The trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has culminated in a verdict, sparking debate about the complexities of intimate partner violence and the legacy of the #MeToo movement. On Wednesday, a federal jury in the United States delivered a split decision, finding Combs guilty of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution but not guilty of sex trafficking or racketeering.
The verdict has divided opinion about what the case means for the #MeToo movement, which emerged in the early 2010s to bring accountability to cases of sexual violence. According to Emma Katz, a domestic abuse expert, the jury’s decision indicates there are still significant gaps in public understanding about sexual violence. “I think a ruling like this would be a good news kind of day for perpetrators,” she said. “The jury seems to have concluded you can be a victim, a survivor, whose boss beats you in hotel corridors and has control over your life, but that you’re not being coerced by him.”
Prosecutors had described Combs’s activity as a “criminal enterprise” in which he leveraged money, power, and physical violence to force former girlfriends into abusive circumstances. The case was centered largely on the testimony of two women: singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine and a woman identified only by the pseudonym “Jane.” Both were identified as former girlfriends of Combs. The prosecution argued that Combs had used his financial influence, violence, and threats of blackmail to coerce Ventura and the other woman to perform sex acts during parties known as “freak-offs.”
However, the defense’s arguments appear to have swayed the jury. According to Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, the defense blatantly admitted that Combs was abusive towards Ventura, as the surveillance footage had shown.
But Combs’s lawyers maintained there was no evidence he coerced Ventura into committing sexual acts against her will. “The big question in the case is: If you’re sexually abused or assaulted, why did you stay with your abuser for more than a decade?” Rahmani said. “I understand the psychology of abuse, but jurors don’t necessarily buy it.”
Rahmani broadly assessed that prosecutors “botched” the sex-trafficking portion of the case. That included how prosecutors approached a series of messages from Ventura that indicated affection for Combs and active participation in sexual situations, which Rahmani noted were not revealed until cross-examination by the defense. According to experts like Katz, such behavior can be common in abusive relationships, in which an abuser expects a “performance of happiness” to avoid physical, financial, or psychological repercussions.
The verdict underscores the reality of what has happened since the #MeToo movement emerged. While #MeToo helped workplace harassment become more widely understood, the general public still struggles with the complexities of intimate partner violence.
“I think that the public has shown more willingness to consider how somebody might be harmed by an acquaintance, a work colleague, somebody who’s hiring them for a job,” Katz said. By contrast, intimate partner abuse consistently raises victim-blaming questions like: Why did someone remain with an abusive partner?
Ventura’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, struck a positive tone about the outcome of the Combs trial. In a statement, he said Ventura’s legal team was “pleased” with the verdict and that her testimony helped to assure that Combs has “finally been held responsible for two federal crimes.”
Several advocacy groups also praised Ventura and others for coming forward with their experiences. The verdict “shows that even when power tries to silence truth, survivors push it into the light,” Lift Our Voices, a workplace advocacy group, wrote on the social media platform X.
However, others were less optimistic about the jury’s split verdict. Arisha Hatch, interim executive director of UltraViolet, a gender-justice advocacy organization, called the verdict a “decisive moment for our justice system” – and not in a good way. “Today’s verdict is not just a stain on a criminal justice system that for decades has failed to hold accountable abusers like Diddy,” Hatch said. “It’s also an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.”