Jury for Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial to be finalized next week | Live updates

Sean Combs may have committed domestic violence in his relationships with women but his conduct "did not tip into coercion," defense attorneys said they are prepared to argue when opening statements and witness testimony begin Monday in Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial.

Defense lawyers previewed the argument on Friday as they discussed their cross-examination of Cassie Ventura, one of the women federal prosecutors said Combs coerced into "sex marathons" known as "freak offs."

"We are going to take the position that there was mutual violence in their relationship," defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said. "We're probably going to call it domestic violence."

Agnifilo said it would cause Combs to think that while violence was part of the relationship but "it's not coercing her to do anything."

Judge Arun Subramanian did not immediately decide the scope of cross-examination but seemed skeptical about the defense argument.

"That is a stretch," Subramanian said. "Strong people can be coerced just like a weak person."

Prosecutors said the defense should be precluded from questioning Ventura about "about unrelated acts of domestic violence and/or physical abuse."

Three witnesses are expected to testify next week. One of the first two is an "escort," prosecutors said.

The third witness is expected to be Ventura. She is pregnant and prosecutors said their third witness would need frequent breaks during her testimony, approximately every 90 minutes.

Court will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday with lawyers making their peremptory strikes. Once 12 jurors and 6 alternates are selected they will be instructed and sworn before opening statements.

The jury that will hear the sex crimes charges will not be finalized until Monday, just ahead of opening statements, Judge Arun Subramanian decided Friday in a last-minute switch.

Lawyers came to court Friday expecting to make peremptory strikes from a pool of 45 qualified prospective jurors.

Thursday night, one of those prospective jurors backed out. Prospective juror 295, a lawyer who once interned in the domestic violence bureau of the Brooklyn district attorney's office, contacted the judge to say had had concerns about serving. She was struck for cause.

The judge struck a second potential juror, #146, who prosecutors said failed to disclose during jury selection that he has an open lawsuit against New York City. The judge said his failure to disclose it "shows a lack of candor and honesty."

The loss of two potential jurors appeared to worry the judge that other jurors could back out this weekend ahead of opening statements, so he decided to move peremptory strikes to Monday morning.

"We can get the jurors, all 43 in, at 8:30," Subramanian said. The lawyers will do their strikes at 9 a.m. "so we can roll right into initial instructions, the swearing in of the jury and opening statements."

Sean Combs entered the courtroom in the same outfit as before, dark slacks, white collared shirt beneath a dark colored sweater that accentuates his grey hair and beard.

He waved to familiar faces in the crowed, greeted his lawyers with hugs and handshakes, then took his seat at the defense table, put on glasses, and began to read documents.

On the third day of jury selection in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean Combs, Judge Arun Subramanian finished qualifying 45 prospective jurors.

The last individual added to the pool was a woman who said she had seen the 2016 video of Combs attacking Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel.

"I thought it was shocking. That was my main thought," the woman said. "I thought it was scary. It was violent."

She told the judge she could be fair.

"I always try my best to remain unbiased until I hear everything," she said.

The judge ordered the parties back to court on Friday at 9 a.m. to make their peremptory strikes. The defense gets 10, the prosecution gets 6.

Court is dark Thursday.

Opening statements are Monday. The prosecution said its first two witnesses would be relatively quick and the third witness would take the remainder of the week. Prosecutors disclosed those first three witnesses to the defense but they have not been made public.

Surveillance video of Sean Combs knocking down, kicking and dragging Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel convinced a Manhattan middle school teacher that "Mr. Combs would be guilty of domestic violence."

The prospective juror said she is "not really" resigned to believing Combs is violent, but she told the judge, "It would be hard to get new evidence against the video that I saw."

Judge Arun Subramanian asked, "Do you feel like the defendant here has a negative character?" The woman responded "I think in that instance, what I saw on television, that was a bit of bad judgment in that moment. I don't know what led to that. I don't know if there were drugs involved, if he was under the influence."

When Subramanian told the woman the video would be played at trial she said "I would want to hear about the whole story. What happened? What were the factors that came into play?"

Neither side asked for her to be excused and she was allowed to remain in the pool of qualified potential jurors.

A different woman who said she had seen the "Cassie video" on the internet was dismissed. She told the judge "everybody just speculates" about Combs' guilt at the school in the Bronx where she works.

Federal prosecutors questioned whether a different prospective juror could pay attention after the man said he spent last night binge watching "the new Star Wars," had sleep apnea and came to court tired.

"Are you on any kind of medication that would make it hard for you to concentrate?" Subramanian asked. "No, just staying up late and watching Andor," the prospective juror replied.

There was a laugh in the courtroom when the judge asked whether the guy could give up binge watching television for the duration of the trial. The judge kept him in the jury pool.

The judge also kept an attorney who said she once interned in the domestic violence bureau of the Brooklyn district attorney's office but he excused a man who suggested "wealthy celebrity people" believe the law does not apply to them.

"Are you going to be unable to be a juror in this case?" the judge asked. The man responded that jurors would not be deciding whether Combs is guilty but "how much guilty" Combs is.