Diddy's secret trial weapon revealed as blockbuster case begins

Sean 'Diddy' Combs has hired a secret weapon for his sex trafficking trial. 

Jury consultant Linda Moreno has joined his top-tier legal team, the Daily Mail can confirm. 

She will help defense attorneys to profile potential jurors as selection starts Monday in Combs' federal criminal trial in Manhattan.

Moreno gained fame as one of the country's leading jury consultants after high-profile cases including the 2005 trial of Sami Al-Arian, a Florida college professor indicted on terrorism-related charges under the Patriot Act. 

Moreno was instrumental in picking the jury that ended up acquitting Al-Arian on 8 counts and deadlocking on the remaining 9 counts. He eventually struck a plea deal after admitting to a single count of supporting a terrorist organization and was deported to Turkey from the US in 2015.

The case brought national attention to Moreno's skills at dissecting jurors' backgrounds — an essential key for picking a jury.

Novelist John Grisham revealed the fascinating tactics of jury consultants in his 1996 novel The Runaway Jury, which was later turned into a movie starring Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. 

Consultants are paid huge sums of money to dig into the backgrounds of potential jurors.

They also deploy teams to scrutinize jurors' reactions closely in court in a bid to identify potential weaknesses in their side's case and maximize the chances of the verdict they want. 

While controversial, the practice is entirely legal.  

Before claiming fame as a top jury consultant, Moreno was a high-profile criminal defense attorney whose clients included actor Wesley Snipes.

She helped Snipes avoid felony tax evasion charges in 2008.

The actor was jailed for three years on misdemeanor counts instead. 

Moreno will join Combs' already packed defense team, including Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos. 

Federal prosecutors filed a third superseding indictment last month with additional charges of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. 

Combs, 55, faces the same three federal offenses he was originally charged with related to directing a vast criminal enterprise through which he assaulted and trafficked women with the help of his various businesses from at least 2004 to 2024.

Combs recently rejected a plea deal that would have provided less prison time had he accepted it and been found guilty.

Jury selection is expected to wrap up this week with opening statements to start on May 12. 

Combs' defense team and federal prosecutors filed potential questions for the voir dire process last week.

That sees jurors grilled in a bid to expose any biases that could affect the trial verdict. 

Jurors could be asked about their feelings concerning prostitution, illegal drug use,  intimate partner violence and their thoughts on the music industry, according to the filings obtained by the Daily Mail.

Both sides will then use potential jurors' responses and will decide which individuals they would like to remain as juror and alternates.  

According to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Combs' legal team intends to call Columbia professor Dr. Elie Aoun to testify concerning the rapper's 'mental condition bearing on the issue of guilt.' 

Prosecutors submitted a motion last month and revealed the 'physical evidence' taken from his Miami and Los Angeles homes during raids last year - including 'items for use during Freak Offs', or sex parties - could be shown to the jury.

That includes Diddy's baby oil stash - his victims shockingly claimed he would use an entire bottle of it in less than five minutes during sex.

Homeland Security agents seized more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant from the properties in May 2024.