NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury on Wednesday cleared Sean “Diddy” Combs of sex trafficking and RICO charges and found him guilty on lesser counts of transporting people for prostitution, a stunning verdict taking a potential life sentence off the table for the Bad Boy Records mogul.

The eight men and four women who deliberated the case returned their verdict in Manhattan Federal Court shortly after 10 a.m., having spent 13 hours in the jury room over three days following a nine-week trial. The trial judge later in the day denied a defense request for Combs’ release on a $1 million bond, meaning he’ll remain behind bars until his sentencing.

Combs fell to his knees and made a prayer gesture after the verdict was read. Later, he yelled out to more than a dozen of his family members seated in the gallery that he would be “home soon.” His overjoyed demeanor starkly contrasted with his somber appearance in court just a day before when jurors said they were deadlocked on one of the five counts.

The verdict determined Combs illegally transported people across the U.S. and internationally to engage in prostitution at dayslong sex parties he dubbed “freak-offs.” Jurors acquitted Combs of two sex trafficking counts in relation to the freak-offs, rejecting that Combs’ ex, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, and a woman who took the stand anonymously as “Jane” were pressured into the sordid events by Combs through force, fraud or coercion.

The jury similarly rejected the prosecution’s claims that Combs was akin to a mob boss who employed a network of high-ranking staff to enable his abuse in a racketeering conspiracy.

The two Mann Act counts the jury found Combs guilty of could carry a maximum penalty of up to 10 years each, but he would likely not receive consecutive terms as a first-time offender. In filings to the court later Wednesday, prosecutors estimated federal sentencing guidelines suggested he should serve four or five years.

Combs’ defense team, who asked Manhattan Federal Judge Arun Subramanian to let him walk out of court immediately after the verdict was read, said that he should serve no more than two years and submitted a proposal for his release on a $1 million bond.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey vehemently opposed the bail request, referencing how Combs had brutally beaten one of his accusers after learning he was under federal investigation. She called Combs “an extremely violent man with an extraordinarily dangerous temper.”

After considering lengthy arguments, the judge shot down the request at a bail hearing that took place hours after the verdict was announced. He quoted admissions Combs’ lawyers “full-throatedly” made during the trial about his propensity for violence, which Subramanian said was “impossible to police with conditions.” The judge said he’d be open to expediting Combs’ sentencing, setting a hearing to hash it out on July 8.

The 55-year-old Combs is expected to remain at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Correctional Center until sentencing, where he’s been incarcerated since his September 2024 arrest.

Arguing Combs should remain behind bars in written filings Wednesday, prosecutors included a letter from witness Deonte Nash, a former stylist who worked for Combs and testified that he had seen the mogul assault Ventura and threaten her with releasing videos of humiliating freak-off performances. Nash said it would endanger witnesses who cooperated with the feds against Combs and were already “living in fear of retaliation.”

Ventura’s lawyer also implored the court not to release Combs, saying she believed he was “likely to pose a danger to the victims who testified in this case, including herself, as well as to the community.”

After Subramanian adjourned the morning’s proceedings, Combs’ family members and supporters in the gallery broke out into applause. In wild scenes outside the lower Manhattan courthouse, a growing crowd of supporters and anti-Combs demonstrators reacted to the verdict, some yelling “Free Puff!” and others pouring baby oil on one another — an apparent nod to the lubricant jurors heard Combs obsessively deployed at marathon sex parties.

The verdict represented a rare loss for the powerful Southern District of New York prosecutor’s office, which had sought to put Combs away for life.

In a joint statement, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton and Homeland Security Investigations official Ricky Patel celebrated the mixed verdict as a partial win.

“Sex crimes deeply scar victims, and the disturbing reality is that sex crimes are all too present in many aspects of our society,” the statement read. “New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice.”

Outside the courtroom, Combs’ defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo hailed the verdict, declaring it not only “a great victory for Sean Combs. It’s a great victory for the jury system.”

“There are very few people around whom a legal team could coalesce and become one, and Sean Combs is that person, and we are all blessed to be part of it,” he added.

Personal lawyer Mark Geragos added that Diddy was “thankful, he’s relieved, and he thanks the jurors” — and brushed aside the denial of bail, calling it “besides the point.”

“He was acquitted of the trafficking. He was acquitted of the RICO,” he said. “Those were always, I thought, as an observer, a ridiculous use of taxpayer resources.”

Wednesday’s outcome capped an at times chaotic nine-week trial, which attracted circus-like scenes outside the courthouse. People camped in tents to secure seats in the courtroom, and rapper Kanye West even made a surprise drop-in appearance.

The jury heard from 34 witnesses over around seven weeks of testimony, who alleged that the disgraced multimillionaire rap producer ran his empire with an iron fist, exploiting women and terrorizing anyone who crossed him. Combs declined to take the stand in his defense or call any other witnesses, instead chipping away at the prosecution’s case during sometimes fiery cross-examinations of government witnesses.

During four days on the stand, a heavily pregnant Ventura alleged Combs had subjected her to violent abuse and sexual exploitation throughout their 11-year relationship, accounts that were accompanied by photos of her covered in cuts and bruises, in addition to videos of freak-offs that the press and public were not permitted to see.

Ventura said she participated in hundreds of demeaning, baby oil-saturated sexual performances orchestrated by Combs. She said he directed a rotation of men to have sex with her, sometimes urinate on her, and that he beat her and threatened to release footage of the degrading encounters as blackmail.

The “Me & U” singer’s November 2023 lawsuit against Combs, which jurors heard he settled within 24 hours for $20 million, was the first domino to drop in Combs’ dramatic fall from grace. Months later, CNN published explosive footage of Combs assaulting Ventura in March 2016 at an L.A. hotel, a beating Ventura said came to pass after she tried to leave a freak-off when Combs assaulted her.

“Although the jury did not find Combs guilty of sex trafficking Cassie beyond a reasonable doubt, she paved the way for a jury to find him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution,” Ventura’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said in a statement Wednesday. “Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice.”

In the defense’s efforts to portray freak-offs as consensual, Combs’ lawyers highlighted reams of text messages Ventura and Jane sent Combs, often of an explicit nature, showing they were sometimes enthusiastic. The attorneys maintained the prosecution had overshot the mark.

Combs’ lawyers acknowledged to the jury from the trial’s outset that evidence would show he had assaulted his romantic partners. Still, they argued that didn’t mean he was automatically guilty of the crimes he was accused of.

“If he was charged with domestic violence, we wouldn’t all be here having a trial because he would have pled guilty — because he did that,” Agnifilo said in his Friday summation.

“He did not do the things he’s charged with,” the lawyer continued. “He just didn’t.”

When she testified, Jane alleged Combs had coerced her into the vile freak-off performances in the years leading to his arrest, and, like Ventura, said he threatened to leave her financially destitute and ruin her reputation when she tried to assert herself. Jurors saw correspondence between Jane and Combs showing the single mom saying she no longer wished to be treated like “an animal.”

To bolster the RICO allegations, prosecutors called a former assistant of Combs who testified anonymously as “Mia.” She alleged 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, with assistance from security guards who monitored her whereabouts.

Former Combs aide Capricorn Clark alleged he had kidnapped her in late 2011, armed with a gun, before breaking into Kid Cudi’s Hollywood Hills home with a security guard. The “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, testified about the break-in and said he believed Combs was responsible for his Porsche being blown up in his driveway weeks later.

In his closing argument last week, Agnifilo said the mogul’s staff were employed for legitimate business purposes, not to help organize freak-offs or commit crimes like those alleged by Mia, Clark and Mescudi.

He said Combs’ accusers wouldn’t have sought help from his various staffers, as jurors heard, if it were true they were co-conspirators in a criminal syndicate.

“I mean if, God forbid, if John Gotti was at your door, would you call Sammy ‘the Bull’ Gravano to get rid of him?” Agnifilo said.

“No.”

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