Lisa Bloom says testimony from Cassie Ventura and Dawn Richard is essential to the prosecution's criminal case against Diddy ... but she says the feds are far from finished, and they've got plenty of time to close any loops the defense finds.
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00:00Lisa, I was fascinated that, you know, you filed a civil suit on Don's behalf, and there
00:09are a lot of allegations about things that Don says Diddy did to her.
00:15But she was really used as now the most central figure of the people testifying so far as
00:24to racketeering, talking about drugs, talking about guns, talking about threats.
00:29You make a very good point, and yes, the civil case that we filed a week before the government
00:34filed this criminal case, I always want to emphasize that, we filed our case first, and
00:39yet the government's case is very similar to our civil case in many ways.
00:43But you're right, she testified not only about what she witnessed in terms of the violence,
00:48which a number of people have also testified about very consistently, but she was asked
00:53questions about assistants and executives and other people who were present and who failed
00:59to take any action.
01:00And that's the essence of the racketeering claim.
01:02So there were a lot of names that she mentioned during her testimony, security guards, other
01:09people at Bad Boy Records.
01:12It does seem like this was the start of the government trying to show this criminal enterprise
01:18as they've worded it in the indictment.
01:20Yes, and that's what they've laid out, because as the offense correctly pointed out in their
01:25opening, this is not a domestic violence case, this is not an assault case, it's a federal
01:29racketeering case.
01:31And racketeering is essentially a conspiracy among a group of people to commit serious crimes.
01:36So he's not only accused of all of the assaults on Cassie, which I think we have a lot of witnesses
01:41and a lot of evidence about so far, but that there were other people who conspired with him,
01:45whether it was assistants, whether it was executives, people who worked for him.
01:49That is something that Don Rashard was asked about.
01:51I was very proud to watch her testify.
01:54I was in the courtroom today.
01:56But I think Cassie also testified to some extent about other people being aware and not doing
02:02anything to help her.
02:03On cross-examination, the defense pointed out that she never saw him use a gun.
02:12She never saw him pay for the drugs.
02:14Right.
02:16And so it seemed like they were trying to show that she couldn't complete that loop.
02:22So the prosecution is laying out a case probably over the course of eight weeks.
02:26That's what they said, right?
02:27They don't have to prove their entire case with one witness.
02:30Very rarely can prosecutors do that.
02:33Instead, they are painting a picture.
02:35You know, Don's testimony is like one leaf on the tree on the picture that they're painting.
02:40And they have other witnesses to kind of close the loop.
02:43And she, the fact that she said, I saw a gun.
02:46No, he didn't take it out of any brand of shit.
02:48He didn't point at anyone.
02:49That's fine.
02:49That's consistent.
02:50That's something that she saw.
02:51She's not exaggerating.
02:53She's not making it up.
02:54She's telling you what she saw.
02:55And then she's telling you the limits of what she saw, which is exactly what we want a witness
02:59to do when they're testifying.
03:01So right now we have, I don't know, half a dozen or more witnesses who have testified.
03:05This is just the beginning of the trial.
03:08I want everyone to understand that because so many people, as I've been in the courthouse
03:12and there's a lot of press outside the courthouse that said, you know, so do you think the prosecution
03:16has made their case?
03:17I'm like, they don't have to make their case yet.
03:19Okay.
03:19They have eight weeks to do it.
03:21And the prosecution is going to score some points.
03:23The defense's job is to poke holes in the prosecution's case and say, well, you know,
03:28this witness, you know, had a problem for this reason.
03:31And the defense is going to score some points.
03:33They're very strong defense attorneys.
03:35They're doing an excellent job for their client.
03:37And that's what you want them to do in our system.
03:39So I think we should just all take a breath, wait to the end, see how the prosecution puts
03:44it all together, see how the defense comes back in their closing arguments.
03:48And then we can all really opine as to what the outcome should be.
03:51But it's too soon.
03:52It sounds like you were hearing exactly what we were hearing last week, that people felt
03:55like Cassie, while it was certainly damaging to Diddy's character, it didn't feel like
04:03for the person that we were all calling the star witness that she didn't turn out to be
04:08that as far as the indictment counts.
04:11Oh, well, I don't agree with that.
04:13I thought Cassie was a lot more than just indicting his character.
04:17I thought she was a very powerful witness who told an astonishing story about this man
04:23brutally beating her over and over again.
04:25So, I mean, she testified for four days, nine months pregnant.
04:29I honestly don't think I could have done that when I was pregnant.
04:32There's very few people who could do what she did.
04:34She's very brave and very strong.
04:36And she, again, is painting part of the picture.
04:39But she does not have to paint the whole picture.
04:42There's still a lot more witnesses to go.