Sean “Diddy” Combs, once a music icon, is now a convicted felon.
The jury in Combs’ Manhattan federal trial returned a mixed verdict against the hip-hop mogul on Wednesday, convicting him of two transportation to engage in prostitution counts, but clearing him of the most serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
Instead of the possibility of facing up to life in prison on the top sex trafficking and racketeering counts, Combs is now facing up to 20 years behind bars.
Cheers erupted in the courtroom as the not guilty verdicts on those charges rolled in.
The verdict comes after 14 hours of jury deliberations and more than six weeks of testimony from 34 government witnesses, including Combs’ ex, R&B singer Cassie Ventura.
Combs, a 55-year-old self-made businessman and rapper once worth close to a billion dollars, was accused of sex trafficking Ventura — the government’s key witness — and another ex, who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.”
Federal prosecutors had also accused the Bad Boy Records founder of running a two-decade racketeering conspiracy with the help of trusted inner circle associates who they said committed multiple underlying crimes, including sex trafficking, arson, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering, forced labor, and drug distribution.
The jury on Tuesday sent a note to US District Judge Arun Subramanian after 12 hours of deliberations, saying they had reached a verdict on the sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution counts against Combs, but were deadlocked on the racketeering charge.
The judge urged the jurors to keep on deliberating.
Guilty or not, the allegations against Combs have dealt a major blow to his reputation as one of the most successful hip-hop stars in the entertainment industry.
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Since Ventura’s quickly-settled November 2023 lawsuit against Combs that paved the way for his September 2024 indictment, Combs has lost many of his lucrative income streams.
He’s also facing more than 50 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault, rape, drugging, and other forms of violence.
Combs has vigorously denied the criminal charges as well as all accusations of sexual assault against him.
In his criminal case, prosecutors alleged that Combs coerced Ventura and Jane into drug-fueled sex performances with male escorts that Combs would arrange, masturbate to, and often record. Combs referred to these sex encounters that were at the center of the case as “freak offs” or “hotel nights.”
Before Combs’ jury of eight men and four women began deliberations on Monday morning, they heard about eight hours of closing arguments over two back-to-back days, during which the prosecution and the defense outlined their starkly different narratives.
Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik, in her closing argument, called Combs the “powerful” head of a criminal enterprise, and a brutal man who refused to take “no” for an answer.
“He thought that his fame, wealth, and power put him above the law. But over the course of this trial, his crimes have been exposed,” Slavik told the jury of Combs.
Combs’ team of defense attorneys, on the other hand, have argued that the sexual interactions cited in the case were consensual and that Combs’ business was not a criminal racket.
In his closing statement, Combs’ lead lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, told the jury the case was about five things: “love, jealousy, infidelity, money.”
“This isn’t about a crime. This is about money,” he said.
Angifilo also argued that Combs’ violence and drug use do not make him guilty and that the real “winner” of his trial is Ventura.
During the trial, jurors spent nearly two weeks listening to, at times, tearful testimony from Ventura and Jane. Both women said Combs beat them, testimony corroborated by texts, photos of bruises, and accounts of witnesses.
They also recounted the anguish and fear they said they suffered from joining in years of the sex sessions Ventura knew as freak offs and Jane knew as hotel nights.
Ventura, who dated Combs on-and-off between 2007 and 2018, testified that she felt “worthless” and “horrible” joining in on the freak offs.
She only partook, she said, to make Combs happy.
Combs’ defense lawyers used their cross-examinations of Ventura and Jane to paint them as jealous then and financially motivated now.
In addition to testimony from Combs’ accusers, the jury heard from the music tycoon’s ex-personal assistants, Ventura’s mother, Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard, and rapper Kid Cudi.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
