THE BIG STORY: Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted on Wednesday (July 2) of unlawful prostitution however acquitted of extra extreme sex-trafficking and racketeering fees, a major authorized victory for the disgraced rap mogul who confronted as much as life in jail if discovered responsible on all counts.
The jury deliberated for 2 days earlier than discovering Combs responsible of transporting girlfriends and male escorts throughout state traces for drug-fueled intercourse marathons known as “freak-offs.” However they weren’t satisfied past an affordable doubt that this conduct occurred as a part of a felony enterprise or that Combs’ alleged victims – singer Cassie Ventura and an nameless lady referred to as “Jane” – had been coerced into the intercourse events.
The decision got here as a shock to many who’ve been following Combs’ beautiful fall from grace that started when Ventura introduced a bombshell civil lawsuit towards him in 2023. Combs shortly settled with Ventura for $20 million, however a deluge of comparable lawsuits adopted. The civil litigation onslaught then become a felony investigation, and Combs was indicted and arrested final yr.
We at Billboard have been all around the story, overlaying every little thing from how Combs nabbed this partial victory to what comes subsequent.
- Hours after the decision was reached, Choose Arun Subramanian rejected Combs’ request to go house on bail whereas he awaits sentencing. The choose mentioned Combs remains to be a hazard to society regardless of his acquittal on the extra critical fees, counting on the truth that the protection admitted the rapper’s historical past of home violence all through the trial.
- The subsequent step for Combs is sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 3. He faces as much as 20 years for the 2 prostitution counts, however courtroom papers estimate that the beneficial pointers vary will come out to someplace between two and 5 years in jail. If he’d been convicted on all fees, he would have confronted a compulsory minimal of 15 years and a most of life behind bars.
- Combs’ lawyer Mark Agnifilo celebrated the decision in no unsure phrases, calling it “a victory of all victories for Sean Combs and our authorized workforce.” Agnifilo additionally hinted that his workforce will enchantment the counts of conviction after sentencing, telling reporters, “We aren’t practically finished combating.”
- Authorized specialists informed Billboard that elements influencing the jury’s partial acquittal verdict could have included prosecution errors, like trumped-up fees and lacking witnesses, in addition to the protection’s shrewd determination to confess home abuse from day one.
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Different high tales this week…
CAR SEX CLAIMS – A federal choose denied a movement by Megan Thee Stallion and her administration firm Roc Nation to dismiss claims that the rapper compelled cameraman Emilio Garcia to look at her have intercourse in a transferring automobile whereas on tour in Ibiza, Spain. The choose mentioned Garcia, who’s homosexual, sufficiently alleged that Megan wouldn’t have subjected a straight worker to the identical therapy. Megan and Roc Nation, who’ve vehemently denied the claims and known as Garcia a “con artist,” did get a small win in trimming some ancillary claims from the lawsuit.
DOLL DO-OVER – A federal choose diminished T.I. and Tameka “Tiny” Harris’ $71 million jury verdict over claims that toymaker MGA’s line of “O.M.G.” dolls copied their real-life teen pop group OMG Girlz, saying the rapper and his spouse didn’t show they deserve $53 million in punitive damages. The choose mentioned that whereas a jury accurately discovered that MGA’s dolls stepped on protected properties of the OMG Girlz, there was no proof that the infringement was deliberate. The long-running dispute is now on observe for a retrial — the whopping fourth time the case will go earlier than a jury.
BIG TIME BRAWL – Sony Music Leisure was hit with a lawsuit from Scott Fellows, creator of the Nickelodeon collection Large Time Rush. The grievance alleged that when the TV present’s eponymous boy band, Large Time Rush, reunited 4 years in the past and struck a deal to go unbiased from Nickelodeon and Sony, the label intentionally structured the settlement in order that Fellows wouldn’t obtain a 3.75% reduce of touring income he’d gotten within the band’s unique heyday.
TAX TRIUMPH – The Assist Impartial Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act, the long-in-the-works laws that will permit musicians to deduct 100% of their manufacturing bills within the yr they’re incurred, was lastly handed by Congress and signed into regulation as a part of President Donald Trump’s One Large Stunning Invoice Act. The milestone was shortly celebrated by longtime invoice supporters, together with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr., A2IM president/CEO Dr. Richard James Burgess and NITO president Wayne Forte.
