We’re week four into the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex trafficking and racketeering trial, and it gets messier by the day. Recently, the disgraced hip-hop mogul received a fierce warning from the judge in his case.
Earlier in his trial, the Bad Boy Records founder was reported to have turned to the crowd and journalists in the courtroom to greet them. Apparently, he’s been doing the same with jurors, leaving the judge pissed.
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Diddy has been making faces at jurors, which can be viewed as an intimidation tactic. “I was very clear, there should be no facial expressions to the jury,” Judge Arun Subramanian told Diddy’s legal team. “I could not have been clearer. There was a line of questioning where your client was nodding vigorously and looking at the jury.” “That is unacceptable,” he continued. “There should be no efforts to have any interactions with this jury. If it happens again, I will give an instruction to the jury or it could result in the exclusion of your client from the courtroom.”
Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo promised the judge that this was “not going to happen again.” Diddy has maintained ongoing communication with his lawyer by whispering and passing notes amid witness testimony.
Diddy’s legal team recently filed a second motion to have his case to be determined as a mistrial. PEOPLE reports the defense claimed in the letter that “the government has presented testimony that it knew or should have known was materially false related to its allegation that Mr. Combs dangled Bryana Bongolan from the balcony of Cassie Ventura’s apartment in September 2016.”
“Accordingly, to avoid an unfair conviction in this case the Court should grant a mistrial,” the defense team continued. Diddy’s legal team claimed that testimony from Ventura, 38, about seeing Diddy dangle Bongolan from a balcony was false due to text records allegedly show that Ventura learned of the alleged incident after the fact.
“The incident, as alleged, is disturbing and powerful evidence, and the government has used it to depict Mr. Combs in an extremely negative light, as an angry and dangerous man who terrified Ms. Ventura and her friends,” the defense team continued, while also stating that Ventura’s account of the incident is “demonstrably false.”