Sean Diddy Combs found NOT GUILTY for sex trafficking, racketeering

After seven-weeks of rigorous trial, controversial music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been found not guilty of charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. He has, however, been convicted of a US federal prostitution felony on Wednesday.

The jury found Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution after a high-profile seven-week trial.

Combs faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for transportation to engage in prostitution related to Casandra Ventura and ‘Jane’.

The Judge will later decide whether Combs, who is at present in a New York jail, will be released on bail.

As the vedict was read out, Combs, 55, smiled and looked relieved. He shook hands with one of his lawyers and said "thank you" to members of the eight-man four-woman jury as they left the courtroom.

Judge Arun Subramanian also thanked the jury for their service before dismissing them. "You listened, you worked together, you were here every day, rain or shine," he said. “You did so with no reward, other than the reward that comes from answering the call of public service.”

Seven weeks of trial, 34 witnesses

On Wednesday, a jury of 12 New Yorkers found Combs guilty of the Mann Act of transporting his former girlfriends, Cassie Ventura and a woman who went by the name Jane, in the courtroom, but he was not found guilty of running a criminal enterprise and of sex trafficking. The federal court in Manhattan heard 34 witnesses about the case over a seven-week-long trial.

The verdict, which saw the defense winning three acquittals, marked the end of a trial that had captured global attention and turned the court in Manhattan into a media circus.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was arrested in September 2024 over charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The music mogul had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Jury delivers mixed verdict

The 12-member jury gave a mixed verdict on the Diddy trial, declaring him guilty of only two of the 5 counts he was accused. The verdict was announced after 13 hours of deliberation over three days.

The jury found Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs:

-NOT GUILTY of racketeering conspiracy

-NOT GUILTY of the sex trafficking of ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura

- NOT GUILTY of the sex trafficking of ‘Jane’

- GUILTY of the transportation to engage in prostitution, related to Casandra Ventura

- GUILTY of the transportation to engage in prostitution related to ‘Jane’

The verdict came at the end of a trial in which prosecutors had accused Combs of being the boss of a decades-long criminal group who directed loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad offenses at his behest.

The alleged crimes included forced labor, drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering and obstruction and arson.

To find Combs guilty of racketeering, jurors needed to find the existence of a criminal enterprise and that the organization committed at least two of the offenses.

Jurors announced a partial verdict late Tuesday and said they were deadlocked on the racketeering charge but Judge Arun Subramanian instructed them to keep working.

Sex was consensual

Combs was charged with sex trafficking two women: singer Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane.

Both were in long-term relationships with Diddy and they each testified about abuse, threats and coercive sex in wrenching detail.

They both said they felt obligated to participate in Combs-directed sexual marathons with hired men. Combs's lawyers insisted the sex was consensual. They conceded domestic violence was a feature of his relationships -- one harrowing example of him beating and dragging Ventura was caught on security footage that has been widely publicized.

Yet while disturbing, that did not amount to sex trafficking, the defense said. But prosecutors in their final argument tore into Combs's team, who they said had "contorted the facts endlessly."

"In his mind he was untouchable," prosecutor Maurene Comey told the court. "The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them."