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Donald Trump said he would “look at the facts” before deciding whether to pardon Sean Combs if he is convicted.
Here are a few facts that emerged in court on Friday.
Jane, one of Combs’ alleged sex trafficking victims, described being driven in an SUV to the Trump International Hotel for one of the drug-fueled “hotel nights” that always left her feeling tired, sore and used. Before traveling to New York, Jane said she told Combs that she didn’t want to participate in another session, which she said typically lasted at least 24 hours and once stretched for as long as 3.5 days.
Then, Jane saw the tell-tale “red light room” shining through a lower-floor window of the Trump Hotel, and she snapped a picture of the hotel’s facade. She knew at that moment, she said, that Combs had his assistants set up the lurid lights for sex that she did not want with a male escort. The jury saw the photograph of hotel’s facade, and Jane testified that the hotel’s front desk passed on an package stuffed with a couple of thousand dollars for the male escort Combs paid to have sex with her.
All Rise News editor-in-chief Adam Klasfeld discussed Jane’s testimony on CNN on Friday. Watch it here:
During a Substack Live with me earlier this week, investigative journalist Vicky Ward shed some light on the background of the Trump-Diddy relationship.
“Back when Trump was — you know, Donald Trump., New York real estate magnate — the rap community embraced him because they felt he wasn't a corporate elite,” Ward noted. “So there was that bond.”
Trump doesn’t care much for due process, but he appears to make rare exceptions for certain accused sex traffickers, especially if they are wealthy and powerful friends. He infamously wished Ghislaine Maxwell well before she was convicted of sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein.
In our latest weekly conversation, Vicky and I delve deep into Trump’s attacks on Ivy League education and consider what the muted reaction to Weinstein’s retrial means for the cultural moment.
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