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Combs' Ex-Girlfriend Breaks Down in Tears While Testifying; Menendez Brothers in Court for Resentencing Hearing; Dr. Sanjay Gupta's New Doc Explores Using Animal Organs in Humans. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 13, 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]

JAMAL SIMMONS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: ... And the Democratic Party who didn't win the nomination. I think there were a lot of real questions you have to ask yourself when you're sitting in that chair, and they made a call. They're going to be judged by history about the call that they made, and we don't know what would have happened if they had made another call, but that's what they did, and that's the judgment they're going to have to face.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Jamal, thank you. Brian, thank you so much. We really appreciate you both.

And next, we will go back to New York in the federal sex trafficking trial of Sean Diddy Combs.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, on the stand detailing her relationship with the disgraced music and media mogul. This testimony now getting very emotional. Don't go anywhere.

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[14:30:00]

KEILAR: Really explosive new testimony in Sean Diddy Combs' criminal sex trafficking trial. His ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, telling jurors more about the freak-offs, these sexual encounters that she says she felt compelled to participate in.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Ventura saying that Combs allegedly directed every detail of those sexual encounters, including even the lighting, and that she would allegedly have to stay awake for days against her will, telling the jurors that she recalled feeling, quote, dirty and confusion.

CNN legal analyst, Joey Jackson, is back with us now. And Joey, specifically as we're hearing from our reporters in the courtroom, the prosecution is detailing her efforts to try to dissuade Sean Combs from having her perform these freak-offs.

And she talks about being scared to broach the subject with him, doing so at times via e-mail. Obviously, that paints a specific picture for the jury of the dynamic there.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It absolutely does. So let's look at what this is about. It's about consent, whether or not she was on board with it or whether she was coerced.

And so I think what the prosecution is attempting to do is to establish that because of the power dynamic, because she felt that she could not say no, that she ultimately had to say yes, right? Even if it was implicit.

And as a result of that, now you have your coercion. Now you have your inducement. Now you have your compelling of her to engage in this, even if she did not explicitly say no. So that's what they will say.

Of course, the defense will argue that she did not explicitly indicate that she wouldn't. And not only that, but she helped to arrange, orchestrate, and organize them over a long and significant period of time, almost a decade. So it'll be the battle bars of those narratives that'll carry the day with the jury.

KEILAR: And also this part, Joey, about the involvement of his employees in punishing her if she upset Combs, right? She said they -- sometimes he would take away her phone. Sometimes they would take away her belongings.

How significant is that?

JACKSON: So, Brianna, like everything else, you have evidence that cuts both ways, right? If you're the prosecutor, you're going to say, aha, this is the criminal enterprise. He was using these underlings to get this measure of control, to have his way, to exert this influence, to engage in fraud, to engage in this coercive behavior.

If you're the defense, you're going to say, hey, by the way, he's a very successful man. He runs an enterprise. Who doesn't have assistance?

And by the way, also the defense will say that was the nature of the relationship. You may establish domestic violence. You may establish a troubled person, but does it, the defense will argue, establish a criminal enterprise.

Jurors, keep your eyes on the prize. That's what this is about. It's not about, the defense will say, domestic violence.

SANCHEZ: Joey, obviously we've talked about the really salacious nature of some of the details coming out of this case. Earlier today, the judge said that he's inclined to grant a media request to make certain video and images public. And this is sexually explicit footage and images that are expected to be submitted as evidence.

I wonder what you make of that. I mean, this is pornographic in nature.

JACKSON: You know, we live in different times, Boris, and we know that there's an insatiable curiosity, right? We want to know everything. And things are on social media all the time.

And so I think people are somewhat nowadays desensitized. It's not, it doesn't have the inflammatory effect. Oh my goodness.

And the jurors are admonished. They're told, listen, you know what? We're not sequestering you. You're not staying in a hotel. You're not going to be your phone taken away from you, but we're going to trust that you're going to make a decision predicated on the evidence and only the evidence, no matter how salacious. And in the event the evidence shows racketeering, you have the responsibility to find him guilty.

If it shows sex trafficking, the same thing. If it shows prostitution, again, if it doesn't, and it's just the nature of a dynamic, which the defense will argue of a very complicated relationship, then the defense will argue, so what? You have freaky people. And by the way, we're not here to engage in moral judgments. We're here to engage in whether or not the facts show a crime.

And so the judge made this decision, right? Other judges may have opted differently, but at the end of the day, it's up to the jury. They're seeing an awful lot, right, in real time. And so the fact that it's reproduced, I don't think will have such a significant impact on their decision.

KEILAR: All right, Joey Jackson, as we continue to monitor the Sean Diddy Combs trial, thank you so much for that.

Next, we do go live to Los Angeles, where the Menendez brothers' long- awaited resentencing hearing is finally underway. This is a hearing that could ultimately lead to their freedom after they've spent three decades behind bars.

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SANCHEZ: After months of delays and court filings, the two-day resentencing hearing for the Menendez brothers is finally underway in Los Angeles County.

KEILAR: Erik and Lyle Menendez could soon learn if they might be set free after serving more than three decades in prison for the murders of their parents back in 1989. Both siblings are currently serving life without parole. L.A. County's immediate past district attorney recommended resentencing, but then his successor, the current district attorney, is against it. We have CNN national correspondent, Nick Watt, who's been watching the proceedings. He's outside the courthouse now for us. Nick, what's happened so far?

[14:45:00]

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have seen a little bit of what we've been seeing for the past few months, which is a little bit of politicking from the government side. A celebrity lawyer acting for the Menendez brothers, very lively in court as he always is. The Menendez brothers themselves, as you mentioned, they are serving

life right now without the possibility of parole. They are in a facility down near San Diego. They appeared in the courtroom by video link. They have not spoken so far, but we expect we might hear them.

So far, we have heard from two of the Menendez family members, and they say universally the family has forgiven Erik and Lyle for what they did more than 35 years ago. And they would like -- the family would like to see the brothers released so they can, quote, have a second chance at life.

Now, the new district attorney, he does not want to see them released. Not yet, he says, because the district attorney claims that the Menendez brothers are still clinging to the lies that they told at trial, that they don't have really true insight into the crimes that they committed. And also, according to the D.A., he worries that they could in fact be a danger to society based on a recent assessment of them done by psychologists.

The family say absolutely no way. These two cousins who spoke said they would welcome the brothers into their homes. They would feel totally secure with them around their children, that they have paid their debt to society and they should be out.

You know, the cousins also talked about what it's like to be family members of the Menendez brothers during these past 35 years. They talked about the family being the butt of jokes on Saturday Night Live and other media outlets. They talked about the intrusion. They talked about the trauma.

So what could happen? They could be resentenced to life with the possibility of parole, in which case the parole board could let him out. The governor of California could let him out or the judge could say, you know what? I'm good with the sentence right now. Life without the possibility of parole and the brothers stay exactly where they are.

Back to you.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we'll see what happens. Nick Watt thanks so much for tracking that for us.

Up next, too many patients waiting, not enough organs to go around. Could the answer to this life or death crisis come from a farm? Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details in just a moment.

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KEILAR: Right now in the U.S., more than 100,000 people are on a wait list for an organ. And every day, 17 of them die unable to find a donor. This Sunday, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta will explore an experimental technique that could one day revolutionize organ donation, transplanting animal organs into humans. SANCHEZ: Yes, it's called xenotransplantation. And for the last two years, Sanjay has been investigating what researchers see as a promising possibility involving pigs.

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GUPTA: DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I got to tell you, I did not know what to expect, but it's powerful just to be here with these pigs.

GUPTA (voice-over): After all, these pigs are among the most genetically modified mammals on the planet.

MIKE CURTIS, PRESIDENT AND CEO, EGENESIS: These piglets carry a total of 69 edits to their genome.

GUPTA (voice-over): All alterations to their DNA.

CURTIS: We're trying to reduce the risk of disease transmission from the porcine donor to human. We're editing in a way that reduces or eliminates hyperacute rejection. And then we add human regulatory transgenes to control rejection.

GUPTA (voice-over): Now, to do that, scientists take the unedited pig cells and use a gene editing tool called CRISPR. They add special CRISPR fluids to the cells, which splices out certain genes and adds other genes. You can't really see anything with the naked eye and it takes only seconds.

But what is happening in this vial is truly remarkable. Let me take a second and explain.

GUPTA: First of all, remember this. All DNA is made up of four chemical bases, A, C, G, and T. That's your genetic blueprint. Now, this is a pig's DNA and over here, a human's DNA.

As you can see, they're actually not that different. But for example, take a look at this part of the sequence. It's known as the GGTA1 gene.

That's responsible for a carbohydrate that forms around a pig cell known as alpha-gal. Now, you put that into a human and it would cause almost instantaneous rejection. But by knocking out that sequence and then adding in others, scientists can make the pig's organs much more compatible for humans.

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SANCHEZ: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now live from Atlanta. Sanjay, this is fascinating. Are pigs being studied particularly because of their DNA sequence and how closely it matches to humans?

GUPTA (on camera): Yes, that is certainly part of it. But I think, you know, there's just more practical reasons even than that, Boris. One is size. If you look at the size of organs in a pig, a kidney or a heart, pretty similar to humans. They got a fit in the humans. So that's one thing.

Another thing is pigs, they have a pregnancy that lasts around four months. It's actually three months, three weeks, and three days. And so they can make lots of piglets pretty quickly and that can also serve as a supply potentially of organs as well.

But yes, you know, the idea of just being able to modify the genome to make those pig organs more compatible with humans, something that they have figured out how to do. And I'll just say one other thing. The fact that pigs and humans are so different evolutionarily is actually a benefit in this case. This is counterintuitive, but that means pig viruses are less likely to cross over into humans. So for all those reasons.

KEILAR: So are there restrictions here? Can anyone, any condition get a donation from a pig?

[14:55:00]

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, you know, ultimately this is very early science. So, you know, we interviewed the only living person right now in the world that has one of these pig kidneys.

But ultimately, yes, Brianna, the idea that these pigs could sort of be universal donors, that's where this is headed. And, you know, 100,000 people are waiting for an organ, 17 people die every day. So this could potentially provide some stopgap to that.

They could even get to the point, Brianna, where you could, using genomic editing, actually create an organ that was specific for a specific human being. So it'd be a genetic match, in which case the human being would not need to take anti-rejection medications and things like that. So it weighs off, but it's just extraordinary science.

And again, we're in the early days, but it's happening pretty quickly.

KEILAR: Yes, those anti-rejection meds can be so tough on patients. That's really interesting, Sanjay. Sanjay, thank you so much for that.

And CNN wants to hear from you. What are your questions about the future of organ transplants?

Scan the QR code you see there on your screen so that you can submit yours. Dr. Gupta will be back to answer them tomorrow. And remember, you can watch his full documentary this Sunday, Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports, "ANIMAL PHARM," airs at 8 p.m. only on CNN. We'll be right back.

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