Less than two years ago, the public image of Sean “Diddy” Combs started to shift from playboy to villain: to the raging boyfriend caught beating Cassie Ventura on a hotel camera; the alleged criminal kingpin facing federal prosecution; the mastermind of an elite sex cult, according to online conspiracy theorists. He was broadly painted as (and assiduously denied being) the sort of man who used money and power to pursue his desires no matter the harm to those around him. Now that a verdict has been rendered in his case, expect another reputational shift—a redemption story, unearned though it may be.
不到两年前，肖恩·迪迪（Sean Diddy）梳子的公开形象开始从花花公子转移到小人：在酒店相机上击败卡西·文图拉（Cassie Ventura）的愤怒的男友；所谓的犯罪派面临联邦起诉；根据在线阴谋理论家的说法，精英性邪教的策划者。他被广泛地描绘成（并遭到遭到拒绝），无论对周围的人造成什么伤害，都利用金钱和力量追求自己的欲望的人。既然在他的案件中已经做出了判决，则期望另一种声誉转变 - 一个救赎的故事，尽管可能是未能获得的。
After a seven-week trial in a Manhattan federal courthouse, the music mogul has been convicted of two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. These are serious offenses that together carry possible sentences of up to 20 years in prison. But they are less grave than the other crimes he was acquitted of—two counts of sex trafficking, and one count of racketeering—which each could have brought a life sentence. Combs had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him, and his family cheered in court after the verdict was read. “Mr. Combs has been given his life by this jury,” his lawyer Marc Agnifilo said in court.
在曼哈顿联邦法院进行了为期7周的审判之后，音乐大亨被定罪两项运输指控，以进行卖淫。这些是严重的罪行，共同判处最高20年的徒刑。但是，它们比他被无罪释放的罪行（两项性贩运罪名和一项敲诈勒索罪）不那么严重，每个罪名都可能带来无期徒刑。康姆斯对所有针对他的指控不认罪，在宣读判决后，他的家人在法庭上欢呼。他的律师马克·阿格尼菲洛（Marc Agnifilo）在法庭上说：“康布斯先生已被这个陪审团赋予了生命。”
The saga began in November 2023, when the singer Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs, the producer and rapper known for both hits such as “It’s All About the Benjamins” and business endeavors such as Bad Boy Records. Ventura, who’d signed to his label as a young woman and then dated him, alleged that he’d abused and manipulated her for years. She said he’d repeatedly pressured her to participate in “freak-offs”: orgies involving sex workers and drug use that sometimes lasted for days. Combs settled the lawsuit after one day for a reported $20 million. But many of its details were central to the federal case, which was filed in September 2024.
传奇始于2023年11月，当时歌手卡西·文图拉（Cassie Ventura）对梳子提起诉讼，该诉讼以“一切都与本杰明斯（Benjamins）”和《坏男孩唱片》（Bad Boy Records）等业务努力而闻名。文图拉（Ventura）签了一个年轻女子的标签，然后与他约会，声称他虐待并操纵了她多年。她说，他反复向她施加压力，要求她参加“怪胎”：涉及性工作者的狂欢和有时持续数天的吸毒的狂欢。一天后，康姆斯（Combs）在据报道为2000万美元后解决了诉讼。但是它的许多细节是2024年9月提起的联邦案件的核心。
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Combs had used intimidation, violence, blackmail, and drugs to coerce Ventura and another ex-girlfriend, identified as Jane, to perform sexually. An assistant, identified as Mia, testified that Combs had repeatedly sexually assaulted her. Combs’s defense highlighted text messages and other bits of evidence that suggested these women were actually willing participants in his lifestyle, and raised suspicion about the fact that these alleged victims continued their relationships with the rapper even after alleged instances of abuse. The two sex-trafficking charges against Combs hinged on the thorny question of what consent means within the context of a relationship in which a man alternately hurts a woman and lavishes her with affection and gifts. On the stand, Jane said that she loves Combs to this day.
在审判期间，检察官声称梳子曾使用恐吓，暴力，勒索和毒品来强迫文图拉和另一个被确定为简的前女友进行性行为。一位被称为米娅（Mia）的助手作证说，梳子曾多次对她进行性侵犯。Combs的辩护强调了短信和其他证据表明这些妇女实际上愿意参加他的生活方式，并怀疑这些据称受害者即使在涉嫌虐待事件后仍继续与说唱歌手的关系。对梳子的两种性贩运指控取决于棘手的问题，即在关系的背景下，男人交替伤害了一个女人，并以感情和礼物的方式奢侈。简（Jane）在看台上说，至今她喜欢梳子。
But the case was not only about consent. Federal lawyers also pursued a charge of racketeering conspiracy, an allegation traditionally affiliated with Mafia prosecutions. They alleged that Combs used his employees to help him procure sex workers and secure drugs for freak-offs, as well as to commit arson (the burning of a car owned by the rapper Kid Cudi after he became involved with Ventura) and kidnapping (an assistant alleged that Combs and his team repeatedly detained her against her will). Combs’s lawyers denied many of the granular allegations—Combs was not involved in any arson and didn’t kidnap anyone, they said—while portraying the broader racketeering charge as preposterous. Combs, they insisted, ran a legitimate business empire, not a criminal syndicate.
但是案件不仅与同意有关。联邦律师还提起了敲打阴谋的指控，这是一项传统上与黑手党起诉有关的指控。他们声称，梳子用他的员工帮助他采购性工作者并为怪胎毒品提供毒品，并犯下纵火案（烧毁了说唱歌手Kid Cudi拥有的汽车后，他与文图拉（Ventura）犯了）和绑架（助手指控梳子和他的团队及其团队反复违背她的意愿，以抗拒她的意志）。Combs的律师否认了许多颗粒状指控 - Combs没有参与任何纵火，也没有绑架任何人，他们说 - 将更广泛的球拍指控描绘成荒谬的指控。他们坚持认为，梳子经营着合法的商业帝国，而不是犯罪集团。
Now that Combs has been acquitted of all but the most cut-and-dry charges—transporting people across state lines for the purposes of prostitution—the obvious question to ask is whether prosecutors overreached. The RICO statute allowed prosecutors to sweep a variety of smaller alleged infractions—such as bribery and drug possession with intent to distribute—into one flashy, sprawling charge that carried a potential life sentence. But the underlying law is a complex one that requires the jury to think that at least two people agreed to commit at least two crimes. A conviction necessitates a belief of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—and the defense worked, at every turn, to sow doubt.
现在，除了最裁员的指控（出于卖淫的目的），梳子已被无罪释放，这是跨州范围内的人 - 显而易见的问题是检察官是否过度透露。RICO法规允许检察官扫除各种较小的涉嫌违法行为，例如贿赂和拥有毒品的意图分发 - 构成了一个浮华，庞大的指控，遭受了潜在的无期徒刑。但是，基本法律是一项复杂的法律，要求陪审团认为至少有两个人同意至少犯两次犯罪。一个信念必须相信有罪的信念，而不是合理的怀疑，而辩方则无所事事。
Read: The transparent cruelties of Diddy’s entertainment machine
阅读：迪迪娱乐机器的透明浮标
But the conversation about the case isn’t likely to focus on technical matters for very long. Popular culture loves martyrs; it loves comeback stories; frankly, it loves men. In our current broligarchic era, plenty of guys who were culturally shunned during the #MeToo movement are returning to prominence while being cheered as avenging underdogs. In court, Combs’s lawyers primed him to be thought of in just this manner, arguing that he was a successful guy who’d found himself victimized by bitter, money-grubbing exes. Race will likely offer another lens through which Combs’s supporters will undermine the validity of his conviction. At the beginning of the trial, his lawyers moved to dismiss the prostitution charges of which Combs is now guilty by citing the fact that the underlying law has racist origins. Now you can expect any commentators whose agenda it suits to rally around Combs as a man, and specifically a Black man, enduring persecution.
但是，关于此案的对话很长时间不可能集中在技术事务上。流行文化爱烈士；它喜欢复出的故事；坦白说，它爱男人。在我们目前的布罗利奇时代，在#MeToo运动中被避开文化的许多家伙正在重返众人，同时以报仇的弱者欢呼。在法庭上，Combs的律师以这种方式想到了他，认为他是一个成功的人，发现自己受到痛苦，赚钱的exe的伤害。种族可能会提供另一个镜头，通过这些镜头，Combs的支持者会破坏他的信念的有效性。在审判开始时，他的律师采取了驳回卖淫指控，即康布斯现在犯了罪名，理由是基本法律具有种族主义的起源。现在，您可以期待任何适合其议程的评论员，他们作为一个人，尤其是黑人，遭受迫害。
Our legal system is certainly tarnished and faulty, and criminal court has never been a reliable venue of justice for women who say they were victimized by powerful men. But even as Combs and his supporters celebrate, the disturbing implications of his case grow. Dozens of civil lawsuits by people who have accused him of a variety of offenses are still pending (he denies culpability in all of them). And the tape of Combs beating Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016 remains, as one of his own lawyers put it, “indefensible.” Yet a defense is no doubt on its way.
我们的法律制度肯定会失去光泽和错误，刑事法院从来都不是说她们受到强大男人受害的妇女的可靠司法场所。但是，即使梳子和他的支持者庆祝，他案件的令人不安的含义也会增长。指控他犯有各种罪行的人的数十起民事诉讼仍在审理中（他否认所有罪行的罪名）。正如他自己的一位律师所说，梳子在2016年在旅馆走廊上击败文图拉的胶带仍然是“无可辩驳的。”然而，毫无疑问，防守是在其路上。
