Cassie’s Lawyer and Women’s Groups React to Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Verdict

A lawyer for Casandra Ventura, the star witness in the federal trial against Sean Combs, said he was “pleased” that Mr. Combs had been “held accountable for something.”

The jury in the case handed down a mixed verdict on Wednesday, finding Mr. Combs not guilty of federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, the most serious charges against him, both of which carry a possible life sentence. But it convicted him of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — violations of the Mann Act — after an eight-week trial. Mr. Combs, who will be sentenced at a later date, and his lawyers were elated in court when the verdict was read.

Outside the courthouse, Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ms. Ventura, said: “He’s finally been held responsible for two federal crimes, something that he’s never faced in his life.”

Women’s advocacy groups and organizations that fight sexual violence praised the women who came forward to testify in the Sean Combs trial but expressed disappointment in the verdict.

Advocacy groups had been closely following the deliberations, and they swiftly reacted to the verdict. Most expressed disappointment while praising the two former girlfriends of Mr. Combs’s — Ms. Ventura and a woman known in court as “Jane” — who came forward to tell their stories in often excruciating and lurid detail. Both testified that Mr. Combs had used violence and financial leverage to coerce them into having sex with male escorts.

Arisha Hatch, the interim executive director of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, condemned the verdict as “a stain on a criminal justice system that for decades has failed to hold accountable abusers like Diddy.” She called it “an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.”