The beginning of Sean “Diddy” Combs’s sex trafficking trial has been delayed.

Jury selection in the trial of Combs, 55, had been due to conclude on Friday, but has been forestalled following a request from the disgraced rapper’s lawyers.

Combs’s team had raised concerns jurors may pull out over the weekend.

Over the last week, the judge has questioned prospective jurors one by one to ensure they are fair and unbiased, whittling a pool of 45 down to a panel of 12 from which several alternates can be selected.

Several jurors were dismissed owing to personal connections to the case or past experience of abuse.

One juror, who said she was the victim of an attempted rape three years ago, was excused after saying Combs could “possibly buy his way out for jail”. 

Another was removed because she worked for HBO, which released a critical documentary of the rapper earlier this year, and admitted she found footage of Combs hitting his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura “disturbing” and “upsetting”.

Prosecutors pushed for jury selection to conclude on Friday, citing concerns that it could delay opening statements on Monday.

However, Judge Subramanian accepted the defence’s request to provide “certainty you’re not going to have to redo jury selection or worse,” Mail Online reported.

Lawyers on each side will be allowed to remove several jurors – usually for reasons they do not have to explain. This process will produce the final jury of 12 with potential swap-ins.