Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial Kicks Off With Jokes From the Judge

The primary day of the federal racketeering and intercourse trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs started this morning with some lighthearted feedback by the choose … who mentions Diddy’s numerous nicknames through the years, and nods to the dimensions of the potential jury pool and the size of the questionnaire every particular person crammed out.

As proceedings received formally underway, Choose Arun Subramanian made a comment evaluating the dimensions of the listing of potential jurors that each side will query on the stand — and the questionnaire of individuals and locations within the case — to the famously huge “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of novels.

As you already know, there are numerous challenges on both sides for jury choice, which is anticipated to take a number of days.

Diddy himself arrived on the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in Decrease Manhattan sporting a proper go well with and studying glasses … the choose beforehand granted Diddy’s request to wear civilian clothing to the trial, as a substitute of jail scrubs … he was allowed a restricted listing of very particular gadgets to select from, and the famously modern defendant predictably confirmed up in fashion.

Choose Subramanian additionally referred to the rap mogul’s many monikers … describing the defendant as “often known as Puff Daddy, Diddy, different names … and Love.” (Combs legally modified his center title to “Love” in 2018.) The choose notes Diddy has pleaded not responsible to all costs, and is presumed to be harmless.

Subramanian addressed the protection and the prosecution about potential privateness points in testimony, noting they’re going to be addressed through sidebar conversations. He mentioned he expects the trial to final for about 8 weeks.

Diddy has a workforce of 8 attorneys on his facet — we reported on the list of lawyers that was just finalized final week.

Diddy is being tried on three costs — one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; one depend of transportation to interact in prostitution; and one depend of racketeering conspiracy. In April 2025, he was hit with two more charges — one other intercourse trafficking depend, and one other transportation to interact in prostitution cost, bringing the full quantity to 5.

The choose additionally dropped a fast comparability to the Ghislaine Maxwell case — the previous girlfriend of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein who’s serving 20 years in jail for related crimes to what Diddy’s charged with. She’s serving 20 years in jail in Florida.