Are you concerned Shawn Diddy Combmes could be sexually assaulted, violently assaulted? Because based on what was said in court, it feels like a thing. Yeah, it clearly is a thing. Welcome to the Two Angry Men podcast. Mark, um, Diddy is going to spend definitely two plus years in a federal prison. I just want to lay this out right now. He is a target because they talked about this in court. They said he's already somebody tried to shank him already and that he is a big target.
Are you concerned that Shawn Diddy Combmes could be sexually assaulted, violently assaulted? Is that a thing? Because based on what was said in court, it feels like a thing. Yeah, it clearly is a thing. I mean, they're already and he did not want to make a big deal of it. They already tried to shank it once at the MDC and that was thwarted. And it happens in prison. I mean, I you and I could tick off how many times we are aware of somebody getting seriously injured or killed in prison.
Uh, and so they're going to have to keep him somewhere uh that he that they can keep an eye on him. It would have obviously been better uh if he had gotten less time and had been at a camp, but he's going to be in a facility where somebody's going to have to from the the BOP. And I think, you know, they're well equipped to do it if they can uh to keep an eye on him because he is a target. So, what does he do? Does do they put him in solitary? Is he with the general population? How is this going to work for two years? Well, the first thing they do is they've got to designate him. That's what it's called. They're going to take a look at what the judge said. They're going to see the order on the docket. They're going to take the months. They're going to take the offense characteristics.
They're going to take uh some of the other findings that Judge Sigra Subrahenian made and they're going to designate him to a location. He's going to be in the MDC for a period of time before he's transferred. when he's transferred, then they're going to take all of that into account and then he will be switched from the jail system to the prison system. So, what about this? And I know you can't disclose specific conversations because you represent Diddy, but can you give us a sense of the fear factor here on his part? Because he has they did attempt to shank him already. He knows he's a target now. He knows that he faces up upwards of two years, you know, with credit and all, but is he freaked out? Well, I haven't talked to him since the sentence.
I I know in talking to him for numerous innumerable times that you know I would not say he's operating from a place of fear although he was during the trial as all defendants are fearful and nobody goes into a trial anybody tells you they're not afraid when they're in trial just lying to their teeth but uh I think posttrial he's he's acquainted himself well and was preparing himself for Obviously, I've got a lot to say about this sentence, but in terms of the fear factor, I think it's going to set in. I think over the next week, you're going to see him make some moves. And when I say make some moves, there's things you can do to try to figure out where and what you should do in terms of housing. So, the judge gave him 50 months and 50 and he served 13. And when you look at the 15% credit, it's going to be 2 years and change that he's going to actually have to serve.
Um, I I got to ask you something about something that happened in court today. And we talked a lot about this on the live stream and I couldn't believe my ears that Diddy booked a speech for Monday. When I heard that, I thought, "Yeah, the when the prosecution said hubris, it's like, oh yeah, the judge is going to let me out. It's no big deal." It just it was shocking to me that he would do something like that. It just seemed as tonedeaf as just about anything I've heard in a long, long time.
You know, it's interesting. There's been um there's been a lot of things and obviously because I'm involved I don't want to second guess. I don't want to lay blame. I might do that next week. But um a lot of times uh you find that people um in these situations and high-profile people um make decisions that aren't the best. And um and I think amongst them I know that they tried to clean it up in courtroom afterwards.
Um who knows the the real backstory here. All I know is is that I think he is earnest he being Shawn about wanting to better himself. I think the the prosecution's kind of gambit if you will by asking for 135 135 months basically just you know between 11 and 12 years that has this effect of having the brain look to the midpoint. If somebody's at 14 and somebody's at 135, your brain automatically goes to the midpoint. And so there is that tendency that if you go so over the top that you're going to get a sentence that exceeds in my opinion where he should have been.
It's also I thought he was going to be I thought he was going to go higher than he did. Yeah. I will tell you this when I set kind of my internal over and under at 39 months going into this and I thought there's a lot of reasons our DAP program first step program uh given the man act comparisons why 39 months as being the high end of one of the guidelines made a lot of sense low end or kind of mid-range of one of the others I thought when his honor came out and said that he went through the machinations of adopting the probation offices 70 to 80 whatever that to me said oh this is 39's out the window he's going over 39 months so I've respectfully lost all the bets for with people who took the over 39 well and also what he said was uh I am going to consider all the violence in the in the testimony and when I heard that because you know The defense position was he was acquitted on the charges directly involving violence.
So the judge shouldn't consider it. And the judge said from the jump, I am going to consider it. And in the end, he said he was appalled by it. And you could just hear it. And literally said to Cassie, uh, I heard you. And so, um, even though he was acquitted, the judge said, I can still consider that. uh it may not be beyond a reasonable doubt for jurors, but it's on the table for me. And what he did was, and the argument was that it's what's called acquitted conduct, meaning there was conduct that he was acquitted of. The judge said he wasn't going to basically go into that kind whole line of cases, but he was going to consider it as a factor.
And he did consider it obviously as a factor. and he said he was going to send a message basically deterrence effect. I always think of my father whenever a judge says I want to send a message. My father used to say shows you how old I am. You want to send a message use Western Union. But judges do want to send messages in high-profile cases. Anybody who says high-profile cases, celebrity cases, you get a break. you don't get a break because if this were somebody else um who had rolled the dice so to speak who had bet their livelihood their livelihood and all of his assets on the RICO all of the life sentence on the sex trafficking and won instead of the government getting kind of an obstruction or all kinds of other tax dip and service charge. You know, my p my opinion or what normally happens is the judge would say, "Well, you took your best shot, government.
I and you took a swing, you lost, and I'm not going to uh I'm not going to let you indulge in being a sore loser." In this case, it I think what he did was he said, "I'm finding the guidelines 70 through 80, whatever." So now you could argue and go on appeal if he sentenced within the guidelines that he miscalculated that. But what he did was and I was telling one of my partners as he did that I said you watch he can be intellectually diabolical. The way to insulate this sentence and this appeal is to come substantially under the guidelines that he's accepted of probation. but hammer him nonetheless. And that's exactly what he did. You come in at 50 to 60, it insulates the appeal. Yep. And that leads me to what I thought he was going to do as a Hail Mary. So, indulge me for a minute that when when Diddy said he wanted to speak, which I knew he would do.
Um, well, you and I talked about it yesterday. I said how we talked about it off air yesterday. I said to you he had to. happened to speak. So, here's what I thought he was going to say because at that point he knew he wasn't going to walk out of out of jail. He knew he was going to get time and significant time. So, here's what I thought he was going to say, your honor. And he does his whole apology and remorse and all of that. And he does it all. And then at the end he says this. Your honor, respectfully, I would like to say that I now understand what President Trump was saying when he said that the Justice Department was weaponized against him because I feel similarly. I feel like that's what happened to me. Not with a man act, but with all those other charges. And they went into my bedroom. the way they tried to go into President Trump's bedroom and it was wrong. And I thought that he would throw that Hail Mary to get a pardon.
And Donald Trump to me um loves flattery more than anything. And if he embraced him in that courtroom, I thought that was his best shot. Um and it didn't happen. Talk to me about that. you know, um, people often I think you are miscast in some quarters, not all quarters, but I don't think people understand what a brilliant tactician strategist you are because if he had done that, I might have kind of massaged the message. I think there are, and you've heard me talk about this, I think there's incredible similarities between Diddy's situation and the president's situation. I think not the least of which is the lead prosecutor conspicuous by her absence today. Meen Comey was the one who prosecuted both Diddy and Epstein and whose father was basically indicted at the kind of dispatch of the president and there are similarities. They are both in New York. They both had, in my opinion, uh, prosecutors who weaponized the criminal justice system against them.
And by the way, as soon as Shawn heard the fact that the judge was adopting the sentencing guidelines that we just talked about, as soon as that judge said, "I'm going to overrule the objections, overrule the idea of that he's going to adopt um any of the defense object constitutional or due process objections. If I'm Sean Holmes and I'm sitting in that courtroom, I would have just said, you know what, you're right. this guy who his honor is going to hammer me. I'm not going to get I'm not walking out of here. I I don't know whose hairbrain scheme it was to uh book a speaking engagement or uh whatever for next week.
I don't care what the speaking engagement was unless it was something that was going to be remote or virtual. That isn't even something you should have been talking about. and I should have been appealing to the other judge of one who could do something for me is DJT. So why didn't it happen? Because I look, you know, we had a big argument about this on the live stream today. Um that there were people who were saying, "Oh, he'd lose his base." And I'm kind of like, I don't number one, I don't know he'd lose his entire base.
And you know what? If you lose your base, you gain another base and you're free. And that seems to be what matters. So, was this discussed? I mean, was it was it rejected? I mean, did somebody think of it? I I can't get into any of that as work product. What I will tell you is um and I'm critiquing the team myself. I thought that um the dye was cast when his honor came out and overruled the objections. So at that point you have to I always say my favorite word in the criminal law is fluidity. You cannot you know it's the Mike Tyson who was a former client of mine and Mike famously said everybody's got a plan till they get punched in the nose and when you get punched in the nose you have to remain fluid.
We've got to do something. And um I'm not second guessing anybody, but uh this was not this was not the finest hour. Not hard to read between the lines. Um, was there a problem because there were too many lawyers in this case? Because I'm just thinking when there's one, um, you know, you use somebody who has great judgment and there were plenty of people with good judgment, but this felt like a committee and we talked about this at the beginning and you kind of dismissed it and said, "Yeah, well, you know, this happens a lot." But I'm thinking, you have one person saying, "Do it this way. Do it this way. It's easier. It's clearer." and you take bolder moves than when it gets kind of watered down.
And that's kind of what it felt like today for me. Look, I love everybody on the team, but I was insistent to the extent I was listened to, which I think was quite a bit that Mark and Tenny run the show and um and Alexandra handled the appellet. Um Mark and Tenny should have run the sentencing in my opinion. And uh I'll just leave it at that. So, um, the appeal seems off the Are they even going to bother appealing this? Oh, I I I think it's way too early to to uh to make that determination.
I mean, you have to let it sit in. I will tell you. And by the way, 50 months, 5 leaves you open to a number of possibilities if you're Sean Combmes. And he will be consulting with consultants. He'll be consulting with professionals who will give him the advice on that, who understand exactly the permutations, but for an appeal, I'm going to go back to the point I made and try to make it less esoteric. By giving him 50 months, by the judge sentencing him to 50 months, the appeal, I think, if I'm handicapping it, if somebody comes to me and says, "Mark, what do you think about an appeal?" It's not Shawn Holmes, it's somebody else.
The judge found sentencing guidelines that were over 70 and the judge went under by 20. And then I'm asked, I went to trial, I lost on a couple of counts and the judge went under what probation suggested the guidelines are. I would tell you that an appeal is incredibly an incred it's always a heavy lift. It just becomes a herculean lift because of the way the judge did it. And by the way, I've said this a couple of times. This is not a judge who this job was a um upgrade. He took a massive pay cut. He was an accomplished litigator. He has a pedigree that most law students would envy.
And he's a very, very brilliant man. And if you don't think he thought this through and understands nobody, no judge wants to get reversed. And this is about as insulated a uh sentence as you can get uh from an appeal. Having said that, on the man act itself, he left some wiggle room open for the constitutionality of the man act as applied. That's se that's a separate grounds for appeal than the sentence itself. As far as the sentence itself, I just think that's a a lift. That's a bridge too far. So, a lot of defendants in his position would get a prison consultant. And I would think that you've gotten one for him already, that he's talked to them. And I would think he's talked to them. I want to go back to the safety issue that, you know, did he you know, and the judge seemed to buy it.
Diddy sexually brutalized these women. You may not say he did or and Diddy may not say he did, but the judge clearly believed it. So that puts an even bigger target on his back, you know, to be sexually assaulted in prison, to be violently assaulted. So was this addressed by a prison consultant yet? Does he have one? Have they talked? Look, I I talked to prison consultants. I want to say at least once a day for high-profile and no profile clients. I think prison consultants are one of the essentials. Don't leave home without him, so to speak. Don't go to prison without one. They and I say this because they tell you and normally I mean you take somebody like Craig Rotholdi who's one of the one of the top two or three if not the the top they understand it because they've lived it and they get it and they know certain things that you just can't know having been on the outside.
It would not um surprise me if I at a certain point put another client of mine in touch with him just to give him some guidance as well or another two clients because there are things you have to do. You have to look forward. We can't look backwards. But you're, you know, Harvey, I hate to say it, but the reality is the only thing that's more at risk when we go to prison is a child murderer and child sexual predators. That's right. And so I don't feel I'm raising this crazy hypothetical when I say, "No, it's not it's not clickbait at all.
You're you're you're having a discussion that's a very hard discussion that criminal defense lawyers have to have uh weekly, if not more often." So, you talk to these prison consultants all the time. What would they say to a high-profile person like this about um avoiding sexual and violent other violent assaults? There's all kinds of things that I mean the first and foremost is where do you get designated that I can't emphasize enough that before you do anything in terms of preparing yourself you have got to take your best shot at designation. Now, you have some control over that. And when I say you, I'm talking about kind of the royal we, meaning the court. Um, your lawyers can inform, can bring stuff to the attention of those who make the designation. You can send them material.
You can try to point out things. But ultimately, at the end of the day, that's a decision that is made internally. They have their own protocol. They've got their own checklist, so to speak, and they're going to designate you at a spot. Now, you do have remedies if you get designated to some place you don't necessarily think you belong. I've had clients who have challenged that successfully where they've been designated. They think it was because of a misnomer or a misclassification and they've successfully done it. But sometimes be careful what you wish for. you get a little tent of what I what I call in LA Harland's freeway therapy where okay you want to go someplace that's not as um ownorous we're going to send you someplace where you've got no relative anywhere near you because you challenged us I don't want to say it's punitive but it's punitive and so that is the next kind of effort that's going to be made is to determine and to handle where the designation is and I'll bet you TMZ breaks that news as to where the designation is, probably within minutes of when they make the designation.
So, let's say um he is sent to a minimum security prison. Is he out of the woods when it comes to that kind of assault? If you're going, you know, you and I talked about Julen Maxwell, who went from the one place in Florida, which was a higher level um not a camp, and she was transferred after she did the interview with the couple day interview, she was transferred to a what they call a camp in Texas, which I'm familiar with or I've had other clients in. So, a camp is generally one of the better places to be. And the reason for that is because a camp is basically you get certain privileges and if you step off of the line so to speak, if you violate, if you do anything that is not uh kind of according to Hy, they will immediately send you someplace a lot more ownorous. And that's why I say in the long- winded answer to your question, yes, you've got to get designated somebody. You know, I know he wants to be New York adjacent. If I'm Sean right now, I'm going to be angry for some place like Lawnpock uh satellite camp or something along those lines.
But that still doesn't answer. Is he out of the woods when it comes to being sexually or other or in in any way assaulted by being in in a minimum security prison? Right. When you say out of the woods, it greatly it's look, you're never it's a prison. Anywhere you go is a prison. You always have to watch your back, literally.
And if that's the case, um you're never really out of the woods until you're released or you go to a halfway house when you get uh into one of the programs. But if you are in a camp or in a low-level designation, um your odds go down dramatically. I mean, you and I, there's no um I just saw a buddy of mine didn't wake up who's substantially younger than you and me over last weekend. So, there's no guarantees you're going to wake up in the morning. So, there's never any guarantee. But, if he gets designated at a what they call a satellite camp or one of the um the low security uh institutions, it's a lot safer for him. So he is used to calling the shots and you know I I don't know how much you can talk about this because I mean he's your client but I know that people who call the shots when suddenly others are calling them for you and you are suddenly a number rather than a king that it's hard.
Do you have any concerns that he's going to have a really rough time following the straight and narrow while he's in prison? Well, I think he's I think he has I I've seen it personally. I think he has changed dramatically while in through the jail, which is not a prison. I'll make that distinction. Preconviction, postconviction. Preconviction jail, postconviction prison. So he has changed dramatically. However, there's always that tendency. It's in the personality. I mean, you're 55 years old like Sean. You're 60 some odd like me, 70 some odd like you. It's very hard to change old habits. And the judge kind of said that in as much today in a different context, but it holds true everywhere.
You're going to have to fight against that urge. you're going to have to fight against them. It's Sean said something that I thought in his statement was that it was humbling and clearly it is humbling and I will tell you are the and you've seen it with a lot of the people that you've followed over the years. There's various avenues that you can take. There's various decisions you make when you're in custody. And you know, I always tout the Mendez brothers as making good decisions.
There are others that I've had who've made incredibly bad decisions. I'm always hopeful that somebody makes the good ones. Yeah. Um so if you had to put this on a scale, 10 being um he's in huge trouble in prison and one he's going to be fine. Um, just in terms of the next two years for him, in terms of the dangers of being there, the difficulty of being there, what number do you put it at? A four. Really? A four? Really? Yeah. I think I And you might have me reassess once he gets designated, but right now I don't know. I mean, I was fearful when the judge took the probation guidelines recommendations.
I mean, I was on I've been on a roller coaster all day on this. I was on a roller coaster yesterday on this and it's been very hard to handicap this. And that's um and I know and when I say handicap, it's because I'm so incredibly close to it. And uh and you constantly when you have one of these cases or you're affiliated in some way, shape or form, you're trying to always give the best advice you can. And in this case, um, I can second guess or I always second guess, not just this case, any case. But, uh, I'm hopeful that he gets designated to a place where he can continue to do the work on himself, which he needs to do.
He's the first guy to admit he needs to do the work on himself. Even postconviction, he hasn't made all the the best decisions, and he would be the first to admit that. He's made some really good decisions, but he's gonna have to continue to work on that daily. It's not a you don't just flip a switch and change. It's it's hard work and he's doing the hard work and I hope he continues. Okay. And finally, um, and I don't want to put you in a difficult position. If you don't want to answer it, it's fine. But the defense did an amazing job during the trial. I mean, they just did and they won. I don't think they did a good job in the sentencing hearing. And you know, I thought I thought the the video they played was too slick.
They put music on it. It didn't feel authentic to me. Um the idea of allowing him to book a speech on Monday was ridiculous. They avoided the playing the Trump card even obtusely. There were just a number of things. And I'm wondering what was the difference because it was basically the same crew. Why did it feel so different to me with the trial and then the sentencing? There's no way I can answer that question except to say, Harvey, you're a very astute observer of the human condition. Okay, I'll leave it at that. I I don't want to put you uh on the spot, but I saw something radically different today. I'll leave it at that. I'm good to see you. I'm coming back.
Have a safe flight. Thank you. Bye-bye. See you..
