The verdict’s in: Sean Combs convicted of only two of the five federal charges

The federal trial of Sean Combs lasted something like seven weeks, but it felt a lot longer. At the end of the trial, the prosecution ended up dropping some of the charges, which was sort of a bad sign. I still believed that Combs would be convicted of the remaining charges though. Well, the jury has come back with a verdict on all five remaining charges (racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution). I was not expecting this:

Sean “Diddy” Combs, the one-time global hip-hop titan whose criminal trial unveiled harrowing testimony accusing him of sexual abuse against women and forced drug-dazed “freak offs,” was acquitted on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking but found guilty of lesser charges in his federal trial.

The jury’s verdict, delivered on the third day of deliberations, declared Combs, 55, not guilty of one count of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, but guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

At sentencing, the prostitution transportation charge carries as much as 10 years in prison.

The partial conviction caps an astonishing fall for Combs, a self-made rapper from New York who rose to the pinnacle of hip-hop culture and became a household name. After a three-decade run in the spotlight, it was allegations by his ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that began his precipitous fall from impresario to convicted criminal.

Over the course of a seven-week trial in New York, a jury of eight men and four women heard the U.S. government accuse the Bad Boy Records founder of leveraging his power, wealth and influence as the head of a “criminal enterprise” to sexually abuse and exploit women for his own gratification over two decades.

[From NBC News]

Like… how can hear all of the witness testimony and still find him not guilty of trafficking? That was absolutely what he was doing, trafficking at a large scale, and recording the “freakoffs” without consent. Not to mention the violent abuse of Cassie and other victims. Two convictions isn’t “nothing,” but I’m really disappointed in this jury.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.