All right, welcome back in here to live now from Fox. I'm Eddie Mack. Almost 6 o'clock here on the East Coast as day one of the Shan Diddy Combmes trial wrapping up in New York City. We had the jury be seated. Opening statements and then some explosive graphic witness testimony early on. A live picture right now outside of the courthouse. We're awaiting any comments. We did see some of the family members for Shawn Diddy Combmes, the music mogul, leaving a short while ago. All right, let's continue on here on Live Now from Fox and bring into the conversation Fox 5 reporter Michelle Ross on the ground outside of the courthouse. Michelle, thank you so much for joining us. What can you tell us about what happened inside that courtroom today? Well, the latest witness to take the stand today is a man named Daniel Phillips, and he was a male strip show manager. He would manage male strippers who would perform for things like bachelorette parties. But he said that he was paid to have sex with Cassie Vento back in 2013 in a New York City hotel while Shawn Diddy Combmes allegedly sat in the corner, watched and masturbated. This morning, his family entered the courtroom or entered the courthouse rather while leaving a black van. This includes his children, his sons, and also his twin daughters. His family has heard graphic allegations of the alleged sexual encounters and his daughters walked out during that testimony. Phillips, the second witness of the day, said he was told by his boss that he was going to perform at a bachelorette party at the Gramarcy Park Hotel, but when he arrived, he saw Cassie in red lingerie and a red wig. He testified she said that they would rub baby oil on each other and would see where things would go from there while her husband was there. Combmes was allegedly in a corner in a white robe concealing his face with a bandana, but Philip said he recognized Diddy's voice. He was paid a few thousand dollars when he left. Philip said this went on more times meeting up at hotels or their homes, and Diddy would direct them while having sex. Now, a supporter of the alleged victims, Jaguar Wright, spoke out before court this morning. I do believe there's going to be a lot of curve balls. I do believe there's going to be a lot of interesting things. And what I will say is be vigilant. We're getting started. Is this a reckoning for the music industry? Oh, it needs to be. And if it wasn't, I hope my presence starts that. Now, Phillips also testified that he witnessed Combmes assault Cassie in their home and that he feared for his own life, but eventually befriended Cassie. Now, the person to uh testify before him was the hotel security guard who responded to the incident caught on surveillance video in that Los Angeles hotel back in 2016 when Diddy was caught on video assaulting Cassie. And he testified that Diddy threw a sack of money at him in their hotel room afterwards to keep quiet. That testimony resumes tomorrow with Daniel Phillips and after that, Cassie Vento is expected to take the stand. She is the uh the prosecution star witness. We're live outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. Michelle Ross, back to you. All right, thank you so much, Michelle. And it's fascinating some of those details inside. We're going to glean more of that in just a little bit, but I want to talk about the circus that is outside as well. And New York City familiar with major high-profile cases as well. Can you set the scene a little bit and describe some of the environment outside of this courthouse because there are no cameras inside? Right. The no cameras allowed inside. It's mostly press that's behind me here, but already a line has formed for press and the public to get into the courtroom tomorrow. So, I would say there are about maybe three dozen people. They have lawn chairs sitting out ready to get in and stay here overnight. Oh, wow. That is uh impressive. Obviously, something will continue to file. This 8week long trial expected to go. Day one wrapping up. Michelle Ross, I appreciate your time here on Live Now. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Great stuff from Michelle there. here on live now from Fox. As you can see, some of these uh sketches from inside of the courtroom as some of these details are going to be graphic and that we're warned some of the jurors about this here on Live Now from Fox about all of these details. Let's continue our conversation about this here on Live Now from Fox and bring in to the conversation former federal prosecutor, friend of the program, Nema Romani. Nema, thank you so much for joining us here as day one of this trial wrapping up a federal case accused there of sex trafficking and racketeering. The defense attorney during opening statement said this Shawn Diddy Combmes is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case. Is this a complicated case? It is a complicated case, Andy. And we've been waiting for this day for a year and a half. And a lot happened today. We got our jury. We got through opening statements and we're now we're on our second witness. So, let's talk about the opening statement. And it's interesting, not necessarily the substance, which I'll get into, but who delivered the opening statement in a case that's about gender violence. We had two women deliver the opening statement. The prosecution is almost all women, so that's not unexpected. But you had Tony Geros, Mark Geros's daughter, who delivered the defense opening statement. And I think you really can see the defense perspective here and the optics matter. You have a case that's about gender violence and you have a relatively uh young attorney, certainly one of the less experienced attorneys on the team. She's certainly wellqualified deliver the opening statement. I think that's important. And one thing that she said which I think is going to be a theme throughout the case is obviously consent. We knew that. But a second big theme is the distinction between physical violence and sexual violence. We've all seen the 2016 video of the Intercontinental Hotel. All the jurors have seen that. So, the defense had to take a position where they accepted responsibility for the domestic violence, the physical assault and battery. And I think that made sense from both a legal and a credibility perspective. You can't deny that that assault happened. and importantly did that he's not charged with assault or domestic violence in this case. Now it is a potential RICO predicate act. So they may be stepping into those waters but I think what they're trying to do is draw a line and say listen this was a mutually uh combative relationship and it was toxic and there was physical violence. But they're trying to draw the line and say there was no sexual assault and there was no rape. Yeah, that is a good distinction and a good breakdown of some of the optics because in the eyes of the jury, obviously that is a big factor as well. We've talked to people during jury selection. I want to ask you because opening statements roll right into parts of the first witness and graphic details about that video. We're going to get into that in a little bit, but it feels like devil is in the details and the prosecution leaning into all of those graphic details about that. How is the prosecution using some of those very difficult to hear things, difficult to see things to their advantage? Very difficult, Andy. And you know, the defense is arguing consent and the prosecution is arguing sex trafficking. So what does sex trafficking require? Force, fraud, or coercion. So they're really leaning into that force. And their argument is this. No woman would consent to being drugged. No woman would consent to being urinated on. So much so that some of them even threw up during these freak offs. So what they're trying to show is this is really beyond the pale and beyond anything any human being would consent to because of course that is what the defense is arguing that this was some freaky swinger lifestyle. And even though the jurors may not like it, there's nothing illegal about it. So the prosecution needs to rebut that and say this was all forced. And I think those really graphic, disturbing details are maybe what carries the day at the conclusion of this case. Yeah, that is so very true. And of course, one of the most poignant points of evidence they have is that video inside of that Intercontinental Hotel room back in 2016 of Sean Diddy Combmes kicking Cassie while she was on the ground, coming around the corner. I think we've all seen that very closely. How key of a piece of evidence is that for the prosecution? It is key. And if you're the prosecution or any trial lawyer in any case, you want to start out strong. That primacy and recency, that's something that you hear as a law student. So, you want to start with your best evidence and your best witness. And we know the government star witness is Cassie, of course, but what they want to do is lay the foundation for that video. So that's why they brought in a current LAPD officer, a former security guard who can lay the foundation for that video and can talk about the black guy that Cassie suffered and the fact that she wanted to leave and escape this freak off and Combmes reportedly offering him a bribe to cover it up. So I think it's a very important first witness to get that video in. In addition to the violence against Cassie, Combmes broke a vase over in the hotel. So that's something that also shows the sort of violent streak, really erratic behavior, him sitting in a towel with just his socks on. So really uh disturbing and also graphic details by Floor is the first government witness. I thought he did well on cross-examination, too. Yeah. He said he had a devilish smile. That's what he said of Combmes there after that incident back in 2016. And I want to ask you because there is going to be cross-examination. We've already seen it with the defense trying to poke holes or talk about the credibility of it in terms of the bribe as well. How will that be a strategy for them to try to make it seem like these people aren't telling the truth? because they also laid it the foundation in opening statements about that everyone has a different motive that people should look at those motives of what they say on the stand. How will the credibility factor be used by the defense? It will be and we know that this case is going to come down to credibility not just uh the victims in the case but all the government witnesses and you know from the defense team it was Steel that cross-examined this particular witness. He of course really did an outstanding job for the defense in the young thug trial in Fulton County that really um resulted in more or less a time serve deal and egg on the district attorney's face over there. So you know during the crossexamination uh they really focused on some of the things that Flores left out of that report. Andy like you said the devilish smile that wasn't included in there. There was a male individual in the hotel room. Again, that wasn't included in the report as well. So, what the defense is trying to do is cast doubt upon some of the elements that Flores was testifying about that didn't make its way into report. And this is what good defense lawyers do. They just want to plant that seed of doubt, especially when you're talking about a security guard or a potential law enforcement witness. I think that's important. And I think the defense scored some points there. Yeah, that is a very good point talking about the credibility of this and like you mentioned some of those uh compo components of it. I do want to get into because you mentioned the start witness is going to be Cassie when she takes the stand. She is also very pregnant in terms of this. We're not exactly sure when she's going to testify, but let's get into and preview that a little bit because it's going to be fascinating that they need to be aggressive but not too aggressive. How much of a tight rope is it for both sides? It's going to be interesting because again you have someone who is going to be very sympathetic. She's a pregnant woman. She is a victim admittedly at least of physical violence. The defense is going to argue that um she was not sexually assaulted. But I think you have to be careful because if you're very aggressive and obviously you want to do a good job for your client if you're a defense lawyer, you can really turn off the juror. So I think they're going to talk about some of the things that came up in opening statement, right? the jealousy, the fact that she stayed in this relationship for more than a decade. I mean, these are all the questions that the jurors are going to have. That's why the prosecution is going to try to bring in an expert witness that's going to talk about the psychology of an abused victim. You know, why someone might stay in a relationship even though they're being physically and sexually abused. And of course, they're going to try to get her to admit that she too was violent with Combmes and that this was a mutually violent relationship. Doesn't excuse it, doesn't make it legal, but it can't explain some of the physical misconduct that we saw in that 2016 video. Yeah, the force fraud and coercion point of it. They usually bring in the expert and they also pointed already today that Cassie did leave this relationship with Shawn Diddy Combmes on her own and they did eventually part ways. How powerful will that testimony from some of the experts in the psychology of this a domestic violence survivor, a victim of this kind? How powerful could that be? It's very powerful. And I've represented a lot of victims of physical and sexual assault. And I think jurors know, you know, they bring in their real life experience. I think everyone knows someone who is in an abusive relationship and sometimes they don't have the strength to leave. So really the irony here is the defense is trying to build up Cassie and the other victims. They were talking about how they're strong independent women who made these decisions voluntarily, right? That plays into that consent theme. The prosecution of course is going to talk about that psychology of abuse that really she couldn't leave notwithstanding all these terrible things that were happening to her. So, so there sort of this fascinating dynamic where the defense is actually building up the victims to say that everything that they were doing was consensual and it wasn't psychological manipulation or force. Yeah, there's a very good point. Of course, that video, it all comes kind of back to that video as you can see it directly in front of you. The jury can about that domestic assault. Even though this is a case about sex trafficking, I do want to ask you one of my last questions because on Twitter, on social media, baby oil is trending. They brought that up again. That's going to be kind of the hot topic in terms of what we see in the media circus around the case, but it's about what's going on inside the case. Can you lay that out one more time for us because it's not about what we hear on social media about what's going on in the media. It's about what's in the case. Correct. It is. And you know, everyone's talking about the baby oil and it came up during Garagos's opening statement. and she said there's nothing illegal about, you know, having a lot of baby oil, but baby oil is important to the allegations in the case because you saw Philip come and testify that Combmes wanted Cassie covered in baby oil when he was filming them having sex and you know, he would assault her and Philip would become uncomfortable, grab her by the hair. So, we're really seeing what the government is saying with respect to the force element. Yeah, it it's the case isn't about baby oil, but it's about Combmes's manipulation and forcing Cassie Venture to have sex under his terms, which included a lot of baby oil, allegedly. Yeah, allegedly a lot of baby oil, a lot of memes, tweets about this coming up over the next several days. Nema, anything else? Because it was a lot of fireworks. It was zero to 100 real quick today. Are we expecting the same for the next days and weeks ahead? I do. This is a case that's going to be aggressive. It's going to be about cross-examination and I think Cassie may take the stand as early as tomorrow and there going to be fireworks. I think one important takeaway too is we didn't know if victim number three would show up or testify. At least in their opening statement, the prosecution talked about a victim three. So, you know, obviously if you're trying this case, you want more victims to tell the same story. So, if indeed victim three shows up, I think that helps the government's case. So that was an important takeaway from today as well because apparently at least as of last week she might have gone MIA or was having cold feet potentially. Yeah, the mounting evidence and obviously amounting bits of testimony being seed is this is expected to go eight weeks or so in New York City. All right, Nema, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Great insight as always here on Live