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“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs dropped to his knees and prayed in the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures behind bars for life. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offenses and denied bail as he awaits sentencing…
“The jury of eight men and four women acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fueled sex marathons with men. Combs’ defense team argued that the women were willing participants and that none of his violence justified the severity of the charges…
“Combs did not testify at his trial, which featured 34 witnesses as well as video of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer born Casandra Ventura… Cassie said Combs became obsessed with voyeuristic encounters, arranged with the help of his staff, that involved sex workers and copious amounts of baby oil. During the sex events, called ‘freak-offs’ or ‘hotel nights,’ Combs would order Cassie to do things with other men that she found humiliating, she testified. When things did not go Combs’ way, he would beat her, she said.” AP News
Here’s our previous coverage of the case. The Flip Side
Both sides are skeptical of the prosecutors’ decision to charge Combs with racketeering:
“After weeks of testimony from women who were beaten, choked, drugged, emotionally abused, and assaulted by Diddy, it feels as though the music mogul escaped justice… [But] The prosecution massively overcharged Diddy, and it couldn’t deliver. The hefty charge of racketeering could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt…
“His bad behavior didn’t prove that Diddy was a criminal mastermind running a vast, organized sex-trafficking enterprise — which prosecutors had to show in order to prove a RICO charge. Southern District of New York prosecutors proved that Diddy abused women and engaged in gross voyeuristic sex acts, but they were ultimately unable to prove that Diddy’s misdeeds made him a mob boss. As the shirt of one supporter, outside of the courthouse, read: ‘A freako is not a R.I.C.O.’”
Haley Strack, National Review
“The charges on which Combs was acquitted were developed for Mafia bosses, and are an uneasy fit for a case where the alleged conspiracy is not gun-running or a protection racket, but a network of employees and enablers dedicated to one man’s sexual gratification. His acquittal on these charges should not obscure the simple fact that Combs beat up Ventura, repeatedly, over many years. That is not in dispute, not least because some of it was captured on video…
“The real tragedy of the Combs case is that Ventura did not feel confident enough to file criminal charges against him for domestic abuse. If she had done so, any resulting trial would have focused on his violence and threats, rather than the more nebulous charges of trafficking and racketeering. As a result, it would have been harder for his lawyers—and his fans—to maintain that he has been vindicated.”
Helen Lewis, The Atlantic
Other opinions below.
“What about the male stripper who testified he could hear Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura, and Ms. Ventura crying, in the next room? Or the friend who testified she saw Mr. Combs drag Ms. Ventura by the hair and push her to the ground, so she hit her head on brick? Or the former employee who testified that she watched Mr. Combs beat Ms. Ventura? That’s what isolation looks like. Surrounded by people, all of whom stand by and follow his orders, while she is abused…
“The sociologist Evan Stark wrote what is arguably the clearest definition of coercive control, as ‘a malevolent course of conduct that subordinates women to an alien will by violating their physical integrity, denying them respect and autonomy, depriving them of social connectedness, and appropriating or denying them access to the resources required for personhood and citizenship.’ In other words: violence, intimidation, isolation and control. How many of these four elements were there, in Ms. Ventura’s and ‘Jane’’s stories?”
Rachel Louise Snyder, New York Times
“It is worth dwelling, I think, on what the women at the center of this case endured in order to try to make their alleged abuse recognized by the law. Ventura and Jane were subjected to grueling testimony about what they say were tremendously dark experiences. Strangers were shown videos of them having sex; Ventura was beaten, and a video of her beating went viral…
“The defense, meanwhile, has not been chastened by any supposed post-#MeToo cultural taboos against victim-blaming or slut-shaming. In cross-examination, the women were humiliated with lines of questioning meant to portray them as gold diggers and sluts. Intimate harms they endured, physically and emotionally, were picked over by a national audience. And after all that, the jury still sided with the man they say trafficked and abused them.”
Moira Donegan, The Guardian
“Throughout this trial, I’ve had little doubt that despite his not-guilty plea, Combs was a violent dirtbag who beat up women. After all, last year, CNN aired footage of the rapper kicking and punching former girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016. That incident would be outside the statute of limitations, but the 2024 indictment alleges more recent crimes…
“The sealed indictment maintains Combs repeatedly assaulted, punched, dragged, and kicked women, and also was guilty of possession and distribution of cocaine, oxycodone, ketamine, and other drugs… Law enforcement seized ‘three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.’ Why didn’t the feds charge ‘Diddy’ plainly with assault and criminal possession instead of complicating the cases by maintaining his unlawful behavior was part of a criminal ‘enterprise’? Why over-charge a simple case?”
Debra J. Saunders, American Spectator
“It is hard to see how the reputation-shredding trial could have been more harmful. His defense adopted the (in retrospect, wise) strategy of presenting him as a deeply flawed, even reprehensible human being who had, in their words, ‘a bit of a different sex life,’ but stressed that he was not on trial for his moral character or the revolting-sounding ‘freak offs’ that he engaged in, but on charges that could be hard to prove were actually criminal offenses…
“Had he been acquitted on all counts, then he would be the hero of the hour, a self-professed ‘bad boy’ who had fought the law and won. Now, however, he is a convicted felon who will be lucky to escape a prison sentence, even allowing for time already served on remand. The details of his extracurricular sex life have made it into the public domain, and the sheer number of pending civil suits against him will only be lengthened by the guilty verdicts… Diddy is finished.”
Alexander Larman, Spectator World
