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.
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.
