Sean Combs: "Someone is lying."
11:02 Share

Switch to Verizon Business and get more from your internet without paying more for your internet. Get LTE Business Internet starting at $39 a month when paired with select business mobile plans. That's unlimited data and with it, unlimited possibilities. Start saving today with Verizon Business. Ranked number one in small business internet customer satisfaction by J.D. Power.

Starting price for 25 megabits per second LTE internet plan with smartphone plan savings, plus taxes, fees, and economic adjustment charge. Terms apply. For J.D. Power 2024 award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards. What if you could turn your curiosity for true crime into a degree? At Southern New Hampshire University, you can. Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 degrees you can earn online, including subjects like forensic psychology and criminology.

And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S., Southern New Hampshire University makes earning your degree affordable. Find your degree at snhu.edu. That's snhu.edu.

It's 2025, and it's time you embraced the future of toilet cleaning with the Clorox Toilet Wand. The Clorox Toilet Wand is an all-in-one toilet cleaning system that comes complete with a sleek bathroom caddy and disposable scrubbing pads preloaded with cleaning solution. The set even comes with six scrubbing pads preloaded with disinfecting toilet cleaner. Just click, swish, and toss for a fuss-free clean. Visit Amazon to purchase your Clorox Toilet Wand today.

This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Cannon, and it's Tuesday, June 17th. Just a heads up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.

Today, in downtown New York, Cork kicked off with more juror issues. And that's also how the day ended. In between, the prosecution showed credit card payments for hotel rooms. They say Combs and his staff booked for nights with escorts. On Cross, the defense pulled up more text messages that they say suggest Cassie Ventura enjoyed at least some of those nights.

NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas was in the courtroom this morning as those receipts were shown. And as the judge read both legal teams, the riot act. Chloe is outside now to get us up to speed. Hey, Chloe. Hey, Andrea.

So after a relatively quick and painless jury selection process, now in week six, there are problems. We've got turmoil with the jury. Juror number six was officially dismissed yesterday. And now it appears we have some issues with juror number seven. Here's the deal with juror number seven. Juror number seven was called in by the judge on Friday. And we could actually see him on the screens in the overflow room where the media and the public sit.

but you couldn't hear him. But a news organization published an article about juror number seven, and they knew all this information that was discussed behind closed doors.

He said that he received a text message from an unknown number, a number he didn't recognize, wasn't stored in his phone, asking him if he was juror number six, right? Because there were all these discussions and it was all in the media late last week that juror number six might be dismissed. And so this juror did the right thing, alerted the court, let the judge know, but that devolved into the judge learning that he had had a conversation with a former colleague. So...

We're not exactly sure if juror number seven is potentially in trouble here.

But we do know that the judge is having another conversation with him today. Now, I also want to point out the judge said that he wants to find out who leaked what, when and how. And the judge is like, I'm going to investigate this and I'm going to, you know, there will be potentially legal ramifications for the prosecution or the defense if I find out that anybody gave this information to the press. And all of this happening immediately.

amid juror number six having been dismissed this week. Juror number seven may be dismissed. So it's in situations like this, Andrea, that I just wonder, they could have just sequestered them, right? I mean, they didn't do that. Also relating to the jury, yesterday afternoon while you and I were taping,

The prosecution played some video clips from freak-offs. This was something that we thought perhaps would be played for jurors earlier on because there's been so much discussion about these freak-offs. So some of the jurors were seen wincing,

and kind of frowning during these videos that were played. So they have to put headsets on when they're watching, and they have these screen protectors so that nobody else can see. These are exhibits that are sealed to protect the privacy of those involved and the judge and also the defense. They don't want these videos being put up all over the internet and embarrassing everybody and really just kind of feeding that media circus that we've seen around this trial. The defense played...

some different clips of the freak-offs, a different portion of the same video. What were they trying to show by showing that section of the video? They're trying to show that these were not forced sexual encounters. The defense has always maintained that everyone that participated in these freak-offs were doing so consensually. It's in an attempt to show the jurors that people were happy. There were conversations being had. It wasn't

this forced sex trafficking situation that the prosecutors are trying to make it seem. All right, Chloe, when we come back, today both the prosecution and the defense returned to Cassie Ventura. What more is there to say? Find out.

Building a business may feel like a big jump, but OnDeck small business loans can help keep you afloat. With lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000, OnDeck lets you choose the loan that's right for your business. As a top-rated online small business lender, OnDeck's team of loan advisors can help you find the right business loan to fit your needs. Visit OnDeck.com for more information.

Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. Busy work weeks can leave you feeling drained. Prolon's five-day nutrition program rejuvenates you at the cellular level with boxes labeled by day so you know exactly what to eat. Developed at USC's Longevity Institute, Prolon supports biological age reduction, metabolism, skin health, and fat loss when combined with proper exercise and nutrition.

Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at ProLonLife.com slash Pandora promo. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease. See site for details.

Dateline True Crime Weekly. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Chloe, we mentioned at the top that the prosecution showed the jury some receipts allegedly relating to the hotel nights. What kind of things stood out to you from what the jury saw? These freak-offs could be expensive, and I don't just mean the hotel room and the escorts. What...

Made it so pricey. Some of the damage. One of the bills was from the Intercontinental Hotel from October 5th, 2012. Guess how much it was. Do you want to take a guess? A lot. Well, let me tell you the exact amount. $46,786.

Man, you can buy a car for that. Two cars. How is that even possible? The Hermitage, $950. Beverly Hills Hotel, there were two $500 bills, and that had to do with damage to the drapes.

and to the carpet. So you can only imagine. An important point the prosecution seems to be making is that these types of expenses were paid for by Combs' company cards. Yes, so we saw a lot of different receipts and Amex bills that show that everything from travel, the damage, hotel rooms, were paid for from his...

different business entities. Perhaps when the defense puts on their case, Andrea, they're going to say, well, Combs didn't know. He just put it on a credit card and expected his team to divide up personal and business. I think what they're

they're going to try to say is that Combs wasn't doing his own expenses. Right, right. Next, the prosecution pulled messages from March 2016, and that is right around the time of the incident at the hotel in L.A. where Combs can be seen on surveillance video kicking Cassie when she's on the ground. Why did they go back to these messages? Because these messages appear to corroborate Eddie Garcia's

Remember, he's the security guard who testified that he helped his boss sell that security footage to Combs, right? Remember the money in these...

brown paper bags and he ended up paying double the amount instead of $50,000. It was $100,000. And they also show a lot of interaction between KK, remember Christina Corum, and D-Rock, Combs' head of security. And they seem to be helping Combs keep tabs on Cassie and communicating with her on his behalf. Remember, Combs showed up to her place. He had a hammer. He was banging on the door. This was after he had

beaten her brutally in the hallway of the hotel. So in one message, you have Cassie writing to KK, Rock says he's 15 minutes away. This is crazy. He won't stop. Cassie to KK again, can you please tell him that the neighbors are about to call the police? And then D-Rock to KK, tell him he needs to get out of there before they call the police. And there's even another exchange in which Combs actually writes to D-Rock,

about those injuries that Cassie had sustained, saying, how is she? And DRock responding, she's okay eating breakfast. Face don't look bad. She's smiling. Call her. And remember, Cassie testified that she had to recover from those injuries at a hotel for several days. On Cross the Defense, they pulled up messages from that day as well.

giving a different view. They did, and the point of those messages seems to be that they're trying to show that Cassie lied when she told KK that her neighbors were going to call the police. Combs also wrote to Cassie, "'Hey, call me, the cops are here.'"

On cross-examination today of this SDNY investigator, the individual who was on the stand said that they didn't see any evidence that cops were ever called, no LAPD calls to Cassie's phone, no reports from the LAPD, and there were no incident reports.

They also showed many, many text messages, Andrea, that seemed to show Cassie reacting positively to Combs' suggestions to have freak-offs and expressing positive feelings towards him after they happened. And we also saw this with Jane. After the judge dismissed the jury today, he also dismissed everyone else. He said, slate is up. What did...

What does that mean? He kicked everybody out, all members of the press, both in the courtroom and in the overflow room.

And that's because he's trying to figure out this issue with juror number seven. And like I mentioned, we don't know what they've decided yet. He is not having a good day. He is angry. He's mad about this information being leaked to some news outlet about juror number seven. And the big question for me is, is juror number six, having been dismissed this week, going to talk and give interviews? Are they allowed?

They are. Once they've been dismissed? Once they've been dismissed, yes. They can talk from their own personal perspectives. So the judge wouldn't put some type of gag order on them to wait until there's a verdict? Hey, I guess that he could because he's not happy right now, especially about information being leaked to the press. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, judges are humans, too. They're people, too, and they have bad days. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Did we get any information, Chloe, about the schedule for the rest of this trial? Well, tomorrow, it definitely should be an exciting day because the prosecution is going to call Brendan Paul. He's Combs' assistant who was arrested on drug charges during the raids of Combs' properties. And he was supposed to testify today, but unfortunately, the

the direct examination, cross-examination, then redirect of that SDNY investigator that took all of today. But this is big. And we're going to hear about what went down that day. Yeah, this is very important for the prosecution as they wind down. Thank you, Chloe, so much. Of course. And thanks to everyone else for listening. We'll be back with a new episode tomorrow.

If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter Diddy on Trial. Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that. On Trial is produced by Frannie Kelly with help from the Dateline True Crime Weekly team. Our senior producers are Allison Orr and Liz Brown-Korloff. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.

Thank you.

Get 15% off plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe at ProLunLife.com slash Pandora promo. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease. See site for details.