Extract:
Afederal jury in Manhattan on Wednesday acquitted hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of racketeering and sex trafficking charges while convicting him on two counts of transporting individuals for prostitution.
Several legal experts and advocates for sexual violence prevention expressed frustration following the mixed verdict, such as Douglas Wigdor, the attorney who represented Casandra Ventura, who told Newsweek the case showed that “change is long overdue,” adding that his team would “continue to fight on behalf of survivors.”
Dani Pinter of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said the organization is “disappointed” that Combs was not found guilty of sex trafficking despite what she described as “overwhelming” evidence.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, however, told Newsweek that the verdict “is nothing less than a complete and total failure by the prosecution in what will go down as the most expensive prostitution trial in American history.”
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Dr. Ann Olivarius, a lawyer who specializes in sexual harassment, assault and abuse, cases, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “If you’ve see the video of Combs viciously beating Cassie Ventura you know what happened when Cassie said ‘no’. Saying ‘yes’ to avoid a beating is not ‘consent’. It’s coercion, which is what the prosecution must prove under the TVPA [The Trafficking Victims Protection Act].”
