Sean “Diddy” combs was declared guilty on Wednesday of crimes related to prostitution, but was authorized of more serious charges, in a blow to prosecutors who had urged a jury to find him guilty of conspiracy of extortion and sexual trafficking.
Combs was condemned by transport to participate in prostitution, but acquitted of extortion conspiracy and two positions of sexual trafficking, a partial victory for the former billionaire known for raising hip-hop in American culture.
The verdict followed a criminal trial in which two of the ex -girlfons of the music tycoon testified that he physically and sexually abused them.
Combs faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years in each of the two prostitution positions. The United States District Judge, Arun Subramanian, will determine the combs sentence at a later date.
Absolute on sex trafficking counts mean that it will avoid a mandatory minimal sentence of 15 years. I could have faced life imprisonment if they were convicted of sex trafficking or extortion conspiracy.
After the jury read his verdict, defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Subramanian to release the combs on bail. “He has been acquitted of very, very serious charges. He has been convicted of a much less serious charge,” Agnifilo said.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey urged Subramanian to keep the combs after bars waiting for the sentence, citing the testimony about the alleged physical abuse of combs. She said prosecutors would still be looking for a “substantial imprisonment period” in the sentence.
“It is clear that the defendant represents a danger,” Comey said.
The prosecutors say that combs, for two decades, used their commercial empire to force two of their romantic partners to participate in sexual performances of days fed with drugs and one day, sometimes known as “extravagant” with male sex workers in hotel rooms while looking, masturbated and occasionally.
During the raids of the combs houses, the authorities found drugs and 1,000 bottles of baby and lubricant oil that he would use in the actions, prosecutors said.
Comink, 55, had declared herself innocent of the five positions.
His lawyers acknowledged that the founder of Bad Boy Records, once famous for organizing luxurious parties for the cultural elite in luxurious places such as the Hamptons and Saint-Tropez, was sometimes violent in their domestic relationships. But they said that the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.
The seven -week trial in the Federal Court of Manhattan presented the internal functioning of the ComBs Commercial Empire and gave the jury of 12 members an intimate look at its volatile romantic relations with the singer of rhythm and blues Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman known in the court by the pseudonym Jane.
Ventura sued combs in November 2023 for sexual trafficking, the first of dozen civil lawsuits that accused him of abuse. Comink, also known throughout his career as ‘Puff Daddy’ and ‘P Diddy’ and once bent up for converting artists as Notorious Big and Usher to Stars, settled with Ventura for $ 20 million.
He has denied all irregularities. In the trial, the jury members saw surveillance images of 2016 that show the combs kicking and dragging Ventura in the hall of an intercontinental hotel in Los Angeles, where he said he was trying to leave a “monster.”
Later, Jane testified that ComBs, in June 2024, attacked her and directed her to perform oral sex in a male artist, even though she told him she did not want.
That alleged attack took place a month after combs apologized on social networks for its 2016 attack against Ventura, whose images had been transmitted in CNN.
According to prosecutors, physical violence was just a way in which the combs forced Ventura and Jane to participate in the actions, an act of coercion that, they say, equivalent to sexual trafficking because the male escorts were paid.
Both women testified that he threatened to retain financial support and to filter sexually explicit images of them if they refused to fulfill.
“The defendant used power, violence and fear to obtain what he wanted,” said prosecutor Christy Slavik on his final argument on June 26. “It doesn’t take a no by response.”
The defense lawyers of the combs argued that although ComBs could have committed domestic violence in the context of volatile romantic associations, their behavior did not am equivalent to sexual trafficking.
They argued that Ventura and Jane were strong and independent women who voluntarily participated in sexual performances because they wanted to please the combs.
Both women testified that they spent time with combs and participated in sexual performances after they beat them. The defense lawyers argued that Ventura and Jane were retrospectively accusing the combs of forcing their participation in the actions because they were jealous that they were seeing other women.
“If you were accused of domestic violence, not everyone would be here,” said the defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo, in his final argument on June 27. “He didn’t do the things he was accused of.”
Organized Crime Conspiracy
In addition to Ventura and Jane, the jury also listened to the testimony of the former personal assistants of Combs who said that their work included the creation of hotel rooms for “Freak offs” and the purchase of their drugs in the boss.
An intercontinental security guard testified that ComBs, in the presence of his chief of cabinet, paid $ 100,000 to deliver what he thought was the only copy of the surveillance tape of his attack against Ventura.
And Scott Mescudi, the rapper known as Kid Cudi, told the jury that ComBs was probably involved in a fire caused in his car after combs discovered that he was romantically involved with Ventura.
According to prosecutors, these were all the combs of acts and their associates undertaken in the promotion of an extortion conspiracy whose objective was, in part, to facilitate their abuse and maintain evidence of their irregularities under the wrapping.
The defense argued that Comps was a successful entrepreneur who used drugs recreationally, but maintained their separate professional and personal lives. Combs has been carried out in the federal blockade in Brooklyn since its arrest in September 2024.
