Sean "Diddy" Combs Loses Bid to Delay Trial; Jury Selection To Begin May 5
A Manhattan federal judge on Friday denied a bid by disgraced mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs to delay his sex trafficking and racketeering trial by two months, ruling that the request was made too close to his trial date.
The rapper's lawyers asked for the delay on Wednesday, arguing they didn't have enough time to prepare for trial after prosecutors added new charges earlier this month.
Per
Reuters
, Judge Arun Subramanian denied that motion at a court hearing on Friday.
Endorsing an argument made by the prosecutors, Subramanian said that the new indictment largely overlapped with earlier charging papers.
According to
CNN
, the judge told Combs' lawyers that it was 'unclear why there isn't sufficient time to prepare.'
Friday's ruling means that jury selection will begin on May 5 and testimony will begin on May 12.
Combs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation that aimed to 'fulfill his sexual desires' by subjecting numerous women to abuse.
The case centers on elaborate 'freak off' parties in which Combs and others would allegedly ply victims with drugs and then coerce them into having sexual intercourse, as well as on alleged acts of violence to keep victims silent.
A trial has long been set to start in May. If convicted on all of the charges, which include sex trafficking and racketeering, Combs faces a potential life prison sentence.
In a letter to the judge filed Wednesday, the singer's lawyers claimed the feds were dragging their feet on turning over crucial evidence, and that the extra two months would give them 'the necessary time to prepare his defense' for a new superseding indictment filed April 3.
The request — far longer than the two-week delay Diddy's lawyers had hinted they might seek — was opposed by prosecutors, who said the new charges were not sufficiently different to require any delay at all and that Combs was not entitled to the evidence he claimed he was owed.
In addition to denying the delay, Subramanian made another important ruling Friday. According to Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, the judge granted a request from prosecutors to allow three alleged victims to testify under Jane Doe pseudonyms.
Combs' lawyers had called the move 'a blatant violation of Mr. Combs's Sixth Amendment rights to confront witnesses,' but prosecutors said it was necessary to protect them from harassment and embarrassment.
The judge seemingly left at least one big pretrial issue unresolved: a motion filed by Combs on Thursday seeking to ban prosecutors from showing jurors the infamous 2016 surveillance video of him assaulting his former partner Cassie Ventura.
He alleged the clips have been edited and will 'confuse and mislead the jury'; prosecutors say it's a 'damning piece of evidence' that must be admitted.
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