11 views

Oct. 2, 2025, 6:10 PM EDTBy Chloe MelasWhen Harvey Weinstein, Luigi Mangione and NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere faced hard time, among the first people they called was Craig Rothfeld.Rothfeld is the founder and owner of Inside Outside Ltd., a company that helps clients, including the aforementioned three, navigate the unnerving world of life behind bars.With only about a half-dozen prison consulting firms in the United States, Rothfeld is part of a little-known niche industry spawned around the criminal justice system that caters to big-name and no-name clients, all with the same goal.“I’m advocating for their human rights,” Rothfeld said.Rothfeld said he knows firsthand the misery and anguish prisoners experience because he was once incarcerated himself. He served 18 months after he was indicted for various financial crimes and was released in 2017.He said he started his company later that year to help others get through the challenges he faced. “Somebody needs a CPAP machine. They can’t breathe or sleep without it. How do I arrange for that CPAP machine to be able to be brought into either a federal prison or a state prison with them?” Rothfeld said. Luigi Mangione at his arraignment at Manhattan criminal court on Dec. 23.Curtis Means / Pool via Getty ImagesWhen someone hires him, Rothfeld gives the person a list of do’s and don’ts based on the 40 questions clients most often ask him, he said. “Never sit on somebody else’s bed. … Do not go into their cell unless you’re invited. You do not join a conversation that you’re not a part of,” he said. Rothfeld, whom Weinstein granted permission to talk about his experience behind bars, said Weinstein’s first questions before he was locked up were the same as those of other, nonfamous clients. “How am I going to talk to my family? Where am I going? And where do you think I’m going, and how are we going to deal with all of my medical conditions and medical needs?” Rothfeld said.Weinstein, who has chronic myeloid leukemia, or bone marrow cancer, is serving time at Rikers Island in New York City as he awaits sentencing stemming from a sexual assault conviction in June.One of his attorneys, Jennifer Bonjean, said prison consultants are important advocates for people entering the system. “As lawyers, we depend heavily on them to help our clients adjust to prison in all manner of ways, whether it’s to help resolve a medical concern, assist with a disciplinary issue or to advocate for a placement in a facility,” Bonjean said this week.Craig Rothfeld.NBC NewsArthur Aidala, Weinstein’s longtime criminal defense attorney, said he refers clients to Rothfeld because the “fear of the unknown” is overwhelming.”Preparing to enter prison, and then crossing that threshold, is an experience whose horror is truly indescribable,” Aidala said this week. “For most people, it feels insurmountable.”In the case of Raniere, who was sentenced to 120 years in federal prison in 2019 on sex trafficking and child pornography charges, Rothfeld’s first task was to get him out of solitary confinement, he said. Raniere was confined to solitary in 2022 after he was allegedly assaulted by another inmate.“If you spent 280 days in the SHU [Special Housing Unit] with no explanation whatsoever and you have feces on the floor and the walls, yeah, your human rights are being violated,” he said.One of Raniere’s attorneys, Ronald Sullivan, said navigating the federal Bureau of Prisons requires knowledge of a “byzantine set of regulations, the understanding of which can make a tangible difference in time served.”He said that regulations change frequently and that relationships with prison officials often determine how quickly or slowly requests are granted.Rothfeld said conditions at Rikers Island and the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City are “deplorable.” “Some days you have cold water, and that’s it. Sometimes you don’t get to shower for the week,” he said. “The food is inedible. Quite often, there’s leaks coming from the ceiling. There’s broken lights in cells, there’s mice, there’s cockroaches. It is completely inhumane.”Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court for his retrial as the jury deliberates at Manhattan Criminal Court on June 10 in New York.Michael Nagle / Getty Images fileOfficials at Rikers Island, a jail that is operated by the city of New York, did not respond to a request for comment.The federal Bureau of Prisons, which oversees the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, said that it makes every effort to ensure inmates’ physical safety and health and that their treatment is humane. It also said the detention center provides nutritionally adequate meals.Rothfeld said he charges a flat fee for his services but would not provide specifics. He said celebrity clients account for only about 2% of his business. “I don’t cost what an attorney costs. I don’t cost six figures. I don’t cost what a brand-new, fancy sport car costs,” he said. “I work with families to meet them where they’re at.”It is not publicly known whether Sean “Diddy” Combs, the former music mogul who is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, has hired a prison consultant. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 11 years and three months in federal prison after he was found guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center for over a year. Rothfeld said Combs can expect better conditions in a federal prison than at the detention center.“He’ll be able to go outside,” he said. “There’ll be a yard of access to fresh air. He’ll be able to work out if he wants to work out. The second thing is the nature of his living quarters. In all probability, he will be in a dorm-like setting. Anything is nicer or better, relatively speaking, than the MDC.”Rothfeld speaks alongside Diana Fabi Samson and John Esposito, attorneys for Harvey Weinstein, outside Queens criminal court in New York last year. Julia Nikhinson / APRothfeld said he encourages his clients to become voracious readers. “I always recommend that people read fantasy,” he said. “Speaking from personal experience, I read ‘Game of Thrones’ when I was in prison, and it got me outside of where I was.”For the victims of the crimes his clients have committed, Rothfeld said he is not an arbiter of morality. “It’s not my job to judge; it’s not my job to argue. It’s my job to advocate. And as I tell people, the punishment is prison,” he said. “I believe, no matter who you are, famous or not — most of my clients no one’s ever heard of — you should have humane living conditions. Your civil rights should be honored when you’re incarcerated.”Chloe MelasChloe Melas is an entertainment correspondent for NBC News. Emily Lorsch contributed.

- Latest News - October 3, 2025

Sean “Diddy” Combs will be sentenced in two days and could spend the next 11-plus years in a 10×10 cell.

Source link

TAGS:
11 views

Oct. 2, 2025, 7:27 PM EDTBy Phil Helsel, Chloe Melas and Adam ReissSean “Diddy” Combs apologized and expressed “how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused” in a letter Thursday to the judge set to sentence the disgraced hip-hop mogul on two prostitution-related convictions Friday.”I lost my way. I got lost in my journey. Lost in the drugs and the excess. My downfall was rooted in my selfishness,” Combs wrote in the letter to U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian.The letter was dated Thursday, a day before Combs is to be sentenced in a Manhattan courtroom on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.Combs was acquitted of the most serious counts, one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.He faces up to 20 years in prison, 10 years on each count on which he was convicted.The letter marks the first time that Combs has addressed the judge in any meaningful way. During his eight-week federal trial, Combs did not testify and gave brief answers in response to questions from the judge.Prosecutors want Diddy sentenced to 11 years, while defense asks for 14 months01:06Federal prosecutors had accused Combs of orchestrating a decade-spanning “criminal enterprise” and forcing women to participate in marathon, drug-dazed sexual encounters with male escorts, known as “freak-offs.”Combs’ former girlfriend Casandra Ventura testified that she was controlled and coerced to participate in the sex acts against her will. Hotel video showed Combs beating Ventura and dragging her in 2016.His defense has insisted that the prosecution’s key witnesses — including Ventura and a woman identified by the pseudonym “Jane” — willingly participated in the “freak-offs.”Combs is expected to speak at Friday’s sentencing hearing, which is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. and last for several hours.Prosecutors are seeking 11 years and three months in prison. Combs’ attorneys are asking for 14 months in prison.In the letter to Subramanian, Combs asked for mercy, saying he has “been humbled and broken to my core.” He recounted the conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held for a little over a year, and wrote that he never wants to appear in a criminal courtroom again.”Over the past year there have been so many times that I wanted to give up. There have been some days I thought I would be better off dead. The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn,” Combs wrote.In his letter, Combs said he takes full responsibility for the abuse of Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie, and his other conduct.”The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily. I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved. I’m sorry for that and always will be,” Combs wrote.Ventura has said in a letter to the judge that she is scared for her safety. She wrote in a letter to Subramanian filed Tuesday that her experience was “the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life.””His defense attorneys claim he is a changed man, and he wants to mentor abusers. I know firsthand what real mentorship means, and this disgusts me; he is not being truthful,” Ventura wrote in the victim impact statement.”I know that who he was to me — the manipulator, the aggressor, the abuser, the trafficker — is who he is as a human,” she wrote. “He has no interest in changing or becoming better. He will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is.”Subramanian rejected an effort by Combs’ attorneys Tuesday to toss out the two criminal counts on which he was convicted. Phil HelselPhil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.Chloe MelasChloe Melas is an entertainment correspondent for NBC News. Adam ReissAdam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

- Latest News - October 3, 2025

Sean “Diddy” Combs apologized and expressed “how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused” in a letter Thursday to the judge set.

TAGS:
11 views

Oct. 3, 2025, 11:47 AM EDTBy Rebecca ShabadWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he’s giving Hamas until 6 p.m. Sunday to accept the ceasefire proposal his administration offered this week to end the war in Gaza.“If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,” Trump wrote Friday in a lengthy post on Truth Social.Trump said earlier this week that he would give Hamas three to four days to respond to the plan, which Israel has backed. Qatar, which had been helping faciliate peace efforts, said it was delivered to a Hamas delegation on Monday evening by Qatari and Egyptian officials.The president claimed 25,000 members of Hamas have been killed following the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. He also suggested that he would “give the word” on whether to further decimate the group, though U.S. forces are not in Gaza.“Most of the rest are surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, just waiting for me to give the word, ‘GO,’ for their lives to be quickly extinguished. As for the rest, we know where and who you are, and you will be hunted down, and killed. I am asking that all innocent Palestinians immediately leave this area of potentially great future death for safer parts of Gaza,” he said.But then he said that Hamas would be given “one last chance!”“THIS DEAL ALSO SPARES THE LIVES OF ALL REMAINING HAMAS FIGHTERS!” he wrote. “The details of the document are known to the WORLD, and it is a great one for ALL! We will have PEACE in the Middle East one way or the other. The violence and bloodshed will stop. RELEASES THE HOSTAGES, ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THE BODIES OF THOSE THAT ARE DEAD, NOW!”Trump unveiled the 20-point peace proposal on Monday during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House. The plan’s key parts include the simultaneous release of all 48 living and dead hostages held in Gaza, a requirement for Hamas to decommission their weapons, a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory, an influx of humanitarian aid and the installation of a civilian governing authority for Palestinians. A host of nations in the region, including Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, also offered support for the proposal.Speaking to the press corps with Trump on Monday, Netanyahu warned that if Hamas rejects the plan or accepts it and doesn’t follow through on its promises, “then Israel will finish the job by itself.””This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done,” Netanyahu said. “We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done.”The president said that if Hamas doesn’t agree to the deal, Israel would have “my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas, but I hope that we’re going to have a deal for peace.”Trump said of Hamas, “They’re the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it, but I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer.”Rebecca ShabadRebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

- Latest News - October 3, 2025

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he’s giving Hamas until 6 p.m. Sunday to accept the ceasefire proposal his administration offered this week to end the war in Gaza.“If this.

TAGS:
14 views

Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 3, 2025, 9:22 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 3, 2025, 9:30 AM EDTBy Rebecca ShabadWASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Friday that it is putting $2.1 billion in funding for Chicago infrastructure projects on hold, the latest move to target Democratic-run cities during the government shutdown.The director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, said in a post on X that the funding is for “specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project.” He said it has been “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”The Department of Transportation said the decision to pause the funding comes after it issued an interim final rule this week barring “race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grants.” It said it sent letters on Friday to the Chicago Transit Authority to notify officials that the projects “are under administrative review to determine whether any unconstitutional practices are occurring.””The American people don’t care what race or gender construction workers, pipefitters, or electricians are. They just want these massive projects finally built quickly and efficiently,” the department said in its announcement. It added that the government shutdown “has negatively affected the Department’s staffing resources for carrying out this important analysis.””We urge Democrats in Congress to stop holding the federal government’s budget hostage so USDOT can get back to the important work of the American people,” the department’s release said.Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.President Donald Trump and administration officials warned that they planned to target programs favored by Democrats during the government shutdown. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on what cities the administration might be planning to target next, referring NBC News to the Office of Management and Budget for further information.The halt in Chicago rail project money comes after Vought announced on Wednesday, the first day of the government shutdown, that the administration was putting $18 billion for two infrastructure projects in New York City on hold. They include a new commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River and an expansion of the Second Avenue subway line. Freezing money for the projects stands to impact constituents of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who are leading the Democratic opposition in Congress to the Republican short-term government funding bills.Separately, the Department of Energy announced Thursday that it was terminating $7.56 billion in financial awards for 223 energy-related projects. Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said that the funding targeted 16 Democratic-led states, including 108 congressional districts represented by Democrats and 28 represented by Republicans.Rebecca ShabadRebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.Jay Blackman contributed.

- Latest News - October 3, 2025

The Trump administration announced Friday that the White House is putting $2.1 billion in funding for Chicago infrastructure projects on hold, the latest move to target Democratic-run cities during the.

TAGS: