Diddy defense attorney Anna Estevao seems like she's trying to imply that Cassie believed his alleged 2018 rape may have been related to bipolar disorder.
00:00Diddy Defense is raising an interesting series of points that all seem to go to try,
00:10I don't want to even use the word justify, but to explain some of the brutality Cassie suffered
00:16at Diddy's hands. And one of those possibilities for an explanation is bipolar disorder,
00:23because Diddy's own defense attorney raised this while questioning Cassie this morning
00:30and infers that there has been a diagnosis, though that's never affirmed by anything Cassie says or the attorney.
00:42So it's a weird reference.
00:43Because Diddy's not going to take the stand, so then the question is, how are they going to get that out there?
00:47So that's kind of interesting in itself.
00:49So Anna Esteval was questioning Cassie about her meetings with a U.S. attorney's office
00:57and makes a reference, says, didn't you tell them that you thought it might have been his bipolar disorder?
01:04She's talking about the, in 2018, they went out to dinner. Remember, they were broken up already.
01:10She was seeing Alex Fine. She and Diddy go out to dinner, and then she claims that after that dinner,
01:16Diddy raped her. So the-
01:19He came to her house and raped her.
01:21Right. So his attorney is now asking her about that whole event and says,
01:26you told the U.S. attorney's office that it might be his bipolar disorder.
01:31So she's clearly raised that, or they've raised that flag.
01:34Right.
01:35They raised something else.
01:36By the way, Cassie's response to that was, I don't recall saying that exactly.
01:41Now, they raised something else, though, that when they were talking about the 2016 beating,
01:46which now everybody has seen on that surveillance video, they raised an issue asking her whether he was in the middle of a blackout.
01:55Yeah.
01:56And it really is kind of the same thing they're doing, which is to explain brutality.
02:04I mean, I don't know how else-
02:05And I don't know how that's going to-
02:06I don't know how that's going to go either.
02:08Right.
02:08I mean, I think they're-
02:09You know, it's like sometimes if it goes so far when you see in this video that you say-
02:15You try to make any-
02:16That's right.
02:16Any attempt to explain it, it's going to rub the-
02:19It could rub a juror the wrong way that-
02:21Absolutely.
02:21How dare they-
02:23How dare they?
02:24And, you know, because a lot of people thought that what the defense should be doing is being harder on Diddy than the prosecution was.
02:30Right.
02:31And to own that and to, you know, and not to try and make an excuse, this is kind of an excuse.
02:38Well, I think it's part of a two-pronged attack.
02:40A lot of the testimony is about trying to show that Cassie was participating consensually.
02:45The other prong is Diddy was not in his right state of mind.
02:48I think you're 100% right, though.
02:49By even raising these issues of his mental fitness at a particular point in time, that dog doesn't hunt over an 11-year relationship filled with violence.
02:58It may work for one instance. The 2018 episode, if it's a manic episode where he's raping her and he had never raped her before, maybe that's helpful to him.
03:06But I just don't think it works over the course of an 11-year relationship.
03:10Well, except the other way they're kind of attacking it, which they did today, which I found kind of interesting.
03:14They played an audio tape that somebody had threatened to release a sexually explicit video of Cassie.
03:20And was speaking to-
03:22Yes, and she was-
03:23In this audio, you hear her threatening the person.
03:27I will kill you. I will blank you up, essentially.
03:31And, you know, what they're trying to show is that they were both violent.
03:35That there was violence going both ways.
03:37Again, I don't know how that is going to fly with the jury, but that's clearly why they're bringing that up.
03:44They're trying to show she's not just under his spell.
03:47Yeah, but the cognitive dissonance of the jury being able to look at that video of her not defending herself, not fighting Diddy in that hotel room is going to be a tough thing to overcome.
03:57And that's interesting because she addressed the aftermath of that video on the stand.
04:04Yes, there were text messages shown in court, read aloud.
04:07These were just a few days after the hotel beating.
04:12And Cassie texted him,
04:13That's powerful.
04:25That is really powerful.
04:27And it was her, you know, this was not her saying, well, that's kind of our relationship.
04:35But if you're wondering why the defense would bring it up, right after that, it seems like they make up.
04:41The text messages now, after she says that, have a more lighthearted tone where he says, you know, let's just forget about Friday.
04:51And has an LOL in there, and then she responds with an LOL, and it seems like everything's-
04:57I got to tell you again.
04:58And that's why the defense really brought this up to show, yes.
05:01Do you think that works?
05:02Do you think that works to say, okay-
05:05I personally don't, but I think they are throwing, basically throwing out every theory possible so that the jurors have that in their-
05:12They only need one juror to have it in his upper head.
05:14I understand that, but you can't do a kitchen sink defense.
05:19You have to have a narrative.
05:20And I thought at the beginning their narrative was clear, that this was a mutually violent relationship where they were both swingers, that they were both into freak-offs and everything else.
05:31And you go down a lane, and you make that point.
05:34Now it's like, well, you were, you felt like a ragdoll the day after, but then you made up.
05:40Well, that's what happens to domestic violence victims, that they, you know, they react, and then the other person says, oh, don't leave me.
05:48I love you, and then they stay, and then it happens again.
05:51And you would think, I mean, I don't know where this gets in the defense, honestly.
05:54It just seems to me, honestly, it just sounds like a basic misstep to me.
05:58Well, if they, we'll see what happens when prosecutors redirect, I would imagine that's what they're going to bring up.
06:05So, their actual, the prosecutors just begun their redirect a few minutes ago, and one of the first things they said was, you know, you've been shown a lot of text messages and been forced to read all these loving and kind text messages to each other.
06:16Did that always, you know, was it, did that last very long?
06:21And Cassie was like, no, there would immediately be a downward swing.
06:24And whether that was because of Diddy's bipolar disorder or his drug addiction, because we learned that he had overdosed at one point in 2012, this is just a classic narcissistic abuse, abusive relationship on both parts.
06:39But it makes sense, it's kind of like classic for an abusive, for her to react that way, go back and forth.
06:45I mean, that's classic domestic violence, that somebody beats somebody, and that person who's beaten says, might even say, I'm going to leave.
06:55And the other person says, oh, no, I love you, don't leave.
06:58And then they stay, and then it happens again.
07:00And that's what, I mean, by the way, Janet just said that they're doing redirect right now.
07:06And one of the reasons is, the clock is ticking, and I'm not just talking about the courtroom clock.
07:11Cassie has to get out of that courtroom.
07:15Prosecutors made a big deal early this morning saying to the judge, we need to stick to the schedule, which was that Cassie would only be here through Friday.
07:24We, their concern, the prosecutor's office, is that she's going to go into labor.
07:29Not necessarily in court, but if she goes into court while she still needs to, goes into labor while she still needs to finish testimony, like maybe this weekend.
07:38Exactly.
07:39And another thing that might, another thing that might come into play here is that we've heard from our producer who's inside the courtroom that everybody in that courtroom is sick.
07:49Like the defense attorney that was cross-examining, Cassie, sounded like she had bronchitis or something, like lots of mucus, a lot of the jurors were coughing.
07:58So that could potentially put her at, you know, such a risk because she's pregnant.
08:03That's actually really interesting, Janet.
08:05I didn't know that.
08:06And that, by the way, that could also stop the trial if a juror gets sick and can't come to work.
08:11Right.
08:11And can't come, you know, they may, they may recess for a couple of days.
08:16But what they said yesterday, our producer Brian is in the courtroom, is that they said that they were concerned that Cassie's due date is such that she could go into labor as early as this weekend.
08:30So, you know.
08:31Is there a world, I know you said there's no way that they would ever declare mistrial.
08:36But in the extreme case, she did go into labor today on the stand.
08:44Isn't there an argument that that is very prejudicial against Diddy?
08:49No.
08:49That.
08:50What does it have to do with anything?
08:51That sitting there reliving all of this has made you go into labor.
08:55No.
08:55It is not a mistrial.
08:56Charles, Charles, let us just handle this one.
08:59That's not a mistrial.
09:00But good effort.
09:00I appreciate it like a student in a class.
09:04I don't need him to be patronizing.
09:06We're not patronizing.
09:07It's just, it's not a prejudice.
09:08I know what you're saying.
09:09But the fact that she's pregnant is, you could say, prejudicial, right?
09:13I mean, that she's coming into court this way.
09:16You can make that up.
09:17You can't avoid that.
09:18Well, then what's, okay, what's the difference?
09:19I mean, the natural, the natural end of it is having the baby.
09:23See, if her pregnant is that she's going to have the baby at some point, but she has it, I don't know, weeks early.
09:29She was due.
09:30I mean, she's due.
09:31Not due.
09:32She's due at the end of the month, they say, so come on.
09:34Hi, my name's Buddy Pearson.
09:36I'm coming to you from Austin, Texas.
09:38I agree.
09:38I think that the team is trying to throw everything they can because they know that this is a sinking ship.
09:44It doesn't seem to be working.
09:46I think that they're doing literally anything to try to grasp its straws.
09:50It doesn't justify what he did, whether he is bipolar or not, or whether he was blacked out.
09:57I just think that they know that the ship is going down.
10:01As far as her being pregnant, I think that her team is trying to get her off the stand because she said a lot of things that, depending on the interpretation, could almost make it seem like she was going back and consenting, even though I think with the body of evidence that we have, that's probably not the case.
10:15But I think that they want her off the stand.
10:17Obviously, she looks like she's about to pop.
10:19But I think that they're trying to get her from ruining part of this argument, definitely.
10:25This whole thing is so crazy and ever-evolving.
10:27So, we have a weekly show now for the duration of the trial called TMZ Presents United States vs. Sean Combs Inside the Diddy Trial.
10:36It is available for free on Tubi.
10:39We drop it every Thursday night.
10:41Update it.
10:42New episode every week.
10:42And we have a pet boy.
10:44You should see Nancy Grace and Mark Garagos go at it.
