Updated July 9, 2025 at 3:22 PM EDT
This report includes descriptions of physical and sexual violence.
A federal jury in Manhattan has found Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul also known as Diddy or Puff Daddy, guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was found not guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking.
The jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours before announcing their split decision. When the first "not guilty" verdict was announced for the racketeering charge, gasps and cheers were heard in both the main courtroom and in an overflow room packed with fans, tourists, social media influencers and reporters. Members of both Combs' family and his defense team began to cry. Combs collapsed to the ground and knelt in gratitude.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York were not able to successfully argue to the jury that their two prime witnesses, Combs' ex-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura and another former girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym "Jane," had not participated consensually in the sex and drug marathons that Combs variously referred to as "freak offs," "hotel nights" or "wild king nights."
Combs did not take the stand in his own defense, nor did his team of lawyers present any witnesses. Instead, they pointed to text messages in which Ventura and Jane often expressed enthusiasm for those sessions, despite the women later saying on the stand that they felt pressed and manipulated into planning and participating in them. These relationships, the defense team argued, were toxic and perhaps abusive, but failed to meet the government's standards of federal criminality.
The defense team also worked steadily through six weeks of the prosecutors' presentations to erode the credibility of many of the government's witnesses.
Among the pieces of video evidence the jury saw was a hotel surveillance tape of Combs beating Ventura. Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo, in his closing argument, said: "We own the domestic violence." Combs' acts of physical abuse, one instance of which the jury saw on the hotel surveillance video, and to which Ventura and others testified, were not themselves the subject of a standalone charge by the prosecution, but were included as a factor within the sex trafficking accusation.
The jury also found Combs not guilty of other crimes that were folded into the racketeering charge including drug distribution, bribery, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Despite a witness testifying that he and his colleagues received a $100,000 bribe directly from Combs, the jury did not find him guilty of bribery. Simply put: The jury did not believe that the prosecution provided convincing evidence of their two main accusations.
The prosecution was also unable to prove to the 12-person jury, comprised of eight men and four women, that Combs had run a criminal conspiracy or an organized crime syndicate within the racketeering charge. In recent years, federal prosecutors have applied racketeering (also known as RICO) charges quite broadly — and in certain high-profile cases against well-known hip-hop artists and in the highly publicized trial of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking in 2021.
A racketeering conviction would have carried the most serious potential incarceration time for Combs, with a maximum sentence of up to life in prison. Convictions for the counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion — one pertaining to Ventura and the other pertaining to "Jane — would have each carried a statutory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison.
The two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — one pertaining to Ventura and male sex workers, and one pertaining to Jane and male sex workers — carry a maximum sentence of 10 years each. In a hearing later on Wednesday, according to reporting from the Associated Press, Judge Arun Subramanian denied Combs bail before his sentencing.
Outside of this federal criminal trial, Combs continues to face dozens of civil lawsuits brought by former employees and associates. Ventura, who brought a civil suit against Combs in Nov. 2023, settled within one day for $20 million. As part of that settlement, Combs did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.
In his professional heyday, Combs, who has won three Grammy Awards, was at the forefront of bringing hip-hop to a mainstream pop audience — and made himself the face of the label he co-owned, Bad Boy Records. He also built an empire of related businesses, including the Sean John fashion company, a lucrative promotional partnership with the alcoholic beverage giant Diageo, and a media business that included the once-popular VH1 reality show "Making The Band," which featured him as an impossibly demanding boss who frequently demeaned aspiring employees.
Additional reporting by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento.
Copyright 2025 NPR
