Ventura, Cassandra (Cassie)

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    ‘Diddy Parties’ Became a Meme. The Combs Case Was About Something Else.

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    The sweep of graphic lawsuits accusing Sean Combs of sex abuse led to a sense that his criminal case might examine celebrity debauchery in the music industry. It did not.Before the music mogul Sean Combs went to trial on sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges this year, an avalanche of lawsuits had already cast him as a brazen, A-list supervillain, capable of almost anything.In dozens of cases, many filed anonymously, Mr. Combs was accused of sexual assaults across decades, some of them said to have involved druggings at well-attended, star-studded parties and industry events. The accusers included men and women, and more than a dozen said they were minors at the time they were assaulted.Mr. Combs’s lawyers have vehemently denied the abuses alleged in the suits, most of which are still working their way through the civil court system. But the sheer volume of complaints fueled speculation that the criminal prosecution of Mr. Combs could expose a shadowy underworld of celebrity depravity, and perhaps the enabling behavior of music industry executives.The trial of Mr. Combs, 55, turned out to be something else entirely.While filled with graphic details of explicit sex, the case that ended last week centered on a narrow, private sphere of Mr. Combs’s life. The sexual encounters at issue took place on small stages: isolated hotel rooms and homes. These were not orgies where Mr. Combs interacted openly with celebrities and music honchos, but discrete encounters with long-term girlfriends and typically a single male escort.That these sessions involved voyeuristic sex that stretched over hours, even days, while Mr. Combs watched, masturbated and filmed, was without question salacious. But given the length of the investigation, the intensity of the federal raids on his mansions and the government’s interview of a man who said he had seen sex tapes involving minors (such tapes never materialized and the accusation did not lead to charges), the scope of what prosecutors were pursuing seemed broader than the resulting indictment.“I think we were all expecting something very different,” said Mara S. Campo, a journalist who covered the case against Mr. Combs and had worked previously as an anchor at Revolt, his former television network. “I think that he’s been helped tremendously by the expectation that this was going to be very different than what it turned out to be. This didn’t look like what most people think of when they think of sex trafficking.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Reacting to the Sean Combs Verdict

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicOn Wednesday, the eight-week trial of Sean Combs came to a close with a mixed verdict. Mr. Combs was found guilty on two counts of transporting people for prostitution and was acquitted of the remaining charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.The result was widely seen as a victory for the music mogul, who was facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted on all charges.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the strategies of the prosecution and the defense throughout the trial; how Mr. Combs has molded tragedy into tales of triumphing over personal adversity throughout his career; and about what avenues of public rehabilitation might now be available to him. Guests:Joe Coscarelli, New York Times music reporterConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Acquitted of Sex Trafficking but Found Guilty on Lesser Charges

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      The music mogul was convicted of arranging for the travel of male escorts across state lines but acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul who crafted a business empire around his personal brand, was convicted on Wednesday of transporting prostitutes to participate in his drug-fueled sex marathons, but acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, the most serious charges against him.Though Mr. Combs, 55, still faces a potential sentence of as much as 20 years in prison, he and his lawyers were jubilant after the acquittals on the more severe charges in an indictment that accused the famed producer of coercing women into unwanted sex with male prostitutes, aided by a team of pliant employees.Mr. Combs had faced a possible life sentence. Under the transportation charges, set by the federal Mann Act, each of the two convictions carries a maximum term of 10 years, and the judge could set lesser sentences to run concurrently.After the verdict was read in Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan, Mr. Combs put his hands together and mouthed “thank you, thank you” at the jury of eight men and four women. Later, he dropped to his knees, apparently in prayer, and started a round of applause. His supporters and family began clapping and whistling for his legal team, who embraced one another at the conclusion of the eight-week trial.“Mr. Combs has been given his life by this jury,” Marc Agnifilo, Mr. Combs’s lead lawyer, said in court following the verdict.The mood slumped hours later when Judge Arun Subramanian ordered Mr. Combs, who has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest, back to jail until his sentencing, which is still unscheduled. Mr. Combs’s lawyers had sought their client’s release so he could return to his family in the interim.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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

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      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.”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.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Verdict, the Testimony of Cassie and ‘Jane’ Lingers

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      Two of Mr. Combs’s former girlfriends gave days of harrowing testimony of abuse, but jurors weren’t convinced those experiences with escorts were sex trafficking.Over a combined 10 days, two of Sean Combs’s girlfriends told a jury about some of the most harrowing moments of their lives.The women, Casandra Ventura and a woman known in court by the pseudonym “Jane,” testified about their affection for Mr. Combs, but also the myriad ways they said he abused them physically, emotionally and sexually. There was what they called drug-dazed sex with strangers in hotel rooms. Violent arguments. Physical abuse. And not-so-subtle reminders about who paid the rent.Their testimony, however, was ultimately not persuasive to the jurors who were asked to consider whether Mr. Combs had coerced Ms. Ventura or Jane into the extended sex sessions with male escorts that he called “freak-offs.”When Mr. Combs and his lawyers learned on Wednesday that he was not criminally responsible for sex trafficking or racketeering conspiracy, they were exuberant. There were gasps and tears filled with joy and relief.Ms. Ventura’s and Jane’s reactions to the same verdict happened out of the public eye.But some leaders of women’s advocacy groups and organizations that fight sexual violence called it a rollback on the progress that has been made in holding men accountable when they take advantage of women.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” and called it “an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      8 Key Text Exchanges at the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial

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      The words sent between the mogul and his girlfriends have been cited as crucial evidence by both sides in a case that turns on whether sex marathons he directed were coercive.A jury began deliberating on Monday over the fate of Sean Combs, the music mogul facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Inside the jury room in Lower Manhattan, the 12 New Yorkers will have access to hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of evidence presented during the seven-week trial, including years worth of text messages that chronicle Mr. Combs’s relationships with the two women at the center of the case.The prosecution has highlighted dozens of those text messages in an effort to prove that Mr. Combs used violence, financial control and threats to manipulate his girlfriends into physically taxing sex sessions with hired men, while he masturbated and filmed.The mogul’s defense lawyers have maintained that these nights of sex — known as “freak-offs” and “hotel nights” — were fully consensual, and they spent hours throughout the trial parsing messages in which the women appeared to convey enthusiasm for the encounters.The trove of texts that jurors have seen provided intimate glimpses into the dynamics of two tumultuous relationships, the first with Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, and the second with a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.”Both sides have had to contend with the complexities reflected in the years of communications: expressions of love and anger, lust and reluctance, excitement and anxiety.The total collection of evidence in the case includes 28 days of witness testimony, videos of some of the drug-fueled sex sessions and the surveillance footage of Mr. Combs’s assault on Ms. Ventura in 2016. But the text messages play a crucial role in knitting together a narrative of events. More

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      At the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial, Jurors Are Ready to Deliberate

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      The panel of 12 will be asked to decide whether the music mogul is guilty of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.A jury in the federal trial of the music mogul Sean Combs will begin deliberating on Monday after receiving legal instructions from the judge in the complex sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy case.The panel, made up of eight men and four women, heard closing arguments from the government prosecutors on Thursday, followed by a presentation by the defense and a final rebuttal from the government on Friday.Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the trial, then opted to send the jurors home for the weekend so they could “come back fresh on Monday morning” to receive his directions. The judge estimated it would take him a few hours to go over the fine points of the laws at the core of the government’s case, a process known as “charging the jury,” before the jurors could start deliberations.The anonymous group was not sequestered throughout the trial and spent the weekend at home following the passionate final pleas from both sides last week.“You’ve heard the closing arguments, but I will ask you to continue to keep an open mind about the case,” Judge Subramanian told jurors on Friday, before adding the standard instructions he has given throughout the trial: “Do not speak with each other about the case. Do not speak with anyone else about the case. Do not read or research or look up anything about the case.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What Happened in the Closing Arguments of the Sean Combs Trial

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      The jurors will begin deliberating on Monday. The music mogul has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.The federal government and Sean Combs’s defense team presented their closing arguments this week after extensive testimony in which the music mogul’s ex-girlfriends said they were pressured to have sex with male escorts in drug-dazed marathon sessions.Mr. Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, and has pleaded not guilty, saying the sexual encounters were consensual. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating on Monday, which will mark the eighth week of the trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan.Here are some key observations from the closing arguments:The ChargesSex TraffickingThe federal prosecutor who delivered the government’s closing argument on Thursday, Christy Slavik, emphasized to jurors that convicting Mr. Combs of sex trafficking required only one example of him coercing his girlfriends into sex with prostitutes.For examples of such coercion, Ms. Slavik pointed to Mr. Combs’s 2016 assault on Casandra Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel that was captured on surveillance video, and a fight between “Jane” and Mr. Combs in 2024 before he directed her to have sex with another man.Jane, who was identified by a pseudonym, testified that she repeatedly said “I don’t want to” before Mr. Combs asked, “Is this coercion?”The next day, the defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo argued that Ms. Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, was a willing participant in the frequent sex sessions that Mr. Combs called “freak-offs.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial: Takeaways From Prosecution’s Closing Argument

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      After seven weeks of testimony, the government detailed to jurors why it says the mogul is guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering.A federal prosecutor summed up the government’s case against the music mogul Sean Combs on Thursday, weaving strands of evidence from his seven-week trial on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges to portray him as the head of a criminal enterprise who “used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted.”The prosecutor, Christy Slavik, focused much of her closing argument on the methods Mr. Combs used to coerce two women he dated — Casandra Ventura (the singer Cassie) and a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” — to have sex with hired men while he watched in drug-fueled sessions known as “freak-offs,” “hotel nights” or “wild king nights.”Here are four takeaways from the prosecution’s closing argument:The prosecution said proving that women were coerced into one ‘freak-off’ was enough for a sex trafficking conviction.A key point of contention has been whether Mr. Combs coerced the two women at the heart of the case into having sex with hired men, or if they were willing participants. In cross-examinations during the trial, the defense highlighted text messages in which the women expressed enthusiasm or excitement for the sessions.Ms. Slavik clarified for jurors that the government is not arguing that all of the sex nights with male escorts constitute sex trafficking. She said the women had initially been willing to engage to please Mr. Combs, but later became unwilling participants who complied either because they feared he would hurt them physically or cut them off financially.Christy Slavik, one of the prosecutors, delivered the government’s closing argument in Mr. Combs’s federal trial.Ted Shaffrey/Associated Press“If there is one time — one single freak-off that jurors find were the product of force, threats of force, fraud or coercion, Mr. Combs should be found guilty of sex trafficking,” Ms. Slavik said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More