Sean “Diddy” Combs’ attorneys have asked a judge to allow prospective jurors at his upcoming federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial to be questioned about their views on drug and alcohol abuse, sex and violence, as well as their opinions of “people with multiple sexual partners.”
In a letter sent Friday to U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the case, Combs’ attorneys wrote that they had met with federal prosecutors and discussed their respective potential juror questionnaires but could not come to an agreement.
Subramanian had given both sides until Friday to file their proposed questionnaires and told them the questions would be distributed to prospective jurors at the end of this month with jury selection beginning May 5 in Manhattan federal court. Opening statements are scheduled to begin May 12.
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Combs has pleaded not guilty to all the allegations and charges. He appeared in court Monday to plead not guilty to two filed this month — an additional charge each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo wrote that the legal team agreed with the government’s proposed questions with the exception of its description of the case. Agnifilo wrote that “the defense asserts that the government’s proposal does not explore at all the prejudices and biases that are central to an effective inquiry to seating a fair jury.”
Combs’ attorneys asserted in the letter that their questionnaire differs from the government’s in that it inquires about issues at the heart of the case, such as potential jurors’ connection to drug or alcohol abuse and domestic violence and their willingness to watch videos that are sexually explicit or show physical assault.
To bolster their argument, Combs’ attorneys said in the letter that a judge had allowed nearly exact questions to be asked of jurors in another racketeering and sex trafficking case in the Eastern District of New York, that of Keith Raniere, the NXIVM sex cult leader, whom Agnifilo also represented. Raniere was convicted and sentenced in 2020 to 120 years in prison.
Prosecutors said in their own letter to the judge that the defense’s proposed 72-question survey is too long. They wrote that some questions cover personal topics that should be asked in person by Subramanian, if at all, and many others are “confusingly phrased.” The prosecutors’ proposed questionnaire contains 23 questions.
Prosecutors said their request for a short questionnaire comes from recent experience in the sex trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. After she was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021, a juror revealed in media interviews that he had been a victim of sexual abuse, which he had not disclosed in the questionnaire, prosecutors said in their letter.
At a subsequent court hearing, the juror said he had been “distracted as he filled out the questionnaire” and “completely skimmed” it way too fast, which led him to misunderstand the questions. Prosecutors said the survey contained 51 questions, many of which had subparts.
“This experience suggests that lengthy questionnaires are not an effective or efficient means of conducting jury selection,” prosecutors wrote.
The government is alleging that Combs led a violent sex-trafficking criminal organization from about 2004 to last year. He was indicted in September on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, and was denied bail.
He is being detained in a Brooklyn jail until his trial.
The government has accused Combs of coordinating drug-fueled sexual encounters that he forced women to participate in and that involved commercial sex workers, some of whom were transported across state lines.
According to the indictment, Combs called the encounters “freak offs” and arranged, directed and often electronically recorded them, using drugs, force and intimidation to coerce women to take part.
The indictment also alleges Combs’ associates would help prepare for the freak offs, which sometimes lasted days, and clean up after them.
The public first learned about the alleged freak offs in 2023, when Combs’ former longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura, a model and R&B singer once signed to his music label as Cassie, filed a civil lawsuit against him. She alleged in the complaint that he had physically abused her for more than a decade and forced her to participate in freak offs at high-end hotels around the country.
She and Combs privately settled the lawsuit within a day without Combs admitting any wrongdoing. His legal troubles escalated in March 2024 when his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach were raided by federal agents. The indictment says agents who raided his homes seized freak off supplies, including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant. Combs’ attorneys have said the encounters were consensual.
Prosecutors have said a key piece of evidence will be a video in which Combs is seen assaulting Ventura at an InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016. The video showing Combs punching, kicking and stomping on Ventura was published by CNN last year and is consistent with an assault she described in her lawsuit.
After the video’s release, Combs apologized publicly, saying his behavior was “inexcusable” and that he had sought professional help by going to therapy and rehab.
