Diddy's Legal Team Argues With Prosecutors About Controversial Jury Questionnaire

While Diddy has a mountain of civil lawsuits to deal with, some recent dismissals paved the way for more focus on his upcoming federal criminal trial for alleged sex trafficking and racketeering. According to AllHipHop, the latest rift between prosecutors and the defense is over the questions they will ask during jury selection. Per a joint filing to Judge Arun Subramanian on Friday (April 11), both teams came up with their proposed questionnaire, but couldn't agree on which questions to ask or omit. However, Sean Combs' legal advisors don't see much of a problem with prosecutors' language in their questions, save for the key omission of media bias which they believe drags their proposal down.




"The government's proposal does not explore at all the prejudices and biases that are central to an effective inquiry to seating a fair jury," Diddy's lawyers argued ahead of jury selection later this month. "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."




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When Is Diddy's Trial?

All of this is to prepare for Diddy's scheduled trial start date of May 5, which is what will wrap up the jury selection process for the trial itself to begin on May 12. There are some conflicting reports on all this, but that's the general timeline many outlets indicate. Back to the jury, though, his team believes they must question potential jurors without the presence of strangers in a courtroom. They want to ask them about their experiences with domestic violence and substance abuse, as well as their past engagements and comfortability with sexual content or activity and explicit videos.




"Many individuals are uncomfortable speaking about these issues in front of others and would be more candid writing about them in a questionnaire," they argued, pointing to NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere's trial as an example. Both sides in the Diddy case agreed on a daily trial schedule, but if the judge sides with prosecutors in this questionnaire debate, then the jury will reportedly have to answer their questions in a more public forum than what the defense team is fighting for. Whether that's a good or bad thing for the facts of the case will be something we see once the trial develops.




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