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Prosecutors Show Hotel Assault Video in Sean Diddy Combs Trial; Staffing Shortages, Another Equipment Outage Plague Newark Airport; Trump Defends Plan to Accept Qatari Jet as Air Force One Replacement. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 12, 2025 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Happening right now in the Sean Diddy Combs sex trafficking trial, a former hotel security guard who is currently an officer with the Los Angeles police is testifying for the prosecution.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: He was the assistant director of security at the Intercontinental Hotel back in 2016 when Combs was captured on surveillance video attacking his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. The prosecution just played a part of that surveillance footage for the jury.

Back with us to discuss is Areva Martin, civil rights attorney and legal affairs commentator.

Also with us, Richard Gabriel, a veteran trial consultant and president of Decision Analysis. He's also the author of Acquittal, which highlights his work on several high profile cases.

I just want to point out, we got an update from our reporters in the courtroom that says that the video that's now being shown to the jury shows Flores escorting Combs back to his room, followed by Cassie Ventura walking down the hall after them.

I wonder, Richard, what you make of this video being played, how early it is in this trial that they're having the security guard testify to what happened and how central it is to the entire case.

RICHARD GABRIEL, TRIAL CONSULTANT: Well, I think as always, you want to make an impact early on. There's this primacy effect where jurors are paying attention as early as the case. They just heard opening statements from both sides.

So I think the prosecution says, look, we want to present something visual, not just verbal testimony to really reinforce their concept that this guy is a violent abuser. And so playing this very early on sort of cements that with the jury, hopefully will create sort of emotional impact with them. That's then supported with a lot of the testimony that's going to follow.

KEILAR: And Areva, we've already heard from the defense what they're trying to explain here, right? Domestic violence is not sex trafficking, that that is going to be the counterargument. They're trying to say, as they did in the opening, that this was about jealousy or that in this case, I think, as they put it, Combs was on bad drugs during this incident.

When you are hearing, though, or you're seeing what this officer is describing, the details about encountering Combs, that he tried to give him a wad of cash, she said, which he interpreted to be a bribe and he refused. He tried to steal another security -- or grab another security guard's phone, accusing him of recording it. What does that tell you about how the defense's argument here may or may not work?

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY AND LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, it's clear, Brianna, that the defense knows that it has a very difficult case and they're going to have to explain a lot of what Combs did on that day and what he did throughout the years that he was involved in the relationships with the various victims that are going to testify in this case.

And I think we shouldn't underestimate how much information the prosecution is going to bring about how individuals like Cassie Ventura and other victims, how they behave in these kinds of coercive relationships. There's going to be psychological testimony from an expert explaining why someone like Cassie maybe didn't want Flores to call the police in that moment, why some of these other victims perhaps didn't go to the police right away.

So it's not just going to be the testimony of these victims, which is going to be horrific enough, but it's going to be experts coming into this courtroom, giving these jurors a really good education on why we see victims behaving the way they behave, that it doesn't excuse or exonerate the conduct of their abusers.

SANCHEZ: And to that point, Richard, we see here that Flores testified that Cassie didn't respond to any of his questions, just saying, I want to leave, I just want to leave. When asked specifically why he didn't call police on his own, he said there was no victim here.

[14:35:00]

There was obviously no one that was going to press charges. I wonder what you think the defense will make of that.

GABRIEL: Well, again, the defense is obviously saying this is consensual. Yes, it is -- I think they even admitted this is domestic abuse, but this is not racketeering. It is not a pattern of behavior here. And they're going to say this is a bad relationship, where the behavior may be bad, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't consensual. And so it is a difficult thing.

I think a lot more jurors these days are aware of sort of this dynamic, this power differential that can happen in a relationship, where sometimes a victim is sometimes asked very candidly, do you want to press charges? And they respond no, but because they feel internally conflicted about that. So I think the point that there is going to be expert testimony to explain why she's nonresponsive or may not also be affirmative in trying to do this is going to explain some of this behavior.

Nevertheless, the defense is going to -- when they get the opportunity, are going to try and say these are strong women and have the ability to have made the exit on their own.

KEILAR: Areva, I also just wonder, there's this video, right, that the jury is seeing. We also expect for them to see videos of these sexual encounters that you have the prosecution saying that these were coerced, these were not consensual. The defense is saying they were consensual.

They were what Diddy allegedly referred to as freak offs. It's going to be incredibly graphic. Even the defense has said that.

Just this medium of watching these videos, how effective is that for how a jury perceives these moments or how they may be convinced?

MARTIN: Incredibly powerful. Listening to a witness testify is one thing, but seeing graphically something played out on a video, listening to an audio tape, listening to a phone call, that takes jurors into that moment. That gives them almost a real-time experience in terms of what was happening, what they see on that video.

They get to feel it in a visceral way that testimony can never provide for them. And that's the problem with defendants like Diddy and others in high-profile cases involving sex trafficking that we've seen. When you have video tape, when you have audio tape, and you have more than one witness, let's be clear, it's not just going to be Cassie Ventura telling her story of coercion and sex trafficking. It's going to be other victims coming forward as well.

So even if a juror is thinking, well, maybe this was a bad relationship, did he have bad relationships with all of these victims? Is this pattern something that, you know, was prevalent in all of these relationships?

That starts to make jurors believe that the defense and the story they're putting forward is unbelievable. So the videotape is going to be probably the most powerful piece of evidence we see in this case.

SANCHEZ: Areva Martin, Richard Gabriel, appreciate you both. Thanks for joining us.

Still to come, we have new details this afternoon on the technical issues facing air traffic controllers and flyers into Newark's airport, an ongoing headache in Newark.

We'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: Staffing shortages and another air traffic control equipment failure have been plaguing flights at Newark Airport. The airport is so short on air traffic control staffing. Flights again were delayed this morning, according to the FAA.

KEILAR: And this happens after there was another equipment outage on Sunday that caused a 45-minute ground stop.

CNN's Pete Muntean is with us on this story. You've been monitoring a press conference that was held today by the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. What are you learning?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, two new air traffic control meltdowns at Newark in a 48-hour span. And the Trump administration seems especially focused on blaming all of this on the Biden administration and then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just held a press conference and he opened it by saying the Biden administration bungled relocating the Newark Approach Control Facility at the center of all this.

Let's bring you up to speed. There have been four major systems outages at that radar facility, which is responsible for flights arriving into and departing out of Newark. The outage two weeks ago on April 28th really brought all the issues here into focus.

It caused five air traffic controllers to take what's called trauma leave. Then there was another outage this past Friday, May 9th, which lasted about 90 seconds. Controllers once again lost both radar scopes and radio contact, really critical systems here.

Then just yesterday, another new outage. Duffy says that time a new backup system kicked in, but the FAA still implemented a ground stop for about 45 minutes to make sure that system was stable. Duffy now says he's recommending an Office of Inspector General investigation into who is to blame here.

And we asked Duffy if the first Trump administration should have taken care of aging air traffic control infrastructure. Duffy said Trump wanted to but couldn't. And the Biden administration's Infrastructure Act should have fixed this.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They spent a lot of money and they didn't spend the money here. The president was understanding the cracks at the end of his administration and was going to fix it four years ago. But the last administration, they did nothing about it.

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And so as things get old, you get to the point where you're starting to hear some rattles in your car. That's probably the sign you can bring it to the shop. The last administration was hearing the rattles and they basically kept driving it and didn't do anything to fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: We're deep in the weeds, in the blame game. Now the Trump administration now has a multibillion dollar plan to fix aging air traffic control equipment. It includes a nationwide replacement of the telecom infrastructure that's been causing these problems at Newark. Duffy told me in an interview last week, this could take as little as three to four years to do all of that, but the fixes really can't come soon enough, especially for problems beyond just Newark.

By the way, there is a ground delay, meaning flights delayed going into Newark because of these staffing shortages at Newark Approach Control. The average delay right now, an hour and 40 minutes.

So we are not nearly out of the woods yet when it comes to these Newark air traffic control systems problems.

SANCHEZ: If you're headed to Newark, you've got to pack your patience, right, Pete.

MUNTEAN: Man, I teed you up for that one. That was too easy. Maybe change your flight.

SANCHEZ: Yes, maybe. Good idea.

MUNTEAN: How's that going for you?

KEILAR: I will do it eventually.

MUNTEAN: I feel like we keep talking about this.

KEILAR: It's going to happen.

MUNTEAN: OK. I'll believe it when I see it.

KEILAR: I thought, you know, maybe things could clear up, but it's increasingly looking like I will change my flight. I'm being honest.

MUNTEAN: Yes, we'll see.

SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean always a pleasure, man.

MUNTEAN: Anytime, always happy to be here.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, President Trump is defending accepting a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family, describing it as free of charge. Pete, are you getting a free plane from the Qataris?

MUNTEAN: Man, it would be nice. I would love a --

SANCHEZ: It would be nice. Couldn't accept it.

MUNTEAN: You wouldn't accept it?

SANCHEZ: You wouldn't accept it. Well, ethics experts have a lot of questions and concerns about this gift. We'll discuss them in just moments.

Don't go anywhere.

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KEILAR: There are gifts, and then there are gifts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. That is what President Trump says he's soon getting from Qatar. We're talking about a luxury Boeing 747 jet.

Trump says he will use it as Air Force One for the rest of his term. And legal and ethical questions are now racking up.

Let's bring in Noah Bookbinder to talk about this. He's the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. All right, Noah, tell us why you, why crew are identifying this as a huge ethical red flag.

NOAH BOOKBINDER, PRESIDENT, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: Well, when the president makes decisions, particularly decisions about things like the Middle East and the U.S. economy, you want the president making decisions based on what's in the interest of the American people.

But if the president gets a $400 million luxury plane from Qatar, from a country in the Middle East, it's surely going to enter into his mind whenever he's making any decision about that country, about the region, that, hey, these people did him a favor. He's now flying around in luxury, thanks to them.

That could affect his decision-making. He might be making decisions that are not in our best interest, but really in thanks for this terrific gift that he just got.

KEILAR: The White House press secretary is emphasizing that this is a donation to this government, that it's always done in full compliance with the law. And we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency, and we'll continue to do that.

We should note, though, the plan is, after Trump is done with this term, for the jet to be transferred to his presidential library, not to be used. He said he wouldn't use it.

But, of course, that would -- I mean, I think of the Reagan library, for instance, right? I think there's an airplane there. It's a spectacle. And this would be, too, as you can imagine. What issues does that raise for you?

BOOKBINDER: Well, that potentially raises more serious legal issues, because if this is going -- and we've heard lots of different versions at this point of what's going to happen. We won't really know until we see what the agreement is. But if this is something that is going to pass on to a foundation that is controlled by Donald Trump as a private person, not as president, that could well make this a violation of the Constitution, which says that the president can't get benefits, gifts, money from a foreign government.

And even if it's going to him now to become a personal benefit down the line, that could be a violation of this constitutional clause. But also, beyond that, it is another thing for him to be grateful for that is potentially this huge attraction that this library he's putting together, another reason to feel grateful to the country of Qatar for helping him out in a way that doesn't necessarily help the rest of us out, but it helps him and could affect his decision-making in ways that also don't help us out, also aren't in the interest of regular Americans.

They could be in the interest of him continuing to receive elaborate gifts.

KEILAR: How unprecedented is to get a gift of this magnitude?

BOOKBINDER: I think it's absolutely unprecedented. I'm not aware of anything, even in the same order of magnitude as this. There's a reason why in this country, when the country needs expensive, important items, we pay for it, because it makes sure that, first of all, we get the things that are in our interest, that accomplish what's needed, in this case, a plane that is secure and can do all the functions the president needs it for, but also that don't create these kinds of ethical problems, which could really, really harm the country.

KEILAR: And then Trump said that he would be a, quote, -- he said a, quote, stupid -- he would be a, quote, stupid person to not accept the gift.

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We should note that there are a lot of smart people saying, no, that's exactly what he should do. He should not accept this.

Talk a little bit about -- you touched on this but talk a little bit more about the strings that could be attached to something like this.

BOOKBINDER: Right. Well, I mean, the president is engaged right now. The administration is engaged in peace negotiations in the Middle East. Qatar has played a role in those in the past. The president is engaged in economic negotiations with a whole lot of countries about trade conditions and tariffs.

When he does all those things, you want to make sure that he is thinking only about what is in the national security interest of the United States, the economic interest of the American people, what is best for us.

But if he's in a situation where Qatar wants something and maybe they say, hey, we gave you that plane, but maybe they don't say it because they don't have to. He knows it. It's in his mind that he has been traveling in luxury thanks to this government.

And so, of course, he's going to be at least tempted to favor them in ways he might not otherwise. And that could be really, really dangerous, especially in a region of the world like the Middle East, which is on a hair trigger where every decision needs to be made as carefully as possible and for the right reasons.

KEILAR: Yes, the White House press secretary insisting he will only keep American interests in mind. But, of course, many, many people like yourself wondering how that can be possible.

Noah Bookbinder, great to have you. Thank you so much.

BOOKBINDER: Thank you.

KEILAR: And still to come, President Trump announcing plans to cut prescription drug prices, how the big pharmaceutical companies are reacting.

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