The Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial is done, but his dealings with the courts are far from over
A relieved Combs celebrated in court and told his family he would be home soon, but the matter is not over yet.
And the verdict is not the end of the road for alleged victims, with dozens of civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse which are yet to be dealt with.
Here's what happens next.
What was Diddy found guilty of?
Two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution
These were the least serious charges against Combs.
What was Diddy found not guilty of?
One count of racketeering conspiracy
One count of Two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion
One of the trafficking charges was related to Combs's ex girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura.
The other trafficking charge related to another ex-girlfriend testifying under the alias of Jane.
The racketeering charge was the most serious of the five and could have seen Combs imprisoned for life.
Has Diddy been sentenced yet?
Not yet.
Combs, his legal team and the prosecution will return to court to discuss sentencing on July 8.
But, at this stage, we're expecting his sentencing won't happen until October 3.
Combs has been denied bail, which means he will remain behind bars at least until his sentencing date.
How long has Diddy been in prison?
About nine months.
Combs has been in custody since his arrest in September.
He has now been denied bail four times.
Sean Combs remains behind bars in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. ( AP: Yuki Iwamura )
How long will Diddy go to jail for?
We don't know yet.
Each of the two charges he's been convicted of carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
But that's the maximum — many are expecting his sentence to be much shorter than that.
In fact, the prosecution pointed to sentencing guidelines that appeared to recommend a prison term of a little more than five years.
But lawyers for Combs say it should be a maximum of two years.
If his sentencing is held in October, he'll have already spent more than a year behind bars — a period his lawyers want to be taken off in his overall sentence.
They're especially keen on this because Combs is being held at the notoriously unpleasant Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
In the post-verdict bail hearing, his lawyers argued he was entitled to serve his sentence at a lower-security jail.
However, it's worth remembering that Combs turned down an offer for a plea deal ahead of the trial — which may influence the judge to consider a harsher sentence.
Could there be an appeal?
Yes.
Combs might launch an appeal of his conviction or on the severity of his sentence once it's been handed down
"The reason for an appeal is to correct legal errors," Federal Appeals, a legal assistance organisation based in New York, says on its website.
"The appeals court will not decide whether the jury was right."
Are there more lawsuits against Diddy?
Yes.
This trial was just over federal criminal charges.
Combs has also been accused of sexual assault and rape in dozens of separate civil lawsuits.
While the trial was about organised crime and a broader pattern of behaviour, many of the civil lawsuits contain allegations of individual assaults.
He has denied those allegations.
As of Thursday, New York Magazine's extensive, ongoing list tracking these lawsuits says 66 civil cases have been lodged against Combs.
One of the ongoing cases is a lawsuit filed by singer Dawn Richard, who testified against Combs in the trial.
She has accused him of sexual assault, gender-based physical violence and false imprisonment.
Dawn Richard is one of the dozens of people who has filed a lawsuit against Sean Combs. ( Reuters: David "Dee" Delgado )
"[The] split verdict is a disappointment, but the criminal charges are different than the civil claims we filed and have been fighting against Sean Combs," her lawyer Lisa Bloom said.
"We will continue to aggressively fight our case until we obtain full and complete justice for Dawn."
Here's an example of some of the other civil cases against Combs:
Joi Dickerson said she was a 19-year-old student at Syracuse University when she agreed to meet Combs at a restaurant in Harlem in 1991.
After their date, she said Combs "intentionally drugged" her, then brought her home and sexually assaulted her.
Without her knowledge, Combs videotaped the assault and later shared it with several friends in the music industry, the suit alleges.
In her lawsuit, Ms Dickerson said the public exposure sent her into a "tailspin", contributing to severe depression that landed her in the hospital and forced her to drop out of college.
Her legal documents notes that Ms Dickerson filed police reports in New York and New Jersey after the abuse. Filed in December 2023: Unnamed woman
One woman, whose name wasn't disclosed in the court filing, accused Combs and two other men of raping her 20 years ago in a New York City recording studio when she was 17.
In the lawsuit, the woman said in 2003 she was in 11th grade at a high school in Detroit when she met Harve Pierre, then the president of Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment record label, at a lounge.
She said Mr Pierre flew her to New York on a private jet and took her to a recording studio, where she was given drugs and alcohol until she was incapable of consenting to sex.
Then, the lawsuit said, Mr Pierre, Combs and a man she didn't know took turns raping her.
The lawsuit included photographs of the woman sitting on Combs's lap that she said were taken on the night in question at the Daddy's House Recording Studio.
Combs denied the allegations:
"For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth." Filed in September, 2024: Thalia Graves
Thalia Graves alleges that when she was 25 and dating an executive who worked for Combs in 2001, Combs and Joseph Sherman lured her to a meeting at Bad Boy Recording Studios.
She said they picked her up in a four-wheel drive and during the ride gave her a drink "likely laced with a drug".
According to the lawsuit, Ms Graves lost consciousness and awoke to find herself bound inside Combs's office and lounge at the studio.
The two men raped her, slapped her, slammed her head against a pool table and ignored her screams and cries for help, the lawsuit alleges.
She said she learned through her former boyfriend that Combs had recorded her rape, shown it to others and sold it as pornography.
Ms Graves went public with her allegations, telling reporters she suffered from "flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive thoughts" at a press conference in Los Angeles.
She sought a trial to determine how much she should be paid in damages and for all copies of the video to be accounted for and destroyed.
The lawsuit also named several companies owned by Combs as defendants.
What about Cassie's case?
That's already been settled.
Ms Ventura launched a civil lawsuit against Combs in 2023, accusing him of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape.
They settled the suit a day after Ms Ventura filed it.
At the time, the terms of the settlement were only known to the respective parties, but during the trial, Ms Ventura revealed that Combs agreed to pay her $US20 million.
Casandra Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Sean Combs that was separate to his criminal charges. ( AP: Lionel Cironneau )
Ms Ventura's testimony was among the most confronting elements of the trial.
She told the court about being sexually and physically assaulted by Combs, with jurors shown vision of him beating her in a Los Angeles hotel.
"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," her lawyer said.
"By coming forward with her experience, Cassie has left an indelible mark on both the entertainment industry and the fight for justice."
What is transportation to engage in prostitution?
In the case of Combs, it was flying people around the country to engage in paid sexual services.
It's a charge under what's known as the Mann Act, which was introduced by the US government in 1910 and named after Republican politician James Robert Mann.
It's also known as the "White-Slave Traffic Act".
At the time, the law prohibited the interstate or international transport of "any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose".
But this was updated in 1986, when politicians replaced the "woman or girl" wording with gender neutral phrasing.
They also changed the wording of "any other immoral purpose" to "any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offence".
Prostitution is illegal in every US state except Nevada — and is only legal in certain counties within that state, the Decriminalize Sex Work advocacy group points out.
Decades ago, the broad wording of "immoral purpose" was applied to prosecute people in interracial relationships, the Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institue explains.
Combs's lawyers referred to this dark history when arguing against the charge.
"[The law] has a long and troubling history as a statute with racist origins, used to target Black men and supposedly protect white women from them."
What is sex trafficking?
It's defined as the exploitation of a person for commercial sex by the US Department of Justice:
"Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harbouring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronising, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion…"
What's the difference between the trafficking and transportation charge?
A key difference in the charges is the "by force, fraud, or coercion" wording in the trafficking charge.
In the court's instructions to the jury, jurors were told the prosecution had to prove Combs:
"…knew or recklessly disregarded that force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion, or any combination of such means, would be used to cause the alleged victim to engage in a commercial sex act."
Sarah Krissoff, a former federal prosecutor, told Reuters the jury may have viewed Combs's conduct as evidence of toxic romantic relationships, but not sex trafficking.
Combs's lawyers acknowledged he engaged in domestic violence, but argued Ms Ventura and Jane consensually took part in the sexual performances because they wanted to please him.
A courtroom sketch of Sean Combs reacting after hearing the verdict. ( Reuters: Jane Rosenberg )
What does racketeering mean?
Racketeering generally refers to the illegal activity of a criminal organisation — think a crime gang or a dodgy business.
The law Combs was charged under was introduced in 1970 to prosecute crime gang bosses.
In this case, the prosecution accused Combs of using his business, the Combs Enterprise, to violently coerce and blackmail women to perform sex acts, among other criminal acts.
By charging him with racketeering, the prosecution tried to paint a broad picture of an alleged system of abuse and criminal behaviours rather than focusing on the individual alleged assaults.
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