Diddy found guilty of Prostitution: Trial verdict and details explained

A verdict has been reached on the P Diddy trial, where the rap mogul was charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. On Wednesday 2 July, Sean Combs was found guilty of prostitution-related offences, however, causing a major blow to the prosecutors, he escaped a lot of serious charges against him.

Diddy is convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution but was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of sex trafficking, making it more or less a win for the rapper after a seven-week trial.

After hearing the verdict, he broke his silence with a 14-word message to his mother. According to CNN, he was kneeling in front of his seat and appeared to be praying before he stood up, faced the gallery, and began to clap. After that, he turned towards his family, smiling and said, "Thank you. Love you, Mom. I love you. I love you. I love you."

Will Diddy remain in Jail?

The transportation to engage in prostitution conviction carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and with Combs being guilty of two counts, he would face a maximum of 20 years in prison; the exact outcome, however, depends on the court’s decision.

Elie Honig, senior CNN legal analyst and former assistant US attorney, said of his verdict,

"He has defeated the Southern District of New York, which, I worked there, they don’t like losing in court. They don’t lose in court a lot. And there’s no way to spin this. This is a devastating setback for the SDNY.”

While Cassie Ventura's lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, told CNN,

“Obviously, we would’ve liked to have seen convictions on the RICO charges and the sex-trafficking charges, but Cassie prompted this investigation by the Southern District and now Sean Combs stands before this court as a convicted felon of two crimes,”

Ventura was Diddy's biggest victim, who throughout their relationship suffered physical and mental abuse, along with Jane, had their traumatic testimonies and experiences reduced to a simple violent modern day relationship, that Alexandra Shapiro, Sean Combs' attorney, described as "regrettably violent, but domestic violence is not sex trafficking."

To this, Wigdor said, "Calling those sorts of behaviors as a modern-day relationship, you know, saying that she enjoyed sex, you know, saying she was a gangster, things like that — I don’t think that even with the jury verdict that they would have given that any credit.”

He further added about her experience, "She endured 10 years of abuse where she had to engage in days long sexual acts with UTIs, she alleged that she was raped,” Wigdor said. “And so to call her a winner, even though she did get $30 million part from, as she testified, part from Sean Combs, part from the hotel, no amount of money is going to ever undo what she had to endure and what she had to go through.”

Combs had been incarcerated at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest on September 16.

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