Combs, Mangione Cases Drag Staid Federal Court Into TikTok Era

In over two centuries of Southern District of New York verdicts, it’s unlikely that before now any of them were greeted by a livestreamer spraying baby oil onto a cheering crowd by the courthouse doors.

For the influencers, streamers, independent journalists and self-styled content creators that have become dominant in much of cultural life by now, the Sean Combs sex trafficking trial, with all of its salacious details, offered a new world to conquer: the courts.

A phalanx of internet personalities and DIY court reporters have now rewritten the rules of public access to legal proceedings. They have dragged an old-fashioned tribunal into the TikTok era—where it’s set to stay firmly planted during the upcoming hearings for Luigi Mangione, who’s accused of murdering a UnitedHealth Group executive.

“They’ve democratized access to courts and filled a void created by the ban on cameras in courtrooms,” said Joan Vollero, the ex-Manhattan district attorney communications director who’s now a public relations consultant for litigators including lawyers for Combs and Mangione. “People are waking up to the fact that courtrooms are public, and they have a right to be there just as much as anyone else.”

The music mogul known as “Diddy” was acquitted July 2 of racketeering and sex trafficking but convicted on two prostitution counts. The mixed verdict capped a seven-week trial that gripped public attention, with the potential for a pop culture mainstay to go to prison for life. It also provided claims of a Porsche explosion, heavy drug use, and marathon sex parties—information just begging to go viral in this social media era.

“This has been my breakout,” said Michelle Diamond, a New York native who goes by “Miss Knockout” on TikTok and gained a steady 1,000 followers daily. Before the Combs trial, she mainly streamed from home. Now she’s hoping to fly out to California to cover the court proceedings for Smokey Robinson, who has been accused of rape, ahead of Mangione’s next court date in September.

Nearby Diamond on the day of the verdict, YouTuber Oota Ongo sprayed the baby oil over the crowd—a reference to evidence from the government’s failed case claiming Combs coerced women into oiled-up sex events.

“I took a situation that could give PTSD and got everyone laughing,” Ongo said. He was another fixture at the trial, racking up nearly 30,000 YouTube views on the verdict day.

Like Diamond, Ongo was scanning court calendars after the verdict and looking ahead to Mangione, who has been greeted at pretrial proceedings by fans dressed as the Mario Brothers character, trucks flashing messages of support, throngs of onlookers—and social media users capturing the scene. “We’re not stopping now,” he said.

A supporter of Luigi Mangione outside Manhattan Federal Court on April 25, 2025. Mangione is accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Pseudonym Controversy

Court officials and new media content creators are having to work out their new relationship, and it hasn’t been entirely smooth.

Federal rules prohibit district courts from broadcasting criminal trials, and the US District Court for the Southern District of New York is particularly restrictive. The lower Manhattan courthouse confiscates phones, laptops, vape pens, and even AirPods.

That’s meant content creators have to run in and out, creating security-line chokeholds for court officers and anxiety for streamers used to having their phones on them at all times.

Then there are rules judges set. In Combs’ case, Judge Arun Subramanian allowed a witness to testify under the pseudonym Mia.

In June, a Manhattan federal prosecutor told Subramanian that someone who’d been in the courtroom for Mia’s testimony streamed her name. “The government saw that individual broadcasting her name in a public square,” the prosecutor, Emily Johnson told the judge. “We have seen his YouTube channel in which he says Mia’s true name.”

Subramanian told Johnson to email the court more information so marshals “can be on the lookout now” for that person.

A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office said: “SDNY has always taken victim privacy very seriously, and prioritizes a victim-centered approach to investigating and prosecuting cases.” The spokesman didn’t say whether the office has a plan for managing new types of media in the courtroom.

Courtroom Camera Battle

Attorneys who advocate for more public access to courts said the streaming coverage from outside the Combs courthouse illustrates how courtroom camera bans and similar policies are counterproductive.

“It’s a poster child case for how cameras in the courtroom would not add any element of publicity,” said Leita Walker, a partner at Ballard Spahr, which argued for a broadcast of a since-dropped federal criminal case against then-candidate Donald Trump.

“TikTokers and social media folks are talented at appealing to the public’s worst impulses and appetite for salacious news,” Walker said. “Why the court would rather that be the dominant narrative instead of an authentic recording of the actual proceeding, I don’t understand.”

Proponents of such restrictions say it allows witnesses to speak freely. The US Judicial Conference rejected a recent proposal for a rule change, saying that “members thought cameras would have a negative effect on witnesses and victims.”

Patreon-funded journalist and lawyer Matthew Russell Lee, who reports as “Inner City Press,” said social media users like him are providing the next best thing to a broadcast.

The court granted him a pass to bring his phone inside, but he’s not sure he’s comfortable with the court picking and choosing. “The right of court access is a right that belongs to the public, and the press’ right is just a subset of that,” he said.

It’s an open question whether the inundation of new media at the Southern District will scare federal courts into clamping down or convince them to open up, he said. “Ultimately it’s an inexorable process,” he added. “The trend is slowly moving towards openness, and criminal cases are the last frontier.”