To have that press room in place is something to be grateful for, because LA federal courts don’t have that, and a lot of federal courts don’t have that kind of access. It would be great if we could add cameras to federal courts, but I don’t think the Diddy case, especially given the nature of the sex trafficking charges, would be the case that would catalyst that. I think if anyone is going to try for that, it’s the Trump case, but I don’t think it’s something that you could just litigate in federal court, like bring a motion to bring cameras in federal court. I’d love to see the Senate Judiciary Committee take that up.
How effective of a tool are lawsuits for people who are survivors of abuse and rape? Do you think that they’re effective in holding perpetrators accountable?
That can be a good avenue for people to pursue, it seems. I don’t have any personal experience with it, so I don’t know if people feel satisfied with it or not. I am expecting to see a hold on his civil cases. I don’t think any of those lawsuits are going to get to the discovery process or anything like that while he has this criminal case pending because it’s his Fifth Amendment right. They’re not going to participate in a civil case like that while he’s got a criminal case pending.
Before, it was all just financial and reputational, but with the criminal case, he’s lost his liberty. What a downfall. That’s something that you could never get from a civil case. When his homes got raided, he started to realize how serious this was, and it’s not so much of a PR game anymore.
Do you foresee this case igniting a #MeToo-style movement in hip-hop?
No.
Why do you feel that way?
These allegations have been out for a long time, at least in terms of the lawsuit. I’m not sure there was really much new in the indictment that hadn’t been in the lawsuits before, but there’s been this watershed of lawsuits against him. We haven’t heard much else, so it’s just a matter of what’s going to happen with his case but I’m not sure if this has led to any kind of reckoning within the hip-hop movement or anything.
What’s been the most surprising thing you discovered while researching and reporting on this case?
The thing that struck me was just how much work his attorneys had put into this in the months before and the building trust thing that they had. They had email exchanges about him going on a family road trip, and they were just being really communicative about where he was going and where he was spending his time.
Throughout the years we’ve seen how institutions protect abusive men, but is there anything unique about this situation? Like the fact that it may involve so many people, and that—if the allegations are true—Diddy’s been able to get away with this for so long?
I did wonder, and this would just take a lot of reporting, but according to the indictment, the police were involved in the 2016 incident, where he assaulted [Ventura] on the surveillance video that CNN got and released, and it was said in court that he texted her afterward and said that the police are here and they’ve surrounded him. So, I’m like okay, what happened with that report?
Why do you think it’s so important that people pay attention to this case in particular?
It really has to do with why you should pay attention to all big criminal cases. This would be just a good chance to see the system in action and what’s going to happen here and just how the system plays out. When I was in Spokane at the Spokesman-Review, I covered a lot of cases from the day of the arrest of the defendant to the day of sentencing in the trial. It ended up being a two-year, in some cases, maybe even a three-year process in Spokane County Superior Court. I look back and I’m like that’s how I figured out and learned how it worked, you just see it with your own eyes. I think that’ll be an important reason to pay attention to it.
