2nd UPDATE, 5:26 PM: The jury in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial will be back Wednesday to deliberate on the racketeering charge against the much-accused Grammy winner.
After a white-knuckle final hour Tuesday, where it looked like there could be a mistrial or a partial verdict, the eight men and four women panel has left for the day with a promise to return and get back into it at 9 a.m. ET tomorrow.
1st UPDATE, 1:45 PM: The jury in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial have a partial verdict, but in a rare moment of agreement both the prosecution and the defense want them to continue deliberations.
Right near the end of this second day of the eight men and four women of the jury being behind closed doors, the panel sent a note to Judge Arun Subramanian saying they are stuck. In a situation reminiscent of the latest Harvey Weinstein retrial just a few weeks ago, the jurors have a verdict on four of the five charges against the Bad Boy Records founder, but can’t reach a conclusion on the sprawling racketeering charge.
Unlike in the Weinstein case, which saw guilty verdicts on some counts and another retrial in the offering, both sides have given the Judge proposals to keep the jury going.
The U.S. Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York want Judge Subramanian to give the 12 jurors an variation on an Allen That would ask them to take time to think about their own POV, the evidence, and any bias they might have that is preventing them from coming to a verdict. The Marc Agnifilo, Teny Geragoes and Brian Steel-led 10 lawyer defense want the jury to keep talking but don’t think there’s a need to take it to Def Con 3 with an Allen charge, yet.
Combs is in the lower Manhattan courtroom right now as his fate and freedom is being determined in very real-time.
After months of allegations, a very quickly settled ($20 million) abuse and assault suit from former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, raids by Homeland Security, and a slew of civil suits, Combs was arrested on September in New York City. The All About the Benjamins performer is facing federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more. Having failed repeated to secure a $50 million bail, he has been in custody at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center ever since.
If found guilty on all the charges 55-year-old Combs could spend the rest of his life in a federal prison. Even a partial verdict would see Diddy behind bars for years.
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PREVIOUSLY, JUNE 30 AM: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ fate is now in the hands of the 12 people on his New York jury.
The eight men and four women in the Bad Boy Records founder’s six-week long sex-trafficking trial have officially begun their deliberations.
Arrested in September, as dozens of civil cases of abuse and assault piled up, the much-accused Combs is up against federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and more. Last week, the Department of Justice prosecutors dropped and downgraded some of the claims in what they called an move to “streamline” the case.
That turn did little to actually alter the composition of the matter, or its potential outcome.
In custody at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center for the past nine months, despite numerous failed attempts at getting out on a $50 million bail, the 55-year old Combs could spend the rest of his life behind bars if the jury delivers a guilty verdict.
“The evidence is the testimony and the exhibits,” Judge Arun Subramanian told the jurors in his lower Manhattan courtroom this morning.
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The eight words in that sentence by the judge raised by implication the sometimes gut wrenching tales of alleged violence and degradation at Combs’ hand given under oath by the likes of Combs’ former longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura (who was heavily pregnant during her testimony), and, under pseudonyms used at trial by fellow sexual assault accusers “Jane” and former Combs employee “Mia.” As well, various ex-staffers to the Grammy winner, male escorts hired for the drug propelled and frequently filmed “freak-off” sex sessions, law enforcement, hotel security guards, and others took the stand during the trial.
“You are the sole and exclusive arbiters of the facts,” he added. The federal judge then advised them to carefully look at “each witness’ credibility, the truth and importance of their testimony. Size him or her up. You must decide.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs listens during opening statements on Day One of his trial in Manhattan federal court, May 12, 2025 (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
With closing arguments by prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York and Combs’ 10-lawyer strong defense over late on June 27, the main business today for Judge Subramanian, besides reading the charges themselves, was giving the jurors their formal instructions. Dull but significant by definition, the instructional process in the proceedings at this point in any criminal trial is all about establishing parameters.
RELATED: Sean “Diddy” Combs Jury Set To Begin Deliberations
The importance of those boundaries of sorts was made very clear last week by the effort and horse-trading by the parties on what the judge could and could not tell the jury to consider.
All said and done, it took Judge Subramanian just over an hour to read out the jury instructions Monday morning. As he has been every day of his trial and during most pre-trial hearings, Combs was in attendance today. Though some of the Combs’ children have been present at trial more than others over the past month and a half, a parade of vehicles dropped off a full contingent of Combs’ sons and daughters to pack the courtroom Monday.
Microphones are set up outside the Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering jury deliberations in Manhattan on June 30, 2025 (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Even before the heavily media covered and often horrifically sordid and harrowing trial began on May 12, Judge Subramanian had said he wanted to try to make sure things were done by the July 4 holiday.
In that sense, he successfully made his own deadline. Certainly, the judge was helped in no small part by the defense’s case lasting around 30 minutes last week, with no witnesses, no testimony and, most telling and unsurprising, no Diddy taking the stand.
However, with all the nastiness and nuances of this matter, a verdict by the non-sequestered jury in the next three days seems a long-shot — but not impossible. Not impossible at all.
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