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Sean Diddy Combs Charged With Sex Trafficking, Racketeering; Troopers Patrol Springfield, Ohio Schools After Bomb Threats; Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) Push Baseless Claims About Haitian Immigrants. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 17, 2024 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Fear in Springfield, Ohio, state troopers are now outside schools after dozens of bomb threats in the last few days. This happening after former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, spread baseless claims. Coming up, I'll speak with a Haitian-American business owner in Springfield.

Plus, battleground blitz, Trump and Harris on the trail. And right now, Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, is in Georgia. One of the big electoral prizes, though, will be North Carolina. Ahead, I'll speak with the chair of that state's Democratic Party about their strategy there.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announces his own state's investigation into the apparent Trump assassination attempt.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We'll see how it was that this guy was able to burrow himself in the bushes for apparently 12 hours and how that came to happen. And I don't have the answer to that. Perhaps our investigation will be able to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Good morning. You're live in the scene of newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin this morning with breaking news. Right now, Sean Diddy Combs is in federal court and an indictment against him was just unsealed. Combs is charged with racketeering and sex trafficking. He was arrested last night in New York and CNN's Kara Scannell is outside the courthouse for us. Also with me, CNN's Josh Campbell and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig.

But, Kara, let me go to you first. What are you expecting to hear this morning?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Jim. So, Sean Diddy Combs is in the courthouse behind me. This indictment has just been unsealed and Combs has been charged with three federal counts, one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and the transportation to engage in prostitution, so three federal charges.

And what prosecutors lay out in this 14-page indictment is what they say is a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals. They go on to describe in this indictment. They say that comes had manipulated women to perform sexual acts on him and other commercial sex workers who are men. He said that they alleged that Combs had drugged these women to engage in these sexual acts. And he controlled their careers and their finances as his way to manipulate them.

Now, according to this indictment, this mirrors some of the allegations that we heard in some of the civil lawsuits, including this allegation that comes that have what's called a freak out party. And in these parties is when he would allegedly drug some of these women and have them perform sex acts with prostitutes and record this at times. So, that's one of these allegations in this.

And prosecutors say, according to the indictment that when they executed those search warrants on Diddy's homes in Miami and Los Angeles, they uncovered some of the elements of these freak out parties, including, they said, drugs and 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant. They also said that they uncovered a cache of weapons. That was another way that they said that Diddy was able to allegedly coerce some of these women and to keep people around him silent.

Now, this indictment only charges Diddy, but it does say that he was facilitated in these crimes by intermediaries who helped him cover this up, including security, household staff and other employees. But Diddy is the only one charge today.

Now, we're waiting for him to have an appearance before the judge. That has not yet been set. But he will go before the judge today where he will face these charges.

Now, his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, on his way into court this morning, spoke to reporters saying that Diddy will plead not guilty and he will fight to get him released. Here's what he said.

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MARC AGNIFILO, ATTORNEY FOR SEAN DIDDY COMBS: I spent the evening with him. I was with him until about 1:00. His spirits are good. He's confident. He is dealing with this head on the way he's dealt with every challenge in his life. And he's not guilty. He's innocent of these charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCANNELL: Now, Diddy has yet to appear in court. He will appear. It is unclear whether prosecutors are going to seek to detain him. We may hear more from the U.S attorney, Damian Williams, once now that these charges are released. We're waiting to see if they're going to have a press conference. But more is certainly to unfold, Jim, as this plays out.

[10:05:01]

ACOSTA: All right, Kara. And, Elie, let me go to you. You've worked in the Southern District of New York. What is the significance of this being filed there? And can you explain a little bit more about these racketeering charges?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Jim. So, first of all, this is a federal indictment. It's been filed in the Southern District of New York, which covers Manhattan and the Bronx and some of the northern counties. So, this will be a federal prosecution.

Generally, federal prosecutions carry higher penalties, higher potential sentences than state prosecutions. And as I'll get to in a moment, that is certainly the case here.

So, this is a three-count indictment against Sean Combs. Now, count one charges racketeering conspiracy. and the indictment alleges that Sean Combs, along with others who are not charged, but others, ran an enterprise, an operation, essentially a business, that engaged in a series of crimes. Here, those crimes relate to sex trafficking. In fact, the indictment names the racketeering enterprise the Combs Enterprise. That's the title that they gave the enterprise. So, that's count one.

Now count two is charges sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, meaning that Sean Combs participated in transporting women across state lines for illegal sexual purposes by force or by threats or by intimidation. That is an extraordinarily serious charge. For the prosecution can prove that, the minimum sentence there if they convict Sean Combs on that is 15 years and the maximum is life, 15 year minimum sentence.

And then count three charges transportation of another individual to engage in prostitution. It's sort of a lesser included of count two.

So, we've got a three-count indictment, racketeering, sex trafficking by force, and then interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution. It's a very serious indictment. These charges are extremely serious.

The Southern District of New York does cases like this. They do cases against powerful, famous individuals all the time. And soon, Sean Combs will be in court and he will certainly plead not guilty to this. And then we'll be underway with the proceedings.

ACOSTA: Yes, Elie, this is an extremely serious case. And, Josh Campbell, let me go to you and see what you think in terms of what stands out to you in this indictment. It sounds as though there was a pretty extensive federal investigation here.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was indeed. And you know, it's interesting, we've been reporting all along based on those original allegations, which law enforcement sources tell us actually spurred this investigation. He was accused of obviously serious crimes, including sex trafficking, including drugging women. And now we're seeing federal investigators actually bring criminal charges.

What they allege in this indictment is that, you know, we're all familiar with Sean Combs' media enterprise, but they're essentially saying that his enterprise existed for his own sexual gratification. And you had all of these staff members that were there essentially assisting him in this effort to include members of the security team, members of his household staff, other employees.

And as we look through this indictment again that was just unsealed, I want to read you one portion, which lays out this slew of allegations. They say in this indictment that members and associates of the Combs Enterprise engaged in and attempted to engage in among either activities, sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. So, just a litany of charges there.

Of course, Combs himself has said all along that he is not guilty. His attorney indicated that he is planning to fight these charges. But you go back and look, this is really interesting, Jim, at how Sean Combs originally responded to these civil suits whenever they came out, they essentially went after the women who were making these allegations. At one point saying, you know, at least one of them was someone who was just looking for a quick payday.

That all changed when CNN broke exclusively that footage of Sean Combs in a hotel here in Los Angeles physically assaulting his former girlfriend. And then we saw his tone start to change a little bit. He came out with, you know, an apology. Again, that stands in stark contrast to how aggressive his team was towards these women.

And all behind the scenes, it's important to note that there's this agency that may not be a household name, but it's HSI, Homeland Security Investigations. It's an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. They specialize in human trafficking. They looked at these allegations and indicated there is a federal crime that's been committed here, and now we're seeing this indictment, they allege multiple crimes.

ACOSTA: Yes, it sounds like the feds are just throwing the book at them. All right, guys, Kara, Josh, and Elie, thank you so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it.

Coming up, fear is still on the rise in Springfield, Ohio. Now, state troopers are posted outside of schools because of the ongoing threats.

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MAYOR ROB RUE (R-SPRINGFIELD, OH): We need help, not hate, and that's what we need from those that have the national stage.

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ACOSTA: Up next, I'll speak with a woman who is part of the Haitian community there on the damage and danger that these baseless claims bring to her city. It's coming up. [10:10:00]

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ACOSTA: Right now, state troopers are on patrol at schools across Springfield, Ohio, after dozens of bomb threats over the past week. Those threats came after former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, pushed baseless conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants eating pets.

Ohio's governor says 36 troopers will monitor all 17 school buildings starting today in that town. Two colleges have moved to virtual learning. So far, no threats have been deemed credible at this point, but Trump recently suggested that he would hold a campaign event in Springfield, but the mayor told my colleague, Anderson Cooper, that would be a bad idea.

[10:15:00]

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RUE: It would be extremely difficult if either one of the candidates came to our community right now, and I would discourage it if I had the opportunity, just because this is not a time to campaign in our community at the national level.

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ACOSTA: Joining me now is Philomene Philosting=. She's Haitian- American and owns a Haitian grocery store in Springfield, Ohio. Philomene, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it and passing on your thoughts as to what's happening there in Springfield.

Your reaction to the state troopers monitoring the schools there because of these threats, how does that feel, especially as a parent?

PHILOMENE PHILOSTIN, HAITIAN AMERICAN BUSINESS OWNER: Good morning. Thank you (INAUDIBLE) in the state. I really appreciate. Yes, as an immigrant, I have accounting (ph) civic challenge related to a culture misunderstood that impact my families. For example, my child have faced the uncomfortable question to this feel about culture, participant leader to feeling of embarrassing of disaster distress. Additionally to the children at chief and the church who are too young to fully understand those issues. They affect them generally fair and safety, concern with the community, including (INAUDIBLE). Those experience on the square and the board, difficult immigrant, and their families face negativity, culture, defense, unsure, and sense and safety and acceptance. That is really unfair. And then people keep calling you, keep calling me, keep calling everyone. They're really scared. They don't know exactly what's going on in Springfield about this (INAUDIBLE).

ACOSTA: Yes. So, Philomene, you're saying that people are calling you and telling you how worried they are about what's going on in the community. What are people saying? PHILOSTIN: Especially from the kids, like I would just say, I'm a leader of the youth at the church. They asked me a bunch of questions yesterday at church on Sunday. They want to know what's going on. And they asked you, especially my kids, if we ever eating the dog, and they feel embarrassing in front of the others. And my question to them as they're growing up, can they never see something like that?

And the other kids went to school. They keep asking me if something happened, what they're going to do. My word to them, just don't be afraid. You just have to be honest. And people here, they're really scared. They're really wore it. They don't know what's going to happen. And then you name it.

ACOSTA: And how long have you lived in Springfield? What's it like there? And when you hear Trump and J.D. Vance say that the Haitian people have had a negative effect on the community there, what do you have to say to that?

PHILOSTIN: Well, what I say to that thing, I was thinking why Mr. Trump will have to say something like that. And number two, and I'm thinking is all about the politic, or is this about the race? It's just some question I ask myself every day. I really don't know where that come from, because I know immigrants come into Springfield just to work and to take care of the families, pay tax. Some of them are U.S. citizens, as me. Some of them is alien card, permanent.

It's kind of like I don't know where those come from. I keep asking myself, where did it come from? If I'm coming here to work a business or work hard, pay tax and do the whatever the USA asks for somebody to do, and why is all those things fall on immigrants? I don't really understand that.

ACOSTA: And what would you say to Trump, if you could?

PHILOSTIN: Well, I will say, we never eating a dog. I never ate that. And the other thing that is a false accusation. And I wish he can apologize for what he say, you know, because we have children, we are human beings, just like everybody has a child.

[10:20:01]

If you and your house, you heard they have some bomb threat or somebody say something bad to your children, as a parent, you feel the same sentence. You feel the same feeling anyone can be feeling. So, especially the kids growing up, you never know what your kids will be in this country. And when your kids come into you, tell you certain thing they overheard people say, and they worry about it as a parent, this is the same feeling.

So, I don't think that is fair for the immigrant, especially for the young kids. They're too young to hear the story, unfair story.

ACOSTA: You're absolutely right. And, Philomene, my father is a Cuban refugee. And I just want to let you know, you tell those kids that they are beautiful kids and folks in that community are going to keep them safe. Philolemen Philostin, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

PHILOSTIN: Thank you so much. I have a blessed day.

ACOSTA: You as well.

All right, let's discuss this now with CNN Political Commentators Bakari Sellers and S.E. Cupp. Also with us, publisher of The Bulwark, Sarah Longwell, she's also executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump.

Bakari, let me start with you, I mean, you just heard this very nice lady from Springfield, Ohio, talking about how the children in that community are feeling because of all of this, they're scared, they're worried. And when I asked her, you know, what would you say to Donald Trump, she said, well, we don't eat dogs. I mean, you know, what planet am I on?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I think the larger issue we have in this discussion is that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump, and not all but some of the Trump voters simply don't care, I mean, the abuse that this community is going through. And let me just say, I mean, they're here to work hard. They're here to be diligent members of the community.

It's heartbreaking when you see the divisiveness and the level of rhetoric that's risen to someone running for vice president of the United States going on a show with Dana Bash and echoing that he creates these stories about certain populations.

I mean, it's devastating to see this type of hate and xenophobia and racism used as political currency in this country. But people don't often understand that the currency that the Trump campaign is using has ill effects. And we're seeing those effects right now where these, not only these communities are being persecuted, but schools have threats and arts festivals are being canceled.

I just wish the Republican Party was better than Donald Trump, but here we are.

ACOSTA: S.E., Senator J.D. Vance has been amplifying these false rumors, as Bakari was saying, about Springfield and the constituents there, even admitting that they're just making things up, but yesterday, he said, we need to love thy neighbor. Let's listen to that, talk about it.

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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we want is to recognize and to have motivate us the faith that is, I think, the source of all great truth in human history and especially in this country, that we want our public policy to be motivated by the wisdom of loving thy neighbor.

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ACOSTA: Yes. S.E., kind of a disconnect there. S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No kidding. You can't speak out of both sides of your mouth. You can't say, we take no responsibility for bomb threats against Springfield, Ohio schools and hospitals. We take no responsibility for an attack on the Capitol on January 6th. We take no responsibility for an attack on Paul Pelosi. We take no responsibility for dozens of threats against Dr. Fauci and health administrators, election workers.

We're pretending this is a symmetrical problem because two lunatics went after Donald Trump, but it's not a symmetrical problem. And we're saying everyone should take the temperature down. But a Democratic president did not go around calling people vermin, or shithole countries, or targeting women for the way they look, or mocking disabled people, or POWs. I mean, this is not a symmetrical problem.

And the language coming from Donald Trump, and now echoed and pushed out there by his number two is disgusting and it has real effects. And they can't say, we all need to take the temperature down. We need to love thy neighbor. It starts with you. Be the example. But they can't because this is what they traffic in. This is what Donald Trump has trafficked in since he got onto the national stage.

[10:25:00]

It's a choice he has made.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Sarah, I mean, you talk to voters all the time. You know, I'm trying to figure out -- I guess there is no political strategy here. It's just throwing stuff out there and seeing what happens. And I don't get it. If there's a strategy there, shouldn't this be harming them among independents and those few percentages of remaining undecided voters that they need right now?

SARAH LONGWELL, PUBLISHER, THE BULWARK: Well, I'll tell you where they think it helps them politically. They know that last week, the conversation was all about how Donald Trump got absolutely dominated in that debate and how poorly he performed and how well Kamala Harris performed. And they didn't like that conversation. Donald Trump was humiliated by that conversation.

And so what does Donald Trump do? Because he's a bad person, because he's a small person, he lashes out at these marginalized communities as a way to make himself feel big and tough. And J.D. Vance's sort of wholesale imbibed this strategy from Donald Trump. And so what they did is they, out of whole cloth, out of like some baseless rumors from a person who apologized, by the way, the person who had posted this on Facebook originally apologized, said it wasn't true, was sorry for the havoc she was creating, but that doesn't matter to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. They are willing to continue to terrorize this community because they prefer a conversation that is in the like, you know, vein of immigration that is somewhere approximating immigration because they feel like that's safer territory for them. But they don't care who they hurt.

And Donald Trump, as S.E. said, and it's absolutely true, he created this specter of political violence that we all now live under, and he lives under it too. And so it is his rhetoric that has been, you know, creating this environment for the last eight years, and J.D. Vance trying to chastise people is absurd.

ACOSTA: Yes, and I do want to get to some of that because, Bakari, Trump is now blaming Democrats telling Fox News, he said, let me put this up on screen, quote, their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at. And they are the ones that are destroying the country, both from the inside and out. And then J.D. Vance had this to say. We'll play it.

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VANCE: You know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months. And two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I'd say that's pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Bakari, your response to that?

SELLERS: I mean, it's so intellectually dishonest. I mean, I've heard Donald Trump, I've heard J.D. Vance, I've heard Byron Donalds. I mean, J.D. Vance is supposed to be this scholar, but the fact that he utilizes discourse and language, which is the least common denominator of us all, we know what Donald Trump represents. We haven't heard Republicans take responsibility for Paul Pelosi. We haven't heard Republicans take responsibility for the long litany of things. We had the White House shot at before when Barack Obama was president. We had the whole litany of things that S.E. Cupp laid out in terms of examples of political violence.

Political violence has no place in a participatory American democracy. But what also does not have a place is the intellectual dishonesty, the harmful rhetoric that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth every single day. And voters are smarter than that. Yes. In fact, I'll take it one step further. I have a legitimate problem with the deranged individual getting that close with the AR-15 to Donald Trump.

I wish it never happened. I pray every night that our leaders are safe. And, yes, I'm Episcopalian. I was taught in my young black church a long time ago, you pray for our leaders even if they don't vote like you, even if they don't say the things you want them to say. That's the America I believe in.

And so, yes, I pray for the safety of Donald Trump. I also think that we shouldn't have AR-15s, the same guns that two people used to try to kill him. But they don't want to have those discussions. They only use this sensationalized rhetoric when it benefits them. And I wish Donald Trump or J.D. Vance had the testicular fortitude to look that woman in the eye who was on this show today and simply say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the harm that I caused you, but they will not do that.

ACOSTA: No. And I wish they would for the sake of just making it clear to the kids in that community, that they're going to be okay and that they are loved, and as I was saying to Philomene a few moments ago that they are beautiful children. I mean, all children in this country should be lifted up, especially in this community, they're living there legally, S.E. They're living there legally. Just a quick thought if I can, because I got to go, but, yes.

CUPP: Yes, these are distinctions that the Trump-Vance campaign won't make, because they don't matter.

[10:30:01]

They are going right for the base, and they've forgotten, they've lost the plot of this election, which is to turn out those independent voters. And I speak to them all day.