Sean Combs sex trafficking trial updates: Cassie's testimony ends after days of describing abuse

Federal prosecutors and defense lawyers began summarizing their cases Monday in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial, shortly after they settled on the jury that will eventually render judgement on the hip-hop icon.

The proceedings in Manhattan began with prosecutors and the defense rejecting several candidates for the 12-person jury, which also includes six alternates. Testimony will begin after the sides present their opening statements.

The jury is made up of five people from Manhattan, three from the Bronx and four from Westchester.

The jury includes a man, 69, who lives in Manhattan and works as a massage therapist and an actor.

Another Manhattan man, 31, is an investment analyst and belongs to a golf club.

A Bronx woman, 30, works as a deli clerk in a supermarket and said she did not watch the news.

A retired telephone lineman from Westchester, who is 68, also made the jury. He said he watched Making the Band and knew of the 2016 hotel security video depicting Combs attacking Cassie Ventura.

"Well, I only watched it, only saw about five seconds of it. And I didn't exactly know the reason why he was doing that," the man said during jury selection. He told the judge he had not formed an opinion and pledged to weigh only the evidence presented in the courtroom.

A jury was selected Monday to hear the evidence against Sean Combs.

The 12-person jury includes eight men and four women.

The defense accused federal prosecutors of bias since most of the government's nine peremptory strikes were Black prospective jurors.

"By our count, the government struck seven Black people which, it's our belief, amounts to a pattern," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said.

"The government has conducted itself completely neutrally during jury selection," prosecutor Maureen Comey responded. "The jury itself is composed of a very diverse group of jurors."

Comey then listed "neutral" reasons for exercising each peremptory strike, including a woman who recognized 17 names on the list of people who could potentially come up at trial, and a man who she said gave "meandering, nonsensical answers" and once called police officers "assholes."

The judge rejected the defense's challenge.

"The government has given race-neutral reasons," Judge Arun Subramanian said.

Combs argued earlier this year the prostitution charge he faces should be tossed because, he claimed, federal prosecutors demonstrated racial animus. Federal prosecutors denounced the argument as baseless.

Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean "Diddy" Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades.

Jury selection concluded in the morning, which was to be followed by lawyers' opening statements. Testimony could begin as soon as Monday afternoon.