Doomsday for Diddy? Here are the key things you need to know as rappers epic sex trafficking trial begins in NYC today
Today is D day for Diddy.Jury selection begins this morning in one of the toughest jurisdictions in the nation – the Southern District of New York – for the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial of hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.The 55-year-old Bad Boy Records founder faces up to life in prison on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, with prosecutors alleging he forced his ex-lovers into so-called “Freak-Offs,” and ran his company as a criminal enterprise.Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges and turned down a plea deal from prosecutors about 10 days ago, the details of which have not been made public.Sources told The Post Diddy may have turned it down because he and his high-powered legal team feel confident they can beat the rap.The feds contend in their indictment against him that Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”Combs’ team, however, maintain that he is just a “swinger” and his sexual escapades were merely the consensual adventures of a high-flying tycoon.“There’s a lifestyle, call it swingers or whatever you will, that he thought was appropriate because it was common,” Combs’ defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the court on April 25.But veteran defense attorney Arthur Aidala who’s representing another embattled mogul, Harvey Weinstein, in his current retrial, said Combs’ defense “faces an uphill battle” at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse where his case will be heard.Referring to a now-infamous video which surfaced last year of ‘Diddy’ violently assaulting his ex Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway, Aidala told The Post: “There’s already a lot of negative publicity out there and that one (Cassie Ventura) video doesn’t look pretty, so you know this case is going off with like at least one strike against [Diddy] if not a strike and a half out of three,” Aidala told The Post....