Rapper P. Diddy's trial begins with jury selection

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00:00Well, perhaps the most serious of the federal charges are sex trafficking and racketeering

00:04conspiracy, which is also known as RICO. And that was the charge that was used to bring down

00:09the mob. So prosecutors are hoping that they're going to be able to knit together

00:13all of this alleged criminal activity carried out by Diddy in order to get him on that charge

00:20in particular. Now, this is a very high profile case and we are going to be expecting it to last

00:28about 10 weeks, possibly about two months. Today, Monday, is jury selection. There are

00:34some 150 people who have appeared for the jury selection and they're going to have to run

00:39through them to see who is going to be able to be unbiased in this trial. Now, it all

00:45centres around allegations that Sean Diddy Combs held these wild drug-fuelled parties in which

00:55he allegedly coerced men and women into sex. At times, they were locked in, they were pumped

01:00with drugs and subjected to abusive sexual acts. These parties have been dubbed free coughs.

01:07Now, Diddy himself says that he has done nothing wrong. He says he's not a criminal, but simply

01:13a swinger and that he should not be judged on his sexual preferences. So that's what he's going

01:18to be arguing. We expect him to take the stand during the course of this trial.

01:24Jessica, given that puff daddy Sean Diddy Combs now, he's somebody who's known around the world,

01:32you know, given what he's done to hip-hop, what kind of media attention, I'm curious, is this trial

01:39getting? Well, I'm absolutely surrounded by media and by members of the public. There's been a lot

01:48of yelling. There are a lot of people with strong opinions. Everyone knows who Puff Daddy or P Diddy

01:53or Sean Combs or Diddy, depending on which generation you're from, is. And there is a lot

01:59of attention on this trial because it's all about sex and drugs. It's also really, Diddy was a cultural

02:05force and he embodies much of the American dream. He is also really the first person from the music

02:12industry to face such a high profile MeToo trial and the charges against him are really serious. So

02:19this is garnering an awful lot of media attention.

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