A business attire-clad Sean “Diddy” Combs admitted he was feeling anxious Monday as his sex-trafficking trial kicked off in Manhattan federal court.
Combs, 55, ditched his drab jail duds for a blue sweater over a white button-down shirt as he sat at the defense table observing the jury selection process.
“I’m sorry your honor, I’m a little nervous today,” the embattled hip-hop icon told Judge Arun Subramanian, asking for a two-minute bathroom break after roughly 90 minutes of juror questioning in the hotly anticipated case.
Twelve New Yorkers will ultimately decide whether the famously flashy multimillionaire is guilty of leading his Bad Boy Records company as a depraved “criminal enterprise” for decades.
Combs is accused of helming a racketeering conspiracy that coerced women — including his ex-girlfriend, the singer Cassie — into days-long, drug-fueled sex benders Combs dubbed “Freak-Offs.”
Groups of prospective jurors, starting with a panel of 50 people Monday morning, are being grilled on a questionnaire they filled out last week.
They’ll likely be asked about their views on the hip-hop industry and on “people engaging in sexual relations with multiple sexual partners,” among other topics, before learning if they’ve been selected to judge Combs’ fate.
One possible panelist, Juror 20, admitted that she “liked” a video on her Instagram page of a comedian poking fun at the 1,000 bottles of baby oil the feds said they found when raiding Combs’ mansions.
She was allowed to stay in the pool of jurors after saying she could judge the case fairly.
The “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper forced his lovers to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched, and filmed the escapades to use as leverage, threatening to release the footage if the women did not obey his demands, the feds say.
He’s also accused of serving as the kingpin of a scheme to carry out violent assaults, kidnappings, at least one arson, distributing narcotics and bribing potential witnesses to cover up his abuse.
The rap mogul, who founded the sportswear label Sean John in 1998, is being allowed by the judge to wear his own outfits in court, instead of his jail uniform.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution that carry a possible life sentence in prison.
He plans to argue during an expected two-month-long trial that the Freak-Off encounters were a “consensual” part of his admittedly kinky, but not criminal, sex life.
The accusers in the case are “former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships,” the rapper’s legal team said in a statement last month.
“This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion,” his lawyers added.
Twelve jurors and six alternatives will ultimately be selected in a process that Judge Arun Subramanian hopes to complete in three days. Opening statements are scheduled for Monday, May 12.
The jury will hear from Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, plus Combs’ other former romantic partners, former and current employees, and sex workers who participated in the allegedly coerced sexual experiences, sources close to the case told The Post.
Panelists will watch footage of the Freak-Off videos, and will see a trove of evidence that Homeland Security Investigations agents uncovered in raids in Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami mansions — including more than 1,000 bottles of personal lubricant and baby oil.
They’ll also see harrowing surveillance video showing Combs shoving, kicking and dragging Ventura at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles in 2016.
Combs has been held without bail at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center for the past seven months.
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