Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted of prostitution-related offenses however acquitted on Wednesday (July 2, 2025) of sex trafficking and racketeering costs that might have put one of hip-hop’s most celebrated figures behind bars for all times.
The combined end result nonetheless might ship Combs, 55, to jail for so long as a decade, and is more likely to finish his profession as a hitmaking music government, vogue entrepreneur, model ambassador and actuality TV star.
After listening to the decision, Combs held his palms up in a prayer movement, jury and hugged defence lawyer Teny Geragos. Combs’ kin and supporters within the viewers might barely include their aid, regardless of the choose’s admonition to keep away from outbursts: When the primary “not guilty” was learn aloud, somebody shouted, “Yeah!”
Combs later continued to pump his proper fist subtly, seemingly happy that he was acquitted on essentially the most critical costs.
Combs was convicted of flying individuals across the nation, together with his girlfriends and paid male sex employees, to interact in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.
But the jury of eight males and 4 ladies acquitted Combs of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking costs, associated to allegations that he used his cash, energy and scary bodily drive to control his girlfriends into a whole bunch of drug-fuelled sex marathons with the lads.
Combs’ defence group argued that the ladies had been prepared members and that none of his violence justified the severity of the costs.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian was weighing whether or not to free Combs on bail within the wake of the decision. The choose adjourned the court docket whereas he considers the matter.
Combs appeared overwhelmed as court docket adjourned for a minimum of a number of hours. He wiped his face, turning and kneeling at his chair, his head bowed in prayer. In the viewers, his kin stood and applauded as he confronted them. “I’ll be home soon,” he stated, and “I love you, baby. I love you, Mom,” he added.
His kin applauded him and his attorneys as he was led out of court docket.
Combs has been behind bars since his arrest in September. His attorneys argued that the acquittal on essentially the most critical counts modified the authorized panorama sufficient that he ought to get bail.
Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days earlier than saying their verdict. It got here after they stated late on Tuesday (July 1, 2025) that that they had determined on 4 counts however had been caught on the racketeering one. At that time, the choose informed them to maintain deliberating and maintain the partial verdict below wraps.
Combs didn’t testify at his trialtria, which featured 34 witnesses in addition to video of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie.
Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, stated in an announcement after the decision that “by coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice.”
Cassie testified for 4 days about her turbulent 11-year relationship with Combs, which started after she signed together with his Bad Boy file label.
Cassie stated Combs turned obsessive about voyeuristic encounters, organized with the assistance of his employees, that concerned sex employees and copious quantities of child oil. During the sex occasions, referred to as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights,” Combs would order Cassie to do issues with different males that she discovered humiliating, she testified.
When issues didn’t go Combs’ method, he would beat her, she stated.
“I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child,” Cassie informed Combs after he dragged her down a resort hallway in 2016.
Another ex-girlfriend, testifying below the pseudonym “Jane,” informed the jury she repeatedly informed Combs she didn’t wish to have sex with the lads employed for his or her trysts. “I’m not an animal. I need a break,” she informed him. Nevertheless, she stated she felt “obligated” to conform together with his calls for, partially as a result of he paid her hire.
The trial’s most well-known witness, rapper Kid Cudi, stated Combs broke into his residence in late 2011 after studying he and Cassie had been relationship. After his automobile was firebombed a number of weeks later, Cudi — whose actual identify is Scott Mescudi — stated he knew Combs “had something to do” with it. Combs denied it.
Combs’ defence group acknowledged that he could possibly be violent however argued that prosecutors had been intruding in his private life. In his closing remarks to the jury, defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo stated it wasn’t unlawful for Combs to make “homemade porn” together with his girlfriends.
“They go into the man’s bedroom. They go into the man’s most private life. Where is the crime scene?” Mr. Agnifilo stated.
While Jane described violence — like an evening when Combs choked her, punched her face, leaving welts and a black eye, when she resisted an encounter with a sex employee — she additionally acknowledged on the witness stand that her emotions are difficult.
She testified that she nonetheless loves Combs and had deliberate to fulfill him in New York for one final “hotel night” when he was arrested final September.
The AP doesn’t sometimes identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has.
Combs was on the centre of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the Nineties and have become one of essentially the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three many years, diversifying his pursuits with the Sean John vogue label, Ciroc vodka, a cable TV channel and a movie and TV studio.
Along together with his protege Biggie Smalls — the Notorious B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997 — Combs labored with artists together with Mary J. Blige, Usher and Lil Kim.
In 2001, Combs was on the centre of one of the largest hip-hop trials of its period, stemming from a Manhattan nightclub capturing that injured three individuals in 1999. Combs was acquitted of costs that he took an unlawful gun into the membership and tried to bribe his driver to take the autumn.
His profession recovered shortly that point.
Combs’ popularity could have suffered irreparable injury, although, after Cassie sued him in November 2023, alleging years of sexual and bodily abuse. He settled the following day for $20 million, however extra lawsuits by different ladies and men adopted.
Most are nonetheless pending.
