NYC jury begins deliberating Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking, RICO case

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Jun 30, 2025

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NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury started deliberating the sex trafficking and racketeering case against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday, with a possible life sentence on the line for the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder.

The eight men and four women on the panel got the case at 11:30 a.m. after hearing an instruction on the law from Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian. They must decide whether Combs is guilty of two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, racketeering conspiracy, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

The panel heard approximately seven weeks of testimony from 34 witnesses, including Combs’ exes, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman who testified anonymously as “Jane,” who alleged he coerced them into dehumanizing and sometimes violent sexual performances — so-called “freak-offs” — with male commercial sex workers that ran for days at a time.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office alleges the multimillionaire rap producer ran a criminal enterprise with help from high-ranking staff, who procured drugs for the marathon sex sessions, intimidated victims into silence, and terrorized anyone who crossed Combs.

“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Slavik said in the government’s closing argument last week.

“That stops now. It’s time to hold him accountable. It’s time for justice.”

To find Combs guilty of racketeering conspiracy, which could carry a life sentence, jurors need to find alleged members of his enterprise committed at least one of eight predicate acts — sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, witness tampering, bribery and drug distribution — on two occasions.

To convict him of the sex trafficking counts, which could also carry life behind bars, the jury needs to determine that individuals were trafficked for sex in at least one freak-off out of hundreds cited in trial testimony. That would involve determining that Combs knowingly recruited and enticed Ventura and Jane for the illicit sex parties, “harbored and maintained them” in hotel rooms he paid for, and knew or recklessly disregarded that the women were only sleeping with strangers at his behest due to force, threats of force, fraud or any combination of the three.

Combs’ defense has maintained that while he has assaulted his romantic partners, he never forced them into freak-offs against their will and did not employ staff to commit crimes, even if they sometimes did.

A guilty verdict on the most straightforward charges facing Combs, alleging he transported individuals for prostitution, requires jurors only to find he was in some way involved in moving people across state lines or internationally for sex work.

Multiple witnesses, including escorts, testified about Combs organizing for male performers to travel across the country and to various Caribbean islands for dayslong freak-off sessions. In closing on Friday, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo argued the men were technically paid for their time, not sex.

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