After six weeks of testimony, nonstop news coverage, and speculation across social media, jurors found Sean “Diddy” Combs not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking, but guilty on two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
The verdict was announced on Wednesday, July 2, just before 10:30 a.m. ET.
Combs clasped his hands in prayer and hugged his attorney, Teny Geragos, as he learned his fate, the Associated Press reported.
The Bad Boy Records founder nodded his head in agreement as Judge Arun Subramanian thanked jurors for their hard work. Combs turned to face his family and said, “I’m coming home, baby! I’m coming home!”
Related: Cassie, Dawn Richard, Aubrey O’Day React to Diddy Verdict With ‘Disappointment’
Civil Rights attorney and legal analyst Areva Martin reacted to the jury’s decision.
“I’m disappointed because it sends a message about the power, wealth and influence of men,” Martin said in an interview with Urban Hollywood 411.
“We can’t lose sight of the fact that he was convicted of two felonies,” Martin added, “So in some ways, that’s a victory for the #MeToo movement and for victims.”
Court was adjourned until this evening as the judge weighed whether to release the mogul on bail until he is sentenced. Each prostitution charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The Judge later rejected the mogul’s bail request.
Outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, the mogul’s relieved mother Janice Combs told reporters “my heart was fluttering” as she waited for the verdict.
Diddy’s supporters cheered, ripped off their shirts, and bizarrely doused themselves with baby oil.
Asked her thoughts on the baby oil stunt, attorney Martin called it the “lowest common denominator.”
The split verdict came early on the third day of deliberations, which started on June 30. The jury handed down its decision after sending a note to the judge on Tuesday, saying they had decided on all but one count.
Combs faced a total of five charges: one count of racketeering; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty on all counts.
Prosecutors argued he had allegedly groomed his former girlfriends Cassie Ventura and a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” by “love bombing” them with attention, then forcing them to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched, filmed and masturbated.
The defense countered that the sexual encounters were consensual and the women were gold diggers, all “about money.”
In a statement to Urban Hollywood 411, Cassie’s attorney Douglas H. Wigdor expressed disappointment with the verdict, but said the singer “paved the way” for the prosecution’s case by filing a civil lawsuit against the mogul in November 2023.
“Although the jury did not find Combs guilty of sex trafficking Cassie beyond a reasonable doubt, she paved the way for a jury to find him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution,” the statement read.
Prosecutors called a total of 34 witnesses, including Cassie, Jane, federal agents, several of Diddy’s ex-assistants, former security guards at the InterContinental hotel where the mogul was recorded physically assaulting Cassie in 2016, and her former boyfriend, rapper Kid Cudi.
During her testimony, Cassie revealed she received a $20 million settlement from Combs and another $10 million from the InterContinental hotel chain.
The defense did not call a single witness during the trial.
A third alleged victim-witness, later identified as Combs’ ex-girlfriend Gina Huynh, went missing. Prosecutors told the judge they were unable to find her and she did not take the stand.
On Tuesday, July 1, TMZ published an interview with Huynh who told the outlet Combs never did anything “dangerous” to her. It’s unclear how the outlet found her, when the federal government could not, unless TMZ received a tip.
Huynh’s comment was in stark contrast to a 2019 interview she did with podcaster Tasha K, when she alleged Combs was abusive and had forced her to have an abortion.
“He stomped on my stomach really hard — like, took the wind out of my breath,” Huynh alleged. “I couldn’t breathe. He kept hitting me. I was pleading to him, ‘Can you just stop? I can’t breathe.’”
In an interview with Urban Hollywood 411 after the closing arguments, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani predicted it was unlikely Combs would be convicted of sex trafficking.
“I have concerns about consent when it comes to the sexual activity,” Rahmani said, adding that there were flaws in the testimony of Cassie and Jane.
“If those women were abused, why did they stay with their abuser?” he said, noting that the defense successfully argued the same issue in the Harvey Weinstein retrial weeks earlier.
Rahmani also questioned why prosecutors did not charge any of Combs’ alleged co-conspirators.
“I would have charged Kristina Khorram, ‘KK’ and D-Roc, the former chief of staff and security, respectively. They were actively involved in the drug trafficking, sex trafficking, bribery, arson,” he said.
Meantime, attorney Areva Martin said while Diddy’s friends, family and supporters viewed the verdict as a win, the mogul will forever be known as a convicted felon.
“This is a man that was on the Forbes richest man’s list at one point, who was for many an icon, who now has become a two-time convicted felon,” she stated. “I think that’s important for the victims, victims who have come forward, victims who have mustered the courage to come forward when they’ve been sexually assaulted by powerful and rich men like Sean Combs.”
The full interview with attorney Areva Martin can be viewed here.
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