Sean “Diddy” Combs is ready to be sentenced over prostitution-related costs subsequent week.
The hip-hop mogul has already served simply over a yr in jail after being arrested in New York in September 2023.
Combs, 55, was one of the crucial influential hip-hop producers of the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s, the founding father of Unhealthy Boy Data and a Grammy-winning artist in his personal proper.
Now, he faces as much as 20 years in jail – though his defence crew is arguing for a lot much less.
Right here is every thing that you must know forward of his sentencing.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
What’s transportation to interact in prostitution?
Through the trial, the courtroom heard particulars of sexual encounters referred to as “freak offs” by Combs – additionally known as “hotel nights” – which concerned his girlfriends and male intercourse staff.
The rapper would “orchestrate” these encounters between the ladies and the intercourse staff, whereas he watched. Typically, these periods would happen in numerous states throughout the US, in addition to overseas, and Combs would pay for the intercourse staff and the ladies to journey.
He was discovered responsible of two costs – one regarding intercourse staff he paid for whereas in a relationship with singer and mannequin Cassie Ventura, and one other regarding intercourse staff who took half in periods with Jane*, a lady he was later in a relationship with who was not recognized through the trial.
The fees fall underneath America’s Mann Act, which prohibits interstate commerce associated to prostitution.
What in regards to the different costs?
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Combs fell to his knees when the decision was delivered. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Combs was discovered not responsible of two counts of sex-trafficking, regarding each Cassie and Jane, and one depend of racketeering conspiracy.
This implies whereas jurors believed Combs broke the regulation over utilizing intercourse staff, they didn’t discover the sexual encounters involving the ladies had been non-consensual, which is what prosecutors had argued.
Each Cassie and Jane gave proof, telling the courtroom they felt manipulated and coerced, and typically blackmailed, into participating within the freak offs throughout their relationships with the rapper. Nonetheless, defence legal professionals argued these had been consensual encounters and a part of a “swingers lifestyle”.
“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily,” defence legal professionals stated in authorized submissions after the decision. “The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”
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Brian Metal is among the many legal professionals on Combs’s defence crew. Pic: Reuters
What’s racketeering?
Racketeering broadly means participating in an unlawful scheme or enterprise, and the cost falls underneath the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO) within the US. In accordance with the US justice division’s definition of RICO statute, it is usually unlawful to “conspire to violate” the legal guidelines.
Prosecutors alleged Combs led a racketeering conspiracy “that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes”. Nonetheless, jurors additionally cleared him of this cost.
Had he been discovered responsible of the extra severe costs, he might have confronted life in jail.
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Cassie Ventura gave proof through the trial. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Will Combs be jailed for 20 years?
Every cost of transportation to interact in prostitution carries a most sentence of 10 years, so in concept he might be sentenced to as much as 20 years in jail.
The music mogul has been denied bail a number of instances since his arrest and once more for the reason that trial.
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Combs and Cassie on the 2017 Met Gala. Pic: zz/XPX/STAR MAX/IPx 2017/AP
What do his legal professionals say?
Most just lately, Combs’s legal professionals submitted a authorized submission to the courtroom calling for the rapper to be jailed for not more than 14 months – which after time already served would imply him strolling free nearly instantly.
Earlier than this, they referred to as for Combs to be acquitted or for a retrial on the prostitution-related costs. The US authorities “painted him as a monster”, they stated, however argued his two-month trial confirmed the allegations had been “not supported by credible evidence”.
The rapper’s legal professionals have argued that, to their information, he’s “the only person” ever convicted of the Mann Act costs for the conduct he was accused of in courtroom.
What has the choose stated?
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US District Decide Arun Subramanian heard the trial and can sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Decide Arun Subramanian, who presided over the trial, will determine Combs’s destiny.
He has beforehand determined a number of instances to not grant bail, saying the hip-hop mogul’s crew have failed to point out ample proof he isn’t a flight threat and likewise citing admissions of earlier violence made through the trial.
Throughout her opening assertion, Teny Geragos, who’s on Combs’s defence crew, described him as “a complicated man” and conceded he might be violent. Nonetheless, she argued, this was not the cost in opposition to him.
Will Combs attempt to revive his profession after ‘unspeakable disgrace’?
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Diddy performing on the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2023. Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Regardless of being convicted of the prostitution-related costs, his legal professionals hailed the decision a “victory”, given he was cleared of the extra severe allegations. In interviews since, they’ve stated he’s planning a return to music with a New York gig.
Nonetheless, in authorized submissions, they’ve additionally stated the trial introduced Combs “unspeakable shame and monumental adverse consequences” and that his “legacy has been destroyed”.
After allegations in opposition to him had been made public, Combs was faraway from the boards at three constitution colleges he created in Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut and was additionally stripped of an honorary doctorate diploma from Howard College, which plans to return his prior donations, they stated.
He was additionally compelled to return the important thing to the town of New York that was beforehand offered to him by the mayor, and his profession has “collapsed”.
In addition to this case, he’s additionally nonetheless dealing with a number of civil lawsuits – and has “mounting legal bills” from defending these and the felony costs, his legal professionals have stated.
