The U.S. District Court in Manhattan was thick with tension the morning of June 30, 2025. It had been seven intense weeks of testimony, and 12 jurors moved solemnly into a room where they would begin the endgame of perhaps the most publicized Hollywood celebrity trial of the past two decades the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Outside, there were flashes of camera crews and reporters jostling for positions. Inside, the juror #25, 51 years of age, Ph.D. in molecular biology, quietly slipped the judge’s clerk a note casting doubt in the ability to follow legal instructions. That episode raised some fresh doubts in a trial already shrouded in weight and controversy.
Combs, 55, is not just any celebrity. A billionaire music mogul, founder of Bad Boy Records, and the face behind major fashion and media ventures, he once defined the sound of a generation. Today, he faces five felony charges: racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force or coercion, and two counts of transporting women across state lines for prostitution.
He faces the possibility of being in jail for 15 years if he is convicted.
“This is a battle not just for my freedom,”
Combs has said through his legal team,
“but for my legacy.”
Federal prosecutors painted Combs as the mastermind behind a criminal enterprise. Star witnesses included former partner Cassie Ventura and another woman identified only as “Jane.” Both described being coerced into drug-fueled sex acts with male escorts dubbed “freak offs” often while Combs watched or recorded. A 2016 surveillance video showing Combs allegedly assaulting Ventura in a hotel hallway was shown to jurors.
“This was a pattern,”
said lead prosecutor Christine Slavik.
“It was coercion, it was intimidation, and it was calculated.”
Combs’ defense, led by Marc Agnifilo, countered sharply. He argued that the relationships were consensual, part of a “swinger lifestyle,” and that the prosecution exaggerated or misunderstood the nature of Combs’ private life. They highlighted Ventura’s $20 million civil settlement in 2023 as evidence of financial motivation, not criminal wrongdoing.
“There is no enterprise. There’s only a man living his private life in the spotlight,”
Agnifilo said in his closing argument.
The 12-member jury eight men, four women will have to give a unanimous verdict in each of the five charges. After receiving over two hours of legal instruction from Judge Arun Subramanian, deliberations began behind closed doors.
But the jury’s early note raised concerns. Juror #25’s uncertainty could result in replacement by one of five alternates a procedural step that could reset deliberations and further delay a verdict already expected to take weeks.
A post from X.
With rumors swirling across platforms like X and Instagram, digital misinformation has muddied the waters. Viral posts have falsely claimed that Ventura recanted or that jurors have already reached a verdict.
The commentators debate if the law of RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), to criminalize criminal activity within organizations, is applicable to the case framed in the language of suspected coercive sexual behavior.
“The use of RICO here sets a powerful precedent,”
says legal analyst Nadine Clark.
“It pushes the boundaries of how we interpret enterprise and intent.”
Meanwhile, public support for survivors of abuse has grown, but so has a segment defending Combs as a target of “celebrity hunting” a phenomenon where fame and wealth become liabilities in the court of public opinion.
Deliberations will continue through early July. The jury must weigh over 34 witness testimonies, a mountain of digital evidence, and conflicting portrayals of Combs one as a controlling predator, the other as a man living on the edge of conventional norms.
Whatever the verdict, the case is bound to have effects on not only Combs’ future but also wider discussions surrounding justice, fame, and culpability.