Days before jury selection is set to start in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial, a federal judge today sought confirmation from the Bad Boys Records founder that prosecutors put forth a plea deal and that he rebuffed it
“Yes, I did,” a glasses wearing Combs said in court in Manhattan Thursday before Judge Arun Subramanian. Offering a reduction in time served if Combs took the deal and entered a guilty plea, the agreement put before the ‘All About the Benjamins’ performer seems to have been on the table in the last few weeks
Beyond that, no details are known about the written offer. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York are keeping it that way. In the legal ether for months, the plea deal was made public in an almost casual manner by an assistant U.S. attorney at an April 25 hearing.
Looking at likely life behind bars if found guilty on the racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more, the not guiltily pleading 55-year-old Combs (a.k.a .inmate 37452-054) has been held in one of the more low-key units of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since the fall. A defendant not just in this criminal case, but in dozens and dozens of civil cases alleging assaults and abuse, Diddy has always sworn he is innocent, and all the interactions were consensual.
The rest of today’s hearing dealt with jury selection questionnaires and procedure, including what will and will not happen in open court
Determined to keep the sometimes-wayward case on track, Judge Subramanian once again made it clear to Combs, prosecutors and the defense Thursday that he wants jury selection to begin on May 5. A panel needs to be seated for opening statements on May 12 in the Manhattan courtroom, the judge has insisted. At the end of the less than one hour hearing Judge Subramanian told everyone he looked forward to seeing them on Monday morning.
Of course, a spanner in the works of that could be the quickly settled ($30 million) assault and abuse suit and more from Victim-1, a.k.a former Combs girlfriend Cassie Ventura
Unlike many such high-profile cases and the other accusations against Combs, there is visual evidence of the violence and attacks Ventura says she endure from Diddy for years. Judge Subramanian ruled last week that 2016 LA hotel security footage of the couple, that CNN aired last spring, will be shown to the jury.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allegedly physically assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016 as shown on CNN
CNN
The video, which Combs apologized for on social media when it became public, shows a half-naked Combs chasing an escaping Ventura down a corridor hitting and kicking her and dragging her back to his room where allegedly one of his so-called freak offs was happening. Having deleted his seemingly forced Instagram apology now, Combs and his lawyers have tried almost every trick in the book to undermine or dispute the footage – footage that Combs almost immediately bought for $50,000 the day after the apparent attack occurred
Add to that, among four victims id’d by the feds, Ventura has said she will testify in open court in this trial under her own name. Prosecutors allege that Combs and his aides coerced Ventura, other women and men into marathon debauched sexual encounters called “freak-offs.” The sessions included male and female prostitutes, drug use, threats of violence and imprisonment in the hotel rooms where the acts were staged and videotaped.
At asserted today, direct questioning of about 150 jury candidates starts on Monday morning.
Judge Subramanian intends to bring each prospect into his courtroom, one at a time, to ask them about their backgrounds and potential biases, with none of the other jury candidates present. The judge called it “sequestered questioning,” designed to protect juror privacy around sensitive personal matters in a case dealing with sex trafficking. Prospective jurors will also be allowed to answer some questions in sidebar conferences with the judge and lawyers, out of earshot of reporters, if they consider the information to be too personal to discuss in open court, the judge said.
If all goes as scheduled, it will take three days of sequestered questioning to whittle the field down to 45 jury and alternate candidates, who will then undergo voir dire questioning on bias, etc by the lawyers for both sides. The aim is to seat the 12 jurors and handful of alternates who will hear the case beginning the following week. Emphasizing that “time is of the essence,” Judge Subramanian today wondered aloud whether they can stay on schedule if sequestered questioning leads to a lot of breaks in the action for privacy sidebars.
No one in court Thursday could promise him it wouldn’t be an issue.
In what will likely be major tenet of the Marc Agnifilo- and Teny Geragos-led legal team’s approach against SDNY, the defense has repeatedly complained the feds are using “racist” laws against Combs and seeking to “police non-conforming sexual activity.” Back on February 24, the defense took a swipe at “unconstitutionally broad” search warrants that had been used on Combs as part of spring 2024 raids of his Los Angeles and Miami homes, devices, digital storage and more.
After coming up short over and over in bail and keeping certain evidence out of the case, this week saw a small but significant notch in the defense’s belt.
One time mini-mogul Combs received permission on Wednesday from the court to wear “non-prison clothing” during his six-week estimated trial.
To that, the April 30 order say that starting next week, the past and present Sean John owner is allowed “up to five button down shirts, up to five pairs of pants, up to five sweaters, up to five pairs of socks, and up to two pairs of shoes without laces to wear to court.” No mention of hair dye, so the prospective jurors will see Combs with the white hair he has had since being arrested last September.
Unlike almost all the past hearings in this case, no members of Combs’ family appeared to be in court Thursday offering their support.
