A jury in the US has discovered musician Sean “Diddy” Combs responsible of prostitution-related offences however cleared him of extra critical expenses after a federal legal trial.
Combs, a celebrated figures in hip hop music, was convicted on Wednesday of transportation to interact in prostitution however acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of intercourse trafficking.
The decision culminates seven weeks of trial during which two of the music mogul’s former girlfriends – singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a second lady known as “Jane” – testified that Combs bodily and sexually abused them.
The jury’s choice additionally represents a partial win for the previous billionaire identified for elevating hip hop in US tradition, by his work with artists like Infamous BIG and Usher.
After the jury learn its verdict, defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo requested US District Choose Arun Subramanian to launch Combs on bail.
“That is his first conviction and it’s a prostitution offence, and so he needs to be launched on acceptable situations,” Agnifilo stated. Subramanian will decide Combs’ sentence at a later date.
The acquittals on the intercourse trafficking counts imply he’ll keep away from a 15-year necessary minimal sentence. He may have confronted life in jail if he had been convicted of intercourse trafficking or racketeering conspiracy.
Prosecutors say that, for 20 years, Combs used his enterprise empire to power his romantic companions to participate in drug-fuelled, days-long sexual performances with male intercourse staff in lodge rooms. These performances had been typically known as “freak-offs”.
Throughout raids of Combs’s properties, authorities discovered medication and 1,000 bottles of child oil and lubricant that he would use within the performances, prosecutors stated.
Combs, 55, had pleaded not responsible to all 5 counts. His attorneys acknowledged that the Dangerous Boy Data founder, as soon as famed for internet hosting lavish events, was at occasions violent in his home relationships.
However they argued the sexual exercise described by prosecutors was consensual.
The musician has beforehand confronted a variety of civil lawsuits accusing him of abuse. Ventura, for instance, sued Combs in November 2023 for intercourse trafficking.
Combs, additionally identified all through his profession as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, settled with Ventura for $20m. He has denied all wrongdoing.
On the trial, jurors noticed surveillance footage from 2016 exhibiting Combs kicking and dragging Ventura within the hallway of an InterContinental lodge in Los Angeles, the place she stated she was attempting to go away a “freak-off”.
Jane later testified that Combs, in June 2024, attacked her and directed her to carry out oral intercourse on a male entertainer, regardless that she instructed him she didn’t need to. That alleged assault happened a month after Combs apologised on social media for his 2016 assault on Ventura, footage of which had been broadcast on CNN.
“The defendant used energy, violence and concern to get what he wished,” prosecutor Christy Slavik stated in her closing argument on June 26. “He doesn’t take no for a solution.”
Combs’s defence attorneys argued that, whereas he might have dedicated home violence within the context of risky romantic partnerships, his conduct didn’t quantity to intercourse trafficking.
His defence workforce stated Ventura and Jane had been sturdy, unbiased girls who voluntarily took half within the sexual performances as a result of they wished to please Combs.
Additionally they recommended that Ventura and Jane had been retrospectively accusing Combs of forcing their participation within the performances as a result of they had been jealous he was seeing different girls.
Each girls testified they hung out with Combs and took half in sexual performances after he beat them.
“If he was charged with home violence, we wouldn’t all be right here,” defence lawyer Agnifilo stated in his closing argument on June 27. “He didn’t do the issues he’s charged with.”
Ventura’s lawyer Doug Wigdor, in the meantime, praised his shopper’s braveness to talk up, saying she “paved the way in which” for Combs’s conviction.
“By coming ahead along with her expertise, Cassie has left an indelible mark on each the leisure trade and the struggle for justice,” Wigdor stated in a press release.
Individually, the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York revealed remarks underscoring the lasting impression of sexual violence.
“Intercourse crimes deeply scar victims, and the disturbing actuality is that intercourse crimes are all too current in lots of points of our society,” the assertion learn. “New Yorkers and all People need this scourge stopped and perpetrators delivered to justice.”
