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Today, U.S. government prosecutors laid out more of their evidence, including text messages and flight records underlying their racketeering conspiracy and prostitution charges. The prosecution team is expected to rest its case by Wednesday.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Ananya Sankar, a paralegal for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, walked jurors through some of the evidence she reviewed, including text messages and call logs. The text messages entered into evidence showed that Diddy’s employment of male escorts for drug-fueled “freak offs” was a running joke among his employees. Diddy also asked employees to pick up illegal substances, such as “15 pills of molly,” according to the texts.
- Meredith Foster, one of the prosecutors, showed jurors text messages sent by Diddy’s ex-girlfriend “Jane” to his former chief of staff, Kristina Khorram. In the messages, Jane said Diddy had threatened to release sex tapes — suggesting that Khorram knew about at least one of her employer’s alleged blackmail attempts.
- U.S. Attorney’s Office special agent Deleassa Penland confirmed flight records belonging to Jules Theodore, a male escort hired to engage in “freak offs” with Diddy and Cassie Ventura. The line of questioning about the records seemed designed to bolster one of the three charges Diddy faces: transportation to engage in prostitution.
- For the first time, jurors today saw videos of the “freak offs” that have been mentioned dozens of times in testimony. The videos, involving Diddy, Cassie Ventura and sex workers at a New York City hotel were from 2012 and 2014 and were shown in short clips. Some jurors reacted visibly to the graphic tapes. The video was shown only to jurors and not to the gallery or the media.
🔎 The view from inside
By Adam Reiss, Chloe Melas, Katherine Koretski and Jing Feng
Big news: Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed Juror #6 this morning, saying he had “concerns about his candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the panel.” The defense made a last-ditch appeal to keep the juror on the panel, filing a 14-page letter yesterday arguing there wasn’t a valid basis to toss him, and that doing so would be discriminatory.
Juror #6, a 41-year-old Black man, will be replaced by an alternate, a 57-year-old white man who lives in Westchester County.
👨⚖️ Analysis: Juror #6’s removal, explained
By Danny Cevallos
The judge decided that Juror #6’s conflicting statements about his residence raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candor. Let’s take a closer look at how this played out.
Initially, during voir dire, the juror said he lived in the Bronx. That’s a county within the Southern District of New York (SDNY). But later, he apparently told court staff he spent time in New Jersey — which is definitely not in the Southern District of New York. It’s not even in the same federal circuit as the state of New York.
When jurors are kicked off mid-trial, you get a really good look at how each side feels about a juror. Diddy’s defense liked this juror, for whatever reason, and they objected, citing racial diversity concerns. Subramanian countered that his decision was based solely on the juror’s inconsistency.
Federal law mandates that jurors in the SDNY must reside within the district for at least one year, but it doesn’t really define what “reside” means. Apparently, a court’s determination of “residence” can be guided by a particular juror’s perceived lack of credibility.
🗓 What’s next
Tomorrow: We expect to hear from Brendan Paul, one of Diddy’s former personal assistants, as well as two summary witnesses.
PSA: Every night during Diddy’s trial, NBC’s “Dateline” will drop special episodes of the “True Crime Weekly” podcast to get you up to speed. “Dateline” correspondent Andrea Canning chats with NBC News’ Chloe Melas and special guests — right in front of the courthouse. Listen here.
