On July 2, 2025, Sean Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted on two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and one count of racketeering conspiracy. More than a mixed verdict, the jury delivered a wake-up call: our laws are ill-equipped to hold traffickers accountable, reflecting a fundamental misunderstanding of how trafficking operates in the United States.
Combs, who is famously known as “P. Diddy” or “Puff Daddy,” was first accused of various acts of sexual harassment and abuse, including rape, nonconsensual pornography, sexual slavery, and sex trafficking in 2024. In September of that year, the Southern District of New York unsealed a three count indictment charging Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution were in-connection with Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura. The federal government’s indictment and accompanying press release alleged that between 2008 and 2024, Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others, and led a racketeering conspiracy that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes.” In April 2025, before the trial began, prosecutors filed two additional charges against Combs in-connection with another ex-girlfriend who used the pseudonym “Jane” to protect her identity.
During the six week trial, the prosecution presented 34 witnesses, including ex-girlfriends Cassandra Ventura and “Jane.” Ventura’s testimony detailed her forced participation in drug-fueled sex sessions allegedly termed “freak-offs” by Combs, frequent physical abuse and the constant control she felt Combs had over her life. Former-girlfriend “Jane,” testified about “hotel nights” where she was pressured into having sex with male escorts while Combs watched. “Jane” further testified that despite not wanting to submit to Combs’ demands, she had grown financially dependent on him as Combs would threaten to withhold paying her $10,000 monthly rent if she did not comply.
After deliberating for just over two days, the jury acquitted Combs of the two most serious charges, racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, both of which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. The prosecution faced a high burden when proving beyond a reasonable doubt the counts of sex trafficking as framed under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), the nation’s federal law to address trafficking in persons. Despite opinions that Combs’ long-term relationships with Cassandra and “Jane” invalidated the existence of any alleged trafficking, jurors were confined to a much more narrow legal definition of what trafficking can entail when compared to international law.
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol) provides the internationally recognized definition of human trafficking. This definition, which is ratified by the United States, expands the means used by traffickers beyond just force, fraud or coercion. Under international law, the jury could have found Combs guilty of sex trafficking through evidence of an abuse of the victims’ position of vulnerability and/or the music mogul’s abuse of power. Most notably, the Palermo Protocol, unlike the TVPA, establishes that whether the trafficked person is a child or an adult, their consent is deemed irrelevant as matter of law — it does not negate the existence of one or more of the means. By embracing a more complete understanding of trafficking, we can see relationships between exploiters and victims as evidence of coercion’s complexity, not as justification to dismiss the exploitation.
Despite defense counsel categorizing the charges against Combs as “badly exaggerated evidence of a swinger lifestyle and threesomes,” the jury did find Combs guilty of two out of the five counts alleged against him. Combs faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for each count of transportation to engage in prostitution. Judge Arun Subramaniam, who presided over the case, denied bail finding Combs’ domestic violence — which defense counsel conceded to in their closing argument — as a “propensity for violence.”
Combs’ sentencing date has been set for October 3, 2025.
The CSE Institute commends the courage of survivors like Casandra Ventura and “Jane,” whose testimony against their abusers revealed the lasting scars of exploitation. We hope this trial — and its verdict — sparks deeper dialogue about prostitution, sex trafficking, and coercion. Specifically, we call on members of Congress to recognize this verdict as evidence of the urgent need to align our nation’s federal sex trafficking law with the standards set by international law.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates as this matter progresses.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.