A motion for a mistrial in the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex trafficking trial has been denied by a federal judge.
Attorneys for the embattled hip hop mogul had argued that prosecutors knowingly introduced false testimony by Bryana Bongolan – the witness who claimed last week that Combs dangled her from a 17-story balcony in 2016.
But at the start of Tuesday’s proceedings, Judge Arun Subramanian said the alleged issue did not rise to the level of a trial-ending error: “This is not fodder for a mistrial. This is the adversarial process at work,” Subramanian said from the bench, according to ABC.
Combs is standing trial on racketeering and sex trafficking charges over accusations that he ran a sprawling criminal operation aimed at facilitating freak-offs — elaborate events which he allegedly forced his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and other women to have sex with male escorts while he watched and masturbated.
Prosecutors also say the star and his associates used violence, money and blackmail to keep victims silent and under his control. (Read Billboard‘s full explainer of the case against Diddy here.) Combs had pleaded not guilty; if convicted on all of the charges, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
With the case halfway through a trial expected to run eight weeks, Diddy’s defense team moved for a mistrial based on Bongolan’s testimony about the balcony incident, one of the flashiest accusations in the case.
In a motion filed Saturday, the star’s lawyers said prosecutors had presented jurors with “demonstrably false” evidence during her time on the stand. Bongolan testified that she took photos of her injuries from the attack on September 26, 2016, but defense attorneys said they had hotel receipts showing Diddy was in New York from Sept. 24 to 29 of that year.
“The government knew or should have known this testimony was perjured, and that Ms. Bongolan could not possibly have been injured by Mr. Combs on a Los Angeles balcony in the early morning hours of September 26, or even the day before that,” his lawyers wrote in the motion, also claiming that Bongolan had committed perjury.
Prosecutors did not respond with a written filing of their own, but they argued in court last week that the attack could have happened before the September 24and that Bongolan merely documented it later. Presented with the receipts and subject to withering cross examination, Bongolan stood by her story but admitted that she was unsure of the date.
Following Tuesday’s denial, the trial will continue on with more testimony from prosecution witnesses. The most recent is “Jane,” a former girlfriend who testified last week and Monday that Diddy physically, sexually and psychologically abused her. She is facing cross-examination during Tuesday’s proceedings.
