The judge overseeing Sean Combs’s federal trial dismissed a juror on Monday after the man gave inconsistent information about where he lives, raising concerns that he had been seeking a spot on the jury of the high-profile case.
Lawyers for Mr. Combs have acknowledged that the jury is diverse, but strenuously opposed the juror’s removal, arguing that the dismissal of the man, who is Black, would unfairly disadvantage Mr. Combs. The alternate juror who will replace him is a white man.
Prosecutors raised the issue last week after the juror, in casual conversation with a court staff member, said he had recently moved in with his girlfriend in New Jersey. During jury selection, the juror, who works in accounting for the Department of Corrections in New York, had said he lived in the Bronx with his fiancée. The prosecution said the inconsistency demonstrated a concerning “lack of candor.”
Judge Arun Subramanian said that during discussions with the man — Juror No. 6 — in his robing room, the inconsistencies about where he lived only deepened. The judge said Juror No. 6’s explanations raised the concern that he was “shading answers” to try to get on the jury originally — and to stay on the jury once his qualifications were questioned.
“There’s nothing that the juror could say at this point that would put the genie back in the bottle,” the judge said on Monday.
Mr. Combs, who is facing sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, is entering the sixth week of his trial in Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said that the case is based on consensual sex with long-term girlfriends.
Last week, after prosecutors first raised concerns about the juror, a lawyer for Mr. Combs accused the government of making a “thinly veiled effort to dismiss a Black juror.” The jury is racially mixed, but the defense has noted that Juror No. 6 was one of two Black men.
Judge Subramanian quickly rejected the accusation, saying there was no basis for it.
“To be perfectly clear, from the outset of this proceeding to the current date, there has been no evidence and no showing of any kind of any biased conduct or biased manner of proceeding from the government,” he said.
Anusha Bayya and Ben Sisario contributed reporting.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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