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Combs' Ex-Assistant and Alleged Victim "Mia" Testifying; Israel Accepts New U.S. Proposal for Ceasefire with Hamas; Palestinian Health Ministry: Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 54,000; Police Confident They're Close to Capturing Last 2 Escapees. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 29, 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]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Happening now, we're tracking some explosive new testimony in Sean Diddy Combs' racketeering and sex trafficking trial. Combs' ex-assistant and one of his alleged victims is on the stand, and she just told jurors why she never reported Combs' abuse.

KEILAR: She testified, quote, I believe that Puff's authority, she's calling Diddy Puff there, was above the police. Puff, of course, one of his nicknames. Mia adding that this was a period where years and years before social media or MeToo or any sort of example where someone had stood up successfully to someone in power such as him.

[14:35:00]

With us now, we have trial consultant Richard Gabriel to talk a little bit about this. He's the president of Decision Analysis. He's the author of the book "Acquittal" as well.

All right, Richard, your reaction to this testimony from this woman who's going by the name Mia, that she felt Combs was too powerful to face consequences from police.

RICHARD GABRIEL, TRIAL CONSULTANT: Well, this adds to the prosecution's main view in the trial, which is that this really is an enterprise, that his power and control over his assistants, over Cassie Ventura, really extended well beyond just personal choice. In other words, these are not actions and the conduct that's being accused here are really way beyond what individual people can do, that they really don't have that.

So the prosecution is looking to use this as leverage to say he has such a reach, such an extent of control over these people's lives that even the threats would have no particular resonance with the police. Therefore, it was pointless to try and report him.

And I think that's trying to create the enterprise, which is really key to the racketeering charge.

SANCHEZ: How about this detail that she testified that Combs pressured her to snort ketamine? Does that play into that racketeering charge as well? GABRIEL: Well, I think it does, because what they're trying to say is that the scope of influence doesn't just go into the sexual abuse and the physical abuse, but literally he's drugging these people, he's drugging these assistants and essentially doing this. And that really goes to the sex trafficking charge here also, which is that there's a coercion and control. And part of that, one of the vehicles of that control is the drug abuse as well.

So the pressure comes not just in the threats, but also, hey, you need to take these drugs. And that's sort of extend -- giving up some of your willpower here and a different type of control.

KEILAR: Richard, racketeering is -- it's a tough one. Right. I think that's the one. That's the charge that a lot of observers are looking at and saying this is the steepest hill to climb for the prosecution. How do you think that's going so far?

GABRIEL: Well, I think it's challenging because we're really talking about individual conduct. Typically, racketeering involves lots and lots of incidents, lots and lots of people, the scope of it. So they are -- yes, there's a lot of conduct here. They have a lot of videotape evidence which can go to that. But they're talking about a couple of people and they're talking about a lot of abuse.

So I think jurors could view this as just a lot of horrible behavior, individual abuse and even potentially criminal behavior. But if it adds up to some sort of kind of concerted enterprise, I think that is the steepest hill here. And they're going to have to really make these very delicate connections between each of this evidence and how that adds up actually to a criminal enterprise.

SANCHEZ: To that point about delicate connections, how do you anticipate the defense is now going to cross examine Mia?

GABRIEL: Well, I think a lot of this -- interestingly, this is amazingly, these are celebrity lifestyles that most people on the jury, most of us can't even imagine. And so they're in different areas.

And I think the defense is probably going to come back and say, look, a lot of these people are participating partly because of the promise of this. I think there was some testimony by one of the assistants that she was going to be in this film enterprise there. And that's what's luring these people into this behavior because they hope to get something from Diddy's notoriety, from his celebrity. And they're hoping to kind of ride that train.

And so I think they're saying this is really the individual choice prompted by this sort of celebrity lifestyle that's going on, as opposed to really them being coerced into behavior that they wouldn't do.

SANCHEZ: Richard Gabriel, thanks for joining us.

GABRIEL: Thank you. SANCHEZ: We're following some breaking news into CNN, a source telling CNN that Israel has accepted the 15 day U.S. ceasefire proposal with Hamas. We have details on that and where Hamas stands on this when we come back.

[14:40:00]

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SANCHEZ: We have breaking news in the Israel Hamas war. Israel has accepted a new proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas. This is according to one Israeli official. Hamas, though, says it is now reviewing that plan. Let's take you now live to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who's in Israel for us. Jeremy, what are you hearing about this?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, this is the latest U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, one that could lead to an end to the war if the negotiations between the two sides are successful. But for the time being, what this latest proposal involves would be the release of 10 living hostages, 18 deceased hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire. This would also presumably include the release of Palestinian prisoners, as well as the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

And during that 60-day ceasefire, they would be negotiating an end to the war, which Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy for the region, told me earlier this week he would personally preside over.

[14:45:00]

That's a gambit to try and give Hamas the assurances it has been seeking, that Israel will actually negotiate a permanent ceasefire, which it failed to do during that last temporary ceasefire earlier this year.

SANCHEZ: And, Jeremy, people in Gaza have been facing starvation after this nearly 11-week-long blockade by Israel of humanitarian aid. We have seen relief starting to trickle in. You've reported on that, but you've also reported on some of the difficulties in that process, distribution sites that have been overrun and reports of people getting killed. Give us an update there.

DIAMOND: Yes, we are now into the first week of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation being operational in the Gaza Strip. This is that controversial U.S. and Israeli-backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza in a way that it will prevent Hamas from getting its hands on the aid, which is an allegation Israel has made, but which humanitarian aid organizations have said they've seen no evidence to substantiate.

We've already seen 11 people killed near these distribution sites, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We know that there has been Israeli gunfire in the area. The Israelis have said that it was aimed at dispersing the crowds, but clearly we have seen video of individuals who were struck by some of that gunfire.

And what's also clear is that the humanitarian situation in Gaza simply has not been alleviated as of yet, and that's why we are seeing such scenes of desperation at the moment, not only around these distribution sites, but it is especially acute in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where this new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not yet operational and where the Israeli authorities have really provided almost no safe routes for the United Nations to drive its trucks to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

And amid all of this, we are seeing the desperation of Palestinians as we reach a grim milestone of more than 54,000 who have been killed in this war. And all of this has led the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations to break down this week in this emotional moment. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: This is unbearable. How could anyone tolerate this sort of -- (SOBBING)

Excuse me, Mr. President. I have grandchildren. I know what they mean to their families. And to see this situation of the Palestinians without us having hearts to do something is beyond the ability of any normal human being to tolerate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And all of this comes as we have reached more than 600 days of this war, 600 days as well of the captivity of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. And it is important to note that those former hostages, like Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who I interviewed earlier this week, they want to see the war end. They believe that a diplomatic deal is the only way to get the hostages out of Gaza alive.

And they are calling on the Israeli government and on Hamas to reach this deal in order for the hostages to come out and for the war to end -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for the update from Tel Aviv -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour. The Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., reopening after that deadly shooting last week that killed two Israeli embassy staffers. The museum held a ceremony to remember the slain couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

The FBI says it is investigating their murders as an act of terror. The alleged gunman was heard shouting, Free Palestine, as he was led away from the scene after his arrest.

Plus, drone video from the Swiss Alps shows just a huge cloud of ice, mud and rock cascading down a mountain after a chunk of a glacier broke off. The deluge buried part of a mountain village yesterday, and officials say one person is missing. Authorities had ordered the village's 300 or so residents to evacuate last week because of the risk of an avalanche. They suspect that the collapse was caused by high-altitude snow melt. And an infamous former Chicago street gang leader is among several convicts receiving clemency this week from President Trump. Larry Hoover was serving six life sentences in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, following a 1997 conviction on dozens of charges that included running a criminal enterprise from jail. President Trump's commutation order does not mean Hoover is going free, however. He's still serving a 200-year sentence for his state court conviction for murder.

When we come back, Crimestoppers is upping the reward for tips to capture the final two inmates who were among that group of ten that escaped from a New Orleans prison. Stay with us.

[14:50:00]

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SANCHEZ: Despite two escaped inmates evading capture for nearly two weeks now, officials say they are confident that they are hot on the trail of these two. Antoine Massey and Derek Groves they're among the ten inmates who escaped a New Orleans jail on May 16th. The eight others have already been captured.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Brynn Gingras, who's tracking this for us. And Brynn, have officials tipped their hand to indicate why they think they're close to capturing them?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not quite, Boris, but you just said the word right there, confident. And that's sort of what we saw in this news conference earlier today from law enforcement officials showing a lot of confidence that they are closer to getting these two remaining inmates.

[14:55:00]

However, at the same time, also begging the public for coming forward if they have any sort of information that could help, even if it's the littlest bit of information that they think could help lead to their capture. Upping the reward money to $50,000, which leads to the capture of one of these two inmates.

They also were talking about how many tips, Boris, that they've received throughout this entire process. 700 tips in total for the 10 escaped inmates that happened 13 days ago. And they said in three cases, three people received reward money because it did lead to the capture of some of those inmates.

I want you to hear more from what officials were saying earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLONEL ROBERT HODGES, SUPERINTENDENT, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE: We're confident that we have strong investigative leads as to their whereabouts. But we still need the public's help because as soon as we get one lead, then they relocate to another place, whether that's a home or business or a public area. (END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yes, it's sort of a whack-a-mole situation there for authorities. We know that there were arrests made in multiple states, two states for these other inmates that were caught in the last 13 days. Boris, again, they're asking the public's help, hoping that they can end this manhunt that, again, has lasted for 13 days -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Brynn Gingras, thank you so much for that report.

When we come back, we're just minutes away from the final hour of trading on Wall Street after two courts bring President Trump's global trade war to a screeching halt. Markets there, you see, responding.

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