Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
Stephen A. comments on prosecutors raiding music mogul Sean P. Diddy Combs’ jail cell. Stephen A. discusses the latest in the Sean P. Diddy Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering case.
I felt obliged to begin with the latest on Showing Diddy Combs, currently sitting in jail awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. P. Diddy Combs and his legal team scored a victory yesterday when the judge overseeing the case said prosecutors are not allowed to use jail house notes taking during the raid of his cell, Comebs reportedly had nineteen pages of handwritten notes for his team, and the judge ruled those notes are subject to attorney client privilege. Combs' legal teams scored another legal victory yesterday when the judge ruled the music mogul can appear in court without shackles around his legs. By the way, Combs is another bail hearing set for this Friday. I think when we see something like that, ladies and gentlemen, it just gives us an indication that you can't rule anything out. He's showing P Diddy Combes. He's worth over half a billion dollars. Obviously, he can afford the best lawyers, The best legal minds available are available to him. And when you look at something like this, all be it minute. In the eyes of some he's still in jail. Okay, doesn't appear to be getting out before April or May something along those lines. And when you see something like this, you're like, what's the big deal? So what he won the case? Well, take this into consideration. If you have law enforcement officials and prosecutors raiding your jail cell to take your private notes because they believe, somehow, some way you're making a concerted effort to influence potential witnesses against you, all right, and the judge rules that non admissible and they're not able to use that kind of stuff against you. That's very, very beneficial. Everybody else has to show up in court essentially with shackles on, but he doesn't. Now, some people will sit up there and say, Okay, again, that's not a big, big victory. But image and perception does matter even in the court of lord. Why because this jurors involved, and when you roll up in there looking like a prisoner, that hurts. He still want. Perception doesn't escape reality, but sometimes in the minds of a few, it potentially can. And every time you hear something about p Diddy or right, and you hear about his denials and then you see him win one little victory after another. It does beg the question how much winning is he literally capable of doing against the Southern District of New York and beyond in terms of the cases that are being levied against him. I'm looking at stuff like this and I'm watching it with a fine tooth comb because i want to see how many small victories is he going to accumulate in an effort to ultimately get himself out of jail. Yes, he's in prison right now. He's in jail right now, Okay, right there in Brooklyn, New York. He doesn't appear to be getting out anytime soon. There is going to be a trial that's taking place this spring. We know all of that. But anytime you've got situations where ever is considered non admissible and the prosecution can't use it against you, that makes it harder for you to accumulate the level of evidence to get at him about We heard about the sex trafficking. We saw the video, the damning video where he was beating up his former girlfriend, Cassie. We saw all of that. But in the end, when he's sitting there, he talked everybody bringing up a thousand bottles of baby oil, and you know, video tapes of you know and and freak offs and all of this stuff. Keep in mind, Pete did he No one heard him say excuse me, I'm innocent. It never happened to the courts. What they're saying is that it was consensual amongst adults. And because of that, as his lawyer is intimated, when I was watching them on programs like News Nation or Cenna, what have you, what did you hear them say? You might find his behavior reprehensible, You might find it disgusting, you might find it a lot of things. The word we're concerned about is whether or not it was legal. And if it was legal, meaning consensual, non forced, then all of a sudden, it gives you a reason to believe this possibility he could get off. Now, I'm not casting dispersions or any kind of judgment on anything involving P Diddy outside of that video. That video, that's evidence. We all saw that, and there's a discussion to be had about the statute of limitation on such a violent act against another human being, particularly a defenseless woman who happened to be his girlfriend. That is non debatable. We saw what we saw. Everything else, everything else speculative they got their case, he'll have an opportunity to his defense lawyers to present his at which time we'll be able to judge. A lot of times we're sitting back, we're assuming because somebody's in jail, they're automatically guilty even before the trial took place. Did he is saying something else? He's saying hell no, he's not going out like that. He's not guilty. And when we see stuff like this happening, what other small victories will his defense team accumulate? That begs a legitimate question that I just asked. It is important to point out this is far from over and it's far from determined, no matter the tsunami of allegations and headlines that have rained down upon him. Just the thought, y'all, Just the thought.