billionaire Elon Musk is the latest celebrity being called out for his connection to sha Diddy Colmes as a music mogul turn inmate sits behind bars in a Federal Detention Center in New York investigators are looking into who knew what and when we're discussing how Elon Musk could end up in the spotlight as comes' legal troubles continue to mount welcome to sidebar presented by law crime I'm Elizabeth Milner in for Jesse [Music] Weber billionaire businessman Elon Musk is own comments have him in some hot water online some are calling him out as hypocritical for questioning who
might have known about the indiscretions of sha Diddy comes last month the Federal grand jury for the southern district of New York indicted comes on charges of racketeering conspiracy sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution prosecutors alleged Colmes was the leader of a criminal Enterprise that focused on fulfilling his sexual fantasies multiple civil lawsuits as well as the criminal indictment describ what Colmes calls freak offs or fos and Cassie Ventura's multi-million doll lawsuit which com settled the day after it was filed Ventura described the freak offs as sex sessions that would often last for
several hours they required intensive preparation including setting up a room in com's home or hotel with lighting and lubricant bringing in commercial sex workers and procuring and administrating drugs to the people allegedly being forced to participate there's a chance more charges could be filed down the line but for the time being comes is locked up in Brooklyn New York with no bail two different judges decided to deny comes' request to be released until trial his legal team had offered up $50 million as collateral even planning to leverage comes' multi-million Doll Miami mansion but the judges
denied it citing evidence that the music mogul may have been involved in witness tampering and determining he may be a Flight Risk plus the legal action being taken against comes isn't slowing down we told you on an episode of sidebar earlier this week that Texas attorney Tony Busby plans to pursue legal action against combes on behalf of more than 100 victims more than two dozen of those future plaintiffs say they were minors when Colmes allegedly assaulted them during a press conference Busby told reporters that he's not just planning to name Colmes as a defendant the
wall of Silence has now been broken and victims are coming forward our team has had at this point more than 3,200 85 individuals contact us with people claiming people claiming to have been victimized by Shawn comes after Ving we now represent 120 individuals who intend to bring civil claims in civil court against Shawn Diddy combes as well as claims against many other individuals and entities that we will name as defendants as we file these individual cases I expect that through this process many powerful people will be exposed many Dirty Secrets will be revealed we know
what we are potentially up against and as is always the case in situations like this when a celebrity is involved people can be downright mean and nasty you be shocked at the length fans will go no matter the evidence to the contrary to defend celebrities they love I mean there's a reason for this word fans they're Fanatics I've person already been threatened multiple times on social media and when I agreed to pursue this I expected as much this isn't my first rodeo but victims who step forward to have their voices heard should not be subjected
to that kind of conduct they should not be targeted in response to Busby's news conference Erica wolf an attorney for comes released this statement writing quote Mr combes emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused any one including minors he looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court where the truth will be established based on evidence not speculation end quote as we learn more about comes' behind the-scenes Behavior which has apparently been going on for decades many people are questioning his relationships with aist celebrities in the
music industry Fashion World and entertainment business we recently looked at his connections to Usher Justin Bieber Meek Mill and Ellen degenerous you can check out those episodes over on the La crime YouTube channel the latest person in the sites of critics is Elon Musk The Man Behind Tesla SpaceX and the site formerly known as Twitter on Tuesday a user tweeted how many other cases are like this that we don't know about in the music industry seemingly referring to instances of assault and abuse mus responded with good question then on Wednesday after Busby's news conference mus
shared a screenshot of an article from The Daily Mail headlined Diddy accused of abusing a 99-year-old boy and spiking drinks with hor tranquilizers as 120 victims come forward with shocking claims musk added the comment how many people in music and entertainment knew about this this sparked a lot of discussion in the comments about his own connection with Combs singer and reality TV star aubri o day retweeted Mustang ask your friends they will tell you oday has been a vocal critic for comes for many years since her days on the reality TV show Making the Band
in the early 2000s on the show Colmes had groups compete to be a part of his label bad boy records ode was a member of the girl group Danity Kane she claims Colmes was abusive not only on the show but for years afterward she claims she was fired from Danity Kane for refusing comes' sexual advances OD also tweeted a broken heart emoji saying quote I ask the universe to project love to those suffering that we cannot reach please grant them an internal perspective that helps them to see beyond the here and now and help any
victim Foster a world view that this man's abuses cannot ever penetrate all of you who knew who he was that paid this man with money or opportunity or enabled him to continue you all have blood on your hands I know who you are you know who you are good luck comes' most notable connection to musk involves musk's takeover of Twitter which he rebranded as x two New York Times reporters Katie Conger and Ryan Mack wrote a book about the huge purchase called character limit according to their account musk has spoken about combms in meetings with
Executives seemingly as a way to dispel concerns about racism must reportedly addressed a man named davio Samuels who was CEO of media startup Revolt TV which Colmes founded Samuels was expressing concerns about potentially racist rhetoric increasing on X thanks to new policies the authors claimed that when musk reportedly said quote I don't know if you know this but puff is an investor in Twitter you know he's a good friend of mine we text a lot in quote puff is of course one of the many names Colmes used during his long music career other Executives who
were present told the authors that the whole Exchange was embarrassing when mus bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 there were rumors about who might have contributed their own funds that actual shareholder list was revealed during a federal lawsuit over musk's alleged failure to pay arbitration fees Sean com's Capital LLC was on that list the court document did not reveal how much money each contributor put in but Colmes is rumored to have invested $10 million comes' legal team has filed another appeal for bail and he's expected to be be back in court next week there
are a lot of tough stories that we cover here at law en crime and part of the reason we're able to keep bringing you these types of stories is because of our great sponsors so I want to really quickly thank upside for sponsoring us if you're wondering what is upside well it's a free yes free app that gets you cash back on daily Essentials like gas and groceries and it's actual real cash back too the money appears in your upside app that you can transfer straight into your bank account so here's what you do you
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an extra 25 cents back on your first gallon of gas well we have a lot to break down and joining us to discuss it further is former Federal prosecutor and president and co-founder of West Coast trial lawyers that's Nemo Romani Nema always great to have you on it seems like a lot of celebrities who have been known to mingle with Diddy have come under Fire or scrutiny at after his arrest but what are your thoughts on Elon musk's comments about who else knew about Diddy's alleged Behavior given he reportedly said he and comes used to
text a lot and no question every single day it seems like another celebrity whether it's in Hollywood or in Elon musk's case some other part of the country is being wrapped up in the coms investigation and there's a lot of people that maybe regret some of the pictures and tweets they had sent because apparently allegedly if you believe the victims that there were a lot of other people who participated in these sex acts and some of the victims are even saying that there are people who are even more welln and more famous than Diddy and
I probably count on maybe two hands the number of people who are more famous than Diddy and not to accuse anyone of anything but of course Elon Musk would be one of them and it seems that Diddy's connection to musk really stems from musk's purchase of Twitter now known as X but what are your thoughts on the backlash that he he being Elon mus received from posting that comment on social media given Elon musk's power and connections into Hollywood do you think he made that comment to spark conversation about the newest allegations did he faces
or to kind of be controversial in a way well musk is no stranger to controversy and he'll Dive Right In whether it's you know political Firestorm obviously buying Twitter and taking it private and apparently Colmes was an investor in Twitter at least according to mus so obviously they have some sort of professional relationship it appears they have a personal one as well they've been photographed together at the Chappelle comedy show I believe I don't know if there's any pictures of musk at one of did's parties and certainly we haven't heard any anything about him being
at one of the free cops but obviously more and more people are coming forward every day we have male and female sex workers as allegations of sexual abuse of minors we believe the lawyers who are representing some of these civil Plains they're going to file more than 100 lawsuits in the coming weeks and months and of course we already know that there's nine or 10 PL enough to have already come forward and filed and of course we'll Deep dive into that in just a little bit but for now it was also interesting to see aurio
day's response when she replied ask your friends what do you make of that response especially given that in a way Diddy's Behavior was this kind of open secret in Hollywood it really was one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood and obviously there were rumors about what happens at his Infamous parties for years and it really took Cassie Ventura to come forward obviously that's Diddy's longtime girlfriend of more than a decade and once she filed her lawsuit back in November that really sort of motivated others to come forward you know with respect to OD day
obviously she's been critical um of you know obviously diddi and musk's relationship whenever you have someone in the industry who's coming out and making these allegations you really have to start investigating if you're law enforcement say like what does you know OD day know what do others know who else was there because we've all seen the videos we've all seen the photographs of course the worst video beating being the 2016 beating of Cassie but we've all seen lots of pictures of folks who were at DD's parties so whether they were participants or mere Witnesses I
think they'll have a lot to say in this case um in your opinion do a lot of the big names who either had prior personal or even business relationships with combms need to be worried right now no question if I were someone who had especially any type of personal relationship with Diddy even if I was at one of Diddy's parties I would be talking to a lawyer obviously if there were participants in the freak offs and the sex acts especially if we're talking about acts involving minors there's significant criminal exposure there's mandatory minimums for the
sex trafficking but even if you're a witness I would potentially be concerned you may be dragged into a very public trial we know that this case is unlikely to resolve it is likely going to push this case all the way to trial because there's really no deal to be had so if you're a celebrity and you were even at one of say you were just at one of Diddy's parties but you didn't participate in the sex act you still may be a witness because there are allegations that the sex workers at the white part is
had to wear black so maybe that's something that you observed maybe you can corroborate some of the stories of the other victims and Witnesses who testifying so we know that given the high likelihood that this case will move forward the fact that there been a lot of civil lawsuits we're looking at a lot of Trials and a lot of potential Witnesses so those celebrities should be talking to a lawyer right now and I think a lot of people may see Diddy's arrest as kind of the start of the fall on the music industry in Hollywood
that um being that they think a lot of others will get exposed that we were just kind of discussing a little bit but in this case do you see that happening that a lot of people might you know end up I know you had just mentioned that you think that a lot of witnesses to his parties and stuff like that might be called into court but do you see this kind of fall on Hollywood happening in the wake of Diddy's arrest frankly I thought we were going to see more in the indictment that was unsealed
by the southern district of New York because so much time had passed the lawsuit was filed by Cassie in November the s happen of D's homes in March the video of the beating was released by CNN in May and now we're in October it's almost a year later and I expected some other individuals to be indicted at least named in civil law suits because so much time had passed but perhaps people are taking a really cautious approach I can see that from prosecutors uh at the US attorney's office in Manhattan they've taken actually very similar
caution approach in the mayor Eric Adams indictment they haven't really charged all the other participants in that conspiracy so maybe they want to just be targeted focus on Combs but there has been a lot of criticism like you said of the music industry and obviously entertainment industry with Weinstein and others they did have their me too moment but I certainly wouldn't want this to be another Epstein type situation where maybe individuals who are allegedly participating in the acts don't face the justice that they should and with new attorneys being added to Diddy's version of an
OJ Simpson like defense Dream Team they're kind of pushing for his appeal um to appeal his detention order I should say do you see that being successful the third time around I think it's unlikely and obviously we know that Diddy has essentially unlimited means he's reportedly worth a billion dollars even if he's even if he's taken a hit he's well into the hundreds of millions of dollars so he's going to have the best and probably one of the largest teams of defense attorneys um that we've seen in recent memory because there's really a huge challenge
here if you're did's lawyers not just with respect to bond but just every day to the extent that more witnesses and victims come forward it's very hard to argue that these sex acts were consensual that's what did's lawyers have said publicly that yes they happened they weren't necessarily his large orgies or anything like that there were three sums and they were all consensual and that's what the free coughs were well if you have hundreds of individuals who are telling a different story of physical and sexual violence that's difficult to overcome now with respect to bond
these crimes do carry a presumption of detention and Diddy is looking at decades in federal prison now I know his lawyers had a very creative bond package a $50 million bond with uh round-the-clock surveillance by former law enforcement cameras in the house a visitor log no cell phone no Internet but the question I have and the question the second Circuit Court of Appeals is going to have when they look at this detention order is any other criminal defendant would be detained if they were facing these types of racketeering and sex trafficking charges why should comes
be treated any differently because of his Fame and his wealth so I expect the second circuit that through judge appell panel to affirm the detention order by judge Carter in this case and like you had just mentioned previously in this interview and previously when we had spoke that you had said that the indictment was underwhelming given the latest wave of accusations that being more than the 100 alleged sexual assault victims in Texas some including minors do you see a superseding indictment coming in Diddy's case I do especially if those 25 minor victims are credible uh
us attorney Damen Williams said the investigations on going and I don't think he can ignore minor victims and minor victims are important for a couple of reasons one obviously our laws are supposed to protect minors that's what they're there for but minor victims can't consent to sexual activity so the difference between consensual sex and sex trafficking is force fraud or coercion that's why did's lawyers were saying that it was consensual that's going to be their legal defense in the case but because minors can't consent there's really no defense there unless did is going to argue
that sexual contact didn't happen at all that it wasn't him or they're lying so it's important both in terms of protecting the victims but also to really get around one of these key defenses in the case now say that you're you're um Prosecuting this case and putting your prosecutor hat back on what what kind of evidence are you going to be tackling if you were the one to be trying Diddy's case the best evidence in this case is the video evidence because witnesses can lie even victims can lie but video doesn't lie and the example
I like to give I keep going back to that video at the Intercontinental Hotel here in Los Angeles where I am uh comes beating Cassie the reason why that's so important is up until that moment did he and his lawyers their strategy both legally and in the Press was to deny and after that video there's no denying that an assault happened so didy came forward he he gave a I would say not a wholehearted apology on social media but he did say something just goes to show the power of video evidence so apparently if you
believe the victims and you believe cassid which I do that he recorded many of these sex acts and he maybe did so to have a leverage over the other participants to maybe blackmail them or extort them the irony here is of course that those videos are going to be used against diddy at this trial so he may have created the evidence that may ultimately convict all right Nema I really appreciate your time and insight to this case before we sign you off anything else you'd like to add no this case has everything it has celebrities
it has sex it has drugs it has violence I mean that's why we're going to be tuned to this for the coming months and maybe even over a year all right emo Romani again I appreciate your time today and thank you it's always great to see you thanks for having me well that does it for this episode of sidebar you can check out more episodes and subscribe to us anywhere you listen to your podcast whether it's Apple podcast Spotify or YouTube I'm Elizabeth Milner in for Jesse Weber and this has been sidebar presented by law
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