NEW YORK (AP) — A jury in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs is expected to be in place sometime Wednesday, lawyers told a federal judge after dozens of prospective jurors were questioned over two days to see if they can judge the music mogul fairly.
The lawyers measured the progress made over two days after Judge Arun Subramanian completed questioning dozens of prospective jurors to weed out any biases.
Opening statements are scheduled for Monday, when prosecutors will cast Combs as the head of a criminal organization who exploited his fame and fortune to sexually abuse women and destroy young lives. Defense attorneys plan to counter by saying Combs was not committing crimes when he engaged in sexual activity with consenting adults.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment charging him with leading a racketeering conspiracy from 2004 to 2024 that resulted in various crimes, including kidnapping, arson, bribery and sex trafficking.
The Bad Boy Records founder has been held without bail since his arrest at a Manhattan hotel last September.
On Monday and Tuesday, the judge assembled a pool of 35 potential jurors, 10 individuals short of the group of 45 would-be jurors that are one step from sitting on the jury for a trial projected to last up to two months.
The last step in the process will occur when lawyers on both sides strike a limited number of individuals off the jury for reasons they usually are not required to disclose.
Numerous possible jurors were disqualified on Tuesday after answering questions in ways that left lawyers and the judge to believe they could not be fair and unbiased. One man was dismissed after expressing doubt that he could follow an order by the judge not to smoke marijuana for the duration of the trial.
“He was honest,” Subramanian quipped, eliciting laughter throughout the courtroom where he interviewed prospective jurors one at a time.
Throughout the day, Combs seemed engaged with the process. Sometimes he was the first to rise from his chair at the defense table each time a potential juror entered or left the courtroom. Near the end of the day, he stretched several times in his cushioned chair.
Several who were eliminated from the jury pool had seen or heard media reports related to the case, including some who said they saw a video in which Combs was hitting and kicking one of his accusers in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
But one man who had written on a questionnaire that the video left him with the “impression of an angry hostile person who is entitled” was not dismissed from the jury pool.
After the video aired on CNN last year, Combs apologized, saying, “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”
In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors complained that a prominent attorney — the father of one of the lawyers on Combs' legal team — had a long-standing relationship with Combs and seemed to be acting as an adviser to Combs and the defense team even as he spoke out about the case repeatedly on his podcast.
Prosecutors urged the judge to require the attorney to obey rules that require lawyers working on the case to limit their public comments.
Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
