Days before jury selection will begin in the hip-hop mogul’s high-stakes, high-drama criminal case, Sean “Diddy” Combs is making a bold legal maneuver to muzzle public discussion of the criminal charges he faces. The music mogul filed a motion for a gag order, specifically against Cassie’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, and other lawyers associated with the prosecution. The motion does so to increase multi-media coverage and heightened public analysis of the high-profile case.
Jury selection is slated to start on Monday, May 5th, with openings likely the week after. The trial is pending, and Diddy’s legal team is fighting to hide outside commentary from the opposition, particularly from Wigdor, whose fiery and emotional statements to the press have created a force-cooker atmosphere in the public spotlight. In a headline-grabbing statement, Wigdor referenced surveillance footage from 2016 that purportedly showed Diddy attacking Cassie in a hotel. He referred to the footage as “gut-wrenching” and described Diddy’s behavior as “disturbing and predatory.”
Diddy’s lawyers have said such outbursts could prejudice his right to a fair trial. They argue that pretrial publicity, stoked by vocal attorneys like Wigdor, might poison the local jury pool and prejudice the case even before the trial has started. Their aim is to pre-empt additional public statements from prejudicing opinion outside the courtroom and ultimately influencing the outcome inside it. The request for a gag order isn’t happening in a vacuum. It comes after another recent defeat on the legal front for Diddy, who tried to prevent certain pieces of evidence, specifically those that pertained to his allegations of sex trafficking, from being brought up for trial. They argued they did not have enough time to review the new evidence and respond. But Judge Arun Subramanian decided against him, allowing the material to be used.
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Diddy has been under legal siege for the last year. Numerous attorneys representing other alleged accusers have also spoken to media outlets, setting off a stream of damning stories that have encased the case. One of the most vocal has been Wigdor, who represents Cassie, Diddy’s former girlfriend and one of the central figures in the case. It’s worth noting that what he said got around to many people who found the accusations more credible and began to feel sorry for Cassie. As the trial nears, Diddy has nothing to lose, at least not legally, such as damage control. His legal team already has a long list of questions written for potential jurors, sources close to the case said. These, according to reports, include questions about personal attitudes toward hip-hop culture, drugs, and the influence of the news media, an attempt to screen out potential bias from the non-stop media coverage.
Whether the judge actually issues the gag order is another matter. But the timing of the request reveals how desperate Diddy’s legal stature has become. In attempting to silence Wigdor and others, he is trying to protect his reputation publicly and fighting to shape thrive around a trial that has serious repercussions for his legacy and future. The next few days are expected to establish the tenor for what could become one of the most closely watched trials in modern entertainment history. With Cassie’s lawyers holding the line and the media attention reaching fever pitch, the mogul’s efforts to keep things silent may, in fact, guarantee that talk of a case that’s already under the nation’s microscope only grows louder.
