Diddy trial live updates: Jury selected in music mogul’s case

Eight men and four women are on the final panel of 12 with a further four men and two women listed as alternates.

Around 150 potential jurors were vetted before the final 18 were selected. Each was handed a binder containing dozens of names and places that may come up during the music mogul’s trial.

Of the nine strikes allotted to prosecutors, seven were non-white jurors. Diddy’s lead counsel Marc Agnifilo protested in a challenge.

He said that ‘amounts to a pattern’.

Diddy’s former girlfriend sued him in 2023 accusing him of subjecting her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape.

The lawsuit was settled within hours, but touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar claims.

Cassie is the state’s star witness against the music mogul.

Combs sat stone-faced, looking toward Johnson and the jury as the prosecutor described what she said was a pattern of violence, sexual abuse and blackmail.

Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a ‘Freak Off’ without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson said.

And he threatened to ruin Cassie’s singing career by releasing to the public videos of her engaging in sex with male escorts, the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors Johnson mentioned the now-infamous alleged ‘Freak Offs’ that are a central part of the claims against Diddy.

‘He called them freak-offs, wild king nights, or hotel nights. His staff organized flights, cars and hotels. At his direction, his staff set up the room with lubricant and lighting. Staff came in with cash to pay the escorts, and drugs.’

Combs’ company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said.

Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.

Prosecutors told jurors about a night when Combs allegedly kidnapped an employee and threatened one-time girlfriend Cassie, a key witness in the trial, that if she defied him again he would release tapes of her having sex with male escort — tapes that the prosecutor called ‘souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life.’

They said Diddy had his boduguards kidnap an employee, set fire to someone’s car and dangled a person off a balcony.

‘To the public he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman. Larger than life,’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson. ‘But there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise.’

‘During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes. But he didn’t do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up.’

Those crimes, she said, included: Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.

The hip-hop icon leaned back in his chair as she spoke.

The rapper, 55, repeatedly nodded and smiled at the individuals being questioned during the jury selection process this week.

He appeared to be showing his approval for some jurors by nodding his head up and down or shaking it left and right, giving a subtitle indication of how he was feeling towards each person.

Among the jurors who were struck were one juror who knew the names of 17 people on the list of people and places that may come up during the trial.

The woman had appeared to have watched the 2000s TV show Making the Band in which pop acts tried to launch their career with Diddy.

Comey said that this could cause the woman to be biased

The jury and alternates — 12 men and 6 women — are now seated in the courtroom.

Openings began after the judge explained the law as it relates to this trial, along with incidentals such as that a light breakfast will be provided to them in addition to lunch.

The trial is in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian. He was appointed a federal judge by President Joe Biden in 2022.

The prosecution team consists of eight assistant U.S. attorneys, seven of them women. They include Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She was among the prosecutors in the trial of Ghislane Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein.

Combs’ team of seven defense attorneys is led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo is also defending alleged health care CEO assassin Luigi Mangione.

Also on the defense team is Atlanta attorney Brian Steel, who represented Young Thug in a trial that went on for nearly two years before the rapper pleaded guilty to gang, drug and gun charges.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is seen with his attorneys Brian Steel,Teny Geragos and Marc Afnifilo. Judge Arun Subramanian is seen in the bacground.

Since 2023, dozens of women and men have been filing lawsuits against Combs claiming he sexually or physically abused them. Many of those people said they were slipped drugs at events hosted by Combs and were abused while they were incapacitated.

Combs has denied all of the allegations through his lawyers.

Some of those lawsuits have claimed that other celebrities were either present for or participated in the abuse.

The great majority of those allegations, however, aren’t part of the criminal case. Prosecutors have chosen to focus on a relatively small number of accusers and allegations where there is physical evidence or corroboration by witnesses.

A potential juror said he recognized comedian Mike Myers’ name in a list of individuals provided to the jury pool.

The individuals may come up during the trial.

It’s likely Myers was dragged into the case over a scene in 2002’s Austin Powers: Goldmember, where the character of Dr Evil had an ‘E. Diddy’ tattoo on his buttocks after spending time in prison.

The scene also features Beyonce.

Comey said one juror seemed favorably inclined toward 17 names she recognized might come up during the trial.

She said another claimed he would lose 30 percent of his income by sitting on the jury, but didn’t seem bothered, which ‘made us worried that he had an agenda and was trying to get on the jury.’

Another potential juror, she said, had difficulty speaking English, expressed doubts he could be fair and had a nephew who’d been jailed for shooting at a police officer.

The judge rejected the defense’s claim that the prosecution’s strikes of potential jurors were discriminatory because seven Black individuals were struck from the jury.

The judge said Comey had given ‘race neutral reasons’ to explain each strike and that the defense had failed to show purposeful discrimination.

‘Ma Dukes’, as Combs affectionately calls her, has been a firm defender of her son, who is currently standing trial in New York on sex trafficking charges.

In October, the 85-year-old went as far as to liken the more than 100 sexual misconduct allegations against Diddy to a ‘public lynching’.

Kanye West has continued defending Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs, stating the incarcerated mogul is a ‘way better dad than me.’

West, 47, shared two posts supportive of the father of seven, who is currently behind bars at the at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center following his arrest last year on sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution charges. He’s been denied bail multiple times.

Heralded for decades as rap royalty, Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs now sits alone in an isolation cell in a notorious New York City jail – deemed too much of a ‘threat to the community’ by authorities to be let out even after offering a $50 million bond.

It’s a stunning fall for the ‘It’s All About the Benjamins’ rapper, who was once hip-hop’s wealthiest and most influential mogul.

‘I note that the Government has struck seven Black people out of nine strikes,’ Diddy’s lead attorney Marc Agnifilo said on Monday, as reported by Inner City Press.

Both the prosecution and defense are currenrlty striking out potential jurors as the final step in jury selection.

Diddy’s lawyers have repeatedly said the state is targeting Diddy because he is a succesful black man.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors complained that a prominent attorney, Mark Geragos — 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.

Michael B Jordan and Mike Myers were some of the A-list celebrities named for the first time during the first day of the trial of Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs.

Their names were included in a list list of people and places handed to potential jurors because they may come up throughout the sex-trafficking trial.

Jordan is on the list because he was once allegedly threatened by Diddy over his relationship with the rapper’s ex-girlfriend Cassie, Rolling Stone reported.

Marc Agnigilo said it would become relevant if Victim 1 said she was ‘a peaceful person, I’m not violent, I’m not the kind of person to engage in hurtful conduct or some form of violence’.

He said that Victim 1 was a ‘strong capable individual who does not shy away from confrontations’.

‘It’s relevant to her nature, the fact she’s a strong person who is capable of starting physical confrontations and it’s independently relevant’, he said.

Prosecutors pushed back and Emily Anne Johnson said that the defense would only be allowed to raise questions about Victim 1’s ‘character and truthfulness’.

Alexandra Shapiro, another of Diddy’s lawyers, said that the incidents ‘may become relevant to rebutting the government’s argument that she was coerced, because she was a strong person’.

Shapiro added that ‘the whole dynamic between these two individuals is at the very heart of this case’.

Judge Subramanian appeared skeptical and said that ‘strong people can be coerced just like weak people’, adding that Shaprio’s argument was a ‘stretch’.

Potential jurors for the trial of Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs have been asked their views on controversial rapper Kanye West.

West was dragged into the case when a potential juror said they recognized his name from a list of people who may come up in the trial.

Diddy is facing five felony charges, namely:

• Racketeering conspiracy
• Two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion
• Two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution

The charge of racketeering conspiracy, the federal statute known by its acronym RICO that was once primarily used to target the mafia but in recent years has been wielded in cases of sexual abuse, including against the fallen R&B star R. Kelly.

It allows government attorneys to project a long view of criminal activity rather than prosecuting isolated sex crimes.

If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar, who is often credited for his role in ushering hip-hop into the mainstream, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Lawyers on both sides now get a chance to strike jurors from the pool.

Defense lawyers are allowed to eliminate 10 individuals and prosecutors can dismiss six to create a panel of 12 jurors. Each side is allowed to eliminate another three jurors from the group of six alternates. They don’t have to explain their reasons unless the opposing lawyers claim they were striking jurors from the panel for inappropriate reasons, such as race.

This phase of jury selection usually takes less than an hour. One of Combs’ lawyers claimed on Friday that it could be finished in 10 to 15 minutes. The lawyers are working from a panel of about 45 prospective jurors.

As a rapper, music producer and entrepreneur involved in a variety of companies from broadcasting to alcohol, Diddy’s net worth topped out in 2019 at $740 million – and he was well on his way toward billionaire status.

But his empire began crumbling in November last year when his ex-girlfriend Cassie accused him of sexual assault and physical abuse, which triggered at least nine others to launch similar lawsuits against him.

Without identifying them publicly, prosecutors have said four of Combs’ accusers will testify at the trial.

The prosecution will be allowed to show the jury security video of Diddy beating and kicking one of his accusers, the R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.

Diddy’s attorneys are expected to argue at trial that the government is demonizing and distorting the sexual activity of consenting adults. They have also argued that two of Combs’ longtime girlfriends willingly brought a male sex worker into their relationship.

Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, was Combs’ on-again-off-again romantic partner for more than a decade. Her 2023 lawsuit against Combs alleging years of abuse, including rape, began the scrutiny that eventually led to his prosecution.

All of the rappers kids, except his youngest, a three-year old girl, showed up to court on Monday.

In a sexual assault lawsuit filed against him by the music producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones, a judge dismissed the majority of claims made against the embattled 55-year-old music mogul.

According to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com, the judge threw out five of nine claims Jones had levied against Diddy — who recently made the head-scratching decision to collaborate with Kanye West.

Diddy walked in wearing a crew neck, light gray sweater and light gray pants, and a white shirt, a change from the navy sweater he wore last week.

He put his hand on his heart and smiled at his family and did a heart symbol before hugging his lawyers and shaking the hands of his jury consultant, Linda Moreno.

Before sitting down, Diddy blew one of his sons a kiss.

He appeared calm and focused and was seen poring over documents with his lawyer, Teny Geragos. Two US Marshals in suits sat directly behind him and a third sat to the side.

His indictment stated that some ‘Freak Offs’ would last for days, requiring Combs and victims to receive IV fluids to recover from the exertion and drug use.

Combs’ lawyer claims the rapper was found with so many bottles of baby oil in his home because the star likes to buy in bulk like any other American.

Diddy was arrested in New York City on September 16, 2024.

He had spent the day relaxing on the turf in New York’s Central Park before meeting up with his son Christian to wander the streets of Manhattan.

Adoring fans ran up to snap selfies and shake the hand of their idol, who flashed a prized smile from behind a pair of thick superstar sunglasses as he revelled in the attention.

But Diddy’s big day out in the Big Apple was brought to an abrupt end when Homeland Security officers busted into his Manhattan hotel room and took him into custody late last night.

Prosecutors on Friday revealed they will include a fifth victim in their sex-trafficking case against Diddy.

The defense had tried to keep the witness’ testimony from trial but Judge Arun Subramanian ruled at least some of it will be admitted in court.

However, the judge said the alleged victim will not be granted anonymity.

Prosecutos suggested in court documents that the witness will speak about an act of sexual misconduct that Diddy has not been charged with in the case but will show a pattern of behavior.

Six of Diddy’s children could be seen sitting nervously in the public gallery two rows back from the front.

They included his twin daughters D’Lila and Jessie and his sons King and Jessie.

Diddy’s mother Janice was sitting next to them wearing a black blazer with sunglasses and bright orange hair.

Diddy’s mother Janice Combs and some of his children have arrived in court for opening statements Monday.

They were escorted past a crowd of media and would-be trial watchers and brought straight into the building.

Janice Combs, mother of Sean Combs

Combs’ Twins are pitured left alongside Quincy Brown (R), stepson of Sean Combs, and King Combs (2nd R)

Diddy’s lawyers are seeking to introduce explosive evidence that there was ‘mutual violence’ in his relationship to one of the women who will testify at his trial

The rapper’s attorneys said they wanted to raise issues of previous violent incidents by Victim 1 because it would be relevant to whether or not she was coerced into sexual assault.

The mutual abuse between Victim 1 and Diddy was so bad it amounted to ‘domestic violence’, the court heard.

Diddy has hired Nicole Westmoreland as the eighth lawyer on his defense team.

Westmoreland revealed she was raped in 2001 when she was just 19 years old.

She said a man named Alfred Cleveland raped her at Patchwerk Recording Studio in Atlanta, as reported by TMZ.

The star attorney joined Diddy’s team on Tuesday morning.

She is pictured leaving court last week.

The daughter of former FBI director James Comey, Maurene Comey, is one of the prosecutors in the sex-trafficking trial against Diddy.

She was also among the prosecutors in the trial of Ghislane Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein.

James Comey, nominee for FBI Director, shares a laugh with his daughters, Kate, center, and Maureen and his wife Patrice during his conformation hearing in 2013.

Maurene Comey points at Ghislaine Maxwell as she delivers the rebuttal argument for the government during the trial of Maxwell in 2021.

With opening statements in the trial expected to begin Monday, the line to get into the federal courthouse in Manhattan stretches all the way down the block.

A huge crowd of people began forming outside the courtroom at 2pm on Sunday, 43 hours before the hearing on Monday was due to begin.

Some of the rapper’s supporters were seen outside court, but none of his relatives were spotted as of 8.30am EST.

One line-sitter was trying to sell his spot for $300 after holding his place overnight.

Marc Agnifilo walks on the first day in the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs on sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges

Attorney Brian Steel arrives at federal court for Combs’ sex trafficking trial in New York City

Judge Arun Subramanian admonished Mark Geragos in court after he made comments in a podcast calling Diddy’s prosecutors a ‘sick-pack of white women.’

According to prosecutors, Geragos has been advising Diddy’s team during the jury selection process even though he is not one of the rapper’s officials attorneys in the trial.

Subramanian, who is of South Asian descent, called Geragos’ comments ‘outrageous,’ but Geragos’ whose daughter Teny is a member of Diddy’s legal team, pushed back at the judge.

‘I think when you’ve got a Black man who’s being prosecuted and the client feels like he’s being targeted, it’s a — it’s an observation,’ Geragos said.

But the judge wasn not having and shot back: ‘I think this is ridiculous.

‘I think referring to the prosecution in this case as a six-pack of white women is outrageous. All right. And I understand what you’re saying about the cases and everything else, but I think this is outrageous and this would not be tolerated in any court from any lawyer anywhere across the nation.’

The final stage of choosing jurors is known as ‘peremptory’ or discretionary strikes: jurors that either side does not want to sit on the jury.

Diddy’s defense gets 10 strikes for the main jury of 12 people and the prosecution wil have six.

Then each side gets three each for the six alternate jurors.

There are 45 jurors who are qualified for this final stage: none of them will be in court and they are due to return on Monday for opening statements.

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, Diddy 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 November, prosecutors claimed that the rapper had tried to reach out to prospective witnesses and influence public opinion from jail in a bid to affect potential jurors ahead of the trial.

Prosecutors wrote that a review of recorded jail calls made by Combs showed he asked family members to reach out to potential victims and witnesses and urged them to create ‘narratives’ to influence the jury pool. They said he also encouraged marketing strategies to sway public opinion.

An attorney for Combs, Anthony Ricco, said in court that the prosecution’s portrayal of Combs as ‘a lawless person who doesn’t follow instructions’ or ‘an out-of-control individual who has to be detained’ was inaccurate.

Judge Arun Subramanian denied the bail application, saying evidence showed Combs to be a ‘serious risk of witness tampering.’

If any other man had asked how she was feeling, pregnant Fox5 reporter Michelle Ross wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.

But coming from the lips of the most famous showbiz villain in the world, the simple ‘how are you?’ carried what could be perceived as a seedy undertone.

Ross, who is seven months pregnant, isn’t the only expectant mother on the rapper’s mind.

Next week, Cassie Ventura, who is also heavily pregnant, is expected to take the stand in Diddy’s blockbuster sex trafficking trial.

The rapper’s ex-girlfriend and victim of the notoriously violent smackdown video that was the catalyst for his arrest, she now holds the key to the most hotly anticipated celebrity trial in recent memory.

Rapper Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs faces a slew of charges related to his alleged sexual and physical abuse of women.

He was charged with three crimes – racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Diddy jurors will be able to leave court and go home after each day of the trial.

‘There are no plans to sequester the jury, which means you will go home every day after court,’ the jury questionnaire obtained by the outlet read.

However, jurors were instructed to “avoid all media coverage and not to go on the Internet or social media with regard to this case for any purpose.”

They are advised to avoid discussing the case with family, friends and colleagues until after the trial is done.

Composed and with his hands in his pockets, Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs greeted potential jurors who hold his fate in their hands with a slight nod as the sex trafficking trial that could send him to prison for life began Monday.

And despite the gravity of the crimes against him, Combs, 55, remained composed and calm, hugging his lawyers as he came in and nodding his head slightly when he faced the jurors with his hands in his pockets.

Until he cracked midway through the process after Diddy’s legal team requested a bathroom break. When the judge asked if they could carry on, Diddy put up his hand and said: ‘I’m sorry your honor, I’m a little nervous today.’

The singer, who is expecting her third child with husband Alex Fine, was spotted in New York this week as jury selection in her ex partner’s case dragged on.

She announced her pregnancy in February this year, and is understood to be in her third trimester.

Unlike other high-profile cases, the rapper’s trial will not be televised as it is in federal court.

Electronic media, including cameras, are banned in the Manhattan court room.

A sketch artist’s work will be the only visuals coming out of the courtroom.

A star witness in the Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs trial is reportedly MIA, throwing the disgraced Bad Boy mogul’s sex trafficking case into chaos.

Opening statements are set to begin next week. But federal prosecutors have been left scrambling.

They can’t find one of the female victims who is central to their case. She does not live in New York where the Combs’ trial is being held.

Jury selection in Diddy’s trial was initially scheduled to last three days, ending on Wednesday.

But judge Arun Subramanian alloted more time for the process, intially delaying the final steps to Friday and then again to Monday.

Diddy’s lawyers had asked for the delay on Friday, saying that they were concerned that more jurors would get cold feet between now and Monday and it would be safer to wait until then.

Prosecutors strongly opposed this and said it should move ahead today because it could cause long delays on Monday before opening statements.

The judge had leaned towards the delay, saying that if they finished choosing the jury on Monday you got a ‘certainty you’re not going to have to redo jury selection or worse’.

He said opening statements would still begin early on Monday.