Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial decide dismisses juror over ‘issues about his candor’

The federal decide overseeing Sean “Diddy” Combs’ racketeering and intercourse trafficking trial dismissed one of many jurors Monday morning, saying he had “issues about his candor and whether or not he shaded solutions to get on and keep on the panel.”

Combs’ attorneys had made a last-ditch enchantment Sunday to maintain Juror No. 6, a 41-year-old Black man, on the 12-person panel. The protection staff filed a 14-page letter arguing there wasn’t a legitimate foundation to toss him, and that doing so could be discriminatory.

Decide Arun Subramanian mentioned Monday that he shared the protection staff’s issues about tossing the juror, however he couldn’t abide the person’s inconsistent solutions about the place he lives — both in New York Metropolis, contained in the bounds of the Southern District of New York, or along with his girlfriend in New Jersey.

Juror No. 6 can be changed by an alternate: a 57-year-old white man who lives in Westchester County, north of Manhattan.

Combs’ attorneys, of their letter opposing the removing of the juror, argued partly that the U.S. authorities’s prosecution of the hip-hop mogul has been a case of “excessive overreach.”

“We imagine that motive is supported not solely by [the U.S. government’s] exceptional resolution to make use of 7 of its 9 peremptory strikes on Black jurors but additionally by the historical past of the investigation and prosecution, which has been characterised by excessive authorities overreach from the start,” the protection wrote.

“All of this was a part of a coordinated effort to attempt to destroy one of the crucial profitable Black males in American historical past,” the protection staff later added, alluding to their shopper’s accomplishments throughout music, style, branding offers and different ventures.

In a separate growth, one other juror on the panel faces questions on conversations he might have had with a colleague in regards to the high-profile case. Subramanian questioned the juror Friday, and the juror handed his cellphone to the decide.

Subramanian plans to ask the panelist one other spherical of questions after Monday’s testimony concludes.

Combs faces 5 prison counts: one rely of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of intercourse trafficking by power, fraud or coercion; and two counts transportation to interact in prostitution. The racketeering conspiracy rely carries a most sentence of life in jail.

Combs has pleaded not responsible to all costs.

The prosecution staff has mentioned it hopes to relaxation its case someday this week, after calling a ultimate wave of witnesses.