How the Racketeering Case Against Combs Fell Apart

Former federal prosecutors are weighing in on the partial Sean Combs verdict, seeing it as a blow to the Southern District of New York and a win for the defense. As NPR sees it, the case offers "a lesson in the public's murky understanding of consent, and the ways that the stories of alleged victims can be undermined." Elie Honig at New York has a more specific take: It was "a grievous overcharge."

• Defense lawyers were "smart" to admit "the bad facts," including that their client committed domestic violence and arranged drug-fueled marathon sexual encounters dubbed "freak offs" or "hotel nights," while fighting "the things that mattered," New York Law School professor Anna Cominsky tells NBC News. "It paid off."

• The evidence presented by prosecutors "met the legal elements" for each of the statutes, but the defense's argument that Diddy was a "swinger" and his alleged victims were willing participants in sexual encounters likely "resonated with some of the jurors," former NYSD prosecutor Berit Berger tells NBC.
• The defense had honed in on text messages in which the women "expressed romantic affection for Combs and sometimes conveyed enthusiasm for their 'hotel nights,'" to support their argument.
• The prosecution might have fared better had they named other alleged victims or co-conspirators to back up its claims of trafficking and conspiracy, per NPR. "They never established what the criminal enterprise was, its purpose, how it operated, who was really involved in it," attorney Misty Marris, who was not involved in the case, tells NBC. "That really never gelled for me, and clearly the jury agreed."

• In closing arguments, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo had also painted Cassie Ventura and the unknown "Jane" as schemers. "Cassie is nobody's fool," he said. He said Diddy was sitting in jail while "she's sitting somewhere in the world today with $30 million," a reference to lawsuit settlements.
• Former SDNY prosecutor Jeffrey Harris suggests jurors may have been swayed early on by the defense's claims that the case against Diddy was exaggerated. "When prosecutors lose credibility by overcharging it usually does not end well," he tells NBC. Honig, a former prosecutor who also worked in the office, agrees: "SDNY prosecutors made a series of heavy charges that they ultimately could not back up."