Sean Diddy's sentencing hearing is taking place in a Manhattan federal courtroom today, and it's not looking good for the former hip-hop mogul. In July, a jury acquitted Diddy of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges, but it found him guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. At trial, the music mogul s ex-girlfriends testified that they were pressured by him to have sex with male escorts in drug-dazed, "freak-offs" known as "Freak Off Nights," and debauchery.
00:04:52.860But if I'm sitting in the courtroom and my poor daughter who's sitting there cooking up my next grandchild, I cannot tell you how bad that decision is by the judge.
00:05:08.780Bad meaning for Sean because he has now adopted the sentencing guidelines that probation said he should, which you said 70, 87 months.
00:05:22.200What that also tells you when he says, I'm also going to consider the acquitted conduct for people who don't understand.
00:05:30.260And it seems counterintuitive, but in federal court, you can be acquitted.
00:05:35.000You can be found not guilty on something.
00:05:37.360I can't tell you the number of times I've had that with clients and then have to sit and explain to the client, sorry, we won that.
00:05:44.800But you got nicked on one count and they're still coming after you for the stuff that the jury said you didn't do.
00:05:50.480And that's, he's going to get, my prediction yesterday on MK true crime of an over under of 39 months and taking the under, I think I've lost my bet already.
00:06:03.720What do you think, Matt, of what's happening in that courtroom this morning?
00:06:07.180Well, I was a little surprised, Megan, actually, when the judge came in, because that acquitted conduct thing was kind of a big deal in federal sentencing circles.
00:06:15.920If you practice law in federal court, that was that was something that pretty much every lawyer who practices criminal law in that arena was talking about.
00:06:27.740And the judge had no problem today coming in and saying, yeah, I'm going to consider this conduct.
00:06:33.140Now, he didn't he didn't come out and say that that it was acquitted conduct per se.
00:06:38.100I don't think, Mark, it was I'm going to consider these others acts of violence that were related to these things.
00:06:43.560Right. But it I know Mark thought the same thing I did, that that is that's going to be fodder for appeal for sure.
00:06:53.440Did the judge make this point when they were pushing for no bail, when when Diddy's lawyers wanted no bail, sorry, wanted bail for him?
00:07:00.480The judge said to them, you argued in your closing that he committed abuse of these women and he used that against them to say, I'm not bailing this guy out like he's going to have to sit there.
00:07:11.500So the so-called acquitted conduct, I mean, he was acquitted on legal charges, but he wasn't the jury didn't say he didn't abuse these women.
00:07:20.060Even the defense admitted he abused the women.
00:07:22.900So is the judge on solid ground saying, yeah, so I am going to consider that.
00:07:28.320Well, what he did in the bail hearing that was sitting in there when he did it, the government made a very clever point.
00:07:35.160They said that the Mann Act, even though there were no allegations necessarily of violence to transport these male escorts across state lines, it's grouped in the code under a section that is violence.
00:07:49.780So anything that is in that section of the guidelines is violence.
00:07:55.300And therefore, he said, I'm not going to release him on bail.
00:07:58.600He made the point at that time, and I remember hearing it and saying, well, there's a lifeline, so to speak.
00:08:05.040He said, this doesn't mean I'm going to – he didn't say hammer him at sentencing, but this is with no prejudice, basically, to sentencing.
00:08:13.320What he did today, though, Matt was spot on.
00:08:16.080He says, I'm not going to – and it's a fine distinction.
00:08:20.580I'm not going to say that I'm going to consider it for the factors, but I am going to consider it for the 3553 factors.
00:08:33.620It's going to make me not – the way I read it, it's going to make me not go down, and I'm certainly not going to cut you a break is the bottom line.
00:08:46.080Yeah, it's hard to draw the line, Megan, on a case like this because we all saw that tape, right, and Cassie Ventura was involved in the Mann Act.
00:08:58.180She was one of the people that was participating in the acts of prostitution, and we've seen this violence that – I mean, we've all watched the video, and it's horrific.
00:09:06.620So where is the court obligated to draw that line?
00:09:48.120Objectively, I think at the end of all this, Diddy is a horrible human being, or at least he comes off that way.
00:09:54.120And this is – there's an old adage, Megan, you probably remember from law school.
00:09:58.220It's – there's – the only thing more powerful than a federal judge on the planet Earth is God himself, right, or herself, I guess, in the modern era.
00:10:06.720So this judge came out and said some very affirmative things, like Mark just said, regarding the sentencing of what he's going to consider.
00:10:16.160And, Mark, I watched this segment on MK True Crime yesterday.
00:10:19.320I would have taken the over on your 39 months, but I thought that was in the ballpark yesterday, and now that is out the window.
00:10:32.440And I haven't been complimentary of the government in this prosecution at all.
00:10:36.040But she got up today, Slavik got up today, and she said, Your Honor, you want to talk about the height of hubris?
00:10:43.480He booked speaking engagements for Miami next week.
00:10:47.460If that is true, and I have not talked to anybody on the defense to ask about that, or whoever did that should be – I'm walking a line as to what I would do,
00:11:01.000but I – that would be – you wouldn't just be fired if you were in my office and you allowed that to happen.
00:11:07.720I'd take a baseball bat to you, speaking of violence.
00:11:31.380And then if you knew how many times that things were said on those jailhouse calls that you just want to take somebody and get violent yourself.
00:12:08.160The judge will probably consider that, Matt.
00:12:10.480The other thing is, this is a relatively young judge in terms of his experience on the bench.
00:12:16.200So for him to come in first thing and say, I am going to consider this stuff, to me, telegraphs, he's been consulting with the other judges on exactly what he can and cannot do.
00:12:25.260I don't think he'd be such a, like, gunslinger if he hadn't checked it out and felt very confident that he'll be upheld on appeal for, you know, when it gets challenged.
00:12:36.200Well, and going back to the phone call thing, Megan, this is something that we've talked about before that nobody is really addressing.
00:12:43.020That is, remember, when he was in jail, the reason why he's felt so confident, or at least in the past, on some of these jailhouse conversations is he was using other inmates' calling codes.
00:12:55.140And Mark and I have both gone through this before.
00:12:58.800When you have a client or somebody that is misbehaving in that way, that's a personal affront to a judge a lot of times.
00:13:07.340And that is, when he got busted for that, that was right at the very beginning, right, as one of the reasons why the court kept denying the repeated bail motions was, this guy can't even follow the rules in jail.
00:13:20.060Well, that's the type of thing that will stick with judges a lot of times.
00:13:26.440I mean, this judge, I guarantee he was very, very careful in researching the parameters because no judge wants to get reversed on a high-profile case.
00:13:34.100And he worded it exactly right, I think, so that he would limit the amount of appellate challenge or scrutiny that that call regarding the sentencing guidelines and consideration of acts of violence is going to impact the sentencing.
00:14:35.900That's the, you know, it used to be a year and a day was the way you get out.
00:14:39.420There are programs now, the RDAP, First Step, things of that nature, that greatly reduce your time.
00:14:46.960But it is not so that people understand in the federal system, it's starting to get more like the state, but it's not like the state where you get set good time, work time.
00:14:57.820On a five-year sentence, if you're halftime, you'll be out in halftime.
00:15:03.320If he gets 60 or 70 months, he's going to do real time.
00:15:09.040And he's going to do, and because of the pending, one of the other things you have to keep in mind is where does he get designated?
00:15:17.020What kinds of findings does the judge make?
00:15:19.500He can, you know, the difference between a satellite camp in Lompoc and someplace that is a level or two levels above is a monumental difference.
00:15:32.220It's the difference between going to summer camp and then having to watch yourself at all times.
00:15:38.620And so those are real big determinations, depending on the amount of time and depending on what this judge says when he sentences him.
00:15:48.960That's what I'm going to be looking for.
00:16:21.120In this other case they were discussing, the defendant texted the victim,
00:16:26.440I meant what I said about making a mold of your, you know what, the rest of you ain't worth shit.
00:16:31.880So he's trying to distinguish a case that had a hefty sentence by saying that guy was a complete douchebag and that should be considered an apposite.
00:16:40.780And the judge responded, but there was no threat of violence in that case.
00:16:47.640This is not what you want to be hearing on team defense.
00:16:49.880The judge saying he's going to consider the violence and then arguing with you on how this should be treated like the John cases,
00:16:57.080because, I don't know why, but because he's, they're arguing that these women did consent to being there.
00:17:03.440And the judge is saying, okay, but I'm not considering those because there was no threat of violence.
00:17:08.060And there is a ton of testimony about how, well, sometimes the women wanted to participate, Matt, you know, his girlfriends,
00:17:14.920there were definitely times when they didn't.
00:17:17.160And you had even the prostitutes, the male prostitutes testifying that he heard Diddy beating the hell out of them behind closed doors,
00:17:25.660and then they'd come out upset and hurt, and he couldn't perform.
00:17:29.680Like, the one guy testified, he wasn't able to, like, go forward sexually because it was so jarring having heard Diddy just beat the hell out of this woman.
00:18:05.480Look, strangely about that, I saw an interview with that guy.
00:18:09.180He was one of the only people that I thought personally was all that sympathetic here.
00:18:14.100I mean, that's another interesting aspect of this case is there's so many orbiters around Sean Combs that were trying to advance their own career or have now filed civil suits against him.
00:18:24.480And there was this, I don't know, this kind of almost parasitic element surrounding him on a near constant basis that the Punisher was one of the most sympathetic witnesses, I think, in the entire trial.
00:18:39.740He talked about he was – I think he was inherently credible, and he – I think he undid their entire sex trafficking case because he said this wasn't coerced in any way because, of course, that would have made him a rapist too.
00:19:00.980But going back to the sentencing, that RDAP program that Mark's talking about, I think that stands for residential drug treatment, essentially.
00:19:10.640And that can shave up to 12 months off, but it's – Mark's right.
00:19:50.360That's essentially the way that works.
00:19:51.440It's an interesting – I hate to get so nuanced on you, but I will.
00:19:56.220It's up to the judge in the sense of – the judges know how many months get you to where, to meaning what you're eligible for, what you're not eligible for.
00:20:07.960The judges also know if they make certain findings, that's going to inform the Bureau of Prisons as well.
00:20:14.860So there's a dance that is being done right now, and you're – you know, if you're Sean Combs, somebody's going to have to explain to you at the end of this day today that you're either going one place or you're going another, and you're going to be designated in the next probably three weeks.
00:20:33.680Well, Mark, how do you get to what's called club fed, you know, like the Martha Stewart prison, where it seemed like more – closer to summer camp that you can't leave than it did to, like, a supermax prison?
00:20:46.840Well, you saw recently with Jolene Maxwell that she got switched from one of those more – what I would consider a harder facility to a kind of a camp-like facility.
00:21:01.680And there are camp-like facilities on both coasts, but that would require a sentence under a certain number of months, and it would require the judge making certain findings, and the judge can make – and he'll be asked, I'm sure, today – to designate or recommend a designation.
00:21:22.420But it's Bureau of Prisons and Probation who is going to inform that and also going to inform how he's designated.
00:21:30.140Now, let me stick with you on this one, Mark, since you're the celebrity defense attorney.
00:21:34.980Do they consider that he really is very famous and, you know, in his defense, would be more the center of attention in any prison than your average prisoner?
00:21:46.740They don't – the last thing they want is for something untoward to happen to him while in custody.
00:21:52.440I know that that seems counterintuitive because you're punishing somebody by putting him in custody, but no, they're very attuned to that.
00:22:01.160They take great steps to try to protect people because the last thing they want is to have to deal with the attendant publicity if something were to happen.
00:22:11.120I mean, you have right now, Matt, him complaining about the conditions where he's at the Metropolitan Detention Center, which is rather infamous in its unpleasant conditions.
00:22:22.780He's claiming through his lawyers that he only has showers that are extremely cold or extremely hot.
00:22:30.140He has to use a toilet that's two feet away from other inmates and with no doors.
00:22:37.620He is claiming that he has to eat meals that may or may not have maggots on them, which is pretty extreme.
00:22:43.840I don't know whether it's true, but that's what he's alleging.
00:23:01.800Do you remember, Megan, he had a reality show?
00:23:05.700Diddy had a reality show that went on for a while.
00:23:08.800He had a reality show way back in the day.
00:23:11.880And I watched an episode of an old girlfriend that was really into it.
00:23:14.940And he came into the group, and it was like – it was almost like an apprentice type thing where people would come in, and they'd work for him for a little while.
00:23:20.960And, you know, he was eccentric and all that.
00:23:23.040But there was an episode where he came in.
00:23:24.660Somebody was complaining about something, and he said, there is no bitch-assness at Bad Boy Records.
00:23:33.900And when I saw that letter complaining about the conditions, that's exactly what I thought.
00:23:37.800It was like, dude, you're expressing bitch-assness.
00:23:42.220And he is – that's going to fall on deaf ears with the court because essentially that sounds like a celebrity complaining about uncomfortable conditions that everybody else in that jail also has to endure.
00:24:23.380Well, the interesting thing and one of the reasons that they put this in the sentencing document, in the Southern District, in several reported cases, judges have imposed either a lesser sentence or given kind of bonus points, so to speak, for being housed in the MDC.
00:24:44.000I've been to that MDC countless times to see Sean and otherwise, and the people who work it are extraordinarily helpful.
00:24:53.060But the facility itself is really a challenge, and I'm not eating there other than to buy him stuff out of the vending machine.
00:25:02.920But the – and what I usually tell clients when they complain about the food is, you know, well, it's a forced diet.
00:25:13.040I mean, rarely does somebody go in there very skinny so you can come out in better shape.
00:25:18.040But it is – and there is a precedent, so to speak, for judges to give you some kind of credit for it being housed there.
00:25:28.460He was talking about how he wasn't being given his pre-diabetic meals, Matt, and how he's not getting therapy for his knee and his shoulder, which he says he needs.
00:26:54.820But there's a lot worse places than where he is right now.
00:26:58.360I mean, I think they try to make it a deterrent, right?
00:27:00.980My guess is they don't want it to feel like the Ritz-Carlton.
00:27:05.760Yeah, but Matt makes a really good point.
00:27:08.760It's supposed to, ideally, pre-conviction, if you're being held in a facility, pre-conviction has a constitutional different standard than post-conviction.
00:27:23.020And that's the difference between, at least theoretically and constitutionally, between a jail and a prison.
00:27:29.820And that's why Matt's point is so brilliant and why you have to think about it.
00:27:33.540Where he goes, what the judge says once he sentences him, is everything.
00:27:38.860I mean, you, it really, this, if the judge wants to, they know how, federal judges, to Matt's point, and it made me think of an old joke that I will not repeat here.
00:27:49.760But federal judges next to this, sit on the right hand of God, and they know what they are doing, and they can punish you like nobody's business.
00:27:58.420Hmm, that's the thing he's got going against him, Matt, is that that judge sat through that entire trial, same as we did, and heard all of the terrible evidence against Diddy as a human.
00:28:09.880You know, even though he wasn't found guilty on Rico, he heard about how he bribed the security clerks at the Intercontinental to hide that tape so he couldn't be caught.
00:28:19.280He heard about him with the girls, his lover, his girlfriend, throwing up because she couldn't keep going with the freak off, saying, oh, good, now that you've thrown up, you can get back out there and finish up strong, like treating her like a racehorse.
00:28:33.900I mean, the inhumanity with which he behaved toward these women is seared, and I'm sitting here at a desk.
00:28:40.740I wasn't the judge in the courtroom looking at the women telling these stories.
00:28:45.400Well, and let's not forget about the arson as well of Kid Cudi, right, Megan?
00:28:51.140And I'll tell you another thing that's in the back of this judge's mind, and I'd be interested in Mark's thoughts on this.
00:28:56.560But, look, the L.A. County criminal system is almost, under George Gascon, it really was, almost like a failed state.
00:29:07.100And you look at some of these crimes of violence that he heard, like the Cassie Ventura video that we all saw, like the arson of Kid Cudi, all of that happened in Los Angeles.
00:29:16.180And you're talking about, you know, this is the L.A. City Council bought hook, line, and sinker into the defund the police stuff.
00:29:25.960Right now there's 8,600 sworn officers at LAPD.
00:29:28.680It's the lowest it's been since 1995, and a lot of cases like this go uninvestigated, unsolved, unpursued in L.A. County.
00:29:38.600All of these other crimes, these were state cases, and he wasn't convicted of any of those because there was no federal equivalent.
00:29:46.360They wrapped him in on the RICO stuff.
00:29:47.880But in that judge's mind, he's got to know that L.A. is a mess.
00:29:52.280Under George Gascon, who was recently voted out, and I think Gascon was one of the worst things that ever happened to public safety in Mark and I's town of Los Angeles ever.
00:30:03.380But that's also, I think, going to factor in all of these crimes that were not properly investigated, that were not properly pursued, that the judge heard all about.
00:30:12.580You know, that's what was so interesting about his statement today.
00:30:15.640I'm going to consider these other crimes of violence, and it's almost like, you know, there's an element there that the reason why we're seeing so many federal prosecutions out of L.A. crimes, and we've seen a bunch of them.
00:30:27.580Matthew Perry is another example of that.
00:30:29.780There were state charges all over that case.
00:30:32.420The feds took it up because Gascon and the former stark charge, I should say, because we've got a new guy now, Nathan Hockman, who's 1,000 times better.
00:30:40.900I think Mark will disagree on recent experience.
00:30:44.500Now you're really throwing doubt on me out there.
00:30:47.600Nathan Hockman, you want to talk about a failed DA's office, Jesus.
00:30:56.740But, you know, Matt and I will agree to disagree here.
00:31:00.520I've got a, you know, by the way, the intercontinental incident itself, so people understand, took place well before George Gascon was ever voted in.
00:31:11.260I mean, talk about something that was nine years ago.
00:33:12.080That's his attorney, Nicole Westmoreland.
00:33:15.460Mr. Combs starting his own record label as a black young male back then was almost kind of jokable, but he had the audacity to do it anyway.
00:33:25.120This changed the industry and it changed the culture.
00:33:27.760But more importantly, it changed countless individuals' lives.
00:33:30.940Because what people recognize is that if Mr. Combs could do it, then they could do it, too.
00:33:52.240She breaks down in tears while discussing the moguls' importance in their community via his entrepreneurial work in television, fashion, liquor, and music as a writer, producer, artist, and label owner.
00:34:02.440Quote, Mr. Combs wearing all of those hats, she said in tears, sent a message that you can do it.
00:34:10.260You don't just have to be signed to a label.
00:34:17.500Maybe that could work in front of a jury.
00:34:19.240I'm going to guess Judge Subramanian's like, um, is it lunchtime yet?
00:34:25.080He came out today, Judge Subramanian, and the first thing he said was the government complained that Mia, who was supposed to testify or give a five-minute impact statement, was not going to because of the letter by the defense.
00:34:39.240The judge chastised the defense for the tone of the letter.
00:34:43.700So, I'm going to take a page out of the Judge Subramanian book and say, when you were reading that, Megan, your tone seemed to imply something there.
00:35:55.020And I, it's number one, it's going to fall on deaf ears.
00:35:58.920Number two, when you do a sentencing, um, it's, it's not far off in a way from journalism, Megan, in that it's your credibility is everything.
00:36:08.900And when you go and you step up and you do these performative things, it's kind of like when Mark and I do bench trials in juvenile court, you know, as a prosecutor, as a defense lawyer, you really have to tone down the performative nonsense.
00:36:20.920Because you're insulting the intelligence of the court when you do that and you hit the nail on the head in front of a jury that might just work with one or two of them.
00:36:29.200But in front of a sentencing judge, when you do that, you're, you're running the risk of blowing your credibility.
00:36:35.900And if you, if you do that sort of, you know, crying nonsense, if you really do have an important point, um, and you really do have something that court should consider, you're going to lose that by going all in on that dramatic BS.
00:36:49.200BS. And that's, that's what, that makes me think of a, a mutual friend of ours who will remain nameless.
00:36:56.540I was trying a case in federal court downtown and in, um, uh, uh, the old spring street building and my co-counsel got up and did something.
00:37:07.980And the federal judge peered over the bench at him and said, mister, you've been in state court too long in front of the jury.
00:37:18.180And that, you knew at that point, yes.
00:42:13.780Okay, let's pick up where we left off with the others on Diddy.
00:42:16.880There's a woman named Nicole Westmoreland who's a lawyer for Combs.
00:42:20.540She happens to be black, which is relevant to what I'm going to tell you.
00:42:24.040So she's standing up, like arguing for his life, basically trying to get the sentence to the bare minimum.
00:42:30.060It continues her emotional appeal to the judge.
00:42:32.740I think we're quoting here from CNN still or the New York Times through sniffles and tears by insisting that her client was indeed remorseful.
00:42:42.420Quote, I will tell you that Mr. Combs has been sitting in a jail cell for 13 months.
00:42:54.800I can look the court in the eye and tell you that he's remorseful because I spend almost every single day speaking to Mr. Combs.
00:43:03.480Your honor, he gets it, simply put, said Miss Westmoreland.
00:43:09.180So are you starting to feel a little wobbly on, you know, a harsh sentence for Diddy, Arthur?
00:43:16.960Well, the one thing I can tell you is she probably did talk to him every day.
00:43:21.120You know, Megan, in the very beginning of his arrest, his legal problems, I was asked if I wanted to go meet with him to be retained on the case.
00:43:34.040They're like, one of his requirements is, and I don't remember who it was, I think he wanted me there four days a week in prison or five days a week in prison to visit him.
00:43:45.740So I do know he gets a lot of attention from his lawyers in the MDC, which is just not a very fun place for a lawyer to be, except if you have singles on you, because then you get to go to the sandwich and potato chip machine and buy your client a sandwich and potato chips.
00:44:01.120And they're very, very happy and grateful for that.
00:44:03.340That's like the big deal when you go in.
00:44:05.140What kind of sandwich can you get in there?
00:44:32.200I will tell you this, and between Mark and I, we've done dozens and dozens and dozens of these federal sentencings, because it's really what you do in federal court now a lot.
00:44:41.880It's a lot of plea bargaining and then sentencing, and unlike state court where you can cut a deal with the prosecutor, in federal court, you can only cut a guideline range with the prosecutor, and then the judge decides the ultimate sentence.
00:44:54.800And I don't know how I would feel about having four different lawyers speak to the judge on behalf of the client's behalf.
00:45:04.240You know, I think, in my opinion, it's maybe two, if you split one up.
00:45:08.500Like, I'll talk about who the individual is, and then my partner will talk about the actual crime or what they were convicted of or what they weren't convicted of.
00:45:17.120I heard you say earlier there's no crying in the courtroom.
00:45:19.420I mean, I have handled some very, very sad cases, and I've become very somber, but I've never shed a tear.
00:45:32.440One of the few times I, the only time I cried, and I waited until I got in the hallway, is when I represented someone who I knew was absolutely innocent.
00:45:53.580I think this woman's playing, she thinks it's 2020 post-George Floyd, and that if she is a black woman, turns on the waterworks about how much Sean Combs has contributed to the world, and the thought of him going behind bars after being such an inspo, she's hoping to touch something in the judge's heart that I doubt is there.
00:46:08.760Well, Megan, let me tell you, if you're scoffing is because you think that maybe he doesn't deserve those words and maybe it's manufactured, that's fair.
00:46:18.200But what she's doing is ensuring due process, and that is, you know, she's got to do her job, and Arthur and I will do whatever it takes if we think it's going to help our client.
00:46:28.760In this case, obviously, she is telling the judge, I promise you, I'm there every day, and he has changed.
00:46:36.220Now, whether that's real or not, who knows?
00:46:38.540Maybe she does believe it, but believability and accuracy are two different things.
00:46:42.760Maybe that's what she's relaying to the judge that she's seeing in Diddy, and that Diddy's just turning it on.
00:48:14.660First of all, I just have to say, because I'm looking at the shot, that verdict I cried on, that's the picture right over my shoulder right before the verdict was read.
00:48:22.220The little small one with the orange background?
00:48:31.220This is actually me crying when Scott Peterson, not Garagos's Peterson, but the other one, the alleged coward of Broward, whatever, who's innocent.
00:48:41.360And finally, you get that relief because the jurors, who took four days, should have taken four minutes, and you finally get the outcome.
00:48:48.080The one from the Stoneman Douglas school shooting.
00:48:49.380That was the bragging portion of the show from Arthur I. Dalla and Mark I. Glock.
00:48:52.960I'm telling you what great lawyers we are.
00:48:59.300That's why you work so well on Kelly Scored and on MK True Crime, because you actually know what you're talking about, unlike half the legal eagles we see on TV, who never practiced law or who just went to law school for a couple of years.
00:49:10.620Let me address what's going on with her bragging about P. Diddy's accomplishments in life.
00:49:19.380If he was not a public figure, you would say, Your Honor, I know you've read our 40-page report and all the letters and all that.
00:49:27.860I'm not here to gild the lily, and I know you understand all that.
00:49:31.340And maybe you do like a little top three list.
00:49:34.060But, you know, I think what really stands out is he started his own chapter of the Boy Scouts.
00:49:38.320However, and Mark and I have both been in this position, when you represent a high-profile client and there's going to be media in there,
00:49:46.160often the client says to you, Can you please say A, B, and C, and that I did this, and I helped cure cancer, and I did St. Jude's Children thing?
00:49:56.580Because, you know, the Daily News and the Post, they're not going to read your 100-page submission, but they are going to be in the courtroom.
00:50:03.100And please, for me and for the sake of my wife and my children, can you please make sure the media hears all the good things I did?
01:09:42.660But if some lawyer who doesn't know what he's doing messes something up so badly that the guy's constitutional rights were just trampled on.
01:09:49.840And a field court may be like, look, we know he's guilty, but you guys didn't find him guilty the right way.
01:33:49.260I will say Colorado's arguing that the only thing the law prohibits therapists from doing is performing a treatment that seeks the predetermined outcome of changing a minor's gender identity.
01:34:03.400Because they're saying, we're only going to come after you, therapists, if when the kid walks in there, you're saying in your head, no way am I letting this kid change genders.
01:34:11.540That's not a thing, which is the correct thing to do, by the way.
01:34:15.580But I just don't think that's going to be upheld, even if the court believes that's all it would encompass.
01:34:20.960And it's going to be very hard for Colorado to prove that was in her head.
01:34:24.180She had a predetermined versus she did an open searching examination with the child and then determined this isn't a real case of gender confusion.
01:34:30.780Anyway, I think this thing's going away.
01:34:46.200And what happened in Idaho is there is a law that banned all trans kids, meaning boys pretending to be girls, from participating in or even trying out for girls sports in the public schools K through 12.
01:34:59.960It was signed in 2020 by the current governor out there, Brad Little.
01:35:35.580Then it went up to the very liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and they said, yeah, we side with the district court.
01:35:41.300You can't do this to young boys pretending to be girls.
01:35:43.620They have a right to try to get on the girls team.
01:35:46.580And then Idaho appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and they took the case.
01:35:51.500Again, that's another good sign for team sanity.
01:35:54.420And then the plaintiff, the boy pretending to be a girl, requested that the lawsuit be dropped because he knows as well as we know the high court is going to side with us, meaning team sanity.
01:36:09.340And there is no way they are going to reverse this Idaho law.
01:36:13.160So, Dave, what does the Supreme Court do?
01:36:15.640Because the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is a great group, which is defending Idaho in part, has said, oh, hell no, you can't do this.
01:36:53.020We're going to go to the Supreme Court and we're going to stand up for transgender rights when it came to Tennessee's gender-affirming care.
01:36:59.540And the Supreme Court ruled six-three against the plaintiffs.
01:37:03.040They ruled for Tennessee that you can ban gender-affirming care for underage individuals.
01:37:08.400And it was a big loss for the transgender community.
01:37:11.200And they see that happening now when it comes to sports.
01:37:14.840And so now I do see that as the reason why they're trying to back away from this.
01:37:56.060They have the right to free association under the First Amendment.
01:37:58.960They signed up, and they choose to be part of an all-girls team.
01:38:03.120You can't force them to accept a boy on their team because that violates their First Amendment rights.
01:38:09.300So you have, I think, a very compelling interest here for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and say, you know what?
01:38:16.040Freedom of association means something.
01:38:17.820And if these women, these girls on these sports teams, if they want to play all-girls sports, the government has to protect it.
01:38:25.300I think that's what's going to happen.
01:38:27.020I mean, I feel like if you're a transgender activist, you'd rather have the Idaho case in front of the court than the West Virginia one because in the West Virginia one, there's allegations.
01:38:37.180We have to hear whether there's a denial.
01:38:39.680But the allegation is that the trans athlete there allegedly was saying to at least one of the girls who was a teammate of his when he was on her team, you can suck my D, this person said to her.
01:38:53.060That they made much more, many other more explicit statements like, I'm going to stick my D into your whatever, and sometimes added, and also this other place as well, that she allegedly told her parents and told her coach and the school's administration, the school said it was investigating, but she never heard back.
01:39:12.320This is, and she, the girl is claiming she can name six students or didn't name who could corroborate her allegations.
01:39:18.360This is not a case that the trans lobby wants going in front of Samuel Alito.
01:39:26.260And Megan, also in that case, West Virginia case, the athlete won the shot put competition by more than three feet, whereas in the Idaho case, the athlete was worse than the women and couldn't even make the team.
01:39:56.560His name is really David Anthony Burke.
01:39:58.520He's 20, and he has 3.8 million followers on TikTok, 2 million on Insta, and something bizarre happened with him.
01:40:05.940Officers on September 8th responded to an impound lot in Hollywood for a, quote, foul odor coming from a vehicle.
01:40:13.540They located a body in the front truck of a Tesla that was in a state of decomposition.
01:40:20.880They said all they found, they described it as a head and torso found inside a bag.
01:40:25.920Well, they matched that head and torso to a missing teen, 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who was from Riverside County, who was reported missing in April at 2024 at just 13, but was 15, dead in the car.
01:40:42.400The LA Times reported Celeste was reporting missing three times in 2024.
01:40:46.360Police said the teen may have been dead for several weeks before her body was discovered.
01:40:50.640Her mother claims before she went missing, she had a boyfriend named David.
01:40:56.060Following ID of the body, an LA home where David had been living was searched.
01:41:00.080The Tesla was reportedly located not far from his $20,000 a month rental home.
01:41:09.320TMZ reports that his manager is the person on the lease, but again, this guy David appears to have been staying there, not all the time, but frequently.
01:41:16.800The Los Angeles medical examiner has not yet determined the cause or manner of death.
01:41:21.600It's a pending investigation, and her remains were found a day after her 15th birthday.
01:41:28.540It's being investigated as a homicide, and now TMZ is reporting that they are looking in this home for blood evidence using luminol.
01:41:40.900Just want to say we only have a minute left on SiriusXM, so we're going to carry it over just a bit onto podcast and YouTube.com slash Megan Kelly.
01:41:47.520But in the minute we have here, your thoughts on this, Phil, because this does not look so great.
01:41:54.700Yeah, there's laws obviously against homicide, but there's also laws against concealing a death, and there's laws against mutilating a corpse.
01:42:01.480So why there has been no arrest made is a head scratcher.
01:42:06.620They can always add additional charges later, but somebody, and I think we know who, has hidden this death from the public.
01:42:15.760They've concealed it, right, to the point that it was decomposing and causing people to complain about the smell.
01:42:20.860So I think there's an arrest that could be made, and they need to do it soon.
01:42:23.860Who would be so dumb as to put the dead body that they were responsible for, Dave, in their own car and then just leave it sitting there?
01:42:33.760It's such a good point, Megan, and perhaps that answers Phil's question as to why there is not an arrest.
01:42:39.060Maybe they're thinking this is too obvious because if we're going to arrest someone for concealing a body, why would it be the guy who owns the car, who lives nearby?
01:42:47.200And that doesn't seem to make any sense.
01:42:49.540Now, it is telling that the mother of the victim claims that before she went missing, she said she had a boyfriend named David.
01:43:10.360I mean, right now, all they have is the body and a possible relationship between these two.
01:43:16.200So, Phil, I mean, without physical evidence at this guy's home or, you know, on his person, it actually could be tough to make a murder charge against him.
01:43:25.800They're going to have to find some physical link or maybe some statements that he made.
01:43:30.220But look, they're looking at online messaging.
01:43:32.460They're looking at Discord communications.
01:43:34.300They're even investigating the language that he uses for the lyrics in some of his product, whatever you call that.
01:43:42.360So, you know, they're going to have to tie it up.
01:43:44.540You mentioned those song lyrics, Phil.
01:43:47.800And according to TMZ, an unreleased song was leaked on SoundCloud in December 2023 by David.
01:44:15.120The next verse also features the name.
01:44:17.160Oh, Celeste, afraid you'll only love me when undressed.
01:44:20.380But you look so damn gorgeous in that dress.
01:44:23.000Missing you so much makes me depressed.
01:44:24.900But I digress because and then TMZ also reports that there are disturbing lyrics about killing in his 2022 song, one of his top songs called Romantic Homicide.
01:45:32.700And this is why I've always opposed attempts that exist in various states to make music lyrics inadmissible in court because prosecutors have used rap lyrics to go after violent gangs.
01:46:06.580So all that stuff should be admissible.
01:46:08.340And thankfully, it's still admissible because that's why these laws are so just even though they want to be fair to defendants, they are so misguided because they could set defendants free.
01:46:18.320We just FYI, according to TMZ, we don't know when they first met, but there is a photo of them together, reports TMZ, at an event in L.A. in October 2023, which would have dated back to when she was 13 and he was 17.