Like the trials of Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, this case showed in stark terms what happens when a rich and powerful man refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer
NEW YORK – After the verdict was read out in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case, the hip hop mogul buried his face in his chair and prayed.
It was a dramatic end to a gripping trial that concluded in its ninth week and transfixed the US and the world at large.
Combs, 55, was accused of running what amounted to a racketeering enterprise set up to service his “every desire”, which in his case, included “freak-offs”.
These were sexual performances during which his girlfriends had sex with male escorts in front of him while he directed them and masturbated.
Kinky? Yes. Criminal? No, his lawyers argued, and the jury – for the most part – agreed.
The convictions on the two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution of his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, a woman known as “Jane”, and others, mean he faces up to 20 years in jail, although this is likely to be far less than that given he’s a first-time offender.
But he does not face the minimum 15 years in prison had he been found guilty on the sex trafficking charges – or life on racketeering.
The verdict raises questions about the prosecution’s decision to go after Combs, whose lawyers said he was engaging in private conduct and not a “criminal enterprise”.
But having sat through all nine weeks of the trial in New York, Combs’s public reputation is in tatters and the evidence gave a disturbing insight into his toxic masculinity.
It showed in stark terms what happens when, as the prosecution put it, a powerful man “doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer”.
In Combs’s case, that was especially true with women like Ms Ventura, whom he met in 2005 when she was only 19 and he was the 37-year-old head of his Bad Boy Records label.
During their abusive, decade-long relationship, if she failed to obey him he would beat her, slap her and kick her, the jury was told.
The evidence showed that if Ms Ventura ran away from Combs, he would turn up at her home and bang on the door – once with a hammer – or send his security guards round to find her.
The level of control that Combs exerted over Ms Ventura was profoundly disturbing.
The jury was shown the text messages he sent to her after he beat her at a hotel in Los Angeles in 2016, in which he repeatedly told her: “Call me” and “Call me now”, or just “Now”.
Combs claimed he was about to be arrested and that he would never see her – but it was all a lie to manipulate her into keeping quiet.
The surveillance footage of the hotel incident showed Combs kicking Ms Ventura while she was on the floor and trying to drag her back to the room to finish a freak-off.
Despite being seen by the jury several times, it never lost its shock value.
In another chilling moment of testimony, the male escort Daniel Phillip told the jury how Ms Ventura had the temerity to tell Combs to hold on for a moment during a freak-off.
In a rage, Combs threw a bottle at her, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the bedroom.
Mr Phillip said that Combs told Ms Ventura: “B****, when I tell you to come here, you come. Not later.”
That need for control by Combs was apparent the single time he stood up to address the court to announce he was not going to testify in his defence.
Combs cut the judge off when he tried to speak. This is not a man who is used to being interrupted, even by figures of authority.
Another striking moment came during the judge’s instructions, normally one of the dullest parts of the trial, which mentioned the uncharged co-conspirators.
This brief mention was given an extraordinary twist because Faheem Muhammad, one of Combs’s security guards, who was mentioned frequently during the trial, was actually in the public gallery in a show of support to his boss.
A man who should have been testifying was instead smiling and giving handshakes to his boss’s sons.
It was a stunning moment that showed the brazenness of Combs and how his inner circle apparently remains close to him even now.
One does have to wonder how different the verdict would have been if people like Muhammad had been among the witnesses.
Having covered the trials of Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein, I can say that what they share with Combs is they all needed a group of enablers to avoid detection. Jeffrey Epstein had Maxwell, and Weinstein had numerous assistants who arranged for women to be moved around and abused.
But just like in the Combs case, the inner circle avoided accountability and only the boss went on trial.
It was unbelievable that Combs’s chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, was not in the dock with him: she was so close with Combs that she even texted from his phone.
Khorram helped get Combs’s drugs flown on planes for him and helped set up the hotel rooms for freak-offs, the court heard.
When Diddy wanted to bribe the security for the CCTV footage of the 2016 hotel incident, Khorram was the one who went to ask for it, the jury was told.
Real accountability with powerful people like Combs comes not only when they are brought to justice, but the people who enabled him and hushed it up are as well.
Aside from Combs’s victims there was one group of people for whom I felt genuine sympathy: his family.
During the trial his mother, Janice, 85, attended court every day and he was frequently joined by his three adult sons and teenage daughters.
The children sat nervously in the public gallery, passing notes to each other, hugging one another, and listening to extremely graphic testimony about their father’s sexual habits and drug abuse.
For Combs’s children, the trial will define their family as much as their father’s successes.
For Combs’s victims, this verdict was some semblance of justice that should have come a long time ago.
