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Greater than seven months months after he was arrested on rape and intercourse trafficking fees, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial is lastly getting underway.
Jury choice started this morning at Manhattan’s Daniel P. Moynihan courthouse.
As we reported final week, Diddy has rejected a plea deal and can take his probabilities at trial. If convicted on all fees, he faces life in jail.
Sean “Diddy” Combs attends the 2018 Fox Community Upfront at Wollman Rink, Central Park on Might 14, 2018 in New York Metropolis. (Picture by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photos)
Diddy’s trial is anticipated to final at the least two months
The trial is scheduled to final eight to 10 weeks, although there’s an opportunity it may drag on even longer.
Of their indictment, prosecutors allege that Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
Diddy’s protection group counters that the rapper was merely a “swinger” and that all the sexual exercise he engaged in was consensual.
“There’s a lifestyle, call it swingers or whatever you will, that he thought was appropriate because it was common,” Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo mentioned in a pre-trial listening to on April 25 (through the New York Submit).
Diddy attends 2019 Roc Nation THE BRUNCH on February 9, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Picture by Vivien Killilea/Getty Photos for Roc Nation)
Jury choice guarantees to be notably difficult because of all of the media protection surrounding the case.
The truth that the trial might be held in Diddy’s hometown of New York Metropolis might complicate issues even additional.
As TMZ factors out, the common observer already believes Combs is responsible, so the protection could have a tough time discovering unbiased jurors.
The prolonged courtroom battle forward
This would possibly seem like an open-and-shut case from an outsider’s perspective, however the protection insists that Combs has been unfairly focused.
In contentious pre-trial hearings, attorneys for Diddy have lashed out at opposing counsel and argued towards the admission of key items of proof.
Diddy poses within the press room along with his International Icon Award on the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Heart on September 12, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. (Picture by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Photos)
The protection fought to have the video of Diddy assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie dominated inadmissible.
The mogul just isn’t on trial for the violence documented in that footage, however the decide dominated that the tape is related as proof of Combs’ character.
As for Diddy himself, the months in jail have reportedly taken fairly a toll on the once-stylish hip hop icon.
Courtroom onlookers have described Diddy as “bloated,” “grey-haired,” and looking out a lot older than he did on the time of his arrest.
However the mogul might be permitted to put on a swimsuit throughout his trial, versus the jail uniform he sported in pre-trial hearings.
We could have additional updates on this growing story as new info turns into accessible.
