'I'm Laura Coates, and this is Trial by Jury. Yesterday was an absolute whirlwind, circus, unexpected, whiplash-inducing moment because it didn't stop with the verdict. Which you know Sean Diddy Combs was found not guilty of RICO, which was the racketeering by conspiracy charge. He was not found guilty on either sex trafficking charge related to Cassie Ventura or the pseudonymed victim Jane. He was found guilty, though, of the two counts for transportation to engage in prostitution. And for those two, there is the expectation, the prosecution, believes that he ought to serve jail time. In fact, they have said that they will seek jail time, and for that reason, they wanted to have him held in custody until he was finally sentenced, which could be several months away. Well, the defense said, no, no no. Now that life in prison is off the table, they want him to be able to go home to Star Island under certain conditions of release that could include drug testing and monitoring and not having access to a plane. And they thought that that could be enough to ensure that this particular now convicted felon would come back to court, would receive his sentence and abide by whatever terms the court said he had to. Well, the judge said, hold on a second. I'm hearing two different things from different sides, so why don't you guys explain it? And I want it in writing. And then he said, you may get that to me by one o'clock, but I'm not gonna decide till 5 p.m. And so the entirety of the area was sort of in this holding pattern. The families were able to return to court and they arrived to cheers and some absurdities including people pouring baby oil on themselves and one another and shouting out to Ms. Janice, Sean Diddy Combs' mother. Calling it a circus and a spectacle would be the understatement of some of the things that we were seeing. It was all playing out among shouting matches from people, some who were pro Diddy. Some, who were thinking this was an absolute abomination of the Me Too movement. And all wondering what the judge would do. As you watch this sort of gold frame door in the center of that high story, rectangular building that is that federal courthouse, wondering if one person coming out of that revolving door would suddenly be Sean Diddy Combs. The judge was aided in his decision by at least two reference points one Deonte Nash, a stylist and friend of Cassie Ventura, who took to the stand to describe the violence that he witnessed. He alerted the court that he was concerned about his own safety or that of the community. Cassie Ventura, also through counsel, suggested that she also had concerns and fears about security and safety. Well, the judge took all of this into account and then decided to deny him bail. The defense was stunned. Sean Diddy Combs' jaw dropped and he seemed to be in shock, seemingly expectant that he was going to be released. Well, in the end, the judge, using the defense's own words against them to say, well, I'm going to detain him pending sentencing because you yourselves have admitted that he is violent. You yourselves, he said, quote, full-throatedly described him as violent. Now, of course, the defense said that was for the purpose of trying to advocate for him. And this is a man who's a work in progress, who has attended some sort of anger management course of some kind. And even one of the testifying witnesses, Jane, was somebody to write a letter to make sure that he would attend and that he did not pose a threat. The judge was entirely unmoved. The judge set October for a date. The defense said, we want it much sooner. The judge is entertaining that and will have a remote conference to decide the scheduling calendar. But in any event, the two different discussions about how much time is facing Sean Diddy Combs is quite distinct. The prosecution saying about five years, according to their calculations. The defense saying under two. The judge will decide whether these will run concurrently or consecutively. And for just how long. Either way, whatever amount of time that Diddy has spent in custody prior to sentencing will be credited to his final sentence, and they will take off that time for time served. I had a lot of great conversations to try to unpack the significance of this split verdict, acquittal on the more serious charges, guilty on the lesser charges, but still charges that can carry up to 10 years in prison. Well, I was trying this entire time for the trial to understand, as all of you were, what was going through the minds of the jurors. Well, certainly we heard from them through jury notes and verdicts, but I had a chance to speak to an alternate juror. Those are jurors who sit for the entirety of the trial. They're not quite sure whether they will indeed be called to deliberate, and they hear from the beginning of opening statements all the way through jury instructions, and They have the same admonition from the court that they are not too talk about the case with anyone during the duration of deliberation, because at any moment, if a juror is unable to complete their civic duty, they pop an alternate right in. So I talked to an alternate by the name of George who described what he was seeing in that courtroom. And I asked him whether he agreed with the ultimate verdict.

I understood the final verdict because I took a copious amount of notes overall, the 350 pages worth of notes, because at the end we weren't told who was an alternate, who was the main juror. And so literally the last second when they were reading the entire, when the judge was reading his entire statement at the ending, it was like the first 12 of you are the jurors, the last five are the alternates. So we didn't know, we didn't even in the jury room, no one treated everyone, we all equal because we didn't know who was who.

Would you have acquitted him on RICO?

I think reading all my notes and looking back at the evidence, I probably would have reached the same conclusion as the other jurors.

'I also asked him a lot about what we saw from that now-infamous Intercontinental Hotel video. Did the violence that he saw on the screen, did it impact how he viewed the other charges in this case?

Can I ask you one more question? It's about the video from the Intercontinent Hotel that you saw a lot.

Yeah, it was, sometimes they did it like frame by frame.

What'd you think of that? Did you see it enough, too much, too little? What?

'We- I mean it was a very bad video and I think they showed it enough, I mean they tried to show it both sides.

Did it cloud the way you saw the rest of the charges by seeing that video?

No, I think we, again, we looked at just what we were supposed to be, what the judge had said we were suppose to look at, and then based off of the evidence that was presented to us.

'And you know what, remember, we couldn't see everything the jury was seeing. The press couldn't it, the general public couldn't see it, particularly when it came to those freak-off hotel night, king night videos. You know what I asked them? What they were looking at when we couldn't see it.

There was, there was sexual activity, but I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't really, um, Was it force? Did it appear? It didn't seem, it didn't seemed, it didn't see force. It was, it was, it was actually, it was actually like pretty tame. Really? Yeah. Did she? It was just a lot of rubbing oil and, and stuff on there. It wasn't it wasn't anything too, too, you know, graphic.

You know, here we are, not only from a court of law, but the court of public opinion, and including the court of the music industry. And I asked Suge Knight, famously from Death Row Records, who is serving a prison term as we speak, I asked him about what he thinks is the future for Sean Diddy Combs. And he said, well, the music industry, it's forgiving.

Yeah, I think the industry is driven by money, success, and fun because majority of the people in the industry is doing the same thing that Puffy was doing. Only thing different, he got caught. Only thing was different, he pissed off the wrong person.

If you could tell Puffy, if you could tell him anything tonight, what would it be?

I would say, as two guys who don't want to get along, I think we all can not be enemies. Number one, I would take your time when you go to prison and work on you. When you throw from prison, don't worry about trying to recreate bad boy. Worry about spending time with your kids, spending time your grandkids, and more importantly, Guess say no to drugs because drugs is one of the worst things to get everyone in trouble All these problems wouldn't happen If these women were sober and if puppy was sober

Suge Knight, thanks for taking the time to give me your insights. I appreciate it.

Appreciate you guys, enjoy yourself. I'm Suge Knight, I'm out.

Let's not forget, Sean Diddy Combs is facing dozens and dozens and dozens of civil cases. And he no longer has to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. No, it's much lower. The threshold is by the preponderance of evidence, a fancy way of saying more likely than not. And I spoke to Gloria Allred, who represents two people who were claiming a case against him. She had some insight into whether she thought the Me Too movement had been impacted by this decision to acquit him on sex trafficking.

I don't feel that it did at all, Laura, because I'm constantly being contacted by women who have been the victims of violence, by the way, by some men who have been victims of violence, often by other men, in a sexual situation. So they're also victims if they have been, you know, had injustice inflicted upon them. So no, the Me Too movement is alive and well, living in New York, living California, all through this country, frankly, in the world. And so people have been inspired by Cassie's courage and the courage of other women who spoke. I've actually represented other women who didn't testify but were prepared to testify in this case and did speak to the prosecutors and law enforcement and overcame their fear because they had a lot of fear that they would be retaliated against and perhaps become victimized by violence because they were speaking what they say was their truth to law enforcement. They overcame it. They found the strength and courage, they were ready to seek justice and support Cassie and the others, and they weren't going to be compensated in any way for that. They did it because it's the right thing to do. So I'm very proud of many people who came forward and I say the MeToo movement is moving ahead and we're continuing to seek Justice through civil suits, through confidential settlements without having to file a lawsuit and have privacy, also in the criminal justice system.

Gloria Allred, thank you so much.

Thank you.

The verdict may have been rendered, but this isn't over and will bring you the very latest. Stay tuned. This episode was produced by Grace Walker, Graelyn Brashear, Eryn Mathewson, Alexandra Sadler, and Rachid Haoues. Our technical director is Dan Dzula, and the executive producer of CNN Audio is Steve Lickteig. With support from Andrea Lewis, Mike Figliola, Hank Butler, Robert Mathers, Alex Manassari, and Lisa Namerow. I'm Laura Coates, and I'm here for it.