The judge in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial is warning that he could be removed from the courtroom after allegedly making faces at the jury.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian reminded the defense during a break in court on Thursday, June 5, that “there’d be no interaction with the jury whatsoever, otherwise I will remove your client from the courtroom.” The judge first issued the warning earlier in the morning on Thursday.
“I was very clear there should be no facial expressions to the jury and I could not have been clearer,” Subramanian said, noting that “there was a line of questioning where your client was nodding vigorously and looking at the jury. There should be no efforts to have any interactions with this jury.”
When defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo was asked whether this would happen again, he replied, per the outlet, “No, your honor, it’s not going to happen again.”
Subramanian said that if Diddy, 55, doesn’t abide by the rules, he would “give an instruction to the jury or it could result in the exclusion of your client from the courtroom.”
An eyewitness inside the courthouse told Us Weekly that Diddy seemingly made one juror laugh on Thursday.
Courtroom artist Jane Rosenberg, meanwhile, told NBC News that she has witnessed Diddy make facial expressions both affirmatively and negatively depending on the testimony. Since the trial began, she also claimed to have seen him attempting to interact with members of the jury.
Diddy’s trial began in May after he was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all of the allegations against him.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Agnifilo said in a statement at the time. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Diddy has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his arrest, with his four requests for bail denied by Subramanian.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
