The viral hotel video of Sean “Diddy” Combs — first published by CNN in May 2024 — has already shaped public perception around his criminal sex trafficking case.
Court began Monday, May 5, in Manhattan’s Southern District, months after his September 2024 arrest on charges including sex trafficking and racketeering.
Now, the court faces a near-impossible task: seating an impartial jury for a case everyone’s been hearing about for almost a year. CNN’s grainy surveillance footage appeared to show Diddy, 55, chasing his then-girlfriend, Cassie, through a Los Angeles hotel hallway, grabbing her by the neck, throwing her to the ground and kicking her multiple times. He then picked up her belongings and hurled an object in her direction before walking away.
Judge Arun Subramanian made it clear that there should be no characterization of public perception regarding “Mr. Combs” while the hotel video is shown to the jury. The court expects to present the original surveillance footage (not the edited version aired by CNN) after ruling that the video’s relevance outweighs any potential prejudice raised by Diddy’s defense team.
“We’re not going to be able to have a jury that hasn’t seen any of this footage,” the judge said on Monday.
While Us Weekly can confirm that nearly a dozen potential jurors mentioned seeing the hotel video, not one of them said this skewed their perception of Diddy and the case at large. “The video was disturbing,” one juror said, “and it was unsettling to watch, but I don’t know the full story.” Even more said they read headlines on social media, but few knew substantial details.
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“The only wrong answer is the truth not told,” the judge repeatedly told jurors, “otherwise it’s all right answers.”
Other potential jurors took up time by focusing on insufficient biases. One juror, a teacher from the Bronx, talked about the time she got caught shoplifting from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios (she stole a wand) and noted shed “liked” a social media post from a stand-up comedian who made a baby oil joke about Diddy.
The docuseries The Fall of Diddy, released in January, also came up multiple times during jury questioning after one potential juror said she works at HBO. While the series originally aired on Investigation Discovery, it is now available to stream via HBO’s Max service.
“HBO has a very negative documentary about Mr. Combs and this case,” the defense argued. Judge Subramanian said he had no knowledge of the series. The prosecution pushed back, noting that “HBO has a huge amount of content” and arguing that affiliation with the network alone shouldn’t disqualify a juror.
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Judge Subramanian made it clear he’s eager to get the case moving. Court didn’t break until 5:27 p.m., and if jury selection wraps by Wednesday, opening arguments will begin Monday, May 12.
While questioning jurors who expressed uncertainty around upcoming summer plans, Subramanian urged them to be “honest” about their commitment, noting he expects the trial to run about eight weeks. Court will break only for holidays, and both parties agree it should conclude before the 4th of July. “I share that expectation,” the judge said.
Court will resume tomorrow morning, swiftly piecing together the jury that will ultimately determine Diddy’s fate.
Diddy was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all of the allegations against him.
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“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement at the time. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Since his arrest, Diddy has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His four requests for bail were denied by the judge.
The music mogul’s arrest came nearly one year after Cassie, 38, filed a lawsuit against him accusing him of sexual and physical abuse throughout their relationship, which lasted off and on from 2007 to 2018. Diddy denied her claims in a statement shared by his attorney.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman said at the time.
One day after the suit was filed, Diddy and Cassie settled out of court. In May 2024, CNN published the hotel surveillance video of Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie in 2016. He later apologized for his actions in a video shared via Instagram.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
