Latest news with #TheDownfallofDiddy
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Defense Team Wants to Ask Potential Jurors About Aversion to Sex and Violence
The pre-trial sparks continue to fly ahead of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Manhattan trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. The accused rap mogul's lawyers submitted a lengthy questionnaire for potential jurors asking about aversion to sex, drugs and violence ruffling the prosecution's feathers. In a Friday letter sent to Judge Arun Subramanian, Combs' attorneys floated a questionnaire for potential jurors that asks in detail questions about adult situations and footage of real-life physical assault. The questionnaire will be distributed to those who responded to their jury summons to narrow the pool ahead of selection on May 5. More from The Hollywood Reporter What Sean "Diddy" Combs' Rumored New Attorney Mark Geragos Has Said About His Legal Troubles Warner Bros. Seeks to Quash Diddy's Move to Access Raw Documentary Interview Footage Diddy's Attorneys, Feds Spar Over Including "Sexual Abuse of Other Victims" Testimony in Looming Trial The nature of the questionnaire suggests that footage of the sex and drug-fueled multi-day so-called 'freak-off' parties prosecutors described in their indictment of Combs will be shown to the jury at trial. Additionally, the leaked footage of a 2018 incident in which Combs is seen beating and dragging his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura, at a Los Angeles hotel is being contested by the defense, who claim that CNN, which leaked the video, had manipulated the footage before it went to air. Ventura will be the first of four witnesses called by the prosecution. Prosecutors griped to the judge about the questionnaire in their own letter, complaining that, at 72 questions, it is far too long and parts of it are 'utterly irrelevant to the ability to serve on a jury' and are best answered as an aside from the judge and not ahead of the start of the trial. The two sides were unable to reach a consensus on what the potential jurors should be asked on questionnaires. 'The defense believes it is important that we allow potential jurors to write candidly about the unprecedented and negative media attention that they may have been exposed to, related to Mr. Combs,' the beleaguered Bad Boy Records founder's lawyers wrote. In addition to several questions regarding sex and violence, one of the queries on the defense team's questionnaire asks if potential jurors have viewed any of the documentaries and series that feature interviews with accusers and others who often paint Combs in a less-than-flattering light including The Fall of Diddy, Diddy Do It?; The Downfall of Diddy; and Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy. Combs is being housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn before his trial. He has denied all allegations leveled against him and has said that he never subjected anyone to sexual abuse. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2024: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo and More
CBS News
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Sean "Diddy" Combs' lawyers want prospective jurors questioned about sex, drugs and violence
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs are urging a judge to let prospective jurors at the hip-hop mogul's upcoming sex trafficking trial be questioned about their views regarding sex, drugs and violence. The lawyers raised the subject as they submitted a proposed questionnaire to be filled out by individuals summoned for his May 12 trial in Manhattan federal court. In a letter to a judge late Friday, the lawyers said they want to know the willingness of would-be jurors to watch videos that are sexually explicit or show physical assault. They also say they want to know their views toward people with multiple sexual partners. Prosecutors have said that a key piece of the evidence at trial will be a video showing Combs punching his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway . Defense lawyers have argued that prosecutors built their case on charges that try to demonize sex acts between consenting adults. They told the judge they were unable to reach a consensus with prosecutors for what prospective jurors should be asked on questionnaires. "The defense believes it is important that we allow potential jurors to write candidly about the unprecedented and negative media attention that they may have been exposed to, related to Mr. Combs," the lawyers wrote. Defense lawyers also asked that jurors be asked to tell if they've watched shows on television titled: "The Fall of Diddy," "Diddy Do It?," "The Downfall of Diddy" and "Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy." Prosecutors in a letter of their own criticized the defense's proposed questionnaire as too long and touching on subjects that would be better asked in person by the judge, if at all. They said some of the defense's proposed 72 questions, some containing subparts, were "utterly irrelevant to the ability to serve on a jury." Prosecutors also cited the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell as an example of how a lengthy questionnaire can be damaging. After Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 , a juror admitted that he had failed to disclose that he was a sex abuse victim, blaming his oversight in part on being "distracted as he filled out the questionnaire" and having "skimmed way too fast," causing him to misunderstand questions. Judge Arun Subramanian has told lawyers that questionnaires will be distributed to hundreds of prospective jurors at the end of April so that questioning of prospective jurors can begin on May 5, with opening statements likely on May 12. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he subjected individuals to sexual abuse over a two-decade period . The Bad Boy Records founder has remained incarcerated without bail since his September arrest . An indictment accuses Combs of using the "power and prestige" he wielded as a music mogul to intimidate, threaten and lure women into his orbit , often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. The indictment said he then used force, threats and coercion to cause victims, including three women specified in the court papers, to engage in commercial sex acts . It said he subjected his victims to violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm and verbal abuse.
