Diddy has rejected a last minute plea deal from prosecutors on the eve of his sex crimes trial.
The disgraced music industry executive, who was seen in the courtroom sporting glasses, stated that he declined the proposal during his preliminary court session in New York on Thursday.
While the exact details of the agreement were not made public, prosecutors mentioned that the founder of Bad Boy Records would have received a reduced sentence if he had agreed to it and been convicted.
Diddy’s decision means that his trial will move ahead next week with jury selection scheduled to begin next Monday May 5.
His lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the court that the two had discussed the agreement last week and ‘came to a decision’ together.
Bespectacled Diddy was asked to stand by Judge Arun Subramanian who asked him if he had read the plea deal offer.
A court sketch shows a graying Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs at his pretrial hearing last week
The disgraced music mogul rejected a last-minute plea deal during a pretrial hearing on Thursday
‘I have, your honor’, he said.
When the judge asked if he had ‘rejected the plea offer’. Diddy replied: ‘Yes I did, your honor’.
Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, showed up in court donning the standard-issue attire for inmates, consisting of a tan-colored top and pants. The judge recently permitted him to wear his own clothing during the trial, a privilege he will enjoy starting Monday when facing the jury.
Since being locked up at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center following his arrest in September, Combs has grown noticeably grayer and scruffier, and on Thursday appeared in court wearing eyeglasses.
He was holding a black folder filled with documents and hugged his lawyers, fist bumping with one female attorney, Teny Geragos, and exchanging smiles with her.
He waved to a man in the public gallery but nobody from his family was present, unlike previous hearings.
Combs has grown noticeably grayer and scruffier since being locked up following his arrest in September
The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where Diddy is in custody in Brooklyn, New York
He wore his eyeglasses while sifting through the legal documents, reading intently as he flipped through one filing. He also needed them to read something on Geragos’ computer when she showed it to him.
The court heard that jury selection will involve prospective jurors being separated into groups of 50 with the first group being held in a courtroom in the federal court in New York.
They will be led one by one into a courtroom on the same floor where they answer detailed questions from lawyers for the defense and prosecution: Diddy will be present.
If any juror who needs to discuss a sensitive matter it will be dealt with by a sidebar, a private conference at the judge’s bench that reporters in the courtroom cannot hear.
Judge Subramanian issued a warning to Lisa Bloom, a lawyer who represents Dawn Richard, one of Diddy’s accusers, over her recent comments about the case to the BBC.
Diddy’s lawyer Teny Geragos said Bloom’s comments were ‘very disturbing’ and intended to bolster her client’s credibility.
The judge said that all lawyers including Bloom should ‘adhere to their obligations under the rules of professional conduct’.
Diddy denies sex trafficking and other charges. Pictured: The Real White Party presented by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs at the Combs’ East Hampton estate on September 2, 2007
He vowed to ‘take appropriate action’ if anyone breached those rules and this close to trial he would ‘not tolerate anything that would impair the defendant’s right to a jury trial’.
The rapper’s hearing comes after his legal team had asked the judge to muzzle other attorneys from commenting on the disgraced Bad Boy mogul’s case ahead of next week’s trial.
In a letter filed Tuesday, Combs’ attorneys said despite their prior request for a gag order, several attorneys who represent alleged victims and witnesses continue to muddy the jury pool with ‘negative publicity’ towards their client.
Combs’ team specifically named Douglas Wigdor, who represents Comb’s ex Cassie Ventura, for speaking to the media.
‘Absent a Court order, we expect the publicity to not only continue, but escalate as trial commences,’ they wrote in the letter to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian.
‘Indeed in recent weeks, lawyers for government witnesses have commented on pretrial litigation and continued to broadcast prejudicial statements.’
They pointed to Wigdor’s comments concerning Combs’ request to keep the surveillance video of the rapper pulling and dragging Ventura by the hair inside a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016 as she tried to escape.
Earlier this week, a judge allowed the music mogul to wear his own clothes to his trial.
The disgraced hip hop mogul can ditch the prison issue, tan colored top and pants next week when jury selection begins and for the remainder of the case.
But the judge set certain conditions on Diddy, who has designed his own clothing range and once won a prestigious fashion industry award.
He can only have up to five pairs of pants, shirts and socks and only two pairs of shoes – with no laces.
There was no mention of jewelry so Diddy may be able to bring the bling if he wanted.
Diddy, 55, whose real name is Sean Combs, denies sex trafficking and other charges.
Jury selection at the federal court in New York is due to begin on May and opening statements on May 12.
Diddy’s lawyers made the application for him to wear clothes other than those from the grim Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is being held, to Judge Arun Subramanian.
In his ruling, the judge said: ‘The defendant Sean Combs, Inmate # 37452-054, will be permitted to receive non-prison clothing at the MDC to wear for his trial scheduled to begin on May 5, 2025.
‘He is permitted to have up to five button down shirts, up to five pairs of pants, up to five sweaters, up to five pairs of socks, and up to two pairs of shoes without laces to wear to court’.
Before his fall from grace Diddy was considered one of the most fashionable men on the planet.
His high point came in 2004 when he won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award for his own fashion line, Sean John, which came to prominence in the ‘Bad Boy’ era in the 1990s and was worn by Paris Hilton and Rihanna among others.
A feature in Vogue magazine in 2019 to mark Diddy’s 50th birthday said it was ‘hard to overstate the sartorial impact’ he had in the fashion world.
