Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: A Juror Was Dismissed Following ‘Serious Concerns’ About Answers

On Monday, June 16, Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed a juror in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial over conflicting answers about where he lived. Despite protestations from Combs’ defense team, Subramanian replaced the juror with an alternate. Here’s why the judge had concerns about the juror’s intentions in the trial.

The judge dismissed a juror in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial

On Friday, June 13, Subramanian announced he would dismiss a juror in Combs’ trial. The man gave conflicting statements on whether he resided in New York or New Jersey. He officially dismissed the juror on Monday. The judge cited “clear inconsistencies” in his answers. He reportedly told the judge he lived in the Bronx, but later told court employees he’d moved to New Jersey.

“Taking these all together, the record raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury,” Subramanian said, per AP.

Subramanian worried that asking the juror further questions about his place of residency would only result in “another set of shifting answers. … In other words, there’s nothing that the juror can say at this point that would put the genie back in the bottle and restore his credibility.”

Combs’ defense team pushed back against this decision on Friday. They called the decision a “thinly veiled effort to dismiss a Black juror” and did not believe the juror’s inconsistencies meant he lied. The judge responded by saying the jury would be diverse even if he removed the juror.

“The court should not, indeed cannot, let race factor into the decision of what happens,” he said. “Here, the answer is clear. Juror No. 6 is excused.”