A grey haired (and grey-bearded) Sean “Diddy” Combs appeared at Manhattan’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse on Friday afternoon in one of the final hearings before his federal trial for sex trafficking and racketeering begins.
Wearing a tan jumpsuit, he seemed in good spirits despite his changed appearance, blowing kisses to family members in the audience, which included his mother and two of his children. During the proceedings, he pleaded not guilty to the new superseding indictment, which included an additional accusations related to his racketeering case
The Bad Boy mogul’s trial, originally scheduled to begin on May 5, was pushed back a week during Friday’s hearing—with the caveat that the exact start date may change, depending on how long it takes to select a jury.
The CNN video takes center stage
In addition, Diddy’s attorneys continued their argument, first advanced in a letter to the case’s judge on Thursday, that the CNN video which appears to show Diddy assaulting Cassie Ventura—a piece of evidence the government considers “critical” to their case that Diddy was involved in both sex trafficking and racketeering, and physically assaulted sexual partners, employees, and even witnesses as part of those activities—has serious problems.
Jury selection for the trial, Judge Arun Subramanian decided at the hearing, will proceed in two stages. Written questionnaires will be given to possible jurors over a few days in late April. After that, in-person questioning of prospective jurors (known as “voir dire” in legal parlance) will begin on May 5. The intention, Judge Subramanian explained, is for opening statements in the trial to begin one week later, on May 12.
Voir dire will be “sequestered,” the judge ruled, meaning that jurors will be kept away from each other during questioning—a step sometimes taken in high-profile cases to prevent people from sharing opinions.
As for the CNN video, Diddy’s lead attorney Marc Agnifilo said, “It’s a piece of evidence that is deceptive.” He reiterated his assertion from Thursday’s letter that CNN’s video had been run through editing software, and that the network hadn’t kept a copy of the original, unedited footage. Parts of the video, he said, were re-ordered, and some sections had been sped up.
“It’s a piece of evidence that’s been changed,” he continued.
CNN responded on Thursday to claims the video had been edited.
“CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source,” a spokesperson for CNN told USA Today. “CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested.”
Prosecutors respond to the claims
Government prosecutors said they would get multiple witnesses to testify about the events shown in the video, to prove its accuracy. They also said they had additional footage provided by a witness of the original, unedited surveillance video, recorded on that witness’ phone.
Judge Subramanian asked Agnifilo to consider, if he thought the CNN video had been edited, whether he could re-edit it—create a version put back in chronological order and changed back to original speed. He called it a “compromise.” Agnifilo said that he planned on filing a motion about the video in the coming days.
After the video became public last year, Diddy apologized, saying, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
One new tidbit
One other notable detail emerged towards the end of the hearing, when Agnifilo mentioned that Diddy’s legal team “recently came into possession of a great deal of medical records,” including details of prescription medication. He did not say whose records they were.
As a result of these prescription drug records, he said, he intends to call a pharmacology expert during the trial.
The two sides will meet again on April 25 for what is currently scheduled to be their final pre-trial conference.
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/shawn-setaro/diddy-cassie-video-cnn-trial
