By Ben Kochman Priscilla Degregory
Hip-hop icon Sean Combs was stunningly acquitted on federal charges of forcing his former lovers to live out his degrading sexual fantasies — but found guilty of lesser prostitution raps.
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Combs, better known by his stage name Diddy, dodged charges that carried a possible life sentence after a two-month-trial that revealed twisted details about the mogul, including his taste for “freak offs” — watching his girlfriends have grueling, drug-fueled romps with male escorts.
The embattled entrepreneur, 55, had faced life in prison after being charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. But a jury convicted him only of prostitution charges stemming from shipping the escorts across state lines.
The verdict is the latest twist in the downfall of a Harlem native who grew his Bad Boy Records label into an empire worth nearly $1 billion, became one of the music world’s most recognizable figures, and hosted celebrity-packed “White Parties” in glitzy locales like The Hamptons and Beverly Hills.
“He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law — but over the course of this trial, his crimes have been exposed,” Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik told jurors in closing statements.
Prosecutors called 34 witnesses as they painted Combs as the kingpin of a crew that plotted a slew of crimes over two decades, including setting Kid Cudi’s Porsche on fire and breaking into his home in a jealous rage over the rapper’s relationship with Ventura.
The 12-person jury was repeatedly shown infamous surveillance video of Combs shoving, kicking and dragging Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016 — and heard evidence that he bribed security guards with $100,000 in a failed bid to bury the footage.
Jurors also heard evidence that Combs had multiple employees buy him illegal drugs and fly them across state lines for use during his sex romps.
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Combs — who has been held at a Brooklyn lockup since his September 2024 arrest at a Midtown hotel — did not testify during the sensational trial, which drew scores of observers to the courtroom, including the mogul’s mother, children and his supporters.
The “All About the Benjamins” rapper sat at the defense table throughout the trial in a revolving outfit of five muted sweaters over crisp white button-down shirts — and with his hair growing grayer by the day — in a striking shift from his snazzy looks featured on red carpets and celebrity parties.
Combs has maintained his innocence. His lawyers argued at trial that the women consented to the encounters, that the feds improperly criminalized his “swinger” lifestyle and that he was guilty of domestic abuse, but not the sex crimes he was charged with.
“He did what he did,” Combs’ lead attorney Marc Agnifilo said in his closing statement. “But he’s going to fight to the death to defend himself from what he didn’t do.”
The jet-setting tycoon’s fall from grace began when Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a bombshell November 2023 lawsuit accusing Combs of forcing her into the “freak-offs” and viciously beating her throughout their decade-long relationship.
Combs paid Ventura $20 million to settle the case just one day later — but her allegations spurred the feds’ criminal probe into Combs.
The case heated up with theatric March 2024 raids on his Los Angeles and Miami mansions and the release of the shocking surveillance footage showing Combs shoving, kicking and dragging Ventura to the floor by her hair.
Inside the packed lower Manhattan courtroom, the jury of eight men and four women heard evidence that Combs controlled every aspect of the marathon sex sessions, dictating his lovers’ outfits, demanding that they apply copious amounts of baby oil and plying them with ecstasy so they could stay awake.
Ventura, 38, quietly wept as she told jurors excruciating details about Combs beating her for years and pressuring her into the humiliating freak-off “performances.”
At first, she consented to the sexual escapades, despite being “confused and nervous,” because she loved Combs and “wanted to make him happy,’’ Ventura testified.
But the singer, whom Combs had signed to his record label, said she soon felt forced to yield to his demands that she have “hundreds” of encounters with male sex workers.
The disgraced music producer threatened to release tapes of the “freak-offs” if she stopped participating, said Ventura, who took the stand while nine months pregnant.
“I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone,” she testified.
Jane, who dated the globe-trotting impresario for a couple of years until his arrest, testified about numbing herself with drugs to endure “robotically” having sex with three escorts in a row at Combs’ behest — after what she thought would be a quiet Miami birthday dinner date in 2023.
“At this point I’ve done so many of these, that I just know how to tune out and get in a zone,” she haltingly told jurors, wiping away tears from her face.
“I just turn on this person,” she added. “I just put my thoughts away.”
Jane, a social media influencer, repeatedly texted Combs that she wanted to stop the escort-filled encounters — once telling him “I’m not a porn star. I’m not an animal” — yet he kept pushing “freak-offs,” or “hotel nights,” on her until a month before his arrest, jurors heard.
In one of hundreds of text messages read in court, Combs made an implicit threat that he’d stop paying Jane’s rent if she didn’t comply with his demands.
She also recounted Combs choking, kicking and punching her during an hours-long abusive onslaught on June 18, 2024 at her Los Angeles home — before forcing her into a “freak-off” that same night.
When she pushed back, Combs — aware that he was under federal investigation over allegedly coerced sex acts — moved an inch from her face, where the “golf ball sized” welts from his assault were still faintly visible, she said.
He leaned in, Jane recalled, and chillingly mock-asked her, “Then is this coercion?”