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The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast
Trial lawyers can be real people, too—and this podcast proves it. The Velvet Hammer™ is back, and this time, Karen Koehler isn’t going it alone. Known for her fearless advocacy, bold storytelling, and, yes, even the occasional backwards dress moment, Karen is teaming up with Mo Hamoudi, a lawyer, poet, and storyteller whose empathy and resilience add a whole new dynamic to the show.
Together, they’re pulling back the curtain on trial law, diving into bold topics, heartfelt stories, and the messy, hilarious moments that make trial lawyers human. This is an unscripted, raw, and fun take on life inside—and outside—the courtroom.
The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast
Sean Combs on Trial: Jury Out For Deliberation
Episode 24: Sean Combs on Trial: Jury Out For Deliberation
As the jury deliberates in the explosive federal case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, attorneys Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi break down the charges, evidence, and legal strategies that make this trial a pivotal moment in shaping our understanding of consent, power, and accountability.
Behind the glamorous facade of celebrity parties lies something much more sinister. The defense characterizes it as a swinger lifestyle. Prosecutors describe it as systematic exploitation. Combs faces charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The evidence is damning. Surveillance footage shows violent abuse. Witnesses describe drug-fueled “freak-offs” lasting for days. Federal raids uncovered weapons, drugs, and thousands of bottles of lubricant.
Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi explore the concept of psychological coercion and how power dynamics can erase any real possibility of consent. When someone controls access to fame, money, and opportunity, even an invitation can feel like a threat. Add blackmail, physical abuse, and drugging to the mix, and the defense’s narrative of consensual activity falls apart.
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Hosted by Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi, trial lawyers at Stritmatter Law, a nationally recognized plaintiff personal injury and civil rights law firm based in Washington State.
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Speaking of rappers.
Mo Hamoudi :Sean Combs. Did you know he's in trial, that they just gave the case to the jury?
Karen Koehler :Yes.
Mo Hamoudi :Okay, so let's. I want to just go over the circumstances so people understand. So Sean Combs, also known as Diddy, is facing a federal criminal trial in New York on charges including racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The trial began in May of 2025. It is a high-profile case. Here are the key circumstances and elements the charges and allegations. On the racketeering conspiracy the prosecutors allege that Combs led a criminal enterprise that involved kidnapping, drugging and coercing women into sexual activities, sometimes using firearms or threats of violence.
Karen Koehler :I thought that they dropped the kidnapping.
Mo Hamoudi :Well, this is the allegations, Okay. Sex trafficking the government claims Combs forced or coerced women, including his former girlfriends, to participate in drug-fueled sexual marathons, known as freak-offs, with male sex workers. Transportation for prostitution Combs is accused of transporting individuals across state lines for the purposes of engaging in prostitution. The evidence presented there was nearly 30 to 34 witnesses, including former partners, employees, and they testified about graphic and disturbing events detailing coercion, violence and cover-ups.
Mo Hamoudi :There's surveillance footage videos, including one showing Combs attacking his ex-girlfriend, cassie Ventura, in a hotel hallway. These were all shown to the jury. Text messages and documentations. Jurors reviewed messages and receipts related to interstate trips and the organizing of sexual encounters. And then there was a huge raid where the authorities found drugs, weapons and about a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant, and they're saying that these were used for the freak-offs.
Mo Hamoudi :Here's the defense's position Consensual relationships. The defense is arguing that all of the sexual activities were consensual. Basically, combs is a swinger who lived a lifestyle involving group sex and drug use, but not criminal enterprise. They acknowledge that he committed acts of domestic violence, but emphasize that these are not the charges at hand and that Combs was going to fight this. And then they also kind of attacked the prosecution, saying that this case is really motivated by money, referencing large civil settlements involving key witnesses. So they closed on Friday. So they closed on Friday and the prosecutor's closing was that basically, sean Combs used his power, money and influence to coerce and intimidate women, relying on a small army of employees to carry out and cover up the crimes you talk about witness tampering. They highlighted his attempts to influence in silence Witnesses included, recorded phone calls and outreach to former employees and they asked them, they urged them to convict.
Mo Hamoudi :The defense's closing was a little bit different. They say a swinging lifestyle is not a crime. The defense maintained that Combs was part of the consensual swinger lifestyle and that the prosecution's interpretation risked criminalizing such behavior for everyone. I guess all swingers were there. Lack of criminal enterprise Combs' lawyer argued there was a gaping lack of evidence that this was a criminal enterprise and that the case was about money, not justice. And they also acknowledged that you know Combs had some personal failings about his domestic violence I mean he had to and it's on the video but insisted that these did not amount to a crime. If he's convicted he's going to face a minimum sentence of 15 years on a sex trafficking case.
Karen Koehler :Okay, but stop reading and tell me what all that meant. Like can't you be a swinger and be criminal at the same time?
Mo Hamoudi :Can you be a swinger and a criminal? Yes, yeah, so how is that a?
Karen Koehler :defense Can you be a swinger and a criminal? Yes, yeah, so how is that a defense?
Mo Hamoudi :I think what he's trying to do is that he's trying to show that his intent was not of criminal means but of consensual means. I mean these types of cases when you're talking about sex trafficking.
Karen Koehler :Can you be a criminal if you love someone that you're abusing?
Mo Hamoudi :Yes, absolutely.
Karen Koehler :I don't understand the defense.
Mo Hamoudi :I think that the defense is trying to say that this was the party lifestyle, that everybody came into this environment understanding what they were getting into. And this is part and parcel what this lifestyle is. And this is part and parcel what this lifestyle is Sex, drugs and all of that stuff. And now what he's saying is that you have a group of people who came forward saying they are unhappy with what happened in these parties. And he's saying the reason they're doing that is not because of issues of consent, coercion or violence, it's because they want money. That's how I read Wood is defense. And to provide some understanding to the jury as to what was happening at these parties. I mean he has to provide the jury understanding. The ordinary juror is not in a swinging lifestyle with a thousand bottles of baby oil, so he's got to explain that to them.
Karen Koehler :What's your gut?
Mo Hamoudi :say, is he going to be convicted or not? I think he's going to be convicted. Why? I think he's going to be convicted because the testimony of a couple of the witnesses about coercion, which is psychological coercion, is going to drive the case within the context of. You have to understand.
Karen Koehler :Can you have psychological coercion? How is psychological coercion criminal?
Mo Hamoudi :Well, that's the way you would explain that. I'll turn it to lay people. Coercion in the psychological sense has to do about relationships with people. You have power over people. You could psychologically coerce somebody by sheer fact that you sit atop a firm, sheer fact that you have wealth and power. Now, you don't do that. What he was doing is that he was sitting atop of a recording empire. He was giving people opportunities to record music. He was reaching out to people saying come to me, I'm going to make you a star. That gives you power. At that point there is like a totally disparate relationship between you and the artist or you and the person, and then you use that power to create this aura of like opportunity and a future that is bright, and then you use that to have them have sex with you. That's coercion in the psychological sense.
Karen Koehler :Well, I mean, even if that wasn't enough for people. I think what I remember from reading things lately is that he was threatening to release sex tapes of his partners if they didn't do what he wanted that's another aspect that's direct coercion that's direct coercion, yeah that's, that's blackmail
Mike Todd:well, that's extortion, yeah, extortion. Well. And also you mentioned drugs, like can there be consent when they're drugged?
Karen Koehler :no, yeah, but what if they help procure the drugs?
Mo Hamoudi :It doesn't matter. The thing is is like, a lot of the times like these are like what I call like well, you drank. The point is not that the person consensually took drugs. The point is is that the person has lost their inhibitions to be able to say I want to be intimate with you, and then you're saying, oh, able to say I want to be intimate with you, and then you're saying, oh, you've lost your inhibitions, I'm going to push the boundaries of this relationship. That's the confusion that people like that's.
Karen Koehler :That's what he was trying to do is conflate these things I think he, I think he's going to be convicted, because the law if, even, if, if, if there were a consensual swinging relationship, that's that is what that is. Who are we to judge? It's been around since the beginning of time.
Mo Hamoudi :Yeah.
Karen Koehler :However, there are certain lines and so in my opinion and I have followed this the lines have been so breached. For example, I can understand if the former partners they, you know they apparently called and got the male prostitutes, they arranged the different things but and they participated in the sex for the benefit of, you know, the king god. But the lines were crossed, for example, when they were in pain, when they were exhausted and had to be given more drugs to continue, when they had a uti, when they were on their period, um, when there were indicia of they clearly didn't want to do it, but they were still doing it. When it's that clear to me there's something coercive about it. It's not that it's sex between consenting adults anymore. There is some force being levied on someone to do something that they don't want to do that is not just intimate physically, but dangerous. And they were doing it with prostitutes who were not wearing condoms.
Mo Hamoudi :Yeah, yeah. So those like to me what those details are. I totally agree with what you just said about those details. What they reflect. Where I like to focus on is that before these events these parties started, he sat down and he started to think about it. I'm going to have a party, I'm going to get all these people here and I'm going to do that because I can, because I have the money and I have the power To me.
Mo Hamoudi :That's the problem. That is, I'll be clear, that's the evil in the guy's mind, that he sat and thought about it Like those circumstances came up because he created the original environment to allow this stuff to happen. He created the original environment to allow this stuff to happen. And what you look in and you see that surveillance video, the way he beats Cassie, you see who his character is. That's what's going to kill him. Because when people look at that video, if they see you capable of walking into a hallway of a hotel and beating a person, a woman, I mean to me it's like you're a coward, that's a coward's act and so they're going to go in that deliberation room and they're going to go. That's a coward, that's an evil man and what he did to these people is he has destroyed their lives and he's blaming them because they participated.
Karen Koehler :It's nonsense so I I look at it, that I look at it that he. Obviously, you know he has an origin issue. He is a dark person who can only get sexual gratification out of debasing other people and doing what he tells them to do. When he tells them to do it how he wants them to do it, he needs a certain heightened level of stimulation by dominating other people and telling them what to do before he can get off. Couple that with a person of in his fear, who's at the top of the power chain, who has a lot of opportunity to figure out, like how is this going to work?
Karen Koehler :And I don't know if Cassie was the first one, you know, we don't know that but obviously this was a pattern that he established of how to accomplish his own sexual gratification. That was pretty convoluted and he couldn't do it on his own. He needed to be the master of his fantasies, which were not fantasies, they were real. And so in order to effectuate that, he had to use all of the staff to orchestrate it, to fly this person in and this person in to love, bomb this person, to do all this stuff. It wasn't a small effort.
Mo Hamoudi :No, it was an enterprise which is. It was a criminal enterprise.
Karen Koehler :I mean all those pieces that had to be done to make that one night. That was three nights and I don't know what the makeup is of female to male in that in that jury. But any female who's going to be thinking of having nonstop intercourse with multiple men, not for one day or two days, but up to three days, for you not to think that there's some kind of coercion involved where they're not even sleeping? For how long did they say they weren't sleeping For like a couple days. Right, he would use stimulants to keep people awake, yeah.
Mo Hamoudi :But this is why I believe he sat back and thought about it this is what I keep going okay, but this is why I believe that he thought about this. He thought about, like, if I'm going to throw a party like this and there's going to be all these people here, what am I going to do if people get tired? What am I going to do if they're incapable of performing?
Mike Todd:I just think that the drugs just went along. He was notorious for parties. He had that white party that all the celebrities wanted to go to, so I think that that was just part and parcel of the party lifestyle.
Karen Koehler :I mean, the party lifestyle looks very glamorous from the outside, but underneath it, it's dark. It's always been dark. I mean I was a disco person and I love going and dancing to the discos, but I mean there's all kinds of stuff going on in discos.
Mike Todd:Oh, and even I mean that's just continued now, of course. And discos, oh, and even I mean that's just continued now I, of course. You know all the time that I spent touring with rock bands. You know there were drugs everywhere drugs and sex.
Karen Koehler :I mean, it's as old as time. What's different here is the level, the level of the, like you said, the enterprise, then the, then the army of people needed to make this happen. I feel like another piece of evidence that was to me compelling was that he would have his own staff clean it up. He could have had the hotel staff clean it up and pay for it.
Mike Todd:He had to make sure there was no evidence left, correct.
Karen Koehler :Because it was so abnormal. Who has sex with baby oil on the walls and on the furniture and all over the floors and stuff? If you had a blue light in there I think it would be horrendous.
Mike Todd:I hope I never stay to one of those things you don't want to.
Karen Koehler :But the level of that's a lot of stuff.
Mike Todd:It's not normal.
Karen Koehler :I don't think any swinging lifestyle person is worried that they are engaged in a criminal enterprise compared to what we just saw here.
Mo Hamoudi :No.
Mike Todd:This is a billionaire's enterprise. This is like cult leader level control To me.
Mo Hamoudi :I don't see much difference between this and like a Jeffrey Epstein situation.
Mo Hamoudi :Oh yeah, and I think that the difference is that if this behavior was done in the light of day by someone who didn't have the power and money that this guy had, they would be a registered sex offender, plain and simple. And the reason these people get to get away with it is they have money and power. And to me that is the highlight of this case that a person like him is now being called out and you can't like say anything because he can't now run behind his money, he can't run behind his power, and it took a lot of guts for this prosecutor to charge this case.
Karen Koehler :I feel like the prosecutors have done a better job than the defense lawyers. Prosecutors have done a better job than the defense lawyers. Again, from what I've read, because nothing's. You know, the judge wouldn't allow this, unfortunately, to be televised because, boy, that would be a blockbuster. Yeah. But from what I've read, the and. But honestly, how do you, how would you defend a case like this? You know, the evidence just keeps coming in and in and in, like what's your storyline? And it's moved around a little bit. So the defense lawyer has not been able, in my opinion, to ever draft a compelling narrative on this case. This is not a case of just two swingers.
Mo Hamoudi :When you cannot draft a compelling narrative as the defense, it's because what you're left with is is that an acknowledgement of responsibility? When you are like in a space and I know this from experience when you're trying to put up something that's just not carrying the day, it's because you just need to come in and say I did something horrible and I need to find a way to take responsibility for what I did, not on my terms, but on the terms of the people who I have harmed. Let me know those terms. That's why he didn't testify. That's why somebody doesn't testify.
Karen Koehler :Look at the partners, so they present this, just evidence after evidence after evidence, you know, the prosecution, just all this evidence. And then the defense, in picking at let's use cassie um is text has, have her read text after text after text of you know her love and you know, and, oh, I can't wait to see you and I'm really excited to do a freak off and I mean, what is that strategy? What does that do accomplish? I mean, I get it, you're trying to show that there's more dimension to this and that it's voluntary, but the jury knows that you're avoiding that videotape. I mean, don't you, when you pick at the periphery in a case like this and you don't go right to the heart of the issues, which is the videotape?
Mike Todd:Yeah, what happens when she disagrees with him?
Karen Koehler :the videotape? Yeah, what happens when she disagrees with him? Because they, to my knowledge, they didn't talk about the videotape at all with her, or very much at all, like they. Just they wanted to focus on this other stuff that they wanted to focus on. But the juries, when you don't address the elephant in the room, yeah, yeah, that's always then the elephant's the biggest thing in the room we know from we know from trying cases that you have to get the worst piece of evidence and talk about it in opening statement.
Karen Koehler :You have to have a narrative for that. What that was not a lover's quarrel, that was a brutalization of another person, seemingly for no reason, just to get her back in the room. I don't know what that was and it was covered up and he bought him off like to ignore that piece of evidence or underplay it and try to talk about everything else. That is also how you lose a case. You have to address that bad. If you were a defense lawyer and you were a defense lawyer you have that video.
Karen Koehler :What do you do about it?
Mo Hamoudi :I would have played the video in my opening and I would have said you're going to hear from my client testify about this video that this day was the worst decision in their life. But you don't judge people by their worst decision. You have to get to know them and I would have him get up there. And if the defense is saying this was a party lifestyle that got out of control, the defense can't say that. The lawyers can't say that he's got to get up there and tell the story and talk about it and the fact that he didn't so we all know that a defendant should never testify, except in certain cases.
Karen Koehler :What makes this that certain case?
Mo Hamoudi :Because he doesn't have a rap sheet a mile long with a bunch of convictions, because most of the times you have these criminal trials, you have somebody who's coming in with criminal convictions, they take the stand and their convictions are then used to impeach them. In a case like this, if his defense because I take the lawyer at his word what he said in his opening and his closing that this was a consensual swinging lifestyle and he feels terrible about what happened Then you have to put him on and you have to tell him you've got to talk to this jury. This case rises and falls on you. You are the focus of this case, not the peripheral text messages, Not this stuff.
Karen Koehler :I don all know that this guy is very verbal. He's a rapper, he can be.
Mike Todd:And an actor.
Karen Koehler :Yeah, he can talk, he could present, he could have put himself on in his best hopeful light. I don't know how he would have shown up in cross-examination. I mean that's the risk, right, isn't the? Would have shown up in cross-examination?
Mo Hamoudi :I mean that's the risk. Right Isn't the direct, it's the cross-examination.
Karen Koehler :Well, the cross-examination of a person.
Mo Hamoudi :But you can prepare them for cross. You can prepare them for cross, but right now, if he were to get up, he would get crossed. Obviously they would put all this stuff in front of him. But all you have to do is, if that's truly what he feels that he did not mean harm then it will come across.
Mo Hamoudi :The reason why he's not taking the stand and I agree, I'm not representing him and I don't know I am going to use my experience of years of giving advice to people about taking the stand, waving the fifth is that that video captured a side of him that the public did not know and he saw that. Now that's—he didn't know that video was being recorded when he acted that way. So he's been outed and he he that and he he did not have the courage to get up and face that. That's why I say it was a cowardly act. Now maybe I'm what I say can be defined as a little sexist. I'll acknowledge it by a man who hits a woman is is a coward, plain and simple. I will say that the day I die, he's a coward and the jury is now in that deliberation room going. He's a coward and he didn't get up on the stand, he's going down, he's getting convicted, that's just what I feel.
Mike Todd:What do you feel? Well, I was going to say don't you think also I mean him getting on the stand just with that video if you were able to get him riled up or angry, that that in itself would prove your point.
Karen Koehler :That's why they don't want him on there. That that in itself would prove your point. That's why they didn't want him on there. But his life is on the line in terms of where he's going to be spending it, and I think you have your party line, which is I loved him. This is me.
Mike Todd:This is us.
Karen Koehler :Yeah, this is what we did. I loved her. I'm not perfect, yep, you know, and and don't try to deny it that this happened, because obviously it happened.
Mo Hamoudi :Just talk about love but morally he's not there. He is not there. That's why he didn't testify. He's not there.
Karen Koehler :He is not there. That's why he didn't testify. He's just not there. I don't know.
Mo Hamoudi :And maybe you know, in the seventh or eighth year in federal prison he'll get there.
Karen Koehler :But the 15 years I mean A guy like that has to come into this, thinking he's invincible.
Mo Hamoudi :Huh.
Karen Koehler :A guy like that has to come into a proceeding like this, thinking he's invincible and thinking about OJ Simpson like OJ got off okay.
Mo Hamoudi :So back to the original point, is that I think that when he's sitting there, it's not the axe, it's him thinking about, thinking and imagining about this event he's going to create and all of these people are going to be there doing these things for him. He's not thinking about them, he's thinking about himself. A complete lack of empathy, because if you're a person who's like I'm going to throw a party, I have all this money, I'm a famous person you would want to throw a party. Where you go, I hope everybody enjoys themselves and has a good time and feels safe and celebrates what I'm doing making beautiful music with people. That's not what he was thinking. That's the illness, that's like the defect, and he's not willing to confront that. He is a narcissist, that all of this was about him and he thinks it's about other people, and his lawyers are running out there making it about all these other people.
Mo Hamoudi :That's true. That's a good point.
Karen Koehler :All right. Well, stay tuned, that's true. That's a good point All right, well, stay tuned. Let's see what the jury says.
Mo Hamoudi :Let's see what the jury says.
