Some attorneys say the case is decided before opening statements in a trial even begin. They believe the trial begins and ends during jury selection. Picking 12 people to decide what happens to Sean “Diddy” Combs. Some potential jurors come in - stating they’ve seen the hotel video of Diddy and Cassie. Others mention that they work at HBO - the same company that released a documentary on Diddy’s case. One juror mentions that they work at the very jail that Diddy is currently housed in. Diddy intently listens to the jurors getting questioned. At times - he shakes his head no, he smiles, he takes notes, and he jokes around with his famous attorneys. And sometimes…he looks back and stares at the members of the press. There are no cameras allowed in a federal courtroom. But we were there and we want to tell you what we saw. Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com
Full Episode
Tuesday, May 6th, I walk into this room in New York City. I'm already nervous. My plane was delayed. I was supposed to be here yesterday. The room itself is so daunting. It's huge. It feels like it could fit 100 people, 200 people. I have no spatial awareness. It feels like a cathedral church without the peaked ceilings. The ceilings are tall. They're made out of wood and everything about it.
feels like you cannot talk above a whisper. That's the energy of this room. So right when you walk in through the double doors, you've already walked through this like carpeted hallway where you can hang your coat. Double doors open up. There's two retired law enforcement officers next to you. They're wearing bulletproof vests. They're retired.
Yes. And now this is their job. So all of them are retired law enforcement. So you walk in and the first thing you notice are church pews, just rows and rows of church pews. You got the left side and the right side. And then above that, and I'm just trying to paint the picture.
There are 10 massive chandeliers, huge lights, but chandeliers makes it sound very fancy and there's crystals hanging off of it. They look like the ceiling boob lights everybody hates, but they're huge. I don't even think I could hold it with my arms all the way stretched out. And there's 10 of them. So to give you scale of this room, it's grand.
Interestingly enough, magnifying these ugly ceiling boob lights tenfold actually does make them look prettier. So there's 10 of them lined up in rows of two right above the church pew. So five on the right side, five on the left side. And then you have this like wooden little barricade, like a little wooden fence. I mean, you could easily jump over it. There's a little door.
But beyond that, there's more rows and rows of seating. But they have computers and they have better chairs with cushions. And at the very front of the room, you have this podium and this rope painting. It's a massive artwork that takes up the whole wall and it's made out of rope that's been tied together and it's different colors. And it's probably two of me standing tall.
and you walk in and it is incredibly awkward. The church pews are just rock solid wood. You know it's good wood, but every time you inch your butt, you feel like the whole pew is vibrating. You can feel other people moving and by hour four, everybody's inching their butts because it's so sore from the solid wood pew. And it's awkward because almost everyone just sits uncomfortably on one side.
Now this is gonna probably change on Monday, but during jury selection, We're all seated pretty much on the right side. So the left is empty? Oh. And so we get like a diagonal from behind view of Diddy. I see.
So the court sketch artists are at the front. There's about two to three and they have, I didn't know it was this big because when I look online, it looks like a little thumbnail. I thought they bring in a little notepad. It's like two feet. It's not canvas. It's like a paper. And they have chalk. They have pastels.
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