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Why Diddy Is Celebrating His Guilty Verdict · Gil I Am

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Less than two years ago, the public image of Shaan
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  Speaker 1: Diddy Cone started to shift from playboy to villain, to
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  Speaker 1: the raging boyfriend caught beating Cassie Ventura on a hotel camera,
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  Speaker 1: the alleged criminal kingpin facing federal prosecution, the master mind
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of an elite sex cult. According to online conspiracy theorists,
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  Speaker 1: he was broadly painted as and aciduously denied being the
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  Speaker 1: sort of man who used money and power to pursue
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  Speaker 1: his desires, no matter the harm to those around him.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Now that a verdict has been rendered in his case,
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  Speaker 1: expect another reputational shift, a redemption story, unearned though it
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  Speaker 1: may be. After a seven week trial in a Manhattan
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  Speaker 1: federal court house, the music mogul has been convicted of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. These are
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  Speaker 1: serious offenses that together carry possible sentences of up to
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  Speaker 1: twenty years in prison, but they are less grave than
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  Speaker 1: the other crimes. He was acquitted of two counts of
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  Speaker 1: sex trafficking and one count of racketeering, which each could
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: have brought a life sentence. Cones had pleaded not guilty
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to all of the charges against him, and his family
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  Speaker 1: cheered in court after the verdict was read. Mister Combes
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  Speaker 1: has been given his life by this jury, his lawyer,
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  Speaker 1: Mark Agnifhilo said in court. The saga began in November
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three when the singer Cassie Ventura filed a
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  Speaker 1: lawsuit against Combes, the producer and rapper known for both
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  Speaker 1: hits such as It's All About the Benjamins and business
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  Speaker 1: endeavors such as bad Boy Records. Ventura, hood signed to
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  Speaker 1: his label as a young woman and then dated him,
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  Speaker 1: alleged that he'd abused and manipulated her for years. She
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  Speaker 1: said he'd repeatedly pressured her to participate in freak offs,
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  Speaker 1: orgies involving sex workers, and drug use that sometimes lasted
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  Speaker 1: for days. Combes settled the lawsuit after one day for
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a reported twenty million dollars, but many of its details
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: were central to the federal case, which was filed in
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  Speaker 1: September twenty twenty four. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that
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  Speaker 1: Cones had used intimidation, violence, blackmail, and drugs to coerce
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Ventura and another ex girlfriend identified as Jane, to perform sexually.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: An assistant identified as Mia, testified that Combs had repeatedly
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  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted her. Cones's defense highlighted text messages and other
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  Speaker 1: bits of evidence that suggested these women were actually willing
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  Speaker 1: participants in his lifestyle, and raised suspicion about the fact
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  Speaker 1: that these alleged victims continued their relationships with the rapper
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  Speaker 1: even after alleged instances of abuse. The two sex trafficking
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: charges against Cones hinged on the thorny question of what
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: consent means within the context of a relationship in which
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  Speaker 1: a man alternately hurts a woman and lavishes her with
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  Speaker 1: affection and gifts. On the stand, Jane said that she
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: loves Cones to this day, but the case was not
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  Speaker 1: only about consent. Federal lawyers also pursued a charge of
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: racketeering conspiracy, an allegation traditionally affiliated with mafia prosecutions. They
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: alleged that Combs used his employees to help him procure
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  Speaker 1: sex workers and secure drugs for freak offs, as well
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  Speaker 1: as to commit arson, the burning of a car owned
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  Speaker 1: by the rapper kid Cutty after he became involved with
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  Speaker 1: Ventura and kidnapping. An assistant alleged that Combes and his
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: team repeatedly detained her against her will. Combes's lawyers denied
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  Speaker 1: many of the granular allegations. Combes was not involved in
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  Speaker 1: any arson and didn't kidnap anyone, they said, while portraying
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  Speaker 1: the broader racketeering charges preposterous. Combs, they insisted, ran a
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  Speaker 1: legitimate business empire, not a criminal syndicate. Now that Combs
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  Speaker 1: has been acquitted of all but the most cut and
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  Speaker 1: dry charges transporting people across state lines for the purposes
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  Speaker 1: of prostitution, the obvious question to ask is whether prosecutors overreached.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: The Rico statute allowed prosecutors to sweep a variety of
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  Speaker 1: smaller alleged infractions such as bribery and drug possession. Would
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  Speaker 1: intent to distribute into one flashy, sprawling charge that carried
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  Speaker 1: a potential life sentence, but the underlying law is a
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  Speaker 1: complex one that requires the jury to think that at
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: least least two people agreed to commit at least two crimes.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: A conviction necessitates a belief of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,
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  Speaker 1: and the defense worked at every turn to so doubt.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Read the transparent cruelties of Ditty's entertainment machine, But the
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  Speaker 1: conversation about the case isn't likely to focus on technical
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  Speaker 1: matters for very long. Popular culture loves martyrs, it loves
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: comeback stories. Frankly, it loves men. In our current Braligar
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Sheikh era, plenty of guys who were culturally shunn during
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the hashtag need a movement or returning to prominence while
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: being cheered as avenging underdogs in court. Combes's lawyers primed
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  Speaker 1: him to be thought of in just this manner, arguing
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  Speaker 1: that he was a successful guy who'd found himself victimized
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  Speaker 1: by bitter money grubbing exes. Race will likely offer another
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  Speaker 1: lens through which Combes's supporters will undermine the validity of
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  Speaker 1: his conviction. At the beginning of the trial, his lawyers
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  Speaker 1: moved to dismiss the prostitution charges of which Combes is
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  Speaker 1: now guilty, by citing the fact that the underlying law
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: has racist origins. Now you can expect any commentators whose
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  Speaker 1: agenda it suits to rally around Cones as a man,
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  Speaker 1: and specifically a black man enduring persecution. Our legal system
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  Speaker 1: is certainly tarnished and faulty, and criminal court has never
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  Speaker 1: been a reliable venue of justice for women who say
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  Speaker 1: they were victimized by powerful men. But even as Cones
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  Speaker 1: and his supporters celebrate the disturbing implications of his case grow.
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  Speaker 1: Dozens of civil lawsuits by people who have accused him
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  Speaker 1: of a variety of offenses are still pending. He denies
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  Speaker 1: culpability in all of them, and the tape of Combes
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: beating Ventura in a hotel hallway in twenty sixteen remains,
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  Speaker 1: As one of his own lawyers put it, indefensible. Yet
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  Speaker 1: a defense is no doubt on its way. Dot