Sean Combs: "You were welcome to leave, right?"

0:01This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning, and it's Wednesday, June 11th. Just a heads up, in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter. Today was a half day in court. There seems to be an issue with one of the jurors brewing behind closed doors, meaning it's under seal for the moment. It required both sides to do some research. More on that in the second part of the episode.

0:37Meanwhile, Jane, a witness and alleged victim testifying under a pseudonym, returned to the stand for more cross-examination by the defense team. NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas was at the courthouse earlier, but she's actually up at 30 Rock right now as she juggles news breaking in two high-profile trials this week. Hey, Chloe. Hey, Andrea. So you're covering both Sean Combs and Harvey Weinstein. Very busy. That I am. Lots of things happening. Okay, so today, let's talk about Sean Combs. The defense is asking Jane to retell some of the stories she told last week when the prosecution was questioning her.

1:17The defense is now trying to add some context. The defense is almost trying to build a timeline, Andrea, of her hotel nights with Combs using photos, text messages. And in these photos, she looks like she's having a good time. On a hotel night, she's actually out with Combs dining at Nobu, which is like a really big celebrity hotspot, you know, a lot of paparazzi. And another time, there are rose petals on the bed. The defense also highlighted what Jane did to contribute to these hotel nights. That's right. The defense saying that sometimes she would get matching shorts for these escorts and erection pills.

1:58Jane testifying that she wanted them to be able to get ready to perform, but she says so that it could get over faster. And we've heard that during her testimony previously, that she would initiate sex very quickly so that it could all be done. She testified as well that she would set up some of these hotel nights on her own to surprise Sean Combs. we've heard that, that she would reach out to some of these escorts, which again, it makes it really complicated, in my opinion, for the jury, because the prosecution is trying to prove she was forced to participate in these terrible nights that she has nightmares over that has essentially ruined her life.

2:40But Jane testified that the only reason that she would ever go out and find these escorts on her own was because there was an undertone of Combs wanting that, but is an undertone enough to prove sex trafficking? According to the timeline, the defense is presenting through text messages. Jane seemed to have some control over when she did the hotel nights. This is now the second day that we've seen the defense try to paint that picture, Andrea. In one text message, Jane writing that she's not in the mood for a hotel night and Combs saying, all good. Not writing back, you know, you better do this or I won't pay your rent.

3:20I mean, obviously, these are text messages that the defense has cherry-picked. But at the same time, you could say the same for the prosecution, right? We've heard several voice notes played by the prosecution in which Combs seems confrontational. But Tenny Garagos, the attorney for Combs leading this cross-examination, saying that the prosecution cherry-picked those voice notes, that there were potentially thousands of those sent during the course of their relationship. Jane testified about something she called the hotel night card. What did she mean by that? Jane testified that she could actually call off a hotel night if she was mad with Combs, and that one time she found out that Combs was on vacation with another woman.

4:03Remember, all of this undercurrent of jealousy. And Jane testified that she threw down the hotel card, the metaphorical card, as a way to get back at him. So during her testimony, Tony, Tenny Garagos saying, you said if you don't get your ass out of that island, we're not going to have a party. She answered yes. Chloe, you mentioned jealousy. There was apparently a lot of jealousy in their relationship, according to Jane. She testified that Combs would get upset if he thought she was cheating on him, but at the same time, he considered himself single, as we heard on one of his voice notes. Jane also testified about her own jealousy over the gifts and vacations that Combs was giving to other women he was dating.

4:45And one of those women, her name is Gina. And she is somebody that was rumored to be testifying, but it doesn't look like that's going to be happening. And Gina was a big source of tension for Jane during her open relationship with Combs. And there was another woman, Carisha, who is a rapper who performs under the name Young Miami. And she was this public-facing girlfriend. She actually went to the Met Gala. I mean, you can go and see tons of paparazzi pictures. Jane has read aloud text messages where she's upset with Combs for posting pictures from his vacations with Carisha because she wants to be the one to go on those vacations.

5:25You have heard multiple times during Jane's time on the stand that she wanted the gifts that some of these other girls were getting. She wanted the trips. And in one exchange in particular today, Tenny Garrow goes saying, and it's not until you see him with Carisha and Turks that you tell him that you didn't want to do what you did. And her answer was, it was heartfelt and emotional for me. He was on a beautiful vacation and I was recovering from having sex with three men. It was very hurtful in that sense how he made me feel after doing something like that. Another thing the defense asked Jane about was what would happen if she tried to break up with Combs.

6:04This is a part that I find to be incredibly confusing because the prosecution stance is that she was not free to break up with Combs because she was essentially going to be homeless. He was paying her rent. She had a young child and he put her in a very vulnerable situation. But during cross-examination, you have Tenny Gergo saying he said that you were welcome to leave the relationship. Is that what he said? and she responded today, I believe so. So basically, she would say, all right, I'm gonna break up with you and Combs would then respond, all right, go ahead and do it. But she testified that he didn't make it easy for her to walk away.

6:47Correct. So one of the answers that she gave today on the stand was that although he would say that, his actions were very different. In one exchange, she testified that she would say, okay, we're breaking up and then he would blow up my phone and then we would patch things up. Is there more cross for Jane tomorrow? Tomorrow could be her last day on the stand, but the prosecution has a few more witnesses and they're not going to be done until next week. When we come back, NBC News legal analyst Danny Savalos will be here to explain what we know about a juror issue that's looming in the background of testimony this week.

7:24He's also going to tie it into the jury drama that's going on in a different high profile trial right around the corner.

7:40Welcome back, everybody. And hello to you, Danny. Hello. Thanks for having me. So, Danny, up front, we don't know much about what's going on with this juror issue the prosecution raised this week. Can you tell us what we do know? Yeah, so not a lot. Earlier this week, the judge called the attorneys and said before the jury came in, let me see everybody in the robing room for a little bit. And the robing room, even a meeting there would still be on the record. But the judge can also seal that. So even if you order what are called the dailies, the transcripts, you're not going to get a copy of that discussion.

8:17And this is a highly sensitive issue. OK. And there was a mention of juror number six by the judge. Yes, apparently it relates to juror number six. And apparently it has to do with the juror supposedly not being forthcoming. And even that could be a lot of different things. It could be on the jury questionnaire. It could be that during voir dire, he was asked a question, he or she was asked a question and didn't give an honest answer. But for me, Andrea, what that the question that raises is how did this come to the attention of anybody at this stage in the trial? That's the real story, not even so much that he may not have given a truthful or complete answer in voir dire or on his questionnaire.

9:03I will be very interested to see how this came to light. The prosecution said it wanted to keep looking into the matter further. That's right. And it must be a complicated issue because it seems from both counsel and the judge that they don't know the clear legal answer either in the case law or the rules of criminal procedure. OK, so the judge is giving not only the prosecution but the defense time to figure this out? Exactly. They're going to brief it, which means each side is going to do legal research and submit a written brief on the issue, whatever it is. In addition, if the defense is claiming that the juror is being removed for an improper reason and that this whole lack of forthcoming, this lack of honesty argument by the government is just a pretext for removing a juror that they don't like, well, they're certainly going to raise that issue in their briefing as well.

9:58Hmm. This is very interesting. I'm curious now. And so the judge is giving everyone the weekend to work on this. So if we do hear something, probably won't be until next week. Probably not. And one of the things you can always tell is that, you know, the arguments each side are going to make for either keeping or removing the juror tells you indirectly how each side feels about a particular juror. This happens actually fairly often that a juror might be nodding off or falling asleep. And that can be grounds for excusing the juror. But what you find out right away is one side wants to get rid of that juror and the other side is fighting to keep that juror.

10:36And that tells you how they feel about that particular juror, which, by the way, Andrea, is totally astrology because we often never have any idea which way a juror is leaning until we speak to them after the verdict. So true, even if they're falling asleep. Even if they're falling asleep? You still don't know. So there is another celebrity trial going on in lower Manhattan right now around the corner in state court, and that is Harvey Weinstein's retrial on sex crimes he was convicted of in 2020. Though that conviction was overturned last spring, testimony in this new trial went on for six weeks.

11:08And now there's drama going on right as we speak. There is so much drama going on in the Weinstein case. You have a conviction on one of the, we'll just say, victims. You have an acquittal as to one of the other victims. And you have basically a hung jury as to the third. Which, when you think about this case, the nature of it is that these were three discrete victim stories. So it's entirely possible that the jury would find one victim very credible, another victim not credible, and then a third maybe they're not sure about. So what we've heard, you know, it's not uncommon for jurors to disagree with each other, but it sounds like these jurors are really getting in each other's faces and it's becoming a problem such that the judge has actually become concerned about it.

11:53Yeah, I mean, there's talk of screaming and yelling. One of the jurors said to another one, I'll meet you outside. I mean, my goodness. Listen, there is always juror hijinks. I mean, so much of what a judge does during a trial is manage some of the silly things that jurors do. On the whole, jurors are noble in their pursuit. They do hard work, and we really appreciate them. But you do get some rather eccentric characters. But I have to say, I've never heard of jurors almost coming to blows like this. But I guess there's a first for everything. Actually, Danny, I was on a case where we interviewed the jurors and they said there was an actual fist fight in the jury room, which was shocking.

12:36So the judge has refused to call a mistrial and the jury was sent home today and they'll come back Thursday morning to keep deliberating on the third count. Yes. I mean, we assume they're going to keep deliberating. It may be the case, for example, that the attorneys might argue, hey, we should just go straight to a mistrial. We can't bring these jurors back if they're going to literally fight each other physically. Of course, we should say these charges are different for both Weinstein and Combs, different cases. And they are both denying what they've been accused of. All right, Danny, thank you so much going on in lower Manhattan.

13:13Even for the high profile world of lower Manhattan trials, this is exceptionally high profile. We are stocked. And thank you, Chloe. We will see you back here tomorrow. Of course. See you tomorrow.

13:54executive producer of Dateline.