Why the Diddy trial failed
Sean Combs’s behaviour was vile, but prosecutors failed to prove that he was a criminal mastermind.
Rapper and music producer Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been a New York City tabloid sensation for my entire adult life. His ‘King of the Players’ reputation was burnished by his public exploits, such as turning up at the 2000 Grammy Awards with then girlfriend J-Lo in a plunging green Versace dress, his involvement in a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub and pictures of his butler walking behind him carrying a parasol to shield him from the St Tropez sun. At no point have I ever thought, ‘He seems like a nice guy’.
His recently concluded eight-week criminal trial, for racketeering, human trafficking and prostitution, showed the sickening underbelly of that carefully curated gangster-mogul image. Despite the voluminous testimony to his vile, violent and abusive behaviour, Combs was acquitted last week of the two most serious charges of racketeering and human trafficking. He remains in prison on prostitution charges, but these carry much lighter sentences. So it looks like Diddy could be living in luxury once again before too long.
The federal charges were brought after the settlement in 2023 of a civil case in which ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura alleged Combs had raped and abused her for years during their decade-long relationship. The trial testimony that has emerged over the past few weeks has been horrifying. The court heard of days-long sex parties, or ‘freak-offs’, in which Diddy would watch Ventura have sex with male prostitutes. She says she was often drugged during these, and many were filmed. In May, assistant US attorney Emily Johnson told the jury that at one point Combs ‘told a prostitute to “urinate in” Ventura’s mouth’, which led her to ‘feel like she was “choking”’. A male escort who participated in the sex with Ventura and Combs said that after he started witnessing Combs abuse Ventura, he could no longer perform sexually.
Most damning was the video footage of Combs savagely beating Ventura in an LA hotel hallway as she tries to escape. Days of testimony went through instance after instance of the disgusting and abusive things he did, not just to Ventura, but to others as well. There were allegations that he blew up a rival rapper’s car and broke into his home.
But Combs was not there to answer to charges of battery or arson. And that was the flaw in the case from the very beginning. The RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations) Act, under which the prosecutors charged him, is a complex law designed to take down extensive criminal syndicates.
The case hinged on the prosecution’s contention that Combs’s violence and abuse were tools used in service of ‘running a criminal enterprise that engaged in sex trafficking and racketeering’. It was a high-stakes legal strategy that ultimately failed.
The abuse meted out to Ventura and others was heartbreaking and distressing. However, possibly the greatest weakness in the case was the evidence. In the form of text messages, Ventura ‘express[ed] not only willingness but excitement’ about the freak-offs. At one point, she also gave testimony that she participated in the sex parties even when her on-off relationship with Combs was off.
Another victim came forward during the trial who told of similar abuse and degradation by Combs. According to the New York Times, the anonymous victim said she continued to participate because ‘she wanted to please her boyfriend’, and feared that he would ‘stop paying the $10,000 monthly rent for the home where she lives with her child’. ‘Consent was the big issue here’, said one legal analyst on CNN. ‘The jury was obviously troubled by that.’
Combs’s defence downplayed his behaviour. As the New York Times reports, his lawyer ‘appealed to the jury’s emotions in casting Mr Combs as a successful but flawed man whose sex life was unconventional, but not criminal’. In a clever move, his team also portrayed the women testifying against their client as ‘capable’ and ‘strong’ – in order to convey the impression that they were acting not out of fear but out of pleasure. Ultimately, the jury accepted this.
Many are outraged that Combs will not face the heaviest of possible penalties for his clearly disgusting behaviour. But if nothing else, the trial has at least exposed the grotesque and exploitative nature of star power in the music business. Diddy’s former assistant, George Kaplan, was asked why he failed to come to Ventura’s aid as she screamed for help while being beaten by the rap mogul. He replied: ‘It would not have been in keeping with what I was trying to accomplish professionally.’ I suppose that is what happens when ambitious, attention-seeking people will do whatever it takes to be in proximity to fame and fortune.
There’s no doubt that what Combs and others organised and engaged in was vile. But as the jury recognised, it was plainly not an organised criminal enterprise. Prosecutors’ attempt to paint it as such was a massive case of legal overreach. It only undermined the justice that should and could have been done.
Jenny Holland is a former newspaper reporter and speechwriter. Visit her Substack here