A Jury Has Been Selected in Sean 'Diddy' Combs Trial

The sex trafficking trial of music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs took an important step Monday with the finalization of the jury.

A 12-person panel, along with six alternates were chosen Monday morning, the Associated Press reported. Originally, jury selection was supposed to finish up on Friday, but U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian postponed the end of the process until today, fearing that some jurors would drop out of over the weekend.

Prospective jurors were let go for possible reasons of bias, including one woman who recognized 17 names that might come up at the trial and said she knew them from watching Diddy's reality series "Making The Band." 

Another man told court officials he would lose 30 percent of his income by serving but didn't seem fazed, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said “made us worried that he had an agenda and was trying to get on the jury.”

There was also a man last week who worked at the facility where Combs has been imprisoned since the fall, and another person who said they had a nephew who went to jail for shooting at a police officer. Both were dismissed.

Meanwhile, Subramanian also shot down the defense's contention that the prosecution engaged in discrimination by shooting down seven potential Black jurors, saying Comey had provided "race neutral reasons" for each decision and the defense failed to show purposeful discrimination.

With the jury now locked in, opening statements will begin shortly at the Federal District Courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Combs, 55, is facing five felonies--one count of racketeering, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

The Bad Boy Records founder has pleaded not guilty and denied all charges against him. If convicted, Combs faces a minimum of 15 years in prison with the possibility of life behind bars.

According to the BBC, Combs' mother Janice Combs, along with his children, are at the courthouse today. The longtime rapper/producer is reportedly wearing "a grey suit with a white shirt and glasses" as he prepares for opening statements.