Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you are doing well. We're doing a follow-up on one of the biggest and most consequential stories to come out of the music industry in the last few years, and that is the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, which just concluded after seven weeks. We did a video on the matter a while back, and to catch you guys up to speed, just in case you haven't been paying attention, Diddy stood trial with five different charges against him that ranged from sex trafficking to more low-level prostitution charges. Lots of stories and evidence came out to the public in the midst of the trial, much of which painted a very detailed and also strange picture of the life that Diddy had been leading, one that was loaded occasionally with these drug-fueled sex binges that not just included Diddy's girlfriends at the time, but also various sex workers who he would employ. These parties were typically known as "freak-offs," which around this trial has become a pretty notorious term.

This trial has really rocked the hip-hop community and caused fans from across the rap spectrum to look at a lot of different artists differently now – not only just Diddy, but people who have maintained pretty close associations with him over the years, even in the midst of this trial, or have maintained a fair bit of silence during. However, as controversial as this trial has proven to be for Diddy and those closest to him, a lot of people in that camp right now are celebrating because they've squeaked out a relative win in the midst of all of this. If Diddy had been found guilty on all of the charges against him, he did potentially face life in prison past this point. But what ended up happening is that Diddy was only found guilty of two of the charges, both of those being lower-level prostitution charges, not the sex trafficking charges that were the most damning and would have laid on the heaviest sentences. Now, the max time Diddy could be facing for these prostitution charges is about 10 years or so, though him and his lawyers are hoping to lobby for much lower when his sentence is finally handed down. From what I understand, Diddy and his team were hoping to post bail so that he could be free before he has to go back into the court when he is finally sentenced.

But from what I understand, that has been denied, and he will be staying in prison until that day later this year. Now, anybody who is watching this trial closely and seeing that did he did get hammered with those prostitution charges is probably wondering, "how exactly did he sidestep the other charges against him in this trial?" Looking into the finer details here, it seems that these sex trafficking charges mostly hinged on his girlfriends who were involved in these "freak-off" events at the time, and whether or not their participation in these events were coerced or forced, or actually voluntary in some way. It's really strange because while Diddy's lawyers, the defense as it were, seemingly acknowledged that Diddy did engage in physical abuse in these relationships. I mean, obviously, we are aware of the notorious Cassie video at this point. On top of that, the other girlfriend he had who was just named as a Jane Doe in the trial, also accused Diddy of having abused her in 2024 in the midst of his investigation. But despite these accusations and proof of abuse, I guess the prosecutors were not really able to connect that behavior to the participation of these women in these events, meaning they weren't able to make the case effectively to the jury that the abuse had anything to do with what they were doing in these "freak-offs."

If their involvement in these events was totally voluntary and completely of their own free will, then it wouldn't technically count as sex trafficking, which, again, it's very odd that the prosecution was not able to effectively paint this picture, not only with that Cassie video as evidence, but as we also recently covered on this channel. You also had that Cudi testimony. Due to Cudi's involvement with Cassie at the time, he had issues with Diddy where his car got firebombed. So again, strange that you had all of this evidence and all of these accusations pointing toward Diddy's abusive behavior. But then still, I guess in terms of the jury's interpretation of things, the case that the behavior and willingness of those around Diddy to participate in these very strange, very exploitative events had nothing to do with the abuse, the manipulation, the mistreatment. Cassie, I guess, would have just done all of these things, even if there was no physical or emotional mistreatment going on in this relationship. Though, and this is just my own opinion and perspective on the situation, obviously, I find that difficult to believe.

But again, the trial did happen. Things have concluded, and I guess we sit and wait to see what Diddy is eventually going to be facing in terms of a sentence. And, strangely enough, outside the courthouse, there were actually some pretty passionate Diddy supporters celebrating the relative win here, with some people actually being sprayed down with baby oil. Now, of course, also in the wake of all of this, there's been a lot of discourse about those in power, those with money, having the capacity to escape from accusations such as these. I mean, yeah, it's not untrue. We certainly do seem to be at a point historically where that shit just gets swept under the rug with some people if they have enough influence and power and popularity. And yeah, obviously, it's not just Diddy, it's Russell Brand, it's the President.