Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Successful Domestic Violence Ploy

Unsurprisingly, attorneys for Sean 'Diddy' Combs argued that he engaged in domestic violence. It was a winning strategy.

The physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that Sean “Diddy” Combs inflicted upon women far exceeds the umbrella term, “domestic violence.”

Combs’ attorneys used that term to diminish what Combs did so that he would get a lighter sentence. It was a ploy. It worked. Instead of more than 11-years in jail sought by the prosecutors, Combs received a light sentence of four years and two months in federal prison.

It is not surprising that Combs’ lawyers minimized his behavior by comparing it to a garden variety relationship row. It was their job to advocate for Combs, a one-time billionaire hip hop artist who founded the music conglomerate called Bad Boy Entertainment.

But it is surprising that the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian of New York, and major media platforms bought the ploy, including NBC News, the New York Times, Guardian, ABC News, the BBC, USA Today, the New York Daily News, Fox News, and the Washington Post.

The New York Times reported that Combs case “laid bare evidence of brutal domestic violence,” noting that labeling Combs a domestic abuser “was part of a strategy to embrace evidence that seemed incontrovertible while stressing he was not a sex trafficker or racketeer.”

Combs was convicted of two violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting individuals across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. The charges related to Combs bringing male “escorts” across state lines to engage in sex at parties that he called “freak-offs.”

The jury acquitted Combs of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud,or coercion.

Combs will spend approximately one year and two months in prison, with good behavior, and credit for time already served. He is also required to pay a $500,000 fine.

The Issue of Consent

There is speculation that the jurors acquitted Combs on the sex trafficking charges because they were concerned about the consensuality by two major witnesses, Combs’ former girlfriends, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a woman who used the pseudonym “Jane.”

This seems absurd, but women historically have been blamed when they become victims of sexual assault. This is why so few women still report the crime of rape.

A 2016 hotel surveillance video shows Combs, a powerful, hulking man, repeatedly kicking Ventura, a singer who was fleeing him. She was lying on the floor. He dragged her by her hair back to a hotel room. The video provides evidence of assault and battery, and arguably kidnapping and false imprisonment.

In addition, both Ventura and “Jane” testified that Combs drugged them with ketamine or ecstasy and coerced them into participating in sexual encounters with male “escorts” lasting up to four days.

Jane was age 17, when she testified that Combs, then 38, groomed and sexually abused her. In many jurisdictions, including Florida and California, where Combs owns mansions, this constitutes statutory rape because a minor cannot legally consent to sex.

Jane also said Combs, who promised to advance her career, provided her with drugs like ecstasy and GHB. It is a felony to provide drugs to a minor.

Combs allegedly filmed the “freak-off” encounters without the participants’ consent and used the videos for blackmail purposes. Extortion is a violation of federal law (18 U.S.C. § 873) and state law.

Combs Wasn’t Charged With Domestic Violence

There is no specific criminal offense of “domestic violence” in New York, where Combs’ trial was held. Combs wasn’t charged with domestic violence.

Moreover, the concept of domestic violence describes a pattern of power and control in an intimate relationship. It is not intended to excuse serious criminal acts. It is meant to explain how women end up entrapped in abusive relationships, and why it is so difficult for them to extract themselves. State laws also offer tools -like restraining orders- to protect victims.

Ventura, who was 19 years old when she met Combs, testified that she tried to leave him at least six times, but he threatened violence against her and her family, to blacklist her in the music industry, and to leak explicit sex videos. At one point, she said Combs picked her up by her feet and dangled her from a 17th-floor balcony.

In 2018, Ventura she was so despondent that she attempted suicide by jumping from a moving car driven by Combs, and sustained broken ribs and a fractured arm. With her mother’s help, she left Combs and obtained a temporary restraining order. He settled a 2023 lawsuit she filed by him for $20 million.

Combs still faces more than 50 lawsuits by men and women (including professional women who were not his girlfriends) alleging sexual assault, rape, drugging, physical abuse, sex trafficking, grooming and related misconduct dating back to the 1990s.

Poor Combs!

To some, Combs may be the least sympathetic character to appear in a courtroom in recent years but not to Judge Subramanian

In a pre-sentencing letter to the judge, Combs said, “My domestic violence will always be a heavy burden that I will have to forever carry. The remorse, the sorrow, the regret, the disappointment, the shame.”

Judge Subramanian, at the sentencing hearing, assured Combs and his family that they would “get through this” with “light at the end of the tunnel,” and that prison offered a chance for “real accountability, change, and healing.”

Prosecutor Maurene Comey argued in closing arguments at the trial that Combs built Bad Boy Entertainment on violence, coercion, and exploitation of women. “This was no ‘swingers’ lifestyle or consensual kink -this was a sophisticated, years-long operation of control, abuse, and trafficking hidden behind the glamour of celebrity,” she said.

Bottom line: Combs will spend some time in prison for the Mann Act convictions but not spend a single day for the horrific abuse he inflicted upon women.