A jury returned Tuesday to deliberate for a second day at hip-hop mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs’s federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial. Jurors were back behind closed doors weighing whether prosecutors proved the charges at a trial that began in early May.
Combs’s lawyers and prosecutors, meanwhile, began the day wrangling in the courtroom with Judge Arun Subramanian over how he planned to answer the jury’s latest question.
Jurors ended the day Monday by asking the judge for clarification about what qualifies as drug distribution, an aspect of the racketeering conspiracy charge that will help determine whether Combs can be convicted or exonerated on the count.
Subramanian said he would remind jurors of the instructions he gave them on that part of the case before they started deliberating on Monday. Combs’s lawyers had pushed for a more expansive response, but prosecutors argued — and Subramanian agreed — that doing so could end up confusing jurors more.
While the lawyers debated, Combs sat in court, glancing between the action at the front of the courtroom and back to his mother, Janice Combs.
Outside the courthouse, a handful of supporters of Combs held signs with messages like “Free Diddy” written across them. There were also a few livestreamers present — non-legacy media folks who have been consistently going live on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube from just outside the courthouse to share the most explosive details of the trial.
The jury has started deliberations in the trial of music mogul Sean (Diddy) Combs, who faces counts of racketeering and sex trafficking. Combs could face life in prison, if convicted.
On Monday, the panel deliberated over five hours without reaching a verdict.
Prosecutors say Combs for two decades used his fame, fortune and a roster of employees and associates to help him coerce and force two different girlfriends to repeatedly perform sexually with male sex workers for days at a time while he watched and sometimes filmed the drug-fuelled events. Combs is charged with five counts — one of racketeering conspiracy, two of sex trafficking and two of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Defence lawyers contend prosecutors are trying to criminalize Combs’s swinger lifestyle. If anything, they say, Combs’s conduct amounted to domestic violence, not federal felonies.
Combs, 55, could face 15 years in prison to life behind bars if he is convicted of all charges.
After pleading not guilty, Combs chose not to testify as his lawyers built their arguments for acquittal mostly through lengthy cross-examinations of dozens of witnesses called by prosecutors, including some of Combs’s former employees who took the witness stand reluctantly only after being granted immunity.
Front Burner34:11Diddy on trial
Barely an hour into deliberations on Monday, the jury foreperson sent a note to the judge, saying that there was one juror “who we are concerned cannot follow your honour’s instructions. May I please speak with your honour or may you please interview him?”
The judge decided instead to send jurors a note reminding them of their duties to deliberate and obligation to follow his instructions on the law.
By day’s end, the jury seemed back on track, sending the note about drug distribution.
