Potential jurors were dismissed for multiple reasons while being screened by the judge presiding over Diddy’s federal sex trafficking trial. On Tuesday, May 6, one was dismissed after telling the judge she believed the Bad Boy founder could “possibly buy his way out of jail.”
“Diddy has a lot of money to use at his discretion and possibly buy his way out of jail,” Juror 48, a woman, said on the second day of jury selection in federal court in Manhattan, according toPEOPLE.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian asked the woman what she meant, to which she responded, “I don’t know how to explain it.”
The prospective juror also revealed that someone once attempted to rape her before seemingly criticize how the police handled that situation.
“The cops could do a lot more but there’s only so much you can,” she told Subramanian. “Just got to have a clean slate about everything.”
The woman was then dismissed.
Potential jurors aren’t the only ones being questioned by the judge, with Subramanian criticizing a lawyer who called prosecutors in Combs’ trial “a six-pack of white women.”
In a Tuesday morning meeting in US District Judge Arun Subramanian’s robing room, the judge slammed lawyer Mark Geragos for comments he made about the all-female prosecution team on his TMZ podcast.
“When you say things on a podcast like ‘six women, all white, my understanding is you’ve got a six-pack of white women,'” Submaranian told Geragos, according to a court transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider. “Like that’s not — that’s something that you shouldn’t — that no one should be saying as an officer of the Court and a member of the bar, right?”
This criticsm from the judge comes after Geragos spoke about the case on a Friday episode of 2 Angry Men, a podcast he co-hosts with TMZ founder Harvey Levin. Submaranian reprimanded Geragos for his comments about the prosecutors, saying he violated a court rule barring lawyers involved in ongoing cases from making “extrajudicial comments” about them.
Geragos responded by telling the judge that he thinks the rule forbidding “extrajudicial comments” has “been perverted over the years,” interfering with the right of defendants to receive a fair trial. He also claimed that he has held back from criticizing the lawyers who represent the women accusing Combs of sexual assault.
“I think when you’ve got a black man who’s being prosecuted and the client feels like he’s being targeted, it’s a — it’s an observation,” Geragos said.
“I think this is ridiculous,” Submaranian responded. “I think referring to the prosecution in this case as ‘a six-pack of white women’ is outrageous.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs is on trial for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Loading ... 