Guilty... and not guilty: understanding the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs verdict

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:06Today. Guilty and not guilty. Understanding the trial of Sean Combs.

0:21During his noughties peak, Sean Combs was part of the superstar A-list. He dated Jennifer Lopez. He styled himself as the King of New York. Welcome Sean Diddy Cole.

0:39For years, the man best known as Diddy built a brand around being the ultimate hip-hop mogul. It's an R &B album. It's tapped back into the positive parts of love. A not very good rapper, but a really canny businessman. He threw famously decadent parties in the Hamptons. You know, ain't no party like a Diddy party. He got the old money establishment mingling with culture-defining black superstars. At one point, he was part of the black billionaire class that includes Oprah and Jay-Z. There's a lot invested literally and figuratively in Sean Combs' success, in his American arc. After three decades in the public eye, that dream became dark.

1:25A 2023 civil lawsuit accused him of rape, of violently beating his then-girlfriend, and serially abusing her. The case triggered a criminal investigation. The prosecution took Sean Diddy Combs into custody. He's seen in this video entering the Park Hyatt Hotel. The prosecution went big. Combs faced charges that ranked him alongside mafia bosses. He was portrayed as a sex-trafficking criminal linchpin with a terrifying appetite for violence. The jury weren't entirely convinced. The jury has reached a partial verdict in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial. From The Guardian, I'm Nasheen Ekvahal.

2:04Today in Focus, what happened to Sean Diddy Combs?

2:14Andrew Lawrence, you're a senior features writer for The Guardian US based in Atlanta. Now, Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, and in his last rebrand a couple of years ago, I believe he came out as Love. He's been a household name for more than two decades. His net worth at one point was valued at a billion dollars. Can you tell me how he became such a fixture in the cultural landscape? By sheer force of personality, this is a guy who wanted so badly to become a music mogul that he forced himself on Andre Harrell, who at the time was running a boutique label called Uptown Records.

2:57Andre Harrell, you have a lot to do with the legend of Diddy. And you know that. Ruff was my intern. He started the record business with me. He becomes a little bit too powerful at Uptown, gets himself fired. Which in turn inspired him to come back with Bad Boy Gold. Well, we even gave him Bad Boy. And he gets money from the people who run Uptown and starts Bad Boy Records. With him, he takes Mary J. Blige and a host of other artists. Biggie, of course, is the flagship star. When I got the record deal, all I got cut short. So it's like he Jesus to me, you know what I'm saying? Because he just saved me.

3:33And when he is gunned down in Los Angeles in the middle of this sort of East Coast, West Coast rap industry feud, Diddy sort of emerges as an artist himself and puts himself on the map with this massive sting tribute called Missing You that goes platinum many, many times over. that has lost one. Bad Boy becomes a massive label and starts to expand outside of music into clothing, into perfumes, into liquor. And in the process, Diddy transcends hip hop and Black culture and becomes a popular culture and a mega celebrity and the kind of mega celebrity that other celebrities and corporate interests want to be in business with.

4:18He gives them an avenue to have a seat at the table by throwing these massive white parties, all white parties, at his Hamptons estates. Going to a ditty party, all the waitresses topless. They serving you, everybody topless. Dancers in cages, people walking around with lions on wheels. His real talent, once he sort of rises to the upper echelon of sort of like A-list celebrity, is his ability to bring people together, make these connections with people, old money New Yorkers, industrial capitalists, put them in business with the kids from the street who have a lot of this sort of cultural cachet, who are making the songs, who are making the art, and get them to collaborate in a way that enriches them both, but ultimately enriches himself.

5:06I think for a lot of us, when you think of Puff Daddy and his element, you think of the fur coats, the big gold chains, the suits, and there's a real swagger about him. And he's synonymous with these lavish, decadent parties. How much do you think that image has played in his favor in the jury's mind during this trial? I think 30 years of public life definitely helps you because there are all of these years of goodwill where they remember him as this paragon of Black excellence who not only built this massively lucrative business, but gave back to the community. He made a massive donation to the endowment of Spelman College, which is like a historically black college.

5:48You know, there's a tremendous affection for not only Diddy as a personality, but, you know, the way that he has allowed people who look like him to dream of possibly becoming as successful or more successful than him.

6:08Anna Betts, you've been reporting for eight weeks on the trial of Sean Combs for The Guardian US. This is a huge story for obvious reasons. You've got this massive celebrity with enormous wealth facing these very, very serious charges of sexual violence, of trafficking, all these jaw-dropping details being reported in the press. Anna, what was the atmosphere like as you walked in every day into that court in Lower Manhattan? I would say the scene outside the courthouse was pretty crazy and chaotic for the first week, especially.

6:40There's TV vans crowding the block, large crowds outside the building, including reporters like myself, fans of his. The demographic probably ranged from about 30s to 60s in age. I would say pretty 50-50 women, men, mainly black. His fans would gather and film his daughters walking into the courthouse and tell them how much they loved them and how they had their support. They would kind of chase the children down and tell them that they hope their father gets free. There was a lot of excitement and kind of celebrity-ness to it and a lot of live streaming. Everything he did was consented. Everything people did was consented.

7:26And what about inside the courtroom? Inside the main courtroom on the 26th floor, there are about 21 press seats and 14 seats for the public. The court opened three overflow rooms, which feature live video feeds from the courtroom. Multiple overflow rooms packed full of people from the public, from the media. So many people converging on New York City because of this trial. Sean Combs himself sits with his team of around eight lawyers and their paralegals and their assistants and their staff. And I would say it's a very kind of tense atmosphere. There's a lot of court officers monitoring, making sure that no one does anything disorderly.

8:04People being monitored on what they're doing in terms of taking notes. You can't eat, you can't speak, you can't drink water, things like that. And how did Combs look in court? How was he responding? He seemed very diminished to the ditty that we kind of all knew and grew up with. He would often be seen whispering to his lawyers, nodding and shaking his head during testimony, writing things on post-it notes and passing them to his lawyers during cross-examinations or things like that. At one point, his nodding and his looking at the jury got so much that the judge even warned that he could be removed from the courtroom for trying to interact with the jury.

8:37There were times where he would turn around to look at his mother and his children and some of his supporters in the courtroom and he would owe them kisses or make hearts with his hands. So I think he felt the support that was behind him and kind of very much felt like justice was needing to be served in his mind. Anna, can you run us through the criminal charges he faced? Combs was arrested last September and he was charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. They also said that he used his power, wealth, violence and threats to coerce two women into taking part in these drug-induced sex marathons with male escorts that he called freak-offs.

9:19Today, in the Diddy trial, freak-offs that had been going on between Diddy and his ex-girlfriends for years. We would be crushing each other on couches that were covered with sheets. It was very methodical. His lawyers argued that all of the sexual encounters were consensual, part of what they described as a swingers' lifestyle. The intimate part of this defendant's life is what is being criminalised here. It's not racketeering. He talks about this being a lifestyle, swingers... They argued that the government was wrongfully prosecuting him for his private and personal sex life. Anna, on Wednesday, the jury reached their verdict on those five charges.

9:57Combs was found not guilty on the counts of racketeering and sex trafficking, but he was found guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Outside of that legalistic jargon, can you break down and explain exactly what that means? Yeah, Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The two transportation charges accused Combs of transporting his then girlfriends, Cassandra Cassie Ventura and Jane, as well as male escorts across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. He was found not guilty of the most serious charges in this case, running a so-called criminal enterprise with help from his associates and his employees to commit and cover up crimes that included sex trafficking, kidnapping, bribery, forced labor.

10:43So just to be clear, if he'd been found guilty of racketeering, which is this sort of mafia criminal organisation kind of charge. And if he'd been found guilty of sex trafficking, that would have seen him imprisoned for life potentially. Yeah, Clems was facing life behind bars. So the verdict was very much seen as a victory for his team. It was probably the best he could have hoped for outside of a full acquittal. Each count of the transportation to engage in prostitution charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, but he could get much less than that and the judge could have his sentences also run concurrently so at the same time as well.

11:23So Anna, why did the prosecution pursue the racketeering charge which from everything you said sounds really legally complicated to prove and they didn't go for what people might ask the accusations of rape, of sexual violence why didn't they pursue those? So there is a statute of limitations issue here meaning that too much time had lapped since the alleged crimes occurred.

11:55Anna, the prosecution's star witness was Cassie Ventura. Can you tell me more about her? Cassie's a singer, a model, and actress. He grew up in Connecticut. Hear that voice? Sung by Cassie Ventura, our next guest. Fortunately, oh my God. She met Combs when she was 19 and he was in his late 30s. And then shortly after, she signed his record label, Bad Boy Records. Not long after that, she began dating him in 2007. She was 21. He was around 39 years old. Then they had this decade-long relationship from 2007 to around 2018. And their relationship was very toxic, given the testimony that we have heard.

12:33Combs came into the apartment and yelled at her for not answering her phone. This is testimony that we heard from her, that he would get very angry if he couldn't reach her. He apparently then dragged her into a room and began hitting her until she whacked her head on the edge of a bed and there was blood everywhere. As this was happening, another employee... Cassie filed a bombshell civil case against Coombs in 2023. And really, it was the first time the public came to know about this incredibly dark side of their relationship. What did we learn from it? Late 2023, Cassie filed a civil lawsuit against Coombs.

13:08A lawsuit filed against Sean Diddy Combs accuses the music performer and executive of rape, physical abuse and sex trafficking. He denied the allegations against him. The lawsuit actually ended up settling within 24 hours of the filing. And on the stand during this trial, she revealed that it settled for 20 million dollars. The lawsuit actually sparked the criminal investigation into Combs and also triggered dozens of other civil lawsuits to be filed against him, accusing him of sexual assault. A new accuser is speaking out against disgraced music mogul Sean Diddy Combs claiming he raped her. Another woman has come forward with heinous allegations of rape and sexual assault.

13:44The internal pain after being sexually assaulted has been incredibly deep and hard to put into words. The alleged victim was deeply emotional and upset today. He paid Cassie$20 million. One would assume that there would have been a non-disclosure agreement attached to this. but a key part of the evidence that you saw in court was this video that was leaked last year. Can you tell me a bit more about that? During Ventura's testimony, the jurors were shown the 2016 hotel footage of Combs kicking and dragging Ventura down the hallway of a hotel in Los Angeles. Disturbing new video appears to support some of the accusations of abuse against music mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

14:23On the stand, Ventura testified that she had been just escaping a freak-off in the hotel room when Combs came out and beat her. The video appears to show Combs chasing her down the hall, throwing her to the ground and then repeatedly kicking her. During the trial, a former security guard from that hotel also testified that Combs paid him$100 ,000 to make the video go away. That video is really difficult to watch and it's especially horrific seeing him drag and kick her down that hallway. And obviously it took a lot of courage for Cassie to go again, to be in court and give her testimony. What else did we learn from it?

14:59So Cassie testified for about four days, while eight and a half months pregnant during the first week of the trial. During her testimony remained pretty calm and composed, but sometimes became emotional as she recounted kind of specific incidents. She said that, you know, Combs' role in the free coughs was often directing, watching and masturbating in the corner. Sometimes he would film. She described him as a controlling figure in her life that controlled nearly every aspect of her personal and professional life. She said that he would frequently beat her and be violent with her and alleged that after their breakup in 2018, he raped her as well.

15:35She told the court she was crying and saying no. And when she was asked what he did when she was crying, she replied, he continued. I don't even think he noticed. The couple had already broken up. Ventura breaking down on the stand. It was fast. His eyes were black. He wasn't himself. She said that he would frequently threaten to release explicit videos of her or stifle her music career if she didn't meet his demands.

16:07Anna, there was a lot in the press about these freak-offs and people remember the details of baby oil and sex workers. But what exactly did you hear in court? How were they defined? So they were described by Cassie and also by another former girlfriend and by the prosecutors. there would be a male escort or maybe two male escorts, but often just one and one of Combs's girlfriends participating in sex acts that he would direct and orchestrate and film. And all of the participants would take illicit drugs. Ventura said for her, it was to dissociate during these encounters. She spoke about the emotional toll that this relationship had had on her and ending up in rehab and trauma therapy in 2023 because she was spinning out.

16:52And she said she didn't want to live anymore. She spoke about a night when she'd just put the kids to bed and she tried to walk in. I think a lot of people without hearing what she said might just wonder, well, why did she go along with it? Why did she participate? And what did Cassie have to say about that? She alleged that she was very much coerced into participating in these free coughs and staying in her relationship with Combs. Obviously, she did acknowledge there was a lot of love in her relationship, as a lot of toxic relationships do have. But at the same time, There were things that he would do, or she said that he would do, including threaten to release videos of her, threatening to withhold her music from being released that really kept her staying in this cycle.

17:33Because she was in love with him. Yes, very much. It is also a big age difference in their relationship and a power dynamic. Obviously, you know, he is her boyfriend, but also her boss in a lot of ways and controlled her music career, which she was very excited and passionate about as well. She explained that as being a kind of very toxic part of their relationship. Can you tell me about who else came forward with evidence to corroborate what Cassie said? So several of his former employees were subpoenaed to testify. They were referred to me as Wild King Nights. They testified about how they were tasked with often stocking the hotel rooms with baby oil, lubricant, condoms.

18:11Astro Glide, liquor, lights, drugs. The former employees also said that they were tasked with cleaning up the rooms after the freak-offs. And you have to get all that stuff, clean it up. Luckily, I would wear even a mask and I would wear gloves because it was disgusting. They said that protecting his reputation was very important and they wouldn't want the hotel staff to see maybe what had happened or what had gone down in these rooms. Two male escorts also testified and they corroborated Cassie's statement. They all said that he would pay them after the encounters, kind of ranging between$600 to around$7 ,000, depending on how well they performed and also how long the encounter, the freak-off, was.

18:54Like, I would finish my thing, and then he would come in, do his thing with her, and I would kind of retire to the living room, have another drink, smoke some more, and then, I guess, interchange whenever they would call me back in. He would direct her to... Ventura testified that these freak-offs could last between a few hours and up to four days at times. She testified that she would often contract urinary tract infections after the encounters. She would need about a week to recover afterwards.

19:30Anna, Cassie wasn't alone as a victim in this case. Two other women were called on to provide evidence against Sean Coombs. Can you tell me more about them? Another former girlfriend of his testified, but under a pseudonym of Jane. Her testimony was interestingly, you know, strikingly similar to Cassie's. She said that she initially agreed to participate in the Free Coughs to please Combs as they were in a relationship, but that later on she felt trapped and obligated to participate, especially because in 2023 he began paying her rent. She described being financially bound to him. Combs would often threaten to leak explicit videos of her if she defied him.

20:10Jane on the stand today. Tech show that they got in a fight over having a hotel night. Diddy accused her of using him for money. Another woman testified under the pseudonym Mia. She was a former assistant of Combs's and she actually alleged that Combs physically and sexually assaulted her multiple times. So that also spoke to the employee aspect of this case. So Anna, essentially this testimony, it really helped build this portrait of Coombs as a serial offender. I mean, his relationship with Cassie wasn't a one-off. It wasn't just this singular dark chapter in his life, but part of a pattern.

20:44What were the other standout details about him and his life that emerged from this trial? Key testimony also came from others such as rapper Scott Muscuddy, who is known as Kid Cuddy. He briefly dated Ventura during a break in her relationship with Coombs in 2011. He testified that after Combs learned of their relationship, Combs broke into his home and basically weeks later, his car was firebombed and Mesquite told the court that he believed that Combs was responsible. His testimony was supported by a former longtime employee of Combs' Capricorn Clop. She testified that on the morning of the alleged break-in, Combs came to her home with a gun and, in her words, kidnapped her at gunpoint and forced her to accompany him to Kid Cudi's home.

21:31She said that Combs told her that he was going to, quote, kill Kid Cudi. And she also testified that during her employment, Combs threatened her, subjected her to a lie detector test and crushed her during her employment. So it kind of depicted Combs and what he was like to work for as well. And how long did the closing argument take and what were the key highlights from that? So over the seven weeks of testimony, the government called 34 witnesses. When it came to the defence's turn, the defence actually chose to call no witnesses of their own. Instead, they submitted evidence and relied on their extensive cross-examinations.

22:11The defence attorneys admitted the incident of domestic violence, but pointed out again that this was not what he was being charged with and maintained that all sexual activity was consensual. So Combs' defence were okay with portraying their client as someone who was obviously very violent? Yeah, his lawyers kind of admitted and acknowledged many times when it came to the incident of domestic violence. I think one part of that was because video footage is out there and was shown during the trial of Combs being violent towards Ventura especially. So I think they decided to admit wrongdoing when it came to domestic violence because he is not being charged with domestic violence.

22:49I mean, I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now. Anna, it's been an incredibly charged and sometimes quite volatile trial. On Wednesday, Combs, as we said, was exonerated of the most serious charges. How did he respond as the verdict was read out in court? As the verdict was being read out and going kind of guilty, not guilty, guilty for each charge, there were some audible gasps in the crowd. Combs mouthed, thank you, thank you to the jury.

23:32His family and the supporters that were in the courtroom as well began clapping for his legal team at one point and Combs also kind of fell to his knees seemingly in a prayer position and said love you to his family multiple times. They proceeded to leave the courthouse with massive smiles on their face to crowds of his supporters cheering their names. What about Cassie Ventura and Jane? What have they said? So Ventura's lawyer spoke to reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict was delivered. He said that although the jury did not find Combs guilty of sex trafficking beyond a reasonable doubt, he said by coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an undelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice.