Sean (Diddy) Combs denied bail after mixed verdict clears him of most serious charges | Canada Voices

Sean (Diddy) Combs dropped to his knees and prayed in the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip hop’s celebrated figures behind bars for life. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offences and denied bail as he awaits sentencing.

His lawyer Marc Agnifilo called the verdict a “great victory” and said the jury “got the situation right – or certainly right enough” as he stood outside Manhattan federal court at a stand of microphones. “Today is a victory of all victories.”

The mixed verdict capped a sordid legal odyssey that shattered Mr. Combs’s affable “Puff Daddy” image and derailed his career as a Grammy-winning artist and music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star.

“I’ll see you when I get out,” Mr. Combs told family members, including his mother and children, just before leaving the courtroom to return to jail. “We’re going to get through this.”

Mr. Combs stands convicted of two counts of a crime – transportation to engage in prostitution – that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But jurors cleared him of three charges, two of which carried a mandatory 15 years and a maximum of life.

He was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.

Mr. Combs’s lawyers said that under federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely face about two years in prison. Prosecutors, citing Mr. Combs’s violence and other factors, said the guidelines would call for at least four to five years. Locked up since his September arrest, Mr. Combs has already served nine months.

“We fight on and we’re going to win,” Mr. Agnifilo said. “And we’re not going to stop until he walks out of prison a free man to his family.”

Sean (Diddy) Combs’s lawyer mocks sex-trafficking case in closing, says charges ‘badly exaggerated’

In a triumph for Mr. Combs, the jury of eight men and four women acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fuelled sex marathons with men.

Mr. Combs’s defence team argued that the women were willing participants and that none of his violence justified the severity of the charges.

Mr. Agnifilo asked that Mr. Combs be released on bond immediately to await sentencing, saying the acquittals changed the calculus about whether he needed to be held.

“He’s not going to flee. He’s been given his life back,” Mr. Agnifilo said.

Justice Arun Subramanian denied it, saying Mr. Combs – for now – had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community.”

Mr. Combs, 55, sat stoic as he heard the bond decision, then snapped his head toward Mr. Agnifilo and wrote several notes as the lawyer spoke. Finally Mr. Combs raised his hand and waved to get the judge’s attention. But he ultimately did not speak after consulting with Mr. Agnifilo.

Leaving the courtroom for a final time, he paused to address relatives packed into rows of wooden benches who supported him throughout the eight-week trial.

“Be strong. I love you,” he added, putting his hands to his lips and pushing a dramatic kiss toward loved ones.

Earlier in the day, when he heard the jury foreperson announce “not guilty” three times, Mr. Combs pumped his fist, looked toward the jurors and held his hands up in a prayer motion. Supporters in the audience could barely contain their relief despite the judge’s admonition to avoid outbursts: When the first “not guilty” was read aloud, someone shouted, “Yeah!”

The judge will decide Mr. Combs’s punishment and suggested Oct. 3 as a sentencing date, but a defence request to have it sooner prompted him to schedule a virtual hearing Tuesday on the matter.

Sean (Diddy) Combs thought ‘fame, wealth and power’ put him above the law, prosecutor says as trial closes

Federal officials involved in the case responded to the outcome by noting that sex crimes “are all too present in many aspects of our society.”

“New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice,” Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton and Ricky J. Patel, who heads federal Homeland Security Investigations’ New York office, said in a statement.

Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days before announcing their verdict. It came after they said late Tuesday that they had decided on four counts but were stuck on the racketeering one. At that point the judge told them to keep deliberating and keep the partial verdict under wraps.

Mr. Combs did not testify at his trial, which featured 34 witnesses as well as video of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer born Casandra Ventura.

Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said in a statement after the verdict that “by coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice.”

Later he asked the judge in a letter to deny Mr. Combs bail, saying, “Ms. Ventura believes that Mr. Combs is likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community.”

Ms. Ventura testified for four days about her turbulent, 11-year relationship with Mr. Combs, which began after she signed with his Bad Boy record label.

Ms. Ventura said Mr. Combs became obsessed with voyeuristic encounters, arranged with the help of his staff, that involved sex workers and copious amounts of baby oil. During the sex events, called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights,” Mr. Combs would order Ms. Ventura to do things with other men that she found humiliating, she testified.

When things did not go Mr. Combs’s way, he would beat her, she said.

Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” told the jury she repeatedly told Mr. Combs she didn’t want to have sex with the men hired for their trysts.

“I’m not an animal. I need a break,” she told him. Nevertheless, she said, she felt “obligated” to comply with his demands, in part because he paid her rent.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ms. Ventura has.

The trial’s most famous witness, rapper Kid Cudi, said Mr. Combs broke into his home in late 2011 after learning he and Ms. Ventura were dating. After his car was firebombed a few weeks later, Cudi – whose real name is Scott Mescudi – said he knew Mr. Combs “had something to do” with it. Mr. Combs denied it.

Mr. Combs’s defence team acknowledged that he could be violent but argued that prosecutors were intruding in his personal life. In his closing remarks to the jury, Mr. Agnifilo said it wasn’t illegal for Mr. Combs to make “homemade porn” with his girlfriends.

Mr. Combs was at the centre of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the 1990s and became one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades, diversifying his interests with the Sean John fashion label, Ciroc vodka, a cable TV channel and a film and TV studio.

In 2001, Mr. Combs was at the centre of one of the biggest hip-hop trials of its era, stemming from a Manhattan nightclub shooting that injured three people in 1999. Mr. Combs was acquitted of charges that he took an illegal gun into the club and tried to bribe his driver to take the fall.

His career recovered quickly that time.

Mr. Combs’s reputation may have suffered irreparable damage, though, after Ms. Ventura sued him in November, 2023, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse. He settled the next day for US$20-million, but more lawsuits by other women and men followed.

Most are still pending.