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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

New Witnesses Bolster Cassie Ventura's Abuse Allegations; Trump Signs Bill To Combat Sharing Of Explicit Deepfakes; Six "Armed And Dangerous" Inmates Remain At Large After New Orleans Jailbreak. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 20, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

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MEG TIRRELL CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Now a lot of folks might be asking how did this only get caught after it had already spread to the president's bones, and doctors say that's a complicated question. Because if you look at the screening guidelines for prostate cancer in the United States for men below the age of 70 it's really an individual decision with their doctors whether to screen routinely for prostate cancer based on just how fast the cancer often is growing, if it's caught at that stage, and the outcomes that change whether your screening or not. But for men over the age of 70 the recommendation isn't to routinely screen using PSA or prostate-specific antigen testing for prostate cancer.

And so while it's unclear if a president would be getting different treatment than the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines it's typically not recommended for men over the age of 70 to be routinely screened.

But prostate cancer is a very common cancer. One out of eight men in the United States are estimated to have a diagnosis of prostate cancer in their lifetimes. The National Cancer Institute estimates that more than 300,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2025 and more than 35,000 men will die from the disease.

But a lot of folks are living with prostate cancer. In 2022 the estimate was 3 1/2 million people living with prostate cancer. Doctors recommend folks really keep on top of their health and talk with their doctors about their own personal risk factors and make decisions about whether screening works for them based on the guidelines.

And everyone, of course, wishing the Bidens the best in this journey.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, we all are.

New witnesses alleging that they saw music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs abusing his former girlfriend. We're going to have the very latest on this highly watched -- highly watched trial and who will be next to testify. We'll have some expert insight coming up.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back.

New witnesses testified in court Monday in Sean "Diddy" Combs' racketeering and sex trafficking trial. They told jurors that Combs abused his former girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, essentially bolstering her previous claims.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges that he's accused of.

Let's go now to CNN's Kara Scannell with a wrap of trial day six and what we can expect today.

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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two witnesses testified that they saw Combs strike Ventura. One of those was Ventura's best friend of 17 years, Kerry Morgan.

She testified about an incident in Jamaica where she said they were sitting at a bar and that Ventura excused herself to go to the bathroom, but Combs thought she was taking too long. The next thing Morgan knew she said she heard a guttural scream and saw Combs dragging Ventura by her hair down the hallway. And outside she said she saw Combs throw Ventura to the ground. She said she hit her head on a brick, and she thought Ventura was knocked out.

Now, Morgan also testified that Combs was violent to her. She said he came into Ventura's apartment. He saw Morgan. He approached her from behind and began to choke her, and then he hit her behind the ear with a wooden hanger.

Morgan said that she suffered a concussion and was not friends with Ventura after that.

She also though testified that at some point she urged Ventura to leave Combs, but at other times their relationship was good. And she said that at the same time Combs was also controlling, and Ventura couldn't leave because he had control of her music career as well as her finances.

Now, another witness took the stand -- Combs' former personal assistant David James. He also testified that he had a conversation with Ventura in which she said that Combs was in control of her finances and that she couldn't leave the lifestyle she described as crazy.

James, at one point, became emotional on the witness stand when he described his job interview sitting in a meeting with an H.R. person at Bad Boy Records. He began to dab his eyes and pause to catch his -- to catch himself when he testified that the H.R. person said this is Mr. Combs' kingdom. We're all here to serve him.

James will be back on the witness stand on Tuesday. One of the next witnesses coming up is Ventura's mom.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

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SANDOVAL: Thank you, Kara.

Joining me to discuss the case if Joey Jackson, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney. Joey, good morning.

Thanks for getting up early with us -- if we still have you. We may. Oh, we may have lost Joey. Yeah, we had a lot of questions for Joey. Let's see if we can get him back up though. There you are, Joey. What a tease you are.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: The magic of television.

SANDOVAL: Joey, again, thanks for getting up with us even though our technology sometimes doesn't want to cooperate. I really appreciate you.

You've been watching this very closely, Joey. We've heard some very disturbing testimony about a history of domestic violence.

But from your perspective do you think the prosecution perhaps is spending too much time discussing abuse that we should remind viewers is not actually charged in this particular case, or do you think maybe it is a calculated move? That it's necessary to try to paint a bigger picture of Combs using intimidation to lead an enterprise, allegedly.

JACKSON: Yeah, Polo, that is what they are doing. From a defense perspective they would certainly remind jurors that this is not a domestic violence case. This is a case about racketeering and running a criminal enterprise, and it's about coercion relating to sex, right? That's ultimately what it is.

[05:40:10]

Prosecutors though are focusing on the big picture. If you think about racketeering, what did you hear? What do racketeers do? They lead enterprises and they do it with violence, they do it with drugs, they do it with guns. What did we hear Ms. Richard talk about? Violence, guns, and drugs.

In terms of the sex trafficking, what is that about? It's about free will if you're the defense versus coercion. And what did we hear Ms. Richard talk about? That is the witness -- Cassie's best friend. That's who I'm referring to. She talked about the issue of this control. The fact that her friend could not leave. The fact that her friend needed to do her -- when I say her friend I mean Cassie Ventura, the star witness of prosecutors. She had to stay in this relationship. And so, yes, we're hearing a lot about this abusiveness. I think

that's a function, Polo, of the dynamic of the narrative that the -- that the prosecutors are trying to present with regard of a kingpin who was violent, vicious, ran an enterprise, and certainly expected and anticipated that everyone in that enterprise do what he commanded. Whether that resonates with the jury and whether or not they say hey, this is just domestic abuse -- it's not the core nitty gritty of charges -- that remains to be seen.

SANDOVAL: And staying -- and I'm glad you mentioned Richard, Joey -- staying on her testimony as we heard Cassie's former best friend taking the stand. The defense did attempt to essentially undermine her testimony about Combs' alleged assault on Ventura. They posed questions about her memory of a 2019 incident and also about her possible personal motives.

Do you think that the prosecution opened itself to some skepticism from the jury by putting her on the stand?

JACKSON: Without question.

So what ends up happening is that any trial, Polo, is a battle of the narratives. We know what the narrative of the prosecution is -- that he was a person, Combs, who was very controlling and that ran this enterprise. He was about criminality. He was about coercing sexual activity, et cetera.

However, when you have witnesses -- to your question, those witnesses, number one, have to be credible. Number two, they have to tell a story that does not -- is not inconsistent from their past.

You heard me mention the issue that she mentioned, right -- Ms. Richard -- about guns and drugs. Well, hey, by the way, you spoke to prosecutors about this case multiple times. Did you mention the drugs to them? Did you mention guns to them? Oh, you didn't? Why?

So that goes to the issue of credibility. It goes to the issue of bias.

Going further into it, now prosecutors want to know, by the way, you know -- excuse me, defense wants to know you are suing him. Is that fair to say? And that is Sean Combs. And as a result of that you have a financial motivation. Isn't that true?

And so, yes -- of course, you're going to have witnesses. Every witness is going to try to check a box for prosecutors to prove the overall goal that they're trying to make. That this was a criminal enterprise that dealt with sexuality and this exploitation.

And you're going to have the defense say nonsense -- it's about free will. It's about witnesses who are bitter, who are motivated by a number of things. And that their client certainly knew that people had free will and agency. And he did, right, nothing criminal. He did engage in a freaky lifestyle to his liking.

So those are the narratives that are competing, Polo.

SANDOVAL: And finally, how many of those boxes do you think the prosecution has been able to actually successfully check? And looking ahead to the next witnesses do you think that the questioning should really focus on his history of domestic violence or perhaps shift gears and focus on the criminal enterprise element?

JACKSON: Yeah. What they have to do is that prosecutors need to establish that he had this enterprise and that he was running an enterprise and that enterprise consisted of kidnapping, consisted of arson. Consisted of all this bad behavior that you see enterprises have. This assaultive behavior, these guns, these drugs, and that he was running it exclusively for his sexual gratification.

What you'll see, Polo, is each witness attempt to check a box in that regard. Is it an overreach? It remains to be seen. Many in the defense community believe that the issue about running a criminal enterprise might be a bridge too far.

Could this be certainly an issue pertaining to prostitution, yes. Sex trafficking, potentially. But running a criminal enterprise as opposed to an enterprise that was predicated upon being a music mogul is a different story.

And so I think they will continue to -- no witness -- one witness is going to establish your case. It's going to be a series of witnesses over a series of time that's either going to show whether this was indeed -- as we look at those pictures there from the hotel of things broken and destroyed, right?

Every witness is going to continue to build and build and build. And whether they lay -- prosecutors -- foundation of an enterprise, a foundation of the sexual exploitation, a foundation of the sex trafficking, a foundation of prostitution, is going to remain to be seen as they bring forth witnesses day-by-day, week-by-week.

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SANDOVAL: There is a lot to watch out for, Joey Jackson, and we are so happy to have you there to provide this valuable insight. Appreciate you, Joey. Have a good rest of your day.

JACKSON: Thank you, Polo -- you, too.

SANDOVAL: Still ahead here on EARLY START a brazen jailbreak in New Orleans has prosecutors going into hiding. We'll tell you why.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in for Rahel Solomon, and here are some of the stories that we're closing watching right now.

Later today President Trump is set to meet with House Republicans to discuss a bill to fund his legislative agenda. Hardline party members aren't happy with the provisions in the bill just yet, which threatens to delay its approval. House Speaker Mike Johnson hoping to pass the bill before the Memorial Day holiday this weekend.

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And the U.K. and the EU -- they have taken big steps towards resetting relations post-Brexit. They signed a new deal on Monday on trade, security, migration, and tourism. The EU commission president said, "At a time of global instability we in Europe stick together."

And a June parole hearing for Lyle and Erik Menendez has been delayed until August. The brothers were resentenced last week for killing their parents in 1989 making them eligible for parole. The brothers are also seeking clemency from California's governor, which would allow their immediate release.

President Trump has signed a new law -- a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting victims of revenge porn and nonconsensual explicit deepfake images.

CNN's Clare Duffy tells us more about the Take It Down Act and how it works.

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CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: The Take It Down Act that President Trump signed into law is going to do two important things to boost protections for victims of revenge porn and AI-generated explicit deepfakes.

It is going to criminalize the sharing of nonconsensual explicit images online, whether they are real or AI-generated, so that victims could go after the people who are sharing these images. It's also going to require that tech platforms remove these images within 48 hours of being notified that they are there. And that means that victims can try to stop these images from spreading across the internet.

This, of course, very important as we've seen the use of sexualized deepfakes where someone will take a real photo of someone's face and superimpose it on a nude body using AI growing as a form of harassment. Everybody from Taylor Swift to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to high school girls have been targeted by this form of harassment.

It's also notable because this is one of the first new pieces of legislation that we've seen that regulates how AI-generated content can be used. It received rare bipartisan support, including from first lady Melania Trump who was there in the Rose Garden on Monday afternoon alongside President Trump to sign this bill into law.

Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.

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SANDOVAL: Happening right now, hundreds of law enforcement personnel -- they are scrambling to track down six inmates who are still at large after a daring jailbreak in New Orleans. The men still on the run and considered armed and extremely dangerous -- and also, several of them are accused killers.

Authorities have captured four of the 10 prisoners who escaped on Friday. Louisiana State Police releasing this image of the fourth man who was caught on Monday. You see him in custody there.

The inmates escaped on Friday by breaching a wall behind a jail cell toilet. Authorities releasing this dramatic video showing those inmates breaking into that cell, then running out onto a loading dock. And they used blankets, which they used -- they draped over the fence to scale it. The jailbreak went unnoticed for more than seven hours.

The district attorney says that he and his staff -- they are concerned that some of these inmates may come after them.

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JASON R. WILLIAMS, ORLEANS PARISH DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I am personally afraid not just for myself but for my lawyers who tried the case against the individual twice. We were asking for a life sentence of this man, and he is now at large.

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SANDOVAL: And even more alarming, investigators believe that the inmates had help from the inside. Three jail employees -- they've been suspended without pay as the investigation continues.

Investigators have some new clues on the Mexican Navy training ship that collided with the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday night. A source close to the investigation saying that the ship's propeller was actually going in reverse when the crash happened or at least leading up to that crash.

It's also clear that the ship had electricity. And clearly, if you see some of the footage, the string lights were still lit on the mast at the time of the collision.

But even with power and propulsion investigators don't know if the ship was able to actually steer at the time or to be steered. They want to get onboard to interview the 94 crew members who are still there, with the rest of them already back in Mexico, but first they need permission from the Mexican government, which was unexpectedly delayed on Monday.

In the meantime, the National Transportation Safety Board wants to speak with other parties involved, including the docking pilot as well as the tug boat captain.

Still ahead on EARLY START, Big Bird finding a new streaming home. We'll tell you how to get to Sesame Street after the break.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) Clip from Netflix trailer for "SESAME STREET."

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SANDOVAL: That's pretty brilliant, right? "N" is for Netflix this morning. Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird -- the entire gang -- they have new home on the streaming platform. Netflix says that the upcoming 56th season will feature some changes but it's also going to have a return of some fan favorite segments.

Episodes of "SESAME STREET" will also still run on PBS Kids. And this news coming after Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent company, opted not to renew its contract to stream the series on Max. It was an honor to call these guys colleagues at one point thought -- corporate colleagues.

Also, one of the worst baseball teams in history enjoying newfound fame thanks to one very famous fan at the Vatican. The Chicago White Sox unveiling a graphic installation of Pope Leo XIV on Monday. The visual tribute marks the spot where then-Robert Prevost sat during the game -- game one of the 2005 World Series, which the White Sox went on to win.

The White Sox are going to need some divine intervention though with -- as being the second-worst record in baseball.

Thank you so much for joining us. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts now.