Judge Dismisses Juror from Diddy Trial Over ‘Concerns About His Candor’

A juror in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal trial has been dismissed.

People magazine reports U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian has decided to remove the juror after "concerns about his candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the panel.”

The magazine adds that the juror was accused of telling the court he lived in the Bronx with his fiancée, while later telling a court staffer in conversation that he recently moved in with this girlfriend in New Jersey.

Because Diddy’s trial is taking place in Manhattan, jurors must live in the Southern District of New York.

According to People, the judge told the court, “There’s nothing that the juror could say at this point that would put the genie back in the bottle.”

Concern over the juror started last week.

In a June 15 letter from the defense to the judge obtained by “Extra,” Diddy’s lawyers pushed back at efforts to remove the juror, calling it “an opportunity to strike yet another Black male from the jury.”

They added that if the juror was removed, “We respectfully request that a mistrial be declared.”

The prosecution responded with their own letter, also obtained by “Extra,” calling 
“attempts to cast the Government’s motion to remove the juror as racially motivated” as a “baseless accusation,” adding, “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The letter goes on to say that the request to dismiss the juror was due to “inconsistent statements made by Juror during voir dire and in later colloquies relating to basic biographical information indicated a lack of candor.”

People reports the alternate juror is a 57-year-old white man.