Diddy’s trial was abbreviated this week. The proceedings had been successfully canceled Wednesday after a juror known as in sick, and federal courtroom wasn’t in session Thursday in observance of the Juneteenth vacation. However this morning, all the important thing gamers returned to the courtroom to listen to testimony from one of many rapper’s former private assistants.
Right here’s what you have to find out about Day 27 of the trial:
- Brendan Paul testified in regards to the calls for of his job as certainly one of Diddy’s former assistants. He instructed jurors he as soon as went with out sleep for 3 days. He recalled being requested to purchase 1000’s of {dollars}’ price of medication. He stated the music mogul didn’t take “no” for a solution and in contrast his employees assistants to the U.S. army’s SEAL Crew 6.
- Paul, dealing with cross-examination from protection legal professional Brian Metal, agreed that Diddy’s ex-girlfriend “Jane” didn’t appear hesitant or apprehensive earlier than “freak offs.” Paul stated Jane gave the impression to be a keen participant within the sexual encounters — contradicting her testimony and the federal government’s narrative.
- U.S. authorities prosecutors walked jurors via textual content messages from Cassie Ventura to Diddy. In a single textual content, Ventura stated she didn’t should be overwhelmed by him. “That’s not love, that’s possession,” Ventura wrote, apparently referencing the 2016 resort assault recorded on video.
- The protection once more tried to painting “freak offs” as consensual encounters. They entered into proof a March 2017 textual content message during which Ventura wrote: “I like our FO’s, after we each need it.”
🔎 The view from inside
By Adam Reiss, Chloe Melas, Katherine Koretski and Jing Feng
Diddy, sporting a white sweater and black pants, appeared engaged in as we speak’s testimony. He appeared to pay shut consideration to prosecutor Maurene Comey as she questioned U.S. authorities abstract witness Joseph Cerciello, a particular agent with the Division of Homeland Safety.
Paul, the ex-assistant, struck an ambiguous notice as he concluded testimony for the day. When requested by prosecutor Christy Slavik how he feels about Diddy as we speak, Paul replied with two cryptic phrases: “It’s sophisticated.”
👨⚖️ Evaluation: On this case, the star witnesses are textual content messages
By Danny Cevallos
Cerciello, the Homeland Safety particular agent, testified about charts of proof compiled by prosecutors to verify they correspond to 1000’s of pages of data, together with textual content messages.
Diddy will virtually certainly not testify. However it doesn’t actually matter. That’s as a result of in a contemporary legal case — particularly a federal legal case — prosecutors can get witnesses and defendants’ “testimony” in entrance of the jury with out them ever taking the stand. Combing via 1000’s of pages of textual content messages is one thing at which particular brokers and federal prosecutors excel. It doesn’t matter {that a} single textual content message or a brief sequence of messages could possibly be taken out of context. Prosecutors will introduce it and add their very own context. In spite of everything, if the defendant thinks these statements are deceptive, he can take the stand and dispute them, proper? Besides, more often than not, the defendant doesn’t take the stand.
On this case to date, the star witnesses have arguably not been the people. They’ve been issues like textual content messages, monetary data and different paperwork. For some purpose, individuals have all the time put issues in textual content messages as if they might by no means turn into public. We’re all responsible of that, too. All of us are possible a part of a textual content message “group” with our associates or household the place we are saying issues that, if publicly revealed, would trigger us quite a lot of issues. Actually for Diddy, these texts have triggered him quite a lot of issues — arguably greater than the individuals who testified in opposition to him.
🗓 What’s subsequent
U.S. authorities prosecutors are anticipated to relaxation their case on Monday. Diddy’s protection group has signaled it should want round two days to current its case. If that tough timeline holds, closing arguments may happen Thursday.
PSA: Each night time throughout Diddy’s trial, NBC’s “Dateline” will drop particular episodes of the “True Crime Weekly” podcast to get you on top of things. “Dateline” correspondent Andrea Canning chats with NBC Information’ Chloe Melas and particular visitors — proper in entrance of the courthouse. Listen here.
