Prosecutors allege that Sean 'Diddy' Combs is attempting to obstruct a federal investigation into his sex trafficking case by influencing witness testimony and tainting the jury pool from jail. They claim Combs used other inmates' phone accounts to evade monitoring and orchestrated social media campaigns to sway public opinion. Combs, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of contacting potential witnesses to blackmail them. Despite his legal team's efforts to secure bail, citing new evidence, prosecutors argue he remains a flight risk and a danger.
According to William J. Brennan, who represented the Trump Organization in a fraud case, selecting a jury pool in Manhattan for Trump's case is particularly challenging due to the high-profile nature of the defendant and the potential impact of the jury's composition on the outcome of the trial.
Special counsel Jack Smith has accused former President Donald Trump of making daily extrajudicial statements that could prejudice the jury pool in the 2020 election subversion case. The allegation was made in a court filing that remains largely under seal. Smith's office and Trump's team are in a dispute over how much of the sealed dispute should be made public. Prosecutors attempted to file court documents partially under seal, but Trump's team argued for a 14-day response period before posting them publicly. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered both sides to file additional legal briefs on the matter.
Prosecutors in the federal case against former President Donald Trump, where he is charged with crimes related to trying to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, have warned that Trump's daily statements could prejudice the jury pool. They pushed back on Trump's lawyers' request for a three-week briefing process, arguing that it would halt litigation. The prosecutors also requested to file a sealed motion containing sensitive materials, which Trump's lawyers later asked to vacate. The court granted Trump's motion, but defense lawyers must respond to the prosecutors' motion by Monday.
The judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago documents case has signaled that the trial will take place in a court likely to have a conservative jury pool, in the Fort Pierce courthouse where she normally sits. The region that feeds potential jurors to the courthouse includes one swing county and four deep red counties that overwhelmingly voted for former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. The location could provide Trump a favorable jury pool, but the judge did leave open the possibility that the trial could be moved.
As former President Donald Trump faces a federal criminal case, registered voters in South Florida, including Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, could make up his jury pool. While some, like real estate agent George Cadman, support Trump "100 percent" and believe the charges are politically motivated, others, like art conservator Viviana Dominguez, see him as an "embarrassment" and hope he goes to jail. The complicated feelings among some residents about Trump and the case against him reflect the complicated politics of the state, which has grown more Republican in recent years.
