, once opening statements start. I mean, they're a very competent team, so...

will go in depth. I just want to paint the picture because we're going to be talking about them for like two months. Yes, you can Google pictures, but there is like a certain energy, like a synergy when they're all in the same room. And I want you to be able to picture it every day and not go through the same things because I think a lot of evidence, witness testimonies are going to come up. We just won't have time for that. So he always says in the phonetic alphabet, see as in Colette, which is his wife's name, right? Apparently,

he's also superstitious. I haven't seen this yet, but he will allegedly kiss a finger or tap on a table anytime death is mentioned. Apparently he likes to call his childhood friends mothers to tell them, thank you for giving birth to my friend.

Also, in 1992, Brian Steele was assigned to the case of an illiterate man who was charged with attempted murder in Atlanta. He actually slept in the jail with him because that man would not, he was distrustful of Brian Steele and did not want to say anything. He was not the killer or he was not the attempted murderer. So he slept in that jail room to try to get him to open up and trust him. And Brian Steele apparently once said, a fair trial is better than sin.

He's also said, I've defended people who cut out eyes and ate them. The system only works when the accused have real representation. The more challenging the case, the more likely I'll take it. Do I like the person I'm defending? That's the main thing. The reporter for The New Yorker asked Brian Steele if he would have represented Epstein. He says, I'd have to understand better all the facts and circumstances. See, I don't believe allegations.

I go into believing the person is innocent. So he's saying it's not that he doesn't believe the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein, but he doesn't believe in allegations, I guess, until they're confirmed by the court of law. I don't know. Netizens seem to have more positive sentiments about Brian Steele than many of the other attorneys. More people are defending his choice of defending Diddy.

Others are commenting, ugh, or a depletion. Others feel genuinely offended because I think they were emotionally invested into Brian Steele after the Young Thug trial. Some people comment, I mean, he's a defense attorney, defending the accused, even bad people, and making sure that the state proves their case is his job, I guess. To which someone comments, I don't think anybody's going to hold it against him for not getting Diddy out, right? Except maybe Diddy.

Others say, dude's going to make so much money. He's going to do pro bono work at the local courthouse after this. Other people say, I mean, on an emotional level, I'm disgusted that anyone would sign up to defend Diddy. But outside my emotions, this is necessary. State has to prove their case and defense attorneys don't always defend likable people. His work is necessary, even if I want Diddy locked up.

The New Yorker describes him of having a boy scoutish manner. And I could see that he seems really interested in everything happening in court. All the attorneys are. No one looks like they're zoning out. But he's sitting left of Diddy and maybe this is a natural thing. Maybe he's got a better right hip and he likes to lean to the right, right? Being an attorney for a case like this, it could be argued that maybe it's all intentional. He's always leaning closer to Diddy.

He's always resting his right arm on the right side of his chair closer to Diddy because he's sitting on Diddy's left. Mm-hmm.

He also has the energy is Mark and Tenny are very serious. They're not overly serious or aggressive or skeptical. They're just very in work mode. Brian Steele, there's a lot of moments where he seems he appears to be having a good time sitting next to Diddy. Really? Yeah. They're passing notes. Brian Steele is smiling. And again, look, I only know what I remember seeing from the other side of the courtroom and my very limited research about Diddy's humor. But Diddy is a big personality. I have never realized

read that he was known to be someone who just makes others chuckle at rapidly reoccurring frequencies you know not that i know of but brian steel seems to genuinely enjoy i don't know about genuine he seems to be enjoying his time sitting next to diddy in the courtroom but does he really we don't know

Yeah, and he has a lot of interesting things that he does. I will say I believe the tapping on the desk when death comes up because a lot of his movements are very repetitive. So he wears reading glasses. If he is looking at the screen, he'll have them on. If he's not looking at the screen, he'll take them off and he kind of puts the glasses tip into his mouth. He likes to stick things into his mouth, be it a pen, be it his glasses.

He also has a bright pink water bottle that he drinks out of. And I'm like, I always try to analyze, is this very intentional to come off very likable? Or is this genuinely just who this guy is? I don't know. He uses, I see him frequently use a pink highlighter. He's got this stance. So anytime there's a break, Diddy gets, Diddy's not like...

lingering and mingling. Diddy gets taken to the back because he needs to be held and there will be breaks where people need to go use the restroom and the lawyers, they can come out, the attorneys, they can come out and they can talk, not

Not to the members of the press. They're on a gag order. But they can talk to their colleagues. They can talk to the prosecutors. They can talk to Diddy's friend, right? And they all just seem relaxed. They seem like the cool kids. But Brian Steele has his go-to pose. His blazer jacket is unbuttoned. He's got his hands on his hips. And he's got one hip popped out.

It's like a very fun dad vibe. I don't know how much of it is so genuine. I did read in a separate article that one judge said if Brian Steele cries in court, he would believe it. He's very genuine is the feeling. But I don't know.

I think he's a fascinating addition to the defense team. And I'm not saying this like, oh, Brian Steele is a good man. I don't know the man. He's a good man and he's defending Diddy. So that must mean something. That's not what I'm saying. I think it's very smart that he hired Brian Steele. Clearly, Brian Steele has extensive history with defending against RICO charges, racketeering charges, which Diddy is accused of. But I do feel like to some degree, was he brought on for positive press, positive associations? Yeah.

because he was a huge meme during Young Thug. Along with Brian Steele, we have Nicole Westmoreland, who also represented Young Thug. Notably, she is a survivor of SA. She is the only black woman on his defense team so far. And I would say if netizens like Brian Steele, less people know of Nicole Westmoreland, but more people like her. A lot of people are really amazed at how she overcame trauma. She was SA'd in

in the past and she became this successful attorney. A few netizens are concerned about the conversation around her being an essay victim and her joining Diddy's defense. Some feel betrayed, writing, she should be ashamed of herself for defending him then. Or another one that reads, if she thinks mentioning her essay will be a strategy to help him, she's wrong. Which...

I feel like it's all kind of icky, the commentary about her essay that is by random internet people. And then you have Alexandra Shapiro. She's got shoulder length, blonde hair. It's a little curly. She looks incredibly athletic. If you watch those movies about like New York City power woman who do it all, that's the kind of energy she gives me. She looks like she's an attorney on the weekend. She works on her novel, her fiction thriller novel, and then runs marathons.

I don't know if she actually does that. I don't know if she runs marathons, but she is an attorney and she did release a fiction thriller novel in 2022 called Presumed Guilty. And as someone who has to lay down after going out for approximately one hour, she seems like she's going to be running circles. That's, we don't know what she's going to be deployed to do for this case, but she represented SBF. She's described as a former big law titan. She's also clerked for Ruth Gator Binsberg, but not at the same time this judge did.

Others say, call Alexandra Shapiro if you can afford her. Additionally on the team, there's Xavier Donaldson, Ana Estavo, Jason Driscoll. They're all super successful attorneys, but they're less talked about. So there's not many things that we can go off of, at least not on the internet. So I guess it'll be interesting to see what they do during the trial. But all of them do have a presence about them. They know what they're doing. They're likable. They're the popular kids.

One legal expert describes the team as, I'm looking at the team, especially on the first day of jury selection, it seems like they've got people who are experts in their own kind of general areas. I think the team that Diddy has put together are some heavy hitters in their own rights, and they're working together as such. But maybe, at least for this past week, maybe the most important person on Diddy's team is

is Linda Moreno, the jury consultant. She's here to help decide which jurors would be the most advantageous for Diddy. And again, we don't really get to... Like the prosecutor, we're going to cover it all. This is not like me just talking about Diddy's team. It's just there were not as many notable moments. And I think we won't really understand what angle they're going for until the opening statements. Mm-hmm.

Now, one attorney completely unrelated to all of this, slightly controversial, bizarrely comments. Generally speaking, I mean, there's all these other small things you can do to find the right juror. The heavy, rounded face, happy looking person is the most desirable. The undesirable juror is quite the slight, underweight, delicate type, right?

Features are going to be sharp and fragile, and he's got a very lean look. The athletic juror is hard to categorize. Usually he is hard to convince, but once he's convinced, he will go all the way with you. As for Linda Moreno, she's a juror expert on anti-Muslim bias in American jury trials. The trial of Nora Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter, Linda Moreno got her acquitted. That was the first complete acquittal of terrorism charges in America since 9-11.

Now, without getting too much into her cases, at least not in this moment, she does have a fascinating way of picking jurors. For example, in one case, she was representing a client that was charged with explosives. She says it's all about picking a jury. So in that particular trial, one prospective juror talked about how her brother had served in Iraq and how she had grew up in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A lot of people on the defense team wanted to get rid of this juror because you're dealing with explosive charges everywhere.

This is not, this is not good. There's going to be a lack of understanding there. They don't want her on the jury, but Linda Moreno wants to keep her. She's saying she had a clear, strong voice suggesting that she thought about a lot of things. And something she said really impressed me. You would have to live through the war in Vietnam to understand why people did what they did. She said, we're keeping her. She was furtive.

firm. She said if selected, she's going to have the sensitivity to put herself in other people's shoes. That juror was one of the five leading the jury to an acquittal.

That is so fascinating. I feel like nobody talks about the deeper level of what these people will determine. Oh, we're going to get into different... They have different methods. So one person describes Linda as having a very gentle persistence. That makes a huge difference. She does seem gentle. She's an older woman now. She seems very slender. She had on giant pearls, a pearl necklace. Yes.

I mean, I think she must have been very successful in her career because those pearls were crazy. Yeah, they looked beautiful. Definitely not as strong as a presence, but maybe that's intentional. Maybe she wants to fly under the radar so she can analyze jurors without them feeling like she's analyzing them. And they're focused on the other attorneys so she can just watch. I don't know.

They say that she has a very laid-back politeness about her, to which Linda Moreno once said, "I had to be polite but not shy to get things done. I also had to pay close attention to what people said." Another person says, "Her instincts, her ability to read people, I mean, it has a lot to do with a lot of the great outcomes that attorneys will have if she's on their team." She was born a lawyer. No, I'm serious. So for her 12th birthday, Linda Moreno said that she received her favorite movie, which was 12 Angry Men, which is about jury deliberations in a murder case.

Another colleague says, "If anyone can figure out the jury, it's gonna be Linda." It is also believed that she has never had more than one client at a time. A lot of attorneys will have multiple clients at a time. She says that she likes to solely focus on just one case and that's it. It is believed, this is not public information so we don't know, it's believed that someone like Linda Moreno would charge Diddy around a million dollars for her services to be a jury consultant. Others argue it's probably gonna be a lot more than that.

One person who worked with Linda says, "What strikes me about her is her complete dedication to her clients, which continues to this day." Now, this is not something that Linda Moreno has said, but from our research, because I was so intrigued about like the different models, some attorneys will use their own model. It seems like most attorneys, at least from what I can gather on like subreddits where attorneys are talking about jury selection, they have their own unique model that they tweak depending on the charges of the case.

And depending on that specific defendant, but they all have some sort of tailored to them model that they like to categorize potential jurors. So these are very basic, probably dumb models, but I thought it was intriguing. So one model is the three categories of good juror, poison juror, and go with the flower juror.

One attorney says, typically it's fairly simple to spot good jurors. You just say a joke and they'll laugh or they'll give you eye contact, they'll nod, they'll do the smile. They're eagerly, you know, not too eager, but just very happy to fulfill their civic duty. They're doing their best. Those are the good jurors. Then you have the poison jurors. These are typically cynical. They get agitated easily and they like to be silent most of the time. That's what's dangerous because they fly under the radar. Then you have go with the flowers.

quiet. Initially, they have indifferent opinions and are open to listening to the evidence since. So clearly in this model, you want to identify and remove the jurors that are poison. Another model some attorneys say they like to use is the leadership authority model, classifying and dividing jurors based on their influence and decision making approach. So there's three categorizations, or at least this model does. Leaders,

So jurors who influence others during deliberations, they're going to be in the back rooms like, no, this is guys. Look at this. They're strong personalities. They can sway the opinions of other jurors. And then you have authoritarians in criminal trials. Authoritarians typically favor the prosecutors. It's not a bad thing. It's just who they are. So the defense are going to want them out of the jury.

Typically, they prefer police. They like authority figures. They have high respect for authority figures. They're not sitting there like, "Oh yeah, I love the police," but it's just in them. It's like an innate bias. Some people just respond better to authority figures than others. They often hold more conservative views on crime and punishment as well.

Then you've got the followers, jurors who tend to be influenced by the stronger personalities and opinions in the jury room. They rarely take strong positions independently. Some attorneys will even further categorize and say, you need a fourth category in there. You need negotiators. They are so important. These people, they're not really the leaders, which are like, no, I think this. And then people are arguing. They're the peacekeepers.

They facilitate negotiations. They keep peace by analyzing and verbalizing the issues. Then there's another model that instead of three, they've got four classifications. You have traditionalist. So these are jurors that they like structure. They like established institutions. They typically naturally seem slightly unknowingly, probably even to themselves in favor of the prosecutors.

Then there's experiencers. They're very practical. They're present focused. They like to evaluate the evidence rather than debate abstract concepts of guilt and remorse and principles and values. Then you have the conceptualizers. They are thinkers who are not naturally empathetic. They seem less swayed by emotional appeals. And then lastly, you've got the idealists.

more empathetic more focused on human impact rather than the evidence they're way more receptive to considering a defendant's circumstances typically it said defense attorneys like influential leaders with a skepticism towards authority they exhibit natural leadership qualities but they don't like institutional power structures as for the temperament-based model defense attorneys say they might prefer idealists they're empathy driven especially if your client has

mental health that's going to be coming into it, a mental illness or some sort of dire situation that they're trying to argue is for the case. They're empathy driven.

And then people that are super analytical, some defense attorneys like them because the burden of proof is on the government. So these people, they demand logical consistency in the prosecutor's arguments. They have high standard for the prosecutors. They identify flaws in forensic evidence chains, logical gaps in timeline reconstructions, overreach and expert testimony. They're very analytical. So all of this makes sense. But according to some attorneys, the absolute worst, worst, worst, worst type of juror that you can have is

is a stealth juror. Stealth jurors deliberately conceal bias to infiltrate the jury.

Usually you can tell when they have inconsistencies in their answers. Their written questionnaire, their responses versus what they tell the judge during their individual questioning, they don't match. Or sometimes they try to overcompensate and really sell themselves as being impartial. Usually stealth jurors, they have different motivations. Financial gain, media deals, book deals after the trial, ideological, maybe they have a personal vendetta, or just a lot of the times it's thrill-seeking, especially for high-profile cases.

to just be like, I was part of that. One attorney states, stealth jurors pose catastrophic risk through undetected bias injection. Their influence persists throughout trial stages, often discovered only through post-verdict interviews. With that being said, I'm clearly not knowledgeable enough to know if any juror was a potential stealth juror, but there were some intriguing moments. Publishing houses have what's called a slush pile.

It's like usually the big publishing houses. There's five big publishing houses in the U.S. that dominate 80% of the market. They have a slush pile. It's a collection of unsolicited manuscripts sent to them by people seeking to get their wonderful book published. And they're just, it's a slush. People will open up a manuscript, read one page. If they don't like it, it goes into the slush pile. It's not getting published. Because in the world of publishing books, it's that cutthroat.

A female juror is sitting next to the judge and she has a high position at the publishing house Simon & Schuster. She says, we publish lots of books, 2,000 books a year, and one book we are publishing in the fall is by another hip-hop artist and I know that that book contains some information or some accusations. I haven't read the book. I probably won't be working on the book directly, but my office reviews all the press releases that go out and I saw the press release after I filled out this questionnaire.

So she's asked, like, did you find out anything else about the defendant or the case or anything related after you filled out this questionnaire? And what is the book? And what book is that? It's a memoir by another artist whom I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember the name of the author. I think it's called Do You Believe Me Now or something like that. And it's about his personal history. And I know it contains some accusations. A male artist. Yes. And you don't remember the name? No. No.

No, she states she doesn't remember the name, just the press release. She explains, I saw the press release because my office, we review all the press releases, our different prints sent out to the media. So that's just one of my roles is to kind of vet all the press releases. All right, now what did the press release say? Just that the book is, it was an announcement that the book is publishing in the fall and sort of different topics it touches on. And this was one of the topics. And what did it say pertaining to this case? If you can remember in your mind, what did it say?

I think the point or what the press release is alluding to is that this other artist has been accusing the defendant here for a while and hadn't been believed. That is what I took from the press release. Now, do you know anything else about the book? No. The judge asks her, considering she works in a company that's publishing a book written by someone making accusations, would it cloud her view in the case? She says, no, no. I also would be very unlikely to read the book because I work on the executive team. I don't really get that involved on individual books. But

But it's tricky because she's salaried. So her bonus is tied to the company performance, the general company performance, which means her bonus is tied to the performance of all the thousands of books they publish, including the book written by I'll Be Sure about Diddy. I think the list of people who really do not like Diddy would be comparable to a CVS receipt times 10.

10. It's a long list, but I do feel like at the top, it's going to be 50 Cent and potentially, yeah, definitely, I'll be sure. Now, just to recap, Diddy has seven children. The first is Quincy Brown, but Quincy is not Diddy's biological son. He is Kim Porter and I'll be sure his biological child. It is believed that Diddy adopted Quincy. However, recently, I'll be sure states in a documentary, there's no adoption and everything

If you haven't noticed, his last name is still Brown. Take that how you will. I have no idea which one is true. But there's Quincy the oldest, then there's Justin Dior Combs. He's Diddy and Misa Hilton's son. Then there's Christian Combs, Diddy and Kim Porter's first biological child together. Chance Combs, Diddy and Sarah Chapman's daughter, and then Delilah and Jessie Combs, the twins, Diddy and Kim Porter's twin daughters. And in 2022, Diddy had another baby, Love, with Dana Tran. So that baby's an infant.

and all you need to remember at this point is that I'll be sure is Quincy's biological dad and Kim Porter the mother of many of Diddy's children and Quincy's mother is a longtime partner of Diddy but also was married to I'll be sure before dating Diddy so Kim Porter and I'll be sure are married they have Quincy Kim Porter they break up Kim Porter starts dating Diddy they go on to have multiple children together and Diddy was very involved in Quincy's life

Now, after Kim Porter mysteriously passed away from pneumonia, that's how people think she passed away, mysteriously, there were all sorts of rumors flying around. Again, conspiracies, we don't know, right? That maybe she didn't die from pneumonia. Maybe she was writing a tell-all book about her relationship with Diddy and she was done with Diddy and she wanted to be set free.

Again, conspiracies, but after she passes away, Al B. Shore is very suspicious of Diddy. He even slips into a coma at one point, and he kind of insinuates that perhaps Diddy had something to do with him being in a coma. Al B. Shore went on to allege that Kim Porter confided in him before passing away, and he says,

Diddy's soul has gotten completely dark. Like he's just not there. That's what he alleges was said. He does say, allege that Kim Porter was writing a book, but nothing was done about it. Saying someone got her passcode to her phone and her computer and they found out and she was writing what was going on behind closed doors. The public had no idea what was happening right in front of everybody's eyes. But there were a lot of people who turned a blind eye.

In the documentary Making of a Bad Boy, the very documentary that Diddy is suing NBC for $100 million in a defamation lawsuit, in that documentary, Al Bishore says, it was like two or three weeks prior to her murder. Am I supposed to say allegedly? Oh, he just straight up said murder. So all that's to say the water is very deep between Diddy and Al Bishore, and the potential juror works as a high-level executive at the publishing house that's going to be releasing Al Bishore's book,

So the book is not out yet. No. No.

Yeah. So she's saying that, okay, we're publishing this book. I don't know anything about it. I don't care. I'm not going to read it. Yeah. And I am qualified. Yes. But I don't think she's like overly eager. Oh, okay. I mean, I think a lot of people can interpret it different ways. So I don't want to put an interpretation out there because, you know, but you could, I guess some cynical people could say she wants to maybe write a book after. Yeah.

She's in publishing. Maybe she wants to write a book. Maybe she wants the thrill. Maybe it's fun, right? Maybe she wants to take off work. Or just simply the fact that the connection is crazy. Yes. Or maybe some people are like, maybe she genuinely doesn't care about any of these people and like does in her head does not understand why it relates. Yeah, yeah.

She's like, I don't care about any of these people. So obviously I can be unbiased. But the blurb is kind of crazy. The blurb continues. People called him crazy. Now back from the brink of death, he reclaims his power and truth in this incredible memoir about finding inner peace despite countless attempts to break him. The last lines of the blurb read, I'll be sure is one of the few still living to tell the whole story. Which I...

I'm not insinuating anything, but that just feels like a bad sentence to even utter into existence whilst publishing a reportedly explosive memoir, which is going to be titled, Do You Believe Me Now? It just feels like an unnecessary potential jinxing. Regardless of how one feels about Albie Shore or the death of Kim Porter or Diddy, it probably would not provide Diddy a fair trial if this juror were on the jury. Why do we care if Diddy gets a fair trial? Because if he doesn't get a fair trial, the conviction could be overturned, if there is one.

And everyone should be entitled to a fair trial. So yes, justice, but also it's like, if you genuinely want justice, you need a fair trial. Yeah. She is ultimately excluded from the jury. Now, please keep in mind, anything I say in the entirety of this episode, especially right now as a personal opinion, I've had a lot of personal opinions, great ones and some bad ones, but whatever I say does not mean, oh, this action means he's doing this. Like,

Like, for example, there will be some days where I feel incredibly insecure about the way that I look and I start spiraling. And maybe in a video, I touch my hair because I feel ugly. But someone will comment, look at this narcissist. She's obsessed with herself. It's like a very different interpretation. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not true. So just take it like that. I don't know.

This is just what I saw and how I personally interpreted what I saw visually with my eyeballs. With that being said, I personally felt like Diddy was kind of an iPad kid during moments of the trial. He was given an iPad by his attorneys to look at specifically related to the case.

He, it's just interesting. He has reading glasses and he will put them on kind of randomly. I don't know if there's a method to it. I don't know. Maybe he is reading something and I just can't see it because he's further away, but it just seemed a little random. Sometimes they'd be on, sometimes they'd be off. So the first day the researchers were like, they'd be on and then they'd be off at random times to the point where we're like, we don't even know if there's a prescription in these, if these are even reading glasses.

And then he would always put them on the desk, put them back on, put them on the desk, put them back on. It was a very feeling is how they felt. It was, do I feel like I want to put my glasses on? And then the second day he started putting them up on the top of his head and then putting them down, putting them at the top. Maybe we're overanalyzing absolutely nothing.

But the way that Brian Steele would kind of tippy tap on the iPad next to him, gave iPad kid, there's this fascinating moment on day one of trial, the very first day that jury selection begins, right before the jurors come in. At this point, it's just the judge, the court personnel, defense team, the prosecutors, and members of the press. The jurors are about to walk in that door. My researcher was like, Brian Steele reaches over, bops on the iPad. Beep, boop, bop.

Front camera turns on and they just see Diddy on the iPad because it's the camera. The front camera is turning on like a mirror and he's wearing his reading glasses.

And then Diddy proceeds to lift the iPad up four or five inches and looks at himself before putting it down. There's nothing deep about it. I'm sure he's just trying to make sure nothing's on his face for when the jurors actually come in. But they said it was so weird. It's a fascinating visual. Yeah, like Brian Steele is older than Diddy, but he's over there bibubapping on the iPad for Diddy. It was weird. Or maybe...

And then more cynically, I guess you could say maybe this is all a thing. Make Diddy seem like a clueless, I don't know what's going on. Can you help me? I'm kind of lost and all these powerful attorneys know so much. Diminish some of his power. I don't know.

In another part, this was, I saw this. Brian Steele is putting on his blazer. So sometimes he would just be in his dress shirt and then he's putting on his blazer. And there's a little fuss about it. And Diddy is just all hands on board, helping him put his blazer on with both hands. So he's got his hand on the back of the collar for Brian Steele. His left hand is on Brian Steele's neck area. And then his right hand is reaching over around Brian Steele's neck in the front to fix the collar.

Now, can I just say something? I've never seen a man have trouble putting on a suit blazer. I don't even think that my own tailor tailoring a shirt would be this...

It was a lot. It wasn't even just like, let me fix your collar. Yeah, like blazer is a pretty easy... Collar fix. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting too. It just was a lot of effort. Just like a lot of... So it does... Okay, I see what you mean. It does seem like they have a very close relationship from the visual. This is my speculation. I don't know if it's true. I don't know what goes on in other people's minds.

I feel like this is a thing that happens during trials. I think both of them are aware of what makes the defendant look good. And they both want the same outcome. And maybe they haven't had a conversation about it. But it seems like they both kind of play into it, is the feeling I get. So were there jurors or is it just the press? I think at this point there were no jurors when he was putting on his, yeah. Okay, okay. But even for the media, it's a visual that seems very...

Maybe somewhat positive. Yeah, maybe he's like helpful fixing Brian Steele's. It just, I guess I've never seen someone need help fixing their suit blazer. Yeah. Because I, you know, people put on suit blazers all the time on and off. Yeah. And there is this one yawn where Diddy is standing up, the court had to rise and he yawns, but he doesn't cover his mouth. So for like a fraction of a second, it just looks like he's silently screaming. Yeah.

And that was really, yeah, another fascinating part that I noticed. And again, this could be coincidence. I could be looking too deep into things. I could have a personal bias that makes me interpret these movements as something that it is completely not. It's an eyewitness testimony. It's questionable, especially my brain after eight hours of sitting in there. But there's this moment where I recall seeing the sketch artist.

She is in the first row diagonal from Diddy behind. And we're all the way behind her. Now she has one of those binoculars that she wears. It's strapped to her head like a brain surgeon. She's wearing that and she's mid-stroke with her charcoal. And Diddy, from my perspective...

Looks like he briefly glances back. He doesn't shift. He doesn't turn. He just kind of sees in his peripheral. I think he sees in his peripheral. Maybe he doesn't see her, but this is all coincidence. Maybe I'm hallucinating, but it's almost like immediately after he turns back to face the front, he takes off his reading glasses and his shoulders roll back.

And he sits a tiny bit straighter. It's not super obvious. It's not like suddenly his back is erect and his posture is 10 out of 10. But it did seem a little coincidental. Like, let me sit better for this portrait. Yes. Like, make sure that they pay me better. Yeah. Type of energy. Yes.

Now, other moments with jurors that were maybe slightly uncomfortable in the courtroom. I'm just going to pull them out rapid fire. One juror is asked about in response to question 13, you indicated that you had a prior criminal issue, which is that you were caught shoplifting at the age of 16. How old are you now? 30, 30. OK. And you say you were charged a fine. And just generally speaking, what happened? I was at Universal Studios.

caught by security taking an item. I think I was in Harry Potter world. So they took me to the back and just kind of like put me through all the process and then I was mailed a fine. I got a lawyer. My lawyer handled everything so I was, it was just a fine and they put against me and I was prohibited from going back to the park for about a year. And what is it? What did you take? A wand.

So let's go to question 29. The question is, have you communicated to others or posted your opinion on social media or online or liked any social media posts about Mr. Combs? And you initially wrote no, and then you changed your answer to unsure. Yeah. So what did you like? I think it was a comedian. They made a joke because I guess when they went to his house, they found a bunch of baby oil. I remember liking it because I thought it was funny. That was really it.

So there was a joke about baby oil and you said you liked that comment. Yeah. What was the reason why you liked that comment? It's funny in my opinion. So I liked the video because I thought it was funny. Do you remember who the comedian was? Not off the top of my head. Another juror walks in and she says that her musical interests are rock, hip-hop and as well as quote, "I'm actively watching the concert of the group called BTS or Bangtan Boys."

There was nothing else notable. I just wanted to say that. Now the next year walks in and he looks, from my opinion, kind of like a fraternity boy, but slightly sleazier. And I say that with respect. Like this is visually speaking, because I don't know this man. He looks like the type of guy that would graduate college.

college and 10 years later still heavily rep his college fraternity merchandise and want to talk about how he was the coolest big to his little and still go in depth about rush week stories that's the personal opinion vibe i get from him he asks the judge a question so number 11 i wasn't sure about allegations concerning distribution and use of illegal drugs so i smoke marijuana um personally for recreational use okay and i'm not sure if that counts

So the question is asking, are you okay? Can you be unbiased if we talk about illegal drug usage? And he was like, well, I smoke. And there's a slight giggle in the courtroom and the judge tells him, well, I wasn't asking about your use. Okay.

But are you going to have any issues if there are allegations in this case about the distribution and use of drugs? Is that going to make you biased? No, no. The juror, to his very fine credit, he's incredibly honest, which I think is admirable. He basically states that he might have affected judgment, though, if he's on the jury. I use marijuana for personal recreational use, which might affect my judgment in making the right decision.

Meaning that, well, are you able to not use marijuana during this trial? I'm going to order you not to use marijuana during this trial. Are you going to be able to follow that instruction? Yes. And so if I give you that instruction and you follow it, you're not going to be having an issue. Correct. Yeah. When was the last time you used marijuana? Last night. Okay. How often do you use it per day? Once a day.

And I said that I would perhaps order you not to use marijuana during the trial because you said it might affect your judgment. Would that be hard for you given how often you use it? Yes, it would be. Yep. He was eventually excused for cause. What? Yeah.

Then the next juror walks in and these are not in chronological order, but the door opens, the juror walks in and he appears to be a middle-aged white man. But if he were Korean, this is a crazy statement. If he were Korean, I could see him kimchi squatting behind a convenience store.

And eating a roll of keem puff. That's the energy he gives me. Not smoking a cigarette because he's got children and a wife and kids that don't like the smell. That's the aura he gives me in my personal brain. He says, I admittedly don't read pop culture news. My wife makes fun of me for that. I have heard a few headlines, a few accusations. Just as a father of two young kids, you know, some of the accusations are troubling.

The judge asks if he's going to be able to not have discussions about this case with his wife, who is on social media a lot. He says, absolutely. Okay, so then just on the form, why did you say that you had a reservation or concern about whether you're going to be able to follow these instructions? My wife, she's a, you know, she watches Sunset, TMZ. Like, that's what she loves. And so I assume this case is going to be all over that since she's a follower of that type of content and that is a little concerning to me.

But he does say she's a fan. She does her own thing. I'm not around. I'm not going to go looking in her phone. If I can tell her topics that she cannot show me, she will listen to that. Has your wife spoken to you about this case or this defendant? I guess a few months ago. OK, what was the conversation? Oh, my God. P. Diddy. These terrible parties. He's in trouble. Did he do it?

He did it. Did he do it? No freaking way. And he was pretty... Okay, so a lot of the jurors, you can tell they're very soft-spoken into the mic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, OMG. How far are they from Diddy, like in terms of distance? Two rows of desks, three rows of desks. It's two rows of desks. Yeah, like three rows of desks and then Diddy. So like super close. Yes. Wow.

Yeah, and they have to walk. So there's two doors. One Diddy comes out of, the other one the jurors come out of. And he has to walk. They have to walk by Diddy to sit next to the judge and then walk out right in front. Did your wife express a view, you know, her own opinion about this case? No. And did you express an opinion about this case? Oh my God, that's a pretty big accusation. He was excused from the case.

The next juror walks up to the stand. He reminds me, and this is personal, but he gives me bowling dad vibes. Like this man in my alternate universe in my head, I feel like he owns a collection of bowling balls and he bowls on the weekends. Is there anyone who doesn't know Diddy from all these people? It doesn't appear. So most of them, they all know what's going on. Yes. Okay.

And so he says he's unsure if he can be fair and impartial because the lifestyle bias, you know, and when he's asked to elaborate further, he says, I mean, just the reputation that might be someone in that field. What do you mean by that? What field are you referring to? The music LA lifestyle, it's very much different than the way I was brought up. What's your perception of how it was different? Fast and loose.

He also says that he saw the video of Diddy and Cassie in the hotel. However, even though he saw it, he can be unbiased. He describes it as, well, you can't unring a bell. What does that mean? You can't unring the bell. I can't unhear something that I've heard, but I can separate that from what's presented here.

He does appear to be pretty honest in his answers. Like even it seems like he's very genuine. Like he's not trying to be like, yeah, no, I'm unbiased. It seems like he's being very thoughtful. If I'm not mistaken, the defense did not want him on the jury. So after they leave, after every juror leaves in the individual questioning, the defense and the prosecutors have a moment to bring up an application for striking that jury.

And then the judge will either strike them or hold off or bring them back in for further questioning. Or they'll be like, as of right now, no. The defense did try to strike him. They really did not like the can't unring the bell comment. And was he excused? He was not. Oh, okay. Because I think he was being honest. I mean, there's no one that hasn't seen something about Diddy. A lot of jurors were excused for either lack of English comprehension or just financial hardship due to the schedule. It's eight weeks.

it's eight weeks. You have to take off work. If you work by commission, if you have your own business, I mean, that's going to run you into bankruptcy. So a lot of them were excused for that.

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HBO. And what do you do for HBO? I'm a photo producer, which side note, photo producer means she helps with hiring, securing the location, getting the actors to there, getting the right attire, costumes, getting catering, hiring the photographer. And then they take the pictures for the advertisements that we see on the billboards.

She later states that she recently worked with The Last of Us, White Lotus, Thailand, the one Lisa is on. And the judge asks her, okay, and in the course of working for HBO, have you done any work or heard, have there been projects related to any allegations in this case? No. Later, the judge asks her, okay, now what have you heard or read about this case prior to today? Just because I work in entertainment, I'm somewhat familiar. I've seen the video. I've read a few headlines and articles, but I haven't done like a deep dive into it.

So the judge asks, has anything been discussed in your presence at HBO concerning Mr. Combs? Not officially, but I would say yes in hallway water cooler talk. What was the water cooler talk? Just that there's a case and he was arrested and he's in jail. Later, when the juror leaves the courtroom, I mean...

Mark is on this. Okay, the defense, they don't want her on the jury. Really? He says there are two areas of concern. HBO has a documentary, a very negative documentary about Mr. Combs in the context of this case. Now, she didn't say she knew anything about it, you know, and we have to accept her answers, I suppose. And so that just gives us great concern. I mean, she works for a company that actually put out a documentary that, you know, I think objectively speaking is a very negative documentary. The judge asks the defense, what is the documentary?

Mark looks over at Tenny. She looks at him. Diddy leans behind Tenny and gets Mark to lean down and whispers to him. And Mark stands up straight again. It's called The Fall of Diddy. Are you saying Diddy told them the name? Yeah. Okay, so they know the documentary. They don't know the name. Diddy leaned in and said... The Fall of Diddy. The Fall of Diddy. She was not excused that day. She was excused the next day.

Now, there are lots of overlap in this case. It's not even just overlap of everyone has seen some news or some articles, some headlines, but there's a lot of personal overlaps as well. One juror walks in and they reveal that they are enrolled at City College, which if we're trying to make everything a connection, I guess that would be a connection to the City College crowd crush.

One juror walks into the courtroom. He tells the judge, I got to change one of my answers to the questions. He says, my wife turns out probably about 30 years ago, served as a lawyer in a case. I don't even remember. I think she was involved in taking depositions and it was a case that involved Mr. Combs. So she was a lawyer for someone involved in the city college crowd crash incident.

It was a case involving, do you know how or what the judge is asking the juror? My understanding is that Mr. Combs was a promoter of a concert and something went wrong. There was a riot or, you know, stampede at the door and some people lost their lives. And there was, you know, discussion about, you know, his liability, I believe. The judge later asks, all right, and has she ever expressed to you any negative opinions about Mr. Combs that you can remember at this point 30 years later?

you know, in taking the depositions and just research, she, you know, did not have a positive opinion of him. And what's crazier is he didn't even tell his wife that he was serving on the jury for Diddy's case. He says he went home and his wife was like, hey, what case did you, are you doing jury duty for? And I didn't tell her, but he says, you know, this case was all over the news though. And it's a big case. The day after that, he's like, my wife came back and her colleague, the wife of this colleague is also in the jury pool. And I'm

And was like, hey, I saw the other person you work with. She comes home to her husband and is like, hey, I saw that person. So wife's colleague's partner is also in the jury. And they just told, that is crazy. So then the judge is like, okay, got it. So then your wife came to you and said, I was in this case a long time ago. And then he's like, yeah, when I filled out the questionnaire, I had no recollection of it. I would not want her participation to come out at some point in the future and me not have revealed it.

No, you did absolutely the right thing. So he's saying that was 30 years ago. I didn't even think about it. And then, you know, my wife was like, hey, my colleague's wife saw you at jury duty for the Diddy case. I, you can't. What? Yeah, he was excused. And then there's just a lot of other random, slightly awkward, interesting moments. Another overlap. When Wenger walks in, he instantly is like, they're giggling.

The judge and the juror are giggling. They used to work together at a massive law firm. So he was excused. And another juror, there's a very awkward moment where he goes up and he is questioned and he states that his occupation is working at MDC Brooklyn, the very jail that Diddy is being held at.

So any of these like personal connections between anybody is a reason for them to be excused. Typically, but it really depends on how strong the connection is. I did notice something and I don't know if it's a coincidence. It could be a coincidence. But a lot of the jurors came up onto the stand and one of the pieces of media that they say they saw before being called to jury duty is the hotel footage of Diddy and Cassie.

And sometimes they will describe it. Sometimes the judge will read out what they wrote about the hotel footage in their questionnaire. But if it's brought up with a little more description, Diddy appears to me to be shaking his head no slightly. It happened multiple times. And every time the hotel footage came up, I would be locked in. I would be staring at Diddy. And often, again, he would just kind of shake his head no.

So one juror is asked, do you remember what that still image was that you were referring to? So he just saw like a screenshot of it. It seemed to have been in a hotel hallway and the still image was of a woman on the floor. And can I say Mr. Combs standing? Now, the judge points out in the questionnaire, she wrote that it could be damning evidence. And she said, I guess I guess I don't know how else to say it. It didn't seem to be what a person would want to be experiencing. I don't know how else to phrase it.

Another juror describes the hotel footage, and this is when they're questioned. A video in the hallway that was dragging a person over the hallway, and Diddy would kind of shake his head no. Later, the same juror states they saw, quote,

and there were headlines in the news, parties, and there were different situations with people who were very uncomfortable after certain periods of time, and they feel like they were drugged, put something in their drinks, and then they remember, and then there were situations that people were abused that they were taken advantage of.

One juror describes the hotel video as, "I saw the video of Mr. Combs and this person. I seen a video of Mr. Combs and it seems like this person was in the video and harm was being done to her in the video." Another says, "The defendant was shown, I don't know how to describe, I think he was outside an elevator in a common hallway of a hotel. I think he just sat on a towel or bathrobe on and there was a woman. He went to get her. She ended up on the ground."

Wow. Another juror describes seeing the hotel footage as, quote, pretty much in my opinion, mostly everybody saw the video of the defendant and I believe it was his ex-girlfriend in the hallway of the hotel. Another juror responds about what they saw prior to this. Again, the hotel footage. Yeah, it's what I remember from the news. And seeing those reports, did that lead you to form an opinion as to Mr. Combs' guilt or innocence? No, it didn't lead me to form an opinion. I was basically just watching it and was taken aback or shocked. And why were you taken aback?

because it was just seeing it was a tad disturbing. I don't, I didn't have all the facts. I don't know. The scene itself was unfortunate. That's what I meant. Other notably awkward moments, which again, this might just be my perception of things. The judge will, cause the judge has to verify. It's not like the judge is doing this intentionally. He's doing everything to the letter of the law and,

He's reading out some of the jurors responses to the questionnaires. It feels like when you talk bad about someone and then it gets repeated in front of them. The judge is reading. You said that P Diddy has a lot of money to use that as description, possibly by his way out of jail. What did you mean by that?

I mean, I don't know how else to explain that. On the same note, another instance, the judge reads out another part of the questionnaire of another juror and reads out the repeating playing of the hotel video of incidents above and media gives the appearance of an angry, hostile person who is entitled. So judge is reading these out loud. And it's just like, can you clarify? In front of Diddy. And do you feel like they're

I feel like, okay, so I was trying to watch both. Diddy's actually more deadpan during these moments. It's usually the hotel footage that seems to get a little head shake. No, it gets something out of him. Yeah. Otherwise people are like, yeah, I saw the headlines. I saw this. My wife was like, did he do it? Did he not? OMG. Not much. It's kind of just deadpan.

But I will say the jurors look slightly uncomfortable. Now, speaking with another juror, the judge reads, just to remind you the question about have you read, seen or heard anything about this case? And the last sentence here is, well, I'll just read the entire answer. You said, I know through the media that Sean Combs is accused of illegal activities related to human trafficking and extortion. I understand that a producer of his alleges that Mr. Combs may have forced him into sexual relations that were nonconsensual and that Mr. Combs was also accused of engaging in sex with

underage participants against their will. Where did you get that information? With this one Diddy, I perceived a little a little head shake now. I do think that it was been a very depressing week. I know a lot of news headlines were pointing it out but the amount of women and even men that were on the stand for further questioning. Now because Diddy is accused of SA crimes

They have to ask, like, have you been essayed? Because it could form a bias that they need to at least know about. It doesn't automatically disqualify someone, but it's just something that they need to know. The amount of people that have been essayed in their lifetime, it just is like one after another after another.

One older juror states, the situation was a dentist that my parents had gone to and they didn't pay them. And they ended up sending me there and I ended up working for them for that. It was a very blurry authority versus a person who is not paying for their dental bill. I developed confusion about obligations, about authority, which, you know, I went to a lot of, I guess you could call it therapy, about it to become more alert and more aware of boundaries around these types of situations.

she was molested by the dentist. This happened in the 70s. Another jury reports that they were essayed by family members when they were like eight years old. Another was essayed during college by a neighbor. Another, their daughter was essayed. Another was, there was attempted essay by a random person on the street.

And the most depressing part of it is not even just the sheer amount of people that have those traumatic life experiences, is the fact that a lot of them do report that they didn't go to the police about it. I mean, they don't go further into it, but you can imagine it's just, what are the police going to do? That's the feeling. One Marine vet...

He came out. He looked like a sports dad. So I was trying to understand the, I guess the vibe, such a weird word, of each juror as they came out for individual questioning. He looked like a sports dad. He looked kind of buff. He's a Marine veteran. His wife was also in the Marines. And he tells the judge, my wife was a uniformed victim advocate in the Marine Corps in South Carolina. She's in the Marine Corps. We both were.

And he admits, yes, potentially I would be biased in this towards an alleged victim. And the judge excuses him for cause, thanks him for his service and thanks him for being there. But it was a very interesting moment of having a very buff statured guy walk up there, a Marine vet and in front of Diddy say, yeah, I'm going to be biased towards the victim.

There were a lot of people who have had experiences with DV. One juror states that their sister was a victim of DV. Another had friends that were ultimately deceased from DV. It's just like back to back to back. Another juror, she seemed at least in my opinion traumatized by even having to answer the jury duty questionnaire. She was asked why she wrote no on the questionnaire about seeing Diddy on TV.

And then later took it back and said, I actually did see him. And she said, because I'd been through all those things before. So I didn't, I didn't want to talk about it. You said that you had been through those things. What do you mean? What I mean is I've been traumatized. It was in a war. It was a lot of things. She was older. It was lots of things. We went through this when I was there.

She was excused. So a lot of the testimonies were just, not testimonies, but questionings were incredibly raw and difficult to get through. There were a lot of medical concerns, a lot of people that were very sick. One woman, she has ocular migraines, so she needs to take breaks, put her hands above her eyes and rest for her vision to come back. Another juror has seven stints in their heart and has to take medications that would make it nearly impossible for them to come here and serve on the jury every day.

And I think the very jolting part about watching and listening to the jury selection questions is I feel like we meet a lot of people in our daily lives. But to have everyone's life encapsulated in a 10 minute, like they go through their most traumatic moments. They explain their job, their occupation. They talk about other random facts like my cousin is a law enforcement officer.

I have a degree in psychology. So it feels like you get a very deep snapshot, not just of like the pretty resume, but like all of the aspects of what makes someone who they are in 10 minutes. And it also is just so depressing after depressing after depressing. And I think that's why this next incident became, I guess, a more funny moment in court. Although I don't think it's funny. I think just everything is so depressing.

A slightly older woman walks into the courtroom, a juror, and at least from my impression, from the other side of the courtroom, she appears very timid in her body language. Like how old is she? 50, 60. Okay. She sits down next to the judge. She's one of the dozens of jurors that's going to be questioned. The judge says, in question 9B, the question was, would you be able to listen to and discuss matters of a sexual nature with fellow jurors? And your answer to that was no. And you gave a reason for it. And is it okay if I ask you about that while you're sitting here? Sure. Okay.

her voice is like sure like kind of shaky what was the reason for your no answer i'm a very shakes again it sounds like her voice is breaking i'm a very sensitive person and i could faint or black out when i was in junior high school during the health education class the teacher brought up it shouldn't have been but they brought up blowjobs and i actually fainted

and the teacher and everybody surrounded me and said "what's going on here?" and I was so embarrassed I said I fell asleep when I didn't and so I feel that if I were to come into mental contact with something similar I wouldn't be able to speak coherently and I wouldn't be a good juror she is excused I think that was a very notable moment in the courtroom an older woman was asked about how she responded to a question if she could be fair and impartial and she says that she does have a level of anxiety about the idea of being on the jury she says

It's very unfamiliar situation, I guess. It's not very familiar. It's unfamiliar. It's an unfamiliar environment and I'm not used to being listened to intently and to having my answers matter very much. In question nine, you were asked if there's anything in the nature of evidence or graphic videos and photographs, including videos of physical violence that would make it difficult for you to be fair and impartial. You said no, but you answered, I cannot predict my response and what the images will be. What did you mean by that?

I've seen people die in front of me. Like I watched somebody get run over by a train. There have been a few other situations in my life. I've seen horrible things actually happen and I was okay with it. Not, I mean, not okay with it, but it didn't become a second problem. When something utterly horrible happens in front of me, I tend to shut down or just kind of call 911 or anything like that. But I guess in a video it's detached. So she's saying like, she's not a hundred percent confident, but she assumes she'd be fine.

Another juror raises concerns. You know, the only thing that I was and put in the prior question is that to me, you have the life of somebody on your hands. So to me, that is this very difficult part. I don't know. I think I can do it, but it's something that I have to be very sure that that person, you know,

Yeah. I will say that the media is reporting a lot of jurors just didn't want to be there and didn't want to serve. I actually didn't necessarily get that being in the courtroom. I think the transcripts do kind of read that way. I'm sure a ton of that. A lot of them just looked annoyed to be in jury duty, but they didn't. It wasn't like they were coming up with a million excuses to try and leave. They just seemed kind of like, I don't know if I can do eight weeks because I'm going to lose my job. I'm going to have financial hardship like I can't.

A lot of people seemed relatively neutral, if not like, oh, yeah, I mean, I guess jury duty, right? But there was one juror where I felt, I'm like, I don't think this woman wants to be here at all. She walks in and she tells the judge she has a new scheduling conflict. Her son is graduating high school and she wants to be there. It's the second week of June. Trial is supposed to go into July. The judge starts asking her, what day? I don't recall. On a Friday? I don't remember. Okay, what time of day is it? It starts, I think, around 10 or 12.

And you don't know the day like it's a Wednesday Thursday. I don't recall which week is it? I can't say I don't remember Okay, well you clearly thought about this after you did your questionnaire But you didn't go look to see what the date was or what the time was or any of the details of the event Well, I rely on my son to tell me these things and he didn't yet He says he didn't know it himself yet. But I remember when my first one was graduating it was around this time

All right, where does your son go to school? Like, where is it in the city? It's in Westchester. They move on and the judge asks her if there's anything else she needs to change from her questionnaire. She says, I think there was. I don't know. So there were questions about violence and graphic. Yes. Images and stuff like that. So I don't think I can do that.

Why? I'm battling depression right now and I don't think that's going to help in my recovery. Which side note, this is not me insinuating. I think that's a very real thing. But then the next part, the judge says, alright, so in your questionnaire, why did you say that you did not have a problem looking at that type of material? I don't know, I was overwhelmed. I didn't realize. I didn't know about the case at all. Alright, anything further that you wanted to change in your questionnaire?

um i didn't know about the case then i now i do what did you see uh it was um it's music it was a song that i heard about the case how did you come upon hearing this song it was it was on like a russian comedy channel she does get excused for cause i did find the russian comedy channel wait wait what it's just like an snl skit vibe of p diddy oh so she's like yeah i saw that now

Oh, it did seem like she wanted to get out of it. Maybe she wanted to get out, at least to me. Maybe she wanted to get out of it because it's too much, too intense mentally. And she was just looking for any reason. I think that could be the case. OK, OK. One thing that I do think is very interesting, and I don't even think there's any sort of measure that we'll have at the end of the trial for this.

there were moments and I was talking to my researchers. So it's not just me. There were moments where it's like in the back of your mind, right? I felt like I made eye contact with Diddy. And of course, like there's other things I'm thinking about. I'm taking my notes. But then in the back of my mind, like once or twice, it's like,

oh yeah, this guy is famous. Like it's just, it's just like a thing. Like, cause you see him on TV, you see him on screens, you hear people talk about him. And then it's a reminder of like, oh, whoa, this is the same person in the courtroom. These are the same people, right? Now,

I don't know. I think it would be interesting to psychologically study the jurors for that. I don't think they can, but you get what I'm saying of during individual questioning of the jurors. There are so many times where it looks like Diddy is trying so hard to connect with them. Maybe he just likes to connect with people. Maybe it's for his case, right?

he would seemingly sympathetically nod his head as jurors talk about hardships that they go through or if a juror has an awkwardly cute or funny moment he would sometimes smile i mean it's not like a big toothy grin but he's smiling so for example one jurors asked if she knows any people on the people's in places list and she says i don't but i wish i did

And he's smiling at her. Can you explain the people in certain places list? Okay, so there are a list of like over 100 people in places that the jurors, this is not public information, everyone on that list. The jurors have to go through and they have to tell the judge if they personally know any people or places on these lists. I'm going to go into who they are. When the group questioning takes place, at least on the second day of jury selection, Diddy pivots his chair down.

So the jurors come and they all sit down in the front of the courtroom on the right side. So now they're like directly in front of us because we're on the right side. And they're facing...

So we see their side profiles. Diddy sees, like if he twists, he'll see all of their faces. And it's tiered, you know, so it's rows. And he's just giving them undivided attention. So they have a mic and they go one by one and they rapid fire. Like I'm 34, this is where I work. They have to answer a list of questions that they're given. And then they pass the mic and the next person and the next person. At points, he's craning his neck to get a better look at the jurors while they're speaking. When someone makes a joke, he...

genuinely giggles like they're at a dinner party. And I'm like, I was just thinking in that moment, and I think this is unrelated, but how does that affect jurors? Because at the end of the day, I think psychologically, humans are somewhat drawn to people that are perhaps famous. In a way, he's giving them this attention, right? Does that psychologically influence? Play anything. Yes, because...

And then I guess also like the whole thing is they're supposed to be non-biased. Yes. Right. So they're trying to not to judge him, you know, innocent until proven guilty. And then he's here being a really good sport, you know, charming, who's laughing at their jokes, devoting his attention to them. Does that change their view of Diddy? And I know what people are going to say. They're going to say, if I was on that jury, it would not change my view. Right. But

you wouldn't get to that point because you would have been weeded out if you're biased against Diddy to that level. So coming from like a, if they're a neutral unbiased stance, does that even play a role? I don't know. Yeah, no, that's, that's valid. That's a good point. There is another moment during group questioning where, so they all have to answer if they have adult children where their adult children work. So there's no, I guess, conflict of interest or any bias. One of the jurors states that her daughter retired as an executive from United Healthcare. Okay.

and I was, my eyes went straight to Mark and because he and his wife are representing Luigi Mangione. At least from my perspective, it did seem like Teni and Mark Agnifilo shared a look. It looked like a mental note look. It didn't look panicked. It didn't look crazy. It just was like, oh, but it was interesting nonetheless. Yeah. Okay, so now the people and places list. It's just a lengthy list so far from all of the

Every juror that was the first day, they didn't ask personally. So every juror that came in was like, yeah, Kanye. And everyone's like, how do people, how does everybody know Kanye personally? And then once they're verifying, do you know them personally or you just recognize their name as a celebrity? They're like, okay, yes, I recognize their name as a celebrity.

So far, here's the list of people. Number 38 is Chance Combs, which is Diddy's daughter. Christian Combs, Diddy's son. Laurieann Gibson, a choreographer. Kanye West, Michael B. Jordan, which one of the jurors does mistake him for the basketball player. Lauren London, an actress who dated Nipsey Hussle

before his passing. Kid Cudi, Mike Myers, the actor and comedian, Aubrey O'Day, Harvey Pierre, that's the producer. These are people that are directly related to Diddy, and there's allegations or there's situations. Don Richards, Cassie Ventura, Michelle Williams, the singer from Destiny's Child.

Dallas, Austin, Young Miami. It's been reported. So the main connection that people are focusing on is Mike Myers, because no one really knows like why. We don't know if the connection is deeper. It doesn't seem like there's a deep connection. And then it's reported that Michael B. Jordan went on a date with Cassie, which Diddy was reportedly upset by, allegedly.

And then obviously Kid Cudi, his car was blown up. Allegedly Diddy blew up his car. And the rest I imagine a lot of them don't have sinister connections as some people are making it appear. Like I don't think this is the Diddy's list that you know, but I guess we'll find out. So a lot of people are now guessing what's next because opening statements are coming Monday. Some people are commenting, I'm guessing Mark and Tenny are going to focus on the sex trafficking.

And then Emily is going to be on drugs and drug use. Brian Steele, the Rico racketeering focus. Nicole Westmoreland will probably concentrate on cross-examining female witnesses. Alexandra Shapiro is this netizen's favorite. She seems to be the expert, but I'm not sure what she and Xavier Donaldson will focus on. That's the netizen comment.

And so with that, we just have to wait for Monday for opening statements to start. So they haven't narrowed down to the 12? No, and the six alternates, not yet. So they're going to do that on Monday, and then opening statements will start right after. Hmm.

So right now there's 45. And at this point, up until this point, every time the defense doesn't want someone on the jury or the prosecutors don't want someone on the jury, they have to tell the judge, I don't want them for this reason. The judge can disagree. The judge can be like, yeah, your reason is dumb or no, that doesn't apply.

But so they fight it out or maybe sometimes they both agree, which in that case, the judge will strike that juror. But now each of them have six strikes. They can take out six jurors without explanation, without reason. So 45 minus six and six, that's 12. So 45 minus 12 will be 33 people left after they just knock out 12. But I do think that there's more questionings too for any potential strikes.

as well they just have to narrow down to 12 and then six alternates but i think it'd be interesting to see who they strike out just because they're like i don't want to give a reason this is it's interesting so a lot of decisions will be made on monday and i will be in the courthouse and i will be right here right after and i will see you then

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