NEW YORK (AP) — Ye, the musician who was once known as Kanye West, briefly attended the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York on Friday in order to express support for the longtime buddy of the hip-hop entrepreneur. However, he was denied entry to the courtroom and left after watching the trial on a video monitor in a separate room for a short while. Ye, wearing white, spent roughly forty minutes in the Manhattan federal courtroom after arriving before midday when the trial was on a break. Ye was asked if he had come to the courthouse to support Combs after passing through an airport-style security check. “Yes,” he nodded in response. When asked if he may testify on Combs’ side when the defense starts its presentation as early as next week, he hurried to an elevator and remained silent. Security at the courthouse did not allow him to enter the largest courtroom on the 26th level, where the trial is taking place. Seats are designated for Combs’ family, legal team, media, and spectators, who must wait in line for hours to secure a desired seat. Admission is highly regulated. As an alternative, the rapper was brought to a courtroom located three floors below the trial floor. There, he watched testimony for a few minutes on a big closed-circuit television in an overflow room one story below the regular overflow room, which was crowded with courthouse staff and media people who mistakenly thought he may be there.
Ye looked around the room before he and the others he was sitting with abruptly got up and left as word of his true whereabouts spread and onlookers crept into the room where he was sitting in the front row with Combs’ son, Christian, a bodyguard, and another Combs supporter on a side of the room that was normally kept empty by a court officer. Ye walked past reporters and TV cameras and ducked into a waiting black Mercedes vehicle as he departed the courthouse without responding to any further questions.