On Wednesday, a jury acquitted Sean “Diddy” Combs of three counts of sex trafficking and racketeering, and found the rapper and entrepreneur guilty on the lesser charges—two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
After the verdict was read, the reaction inside and outside the New York City courtroom was disturbingly celebratory, according to reports. While Combs reportedly pumped his fist and fell to his knees in prayer, outside, a bikini-clad spectator danced as baby oil was poured on her.
Throughout the high-profile trial, which lasted more than a month, hordes of spectators camped overnight hoping for a place in the 100-person courtroom and overflow rooms. In their attempt to prove that Combs helmed a criminal enterprise, the prosecution called nearly three dozen witnesses—including a handful of victims, former staffers, and sex workers—across 29 days of testimony. The most damning testimony came from Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, Combs’ former partner of over a decade.
Ventura, who was more than eight months pregnant at the time, testified that Combs threatened and blackmailed her into “freak offs,” in which Combs would hire male sex workers and then watch them have sex with Ventura. The freak offs, she said, grew to be so frequent that they “became a job” and so long (sometimes spanning 36 or 48 hours) that they would require breaks due to dehydration and drug and alcohol use. On one occasion, a “freak off” even lasted four whole days. As a result, Ventura told the court that she regularly became ill with urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal issues. She also claimed she became addicted to opioids in order to dissociate and cope with Combs’ relentless demand.
Further, Ventura detailed the range of abuse Combs inflicted upon her, from his insistence that she refer to him by the same moniker she used for her grandfather, to multiple beatings, including one caught on CCTV in March 2016 and obtained and published by CNN in 2024. Her mother and former boyfriend, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi, also took the stand and corroborated many of her claims—namely, that Combs was emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive and relied upon coercion to keep Ventura compliant with his whims.
Meanwhile, Combs’ defense countered those claims, asserting that those testifying against their client weren’t victims, but consenting participants in their respective relationships with him. In opening statements, Combs’ attorney, Teny Geragos, claimed that while Combs is a “complicated” man, his case is not. The way she sees it, it’s not even about criminal charges, but instead, “love, jealousy, infidelity and money.” She also said the defense’s evidence “is not evidence of sex trafficking” but “evidence of domestic violence.”
“Of course, we would have liked to have seen a conviction on the sex crimes and RICO, but we understand that ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ is a high standard,” Doug Wigdor, the attorney representing Cassie Ventura, said in a statement. “We’re just pleased he still faces substantial jail time.” Combs faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He has already requested to be released from Metropolitan Detention Center on a $1 million bail package in which his passport would be surrendered and travel would be restricted to Florida, California, New York, and New Jersey.
It’s telling that it only took the jury—which was majority male—less than two days to deliberate. Survivor advocates like UltraViolet swiftly highlighted the fact that a man not only can be caught on video brutalizing a woman in a hotel, but accused by multiple witnesses of acting as a homicidal kingpin, and still receive a lesser sentence.
“Today’s verdict is not just a stain on a criminal justice system that for decades has failed to hold accountable abusers like Diddy, it’s also an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic,” the organization said in a statement. “We will continue to stand with the brave women and men who took great risk to reveal the person Diddy really is.”
Before Combs left the courtroom, and his family began chanting “dream team” in reference to his lawyers, he reportedly turned around to face them all, saying: “I’m gonna be home soon.”
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