How the Sean Combs Verdict May Have ‘Chilling Effect' on Cases for Abuse Victims
When a jury of eight men and four women cleared Sean Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges on Wednesday – the most severe charges leveled against him by federal prosecutors – reaction was decidedly mixed.
More from Rolling Stone
Sean Combs Alternate Juror Speaks Out
Beating RICO Charges Doesn't Make Diddy a Hero
Charlize Theron on Why She Won't Reveal Name of Director She Alleges Sexually Harassed Her
Combs' supporters cheered the news as a total vindication. While he was convicted of two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and conceded during the trial that was physically violent in his personal relationships, he was acquitted on the top counts and avoided the worst-case scenario of a possible life sentence.
The national women's advocacy group UltraViolet called the verdict a 'stain on the criminal justice system,' and 'an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.'
Legal experts say the verdict was also a big loss for the team of prosecutors who tried the case for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. Yes, the prosecutors managed to convict Combs of two counts under the Mann Act – securing some sort of prison sentence for the rich and powerful defendant. But that was the 'low-hanging fruit' in the government's sprawling case, Alyse Adamson, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, tells Rolling Stone.
'This is a huge, huge blow,' Adamson says, referring to prosecutors and the complicated case they put on with 34 witnesses over nearly two months of trial. 'This is a huge win for Combs.' For other prosecutors, this could make them think twice about using RICO in a 'novel' way, she says.
'Obviously, they were using the RICO to try to bring charges against Combs that they otherwise couldn't bring because the statute of limitations had already run,' she explains. 'The problem,' according to Adamson, is that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act enacted in 1970 is understood as something used to go after mob bosses, and 'this Combs 'enterprise' wasn't really a clearly defined and structured organization' that you see in a typical RICO case.
'I think they had evidence that somebody had been doing bad things for a long time, and the prosecutors wanted to bring a righteous prosecution to try to catch him, and I think they just were a little over their skis,' Adamson says.
Brad Bailey, another former federal prosecutor who now works as a defense attorney in Boston, says the verdict 'certainly suggests an overreach on the part of the Southern District.'
'They've expended a great deal of resources. Six prosecutors on the case is an inordinately high number to commit to any one case. They also have committed a great deal of law enforcement resources in terms of the investigating agents. There was a big splash with the high-profile searches with guns drawn at his residences … so this is an embarrassment in terms of what could have been an overreach,' Bailey says. 'On the other hand, you never know what type of factor notoriety and fame place on these cases, and that's always the wild card – the unknown X factor.'
Bailey noted that the jury signaled more than once to the judge that they were having trouble reaching consensus with the clock ticking. When they were selected, the judge told them he expected they would be finished with the trial by the Fourth of July holiday this week. 'My guess is that this is a jury that was tired and wanted to go home and there was contentiousness in there,' Bailey says, 'and they just decided that this was the proper reflection of the evidence as presented.'
'I'm as pro-prosecution as they come. But you have to respect the jury verdict. The jurors rejected these allegations. This was a failed prosecution,' Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor now working as a victims' rights attorney in Los Angeles, tells Rolling Stone.
Rahmani says the outcome of Combs' very high-profile trial will likely have a chilling effect on the willingness of other victims and prosecutors to move forward with other cases. 'There's no question,' he says. 'Imagine going and testifying before 12 strangers and telling them that you were urinated on in your mouth … that you were forced to have sex on your period or while you had UTIs, and the jurors don't believe you? You're talking about the most graphic, explicit, personal details of your sex life, and they think you're a liar.
'I've had maybe over 100 conversations in my office when I'm talking to a victim, and I explained what a civil or criminal trial entails and that you're going to have to testify publicly and you're going to be cross-examined and you have to tell your story and relive your trauma in a very public way,' he adds. 'Eight out of 10 say they can't do it. After this, it's probably going to be nine out of 10.'
Adamson agrees. 'It is already extremely difficult to have victims testify. That is a traumatizing experience, no matter the outcome,' she says. 'So this is definitely not going to make it any easier to convince witnesses and victims to come forward, for sure.'
Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, released a statement after the Combs verdict was delivered, saying he wanted to 'recognize the important work' of the SDNY's work seeking to combat human trafficking. He did not mention Combs by name.
'Sex crimes deeply scar victims, and the disturbing reality is that sex crimes are all too present in many aspects of our society. Victims endure gut-wrenching physical and mental abuse, leading to lasting trauma. New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice,' Clayton said. 'Prosecuting sex crimes requires brave victims to come forward and tell their harrowing stories. We and our law enforcement partners recognize the hardships victims endure and have prioritized a victim-centered approach to investigating and prosecuting these cases.'
Best of Rolling Stone
Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs
The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs
All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Devil Wears Prada's Biggest Villain Won't Be Back for the Movie's Sequel
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is officially in production, and we already know one cast member who will not be returning for the film's long-awaited sequel. Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Adrian Grenier will not star in The Devil Wears Prada 2. The actor played Nate Cooper, the college boyfriend of Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), who is pursuing a career as a chef in New York City when she lands her job as an assistant to Runway magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). More from SheKnows Emily Blunt's Latest Comments About John Krasinski Show the Truth Behind Those Divorce Rumors The character has become increasingly divisive in the years since the 2006 film was released as new generations of fans have come to label him and his group of pals as the ultimate villains in Andy's story due to their lack of support for her career. In the film, the Entourage actor's character repeatedly criticizes Andy's journalistic aspirations as she struggles to juggle her new job as a magazine assistant and her relationship. He also briefly takes an interest once Andy gets a drastic makeover, only to turn against her once again after her job gets in the way of his time with her… but we digress. Andy and Nate wind up breaking up after she misses his birthday due to work obligations. By the end of the film, they appear to be on good terms as he moves to Boston after accepting a job as a sous-chef, by which time Andy has quit her job at Runway. While Streep's demanding character might be the obvious villain, fans of the film have turned on Nate over the years, and even Grenier agrees. In 2021, the now-48-year-old actor spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the changing tides towards Nate. 'All those memes that came out were shocking to me,' Grenier said. 'It hadn't occurred to me until I started to really think about it, and perhaps it was because I was as immature as Nate was at the time, and in many ways he's very selfish and self-involved, it was all about him, he wasn't extending himself to support Andy in her career.' 'At the end of the day, it's just a birthday, right? It's not the end of the world,' he said of the couple's breakup catalyst. 'I might've been as immature as him at the time, so I personally couldn't see his shortcomings. But after time to reflect and much deliberation, I've come to realize the truth in that perspective.' While Nate won't have a place in The Devil Wears Prada 2, presumably due to his thriving Boston culinary career, Hathaway, Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are expected to return. Original director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna are also on board. Plot details for The Devil Wears Prada 2 have been kept under wraps, but it is slated for a May 2026 of SheKnows 13 Celebrities Who Secretly Welcomed Children During Affairs A Look Back At Lindsay Lohan's Long-Term Relationships Over the Years All the Best Fashion Moments from Lindsay Lohan's Acting Comeback
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Celebrity Couples Who Started Their Relationships as Affairs
Over the years, celebrities have provided us with endless supplies of both incredible love stories and messy, dramatic splits. And while we'll always have a soft spot for celeb love, especially when they gush about each other in candid interviews, celebrities have also been quite messy in the past, too. In fact, some beloved Hollywood couples began their relationships as full-on affairs. Whether one or both of them were married when they first met, some of these love stories have been nothing short of unconventional. In early 2025, Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman were the latest couple to seemingly confirm cheating rumors. According to several reports, the two started dating when they starred together on Broadway's Music Man back in 2021. The two were married at the time, but have since divorced their exes. For more celeb couples who started out in affairs, scroll below. More from SheKnows Sarah Jessica Parker Made a Major Change to Sex and the City Because of Husband Matthew Broderick Best of SheKnows 23 Age-Gap Couples Who Met When One of Them Was Still a Child Everything to Know About Leonardo DiCaprio's 27-Year-Old GF Vittoria Ceretti A Look Back at Prince William's Sexiest Photos in Celebration of the Future King Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster were friends for years before romantic feelings started when they co-starred on Broadway's Music Man together in 2021. At the time, Jackman was still married to Deborra-Lee Furness, and Foster was married to Ted Griffin. In September 2023, Jackman and Furness announced their separation after 27 years together. A month later, in October, Foster filed for divorce from Griffin the following October, and affair allegations reached an all-time high. 'Deborra-Lee was blindsided when she found out about the affair through the run of the show,' one source told Us Weekly. 'I think many people were shocked [Jackman] could do this to her.' Jackman and Foster went public with their relationship in January 2025. Furness filed for divorce in May 23, 2025. We all remember the scandal back in 2009 when Northern Lights co-stars LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian got together, despite both of them being married at the time. Rimes was married to chef Dean Sheremet while Cibrian was married to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Brandi Glanville. After word got out, they split from their partners and ended up marrying each other in 2011. 'It was so public,' Glanville said of their affair in an op-ed to The Sun. 'Everyone felt sorry for me and wanted to hug me. But I wanted to punch everyone in the face. I couldn't turn on the TV without seeing something about them.' 'LeAnn had taken over my life and I didn't have a voice anymore,' she continued. 'I did not want my kids around her. She'd got my husband and she was not getting my children.' Ariana Grande and her boyfriend Ethan Slater met while working on Wicked together, which began filming in December 2022. At the time, both Grande and Slater were married. According to TMZ, Grande separated from her husband, Dalton Gomez, in January 2023. She then filed on Sept. 18, 2023. Slater, on the other hand, filed for divorce from his wife, Lilly Jay, on July 26, 2023. The two share a son, born in August 2022. In August 2023, sources told the Daily Mail that Slater and Grande were seen packing on the PDA as early as March. 'They were seen making out at a pub in Hampstead, and they were all over each other at Michelle Yeoh's Oscar party [in March],' the source said. 'They were sloppy on set,' the insider added. 'They were seen being all over each other while he was still supposedly happily married to Lilly.' '[Ariana's] the story, really. Not a girl's girl,' Slater's ex-wife Jay told Page Six on July 27, 2023. 'My family is just collateral damage.' When Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys reconnected, Beatz was married to singer Mashonda, whom he quickly split from in 2008. He and Keys married in 2010. While the details are hazy, Mashonda publicly accused Keys of 'destroying a family' in a 2009 Twitter post. 'I feel that after [one] and a half years of you hiding this affair and acting like it [doesn't] exist, that now is the time to confront it, since you talk so openly about it now… You have no idea how much pain I was caused because of this affair,' she wrote. Beatz and Keys welcomed their first son, Egypt, in 2010, and their second, Genesis, in 2014. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt met in the summer of 2004 on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the spy thriller on which they've since admitted they both fell in love — if not quite admitting to an affair. At the time, Pitt was famously married to Jennifer Aniston, who went on to file for divorce from Pitt in March 2005. Just four months later, Pitt and Jolie were granted a spread in W magazine showing off their 'domestic bliss,' with photos taken in March. Jolie had this to say about how they fell in love in 2006. 'Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened,' she told Vogue. 'I think a few months in I realized, 'God, I can't wait to get to work.' … Anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork. We just became kind of a pair.' Pitt and Jolie, who share six kids together, married in 2014. Two years later, Jolie filed for a divorce. The settlement was finalized in December 2024. One of the most publicized affairs in royal family history involved King Charles, Queen Camilla, and the late Princess Diana. Per reports, Charles was unfaithful throughout their marriage, which started in 1981. In her iconic Panorama interview with journalist Martin Bashir in 1995, Diana confirmed their affair. 'What effect did [their affair] have on you?' Bashir asked the late Princess of Wales. 'Pretty devastating,' she replied. 'Rampant bulimia, if you can have rampant bulimia, and just a feeling of being no good at anything and being useless and hopeless and failed in every direction.' 'And with a husband who was having a relationship with somebody else?' Bashir added. 'With a husband who loved someone else, yes,' she replied. 'You really thought that?' Bashir asked. 'I didn't think that,' the royal stated. 'I knew it.' Later on, Bashir asked if Queen Camilla's affair with her ex-husband was the reason for their split. 'Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,' she famously replied. Charles and Diana, who had been separated since 1992, divorced in 1996. Charles and Camilla went on to marry in 2005, eight years after Diana's tragic passing. Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott were both married when they met in 2005. McDermott was married to Mary Jo Eustace and Spelling was married to Charlie Shanian. In her memoir sTORI Telling, the Beverly Hills 90210 star remembered their first meeting. 'It was love at first sight. I fell so hard … Then I noticed he had a wedding ring. And — oh, yeah — I had a husband too,' Spelling wrote, per Us Weekly, before revealing that they spent the night together at a hotel. 'The following day, when I woke up next to Dean, I had no regrets. Something was really wrong with my marriage. Not only because I slept with this guy — though that certainly wasn't a positive sign — but because I didn't regret it.' Spelling and McDermott married a year later 2006 and welcomed five kids throughout their marriage. McDermott announced their separation in June 2023 and Spelling filed for divorce in March 2024. Angelina Jolie's relationship with Billy Bob Thornton also began with infidelity. When the two met on the set of the 1999 dramedy Pushing Tin, Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern. But, despite their relationship, Thornton began a relationship with Jolie and the two eloped in Vegas in May 2000. 'I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again,' Dern told ABC. 'It's like a sudden death. For no one has there been any closure or clarity,' she said. Jolie and Thornton were together for two years until Jolie filed for divorce in 2002. They adopted son Maddox that same year. Jolie was granted full custody after their split. While they've never confirmed it, the timeline of Morena Baccarin and Ben McKenzie's relationship certainly suggests some overlap. Their relationship went public in Baccarin's divorce proceedings with her ex Austin Chick when she revealed she was pregnant with a baby with McKenzie. 'I am planning to re-marry,' she wrote in the court documents. 'Also, I am three-and-a-half months pregnant.' Baccarin and McKenzie secretly wed in June 2017. They share two sons named Frances and Arthur. Baccarin also shares her first son, Julius, with Chick. Ariana Grande was also accused of stepping on toes before starting her relationship with Big Sean. At the time they met in 2014, Big Sean was engaged to the late Naya Rivera. In her 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up, the Glee alum accused Grande of hitting on her fiancé. 'On the one day that he was back in LA, he said he didn't want to see me. But since she had a key, she let herself into his house,' Rivera wrote, per Page Six. 'I walk in, go downstairs, and guess what little girl is sitting cross-legged on the couch listening to music? … It rhymes with 'Smariana Schmande.'' Grande and the rapper were together for eight months before calling it quits on April 2015.
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bradley Cooper Gave a Rare Insight Into Friend Anne Hathaway's Longtime Marriage to Adam Shulman
While Anne Hathaway and her husband Adam Shulman have been married for over 10 years, they've managed to keep their relationship quite private. With only a few red carpet appearances over the years, fans have always loved getting updates on them whenever they can. And, in her latest cover for Vogue, fellow actor Bradley Cooper is doing just that. More from SheKnows LeAnn Rimes Opens up About Her Affair With Eddie Cibrian: 'I Know What I'm Responsible For' According to the outlet, Cooper bonded with Hathaway and Shulman, who have been married since 2012, during the COVID-19 pandemic when they joined 'one of the world's most glamorous COVID pods' in New York City. 'We started hanging out as parents, having dance parties with children in my kitchen, and I fell in love with both of them,' the A Star Is Born star remembered. As a reminder, while Hathaway and Shulman share sons Jonathan, 9, and Jack, 5, Cooper is a proud dad to his daughter Lea De Seine, 8, with ex Irina Shayk. But it's not just Hathaway and Shulman's parenting skills that Cooper admires. '[Their marriage is] an emblem for that kind of commitment,' he said, adding that they 'enrich' each other. 'You see how she treats everyone—and it's everyone—she's so kind,' Cooper then gushed about Hathaway, who was just recently confirmed in the long-awaited sequel of The Devil Wears Prada. 'She's very present and grounded, I'll put it that way. She's viciously intelligent.' Cooper wasn't the only close friend of Hathaway to gush over the actress in the feature. 'She doesn't gossip,' revealed her makeup artist, Gucci Westman. 'It just doesn't occur to her to be catty—and then you don't want to be catty around her.' 'I don't want to give the impression she's not fun to hang out with,' he then added. 'She's funny, she's curious—that's the main word I'd use to describe her. I just mean she looks for the good in people.' From the looks of it, Hathaway is the ideal best friend!Best of SheKnows Amber Heard's Entire Dating History: Johnny Depp, Elon Musk, & More 11 of Prince William & Kate Middleton's Biggest Relationship Controversies 13 Celebrities Who Secretly Welcomed Children During Affairs