P. Diddy Trafficking Investigation: Breaking Down The Facts

sea Diddy comes more specifically the

raids that have been conducted at homes

linked to the rapper producer

entertainment Mogul if you're new to the

story Homeland Security they conducted

these searches on these properties in

Los Angeles and Miami reporting

indicates that this is in connection to

an ongoing investigation through the

southern district of New York now the

raids came amid several different civil

lawsuits filed in recent months accusing

the rapper and others of sex trafficking

sexual assault rape domestic violence it

goes on and on it's absolutely horrific

but around the time of these raids Diddy

was reportedly last seen pacing back and

forth outside of a Miami Airport there

was a video that circulated this he was

accompanied by some family members now

at the time the 54-year-old rapper was

not detained he cooperated with

authorities he was not arrested let's

make that clear uh however I should tell

you in the latest development Diddy's

associate alleged drug mule Brendan Paul

was arrested in charge but with

possession of cocaine and marijuana now

coles's attorney Aaron Dyer responded to

the raids yesterday saying quote

yesterday there was a gross overuse of

military level Force as search warrants

were executed at Mr colm's residences

there is no excuse for the excessive

show of force and hostility exhibited by

authorities or the way his children and

employees were treated Dyer went on to

say that the raids were quote a

premature rush to Judgment of Mr Colmes

that is nothing more than a Witch Hunt

based on meritless accusations made in

civil lawsuits there has been no finding

of criminal activity or civil liability

with any of those allegations Mr Colmes

is innocent and will continue to fight

every single day to clear his day his

name now remember Colmes has not been

criminally charged in connection with

any of these allegations one of those

lawsuits was already settled the other

ones are still ongoing so that is

correct there has been no uh he's not

been found guilty of anything he's not

been charged there is no civil liability

yet but as the story develops we are

going to bring you the very latest and

there's a lot to get into in the

meantime we are going to dive into this

live chat live Q&A for the rest of the

hour again Facebook X YouTube submit

your questions we'll bring them on the

air now to help me answer this you don't

want to just hear from me I am joined by

La crime legal analyst Brian buckmire

who's right here in studio with me and

retired FBI agent Colin Schmidt out of

Los Angeles we're gonna get right to it

gentlemen good to see you um first of

all Colin were you anywhere near the

raids in La I think I should ask you

that first and has your traffic been

interrupted in any way no no I'm in

Southwest Riverside County so I wasn't

down there and that that neighborhood's

a little bit above my uh my income level

okay well let me ask you this so we have

a question now this is from chocolo and

I'm gonna say this I'm gonna mess up

these names a lot it's the first step is

admitting it I'm gonna mess up these

names a lot chocolo ate milk from

YouTube H FBI I thought this was

Homeland Security that rated Diddy's

Mansions because their specialty is

investigating human trafficking I throw

it to you Colin just a general idea

about the fact that you had the homeland

security being the ones who actually

conducted the

raid well they have the same authorities

as the FBI does and based upon uh their

uh their connection to the border and a

lot of the things are going on there

they've gotten uh a lot more involved in

the human trafficking side of the of the

crimes that are going on in the country

and frankly they do a fantastic job and

obviously they had a lot of resources

there for a reason and I would be

interested whenever uh we have that

opportunity to see the affidavit that

supports that warrant all right so

that's I'm glad we cleared that part up

uh because who conducted it tells us a

lot about this there's also a

preliminary question I want to now go to

Brian about uh this is from Nikki's girl

from YouTube question is they say it's a

trafficking case so who is he

trafficking to I get that he is involved

however who else is involved it's a

really good question when we talk about

what exactly is uh sex trafficking what

are the elements who would he be

involved with yeah so human trafficking

and then the more specific sex

trafficking is simply transporting

someone that affects interstate commerce

usually that's just traveling across

state lines and participating in sexual

misconduct in one way shape or form so

if you look at the Cassie lawsuit or you

look at the Rodney Jones Jr lawsuit

where there are civil allegations that

people were brought across state lines

for the purpose of of coursing them to

have sex that would be trafficking it

would be the individual that you're

moving from one place to another or the

person that you're having them engag in

sexual conduct in that state or that

area would be the trafficking it's it's

a little different than what we

typically think of just someone putting

another person in in a vehicle and move

them to another state it's it's the

sexual activities that occur in the

different states As you move them from

one one place to another that's a good

point I'm glad you broke that down um I

want to go to Colin for this so this is

a really good question from an equally

amazing name it's cats. adct from uh

YouTube I'm glad you admitted your

addiction again first step is admitting

it um the question is Prince Harry named

in Diddy's lawsuit true or not now I can

tell you as far as I know Colin in the

lawsuit they're referring to the little

Rod Jones lawsuit this is Diddy's former

producer accused him of sexual assault

sexual harassment encourage everybody to

check out the lawsuit this is actually

the amended lawsuit right here I know it

seems like a lot but it's actually

disturbing read to say the least uh my

understanding is Harry is just is one of

the people a celebrity name associated

with Diddy which by the way if I again

don't think there's any more mention in

that but I think the bigger issue is

when you're dealing with high-profile

cases like this and we said the same

thing with the galain Maxwell and the

release of all those documents you're

going to hear names doesn't mean they're

implicated in any way or they're

criminally responsible in any way it's

just a connection a celebrity connection

to Diddy what's your take on it because

Federal authorities have to be very

careful and sensitive to who is

discussed in these kinds of

Investigations well I think a lot of

times the they'll put uh names in there

I mean that that it's truthful I mean

they have to swear to the affidavit but

make it even more salacious to get more

attention I it's unlikely Prince Harry

had anything to do with this uh he was

just it's from what I understand uh from

my the news reports he just attended a

party and he was just listed in lawsuit

as just one of the attendees but there

was absolutely no uh no inclination or

no accusation against him or anybody

that's in his Circle I will tell you if

it comes out that Diddy or anybody in

his inner circle are ultimately charged

with the worst of crimes that we're

talking about here you know sex

trafficking charges then it goes into a

conversation like we had with the

Weinstein case or even the Epstein case

was this just known and never discussed

was this just known and nobody came

forward those are going to be some tough

questions but we're not at that point

yet but Brian I go to you now because

this is actually two questions that I

think are equally important one is from

D from YouTube well first let me do this

one this is the expat exchange from

YouTube based on the information known

What charges is Diddy likely to be hit

with Rico and then I'll also throw this

one for me this is D from YouTube what's

the sentence if charged and found guilty

so let me put it this way we don't know

anything about the investigation in this

case we know that it's it's sex

trafficking and we are connecting the

dots as best as we can and looking at

the Civil uh complaints from the five

different people one being Cassandra

Ventura her name also is is Cassie that

one settled so we look at the other four

so if I was a betting person looking at

those civil complaints I'm saying that

I'm looking at Rodney Jones's and we're

talking Rico because he alleges Rico

charges in his civil complaint as well

as the human and sex trafficking uh

Federal charge that one uh if I'm

correct I'm going to double check it I

think it's 18 USC

1591 that has an ultimate sentence of up

to 25 years in prison now the other

thing you have to think about is if

you're believing the allegations of

Rodney Jones to be true and there are

multiple allegations of traffic tring

there's a potential for multiple charges

of trafficking so it could be one charge

of human trafficking which is 25 years

or it could be multiple that are

sentenced consecutively so right now

it's speculation but you'll look to the

Civil complaints and that's you and I'm

glad let's also make it clear these are

civil complaints these are accusations

that make up a civil lawsuit having said

that you could have behavior that is

overlaps right have Behavior that's

civil but also part of the criminal

Arena but these are civil allegations

well the the complaint is civil correct

but what they are accusing in the

conduct and even in the Civil complaint

they are criminal statutes corre yes and

so you can take as we've seen and I'm

not drawing the comparison to say that

Shan comes is like these people I'm just

saying that the process is similar right

you can draw comparisons between Harvey

Weinstein who had civil cases that

turned criminal R Kelly Jeffrey Epstein

you can have civil claims that have

criminal bases that someone can

investigate and move forward on so uh

Colin let me move it over to you we have

Danny Q from YouTube uh what determines

if this case is federal or state Rico I

mean we know it seems to be a federal

investigation uh Homeland Security as we

talked about was a part of it so how do

we know or what makes it something

Federal versus

State well uh obviously the HSI went

ahead and did the raids and the the

concept of Rico gets thrown around a lot

it doesn't get charged very often

because there's a very high bar to prove

Rico and basically a Rico is an

Enterprise of two or more people that

are engag Eng in specified unlawful Acts

or criminal activity that's been

identified in the statute as and and and

obviously human trafficking is

identified there so what he's going to

be charged with if at all because he is

innocent till proven guilty we don't

know I mean that was the purpose of that

search warrant is HSI going in there

Gathering all the evidence and I'm sure

they're out doing lots and lots of

interviews and then if there is indeed

victims ATT attached to this uh as in

people that were human trafficked

they're going to be talking to all them

and wrapping this up and then I think

this will come to a head quite quickly

because of all of the media tension

that's swirling around let me ask you my

own question about that Colin a lot of

people have been wondering why were

charges not in conjunction with the raid

why did an indictment arrest happen in

conjunction with the raid if you can

explain

that well it might be because they're

relying on those complaints that are in

those civil lawsuits as well as some

other uh issues or things that determine

probable cause so so the bottom line is

that the US attorney's office especially

in Los Angeles is not going to charge

someday unless they feel confident

that're they're going they have uh

evidence Beyond A Reasonable Doubt so I

think the bottom line here is the uh

investigators want to gather everything

the prosecutors that are associated with

this they don't want to pull the trigger

too soon because they want to make sure

they get this right the first time

because you only get one chance

otherwise if you go too quickly uh they

might have to dismiss counts or not

arrest him at all uh Brian want to turn

this next question over to you by the

way you can get your questions in on

Facebook YouTube X Twitter get them any

which way you can all right so let's go

to this question this is from JT baller

3 from YouTube do we get access to all

the information presented in federal

cases or not I know there's no video

interesting because let's say an

indictment were to come out today or

tomorrow um what would be our level what

would our access be to those documents

what would we know well if the stny is

running an investigation in coordination

the southern district of New York is

running investigation in coordination

with Miami as well as uh Los Angeles

typically what they do when they do have

an indictment they post on their social

media specifically X or their own

website and they'll put out uh a blurb

of what the allegations are and what

they're charging this is me looking in

it in the future if Sean Colmes is

indicted so you might get that blurb in

some information we may also get an

indictment but if that information is

not presented to

reporting that that wasn't his Gulf

Stream and there's reporting that he

flew out of the country and then there's

reporting that he's in uh Miami right

now so it's really at that early stage

where everybody's making assumptions and

uh kind of uh kind of trying to fill in

the blanks um this is going to shake out

very very quickly and uh frankly

somebody of the stature of Mr Colmes I

mean it's it would be tough for him to

to hide anywhere in the world if if he

indeed wants to hide well

if he also goes to a country that

doesn't have extradition I'm sure that

would obviously complicate situations

although I want to now ask you Colin

followup question about the raid itself

received a lot of controversy I would

say Obviously from Diddy's legal team

they say that this was like a military

effort it was excessive we have a

question from wheelie Pete from YouTube

should his homes have been allowed to be

raided given that they were in his

daughter's name and the name of the

record company now again I I can't

confirm if that that ownership is

correct but assuming it is even so you

talk about the the what was used there

um you know we had armed Personnel

coming in people were placed in

handcuffs outside quite the presence

walk us through if you think it was

appropriate well just unpack that

question a little bit the first thing is

using a SWAT team is what they use there

uh might even been bork with the which

is the border patrol their tactical

Group which is phenomenal group The

bottom line is they were going to go

through probably a checklist of reasons

why they would use a tactical response

and the number one reason they would is

they may have gotten information that

there's firearms in the house and if

that's the case they want to certainly

uh use whatever resources they they have

to make sure everybody is safe also

based upon the size of that uh estate y

uh that by the time the officers got to

the front door everybody would have

known what what their purpose was so

using the those tactical resources was

absolutely I think appropriate because

they were concerned about not only their

own safety but the safety of the people

there and they want to do it in the

safest manner the second thing as far as

uh raing a house that's in somebody

else's name it doesn't matter whose name

it is uh the warrant's going to say or

the affid davit is going to say that

there's alleged or probable cause of

criminal activity or there's um uh

indicia of criminal activity is there

and that's what guides those warrants

and and I'm glad you mentioned that

because again going back to those

lawsuits if you just read it there and

you take everything is true there are

alligations of firearms possessions

there are at least two shootings that

are mentioned in the little Rod Jones

lawsuit implicating Diddy so of course

we are going to be following that all

right we have a question here Brian uh

this is from K mam from YouTube what

legally needed to happen to allow this

raid before an actual arrest do we know

the probable cause the civil suits

so you're they're kind of answering the

question there it's probable cause do we

know what the probable cause is no at

best I can tell you the level of

information that law enforcement needs

in order to kind of jump into someone's

home and start searching it so it's

probable cause which in lame person's

term I always describe it as the level

of information that a reasonable officer

would need to suggest that a crime did

is or will occur now you need some

specificities as to that nature of the

crime you could probably look to the

civil lawsuits for that whether it be

assault or sex trafficking specifically

probably the video evidence that Rodney

Jones says he not only has but says that

sha Colmes also has because he has

cameras and recordings inside the home

and so if Rodney Jones is able to sit

down and have a conversation from the

time that he filed that lawsuit back in

February of this year till now he might

be able to give law enforcement enough

information to say you know what of all

of Shan col's homes we believe that

Miami and La have the information we're

going to seek for let's go convince a

judge of that let's get those warrants

let's coordinate and let's move in I was

speaking to a former CIA and FBI agent

Tracy Walder who was of the opinion that

this raid happened at that time to

preserve evidence there could have been

an issue about whether evidence was

going to be discarded in any way we

don't know having said that uh you know

Brian really hit it on the head that if

you read this lawsuit from a former

producer of Shan comes it suggests that

he had cameras in all of the homes of in

the different homes that he had and it

was

was doing this was was got to a level of

comfort and so the fact that they were

raiding these homes it's because they

the law enforcement thinks that's where

the evidence is going to be located let

me just follow up with you Colin because

we have another question from Queen

Chrissy from YouTube did sha Colmes know

he would be raided the night

before unlikely yeah I don't think so I

I think he felt you know he probably had

a sense that he's in a lot of trouble

based upon those uh civil lawsuits

because he's got the resources to hire

very good attorneys who said the things

that are in these lawsuits are very very

very serious but for him to know exactly

when they were going to do this raid is

is highly unlikely all right Brian let

me turn over to you this is a really

really good question um so as we said

these civil lawsuits happen um it was

strange for me because I was actually

reporting on this about three four weeks

ago before Diddy's name was in the news

so much I was reading these lawsuits I

said this is they're alleging criminal

conduct I wonder if criminal charges

will happen now we see these raids one

of the things that was really

interesting one of the first lawsuits

was Cassie ventur and she ended up

alleging horrible things against Diddy

and other individuals rape um you know

their gun

possession I mean the she these these

illicit sexual acts that were very

difficult to even describe she settles

with him the day after and then we see

multiple lawsuits that happen the reason

I ask you this because Danny from

YouTube says was it a mistake for Diddy

to settle the Cassie

lawsuit good question right yeah I mean

hindsight is 2020 I bet you that Sean

comes is probably somewhere pacing right

now thinking the same thing um there's a

theory out there that that you could

suggest that settling one lawsuit

invited others to have other lawsuits

because they thought they could get

their payday so to speak and it was the

culmination of all these lawsuits that

led to a criminal investigation and

under that theory which is a very

reasonable one I I can't tell you that

it's true or not because I don't have

the facts to support it uh yeah I would

say it's a bad idea but on the flip side

if Sean Colmes didn't settle that first

case the discovery process would have

been horrendous you have to sit for

depositions people get to question you

uh people get to question the other

Witnesses potential Witnesses get to get

called you have attorneys like myself

who have what's called subpoena power so

we get to call other people to come and

testify so damned if you do damned if

you don't this might have been the

smarter choice but I think both were

were difficult choices to make and he I

know he made public comments afterwards

uh well I should say written comments

afterwards but basically said this is

like a money grab the floodgates are

open something to that effect um and

clearly the statement released uh by his

attorney yesterday is very consistent

with this this idea of this is Witch

Hunt that this is um you know he's

innocent of all the charges he hasn't

done anything wrong um Colin go back to

you got a question from and I hopefully

I'm not butchering the Stewie T from

YouTube It's Stewie

St so interesting maybe Stewie Stewie T

from YouTube surely if they raided his

homes he should be arrested and

questioned not necessarily uh they're

going to rely on the the evidence the

facts of the crime and they're going to

follow their own process so it's one of

those things we're going to have to see

where this goes and I've done warrants

where I have arrested the the target of

the warrant for many months even even a

year later just based upon the fact that

I was gathering evidence people got to

remember search warrant is an Evidence

Gathering tool it's not an arrest

warrant so this is part of the process

and it may take some time before they uh

they go to the next level if indeed Mr

Colmes is guilty of any of these things

people are accusing him of let's talk

about the next level this is a really

good question we have great questions

from our viewers this is uh for Brian

this is Taylor from YouTube would they

need to go to a grand jury for an

indictment uh this would be

feds yes for an indictment but you can

also have a special indictment or like

an information that's presented just to

the judge I would expect though in a

case like this yes but of course a grand

jury is a secret process we won't know

uh what type of grand jury there's

special Grand jurries that collect

information there are Grand jurries that

return indictments uh we don't know if

they're going to go through one or the

other or both uh but if you're looking

for an indictment yes the most common

form uh or process of doing that is

through a grand jury so Colin this is

another good question this almost sets

up what I would say I don't know if it's

a defense but I think this question is

wondering if it could be a defense Shan

Caesar from YouTube is it trafficking

meaning is it sex trafficking when the

participants travel

willingly as my understanding of the man

act uh that it is it's very uh

straightforward that if they are

transferred for the purpose of of sexual

purpose that it still meets the elements

of the law and because the per the

theory behind the law is are they able

to uh give consent to tra to travel in

that uh in that circumstance because of

they may be under some sort of uh

intimidation or maybe uh you know held

against their will we just don't know

but to say they they consented to go

across state lines for this purpose uh

you'd have to talk to the victims to

figure out what the real story is or if

they're minors and they wouldn't be able

to consent Brian what do you think yeah

I'm gonna piggyback of what Colin is

saying as well it think of it this way

it's less about the the the travel more

about the destination and so if you

consent to Flying to to La uh but you

know that the destination you're going

to have UNC consensual sex that would be

a violation of the man act or of human

trafficking it's not necessarily the

reason for traveling but the reason for

the destination I think is the easiest