Sean “Diddy” Combs was found not guilty of trafficking women for sex and not guilty of a decades-long RICO conspiracy on Wednesday — but guilty of two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
The eight men and four women who deliberated the case against Combs returned their verdict in Manhattan Federal Court after 13 hours in the jury room. They also convicted him on charges alleging he transported individuals for prostitution.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since his September 2024 arrest, having failed to convince multiple judges to release him on a $50 million bond. Following the mixed verdict Wednesday, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked the court to immediately release Combs to house arrest.
Getty; AP
Cassie Ventura testifies (right) at the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs on May 13, 2025 (Getty; AP)
The jury heard from 34 witnesses over approximately seven weeks of testimony, who alleged that the disgraced multimillionaire rap producer ran his empire with an iron fist, brutalizing women at sordid sex parties and terrorizing anyone who crossed him with help from a network of high-ranking staff and unlimited funds.
The hip-hop mogul’s ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura spent four days on the stand, alleging he had subjected her to violent abuse and sexual exploitation throughout their 11-year relationship — forcing her to participate in hundreds of drug-fueled, demeaning sexual performances with male escorts that lasted for days, which he called “freak-offs.”
A woman who testified anonymously under the pseudonym “Jane” alleged Combs had coerced her into the vile performances in the years leading to her arrest. Like Ventura, the single mom said he threatened to leave her financially destitute and ruin her reputation when she tried to assert herself.
Official Court Evidence
Baby oil (left) and firearms are pictured in a home belonging to Sean “Diddy” Combs in evidence photos. (Official Court Evidence)
A former assistant of Combs who testified anonymously as “Mia” said the rapper and producer had raped and sexually assaulted her during her decade working for him and that he, in essence, jailed her at his properties.
Former Combs aide Capricorn Clark, in tearful testimony, alleged he had kidnapped her in late 2011 armed with a gun before breaking into Kid Cudi’s Hollywood Hills home, weeks before the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper’s Porsche was blown up his driveway.
The jury heard Combs’ security guards and long-serving staff were critical in keeping his victims compliant and setting up hotel rooms and various locations for the marathon sex sessions. Ventura said they monitored her at hotels and Combs’ properties when he kept her hidden away while she was healing from injuries he inflicted.
The producer, who launched the careers of the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige, declined to testify in his own defense or call any additional witnesses. His lawyers maintained throughout the trial that while he had beaten women, freak offs were consensual events and that his staff were not members of a criminal syndicate but employed for legitimate business purposes.
Prosecutors, in closing, told jurors the fact that Combs’ victims may have sometimes consented to freak-offs, it didn’t mean they did so every time. The panel heard graphic testimony from Ventura and Jane about being forced into dehumanizing performances after facing brutal beatings by Combs.
“What we’re talking about is being in a dark hotel room, awake for days, covered in oil, wearing eight-inch heels, often with a UTI, having your pelvic area sore, sitting in the same position for hours, performing oral sex for hours, having sex for hours, including with strangers; having unprotected sex with stranger after stranger, a rotation of men for days,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said in her Friday rebuttal.
“The defense wants you to believe that Cassie and Jane wanted that — or were willing to go along with it,” the prosecutor continued. “That’s ridiculous on its face.”
This developing story will be updated.
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