Sean “Diddy” Combs had a real wild day at a hearing last Thursday. He straight up said “nah” to a deal from the feds in his sex trafficking case, setting the stage for his big trial starting next week. The judge, Arun Subramanian, asked him, “You turn down the deal from the government?” And Combs was like, “Yeah, your honor.” Combs rolled up to court in his olive threads over a white thermal shirt, toting a black binder full of notes, and gave a shout out to his peeps in the crowd before dapping up his lawyers. He’s pleaded not guilty to some serious charges like sex trafficking, racketeering, and transporting peeps for prostitution.
His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, spilled the beans that they all talked it out and decided to pass on the offer. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said the deal would have been a lighter sentence compared to what he might get if the jury finds him guilty on all counts. This was the last hearing before the trial starts, and jury selection is going down on Monday. The judge wants to pick 12 jurors and six backups in just three days, so they’re calling in 50 potential jurors a day to the 26th-floor courtroom in Manhattan.
They’re doing this whole questioning thing to make sure the jurors’ privacy is on lock, especially if they got some past experiences with abuse. The goal is to narrow it down to 45 people, who will get grilled separately with two lawyers from each side present. They asked 600 peeps to possibly be jurors, so it’s gonna be a long process. If someone wants to chat on the down-low, they’ll head to the judge’s chambers, and the media won’t be allowed in. Agnifilo was worried that the media might make people clam up, so they’re keeping it tight.
Oh, and the judge is adding a question to the survey for jurors, asking if they read anything new since filling it out. Comey wanted to know who the new lawyers on Combs’ team were, and Agnifilo said they were in the house and would file their appearances later. One of them is Xavier Donaldson, who’s been popping up at past hearings.
There’s some drama with other lawyers, like Douglas Wigdor and Lisa Bloom, who rep peeps suing Combs in civil court. They wanna make sure nobody talks smack about the trial until it’s all wrapped up. Geragos, one of Combs’ lawyers, was not happy with Bloom going on BBC to chat about the case. Bloom’s got some clients who are not fans of Combs, and she’s ready to go to bat for them in court.
The whole thing started when Dawn Richard, a former member of some of Combs’ groups, accused him of getting handsy and scary. She also said she saw him hurting his ex, Cassie. There are a bunch of other peeps suing Combs for similar stuff, but he’s standing his ground and saying it’s all lies. It’s gonna be a messy trial, that’s for sure.
