A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Jurors have reached a verdict in the criminal trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. A federal jury in Manhattan found Combs guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was found not guilty of the more serious charges he was facing. NPR culture correspondent Anastasia Tsioulcas has been covering the trial, and she is just coming back from the courtroom. Anastasia, tell us more about this verdict and what it means.
ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS, BYLINE: Hi. Well, as you said, he was found not guilty of the most serious charges against him, which were racketeering - essentially assembling and carrying out a criminal conspiracy with former employees and associates to cover up crimes. He was also found not guilty of sex trafficking two women, two alleged victims, two of them being his ex-girlfriends - the singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura and another ex-girlfriend who testified under a pseudonym on the stand. She went by Jane.
So he was found guilty of a much less serious offense, which is kind of colloquially known as the Mann Act - transportation to engage in prostitution, essentially - that he was found guilty of bringing sex workers across state lines for the purpose of prostitution.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. And how long did the jury deliberate - because I know that they were having trouble at first, and then the judge sent them back to deliberate.
TSIOULCAS: They were. And both the prosecution and the defense teams were very eager to get a full verdict in this go-around. So the jury deliberated over 13 hours. They came back - they started in this morning at just about 9 a.m. And by 9:52, they had delivered a note to the judge saying that they had reached their verdict.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So what happens now with a prison sentence? What kind of prison sentence could he be facing, if any?
TSIOULCAS: So because he was found guilty of this less serious charge, the maximum he could receive is 10 years for each of these two transportation convictions. If he had been convicted of any other counts, he could have faced up to life in prison. So this is a much less serious sentencing situation that he's facing now. And I should mention, of course, he also has dozens of civil suits, still, against him. So those all remain - or almost all of them remain unfinished business for him.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, you were there in the courthouse when the verdict was read. What was the reaction in there?
TSIOULCAS: Well, you know, it's been like every other day at court. Not just the courtroom, but also at least one, if not multiple overflow rooms are filled with fans and tourists and TikTok influencers and members of the media like me. And I was there this morning in one of the overflow rooms, and the room erupted into cheers as soon as the foreperson said not guilty on racketeering. And actually, the man next to me threw himself on the ground, thanking God that he was not found guilty of the racketeering or RICO charge. And...
MARTÍNEZ: Really quick - oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Finish up.
TSIOULCAS: Oh, I was going to say, and then after the verdict, CNN was reporting Combs faced the courtroom gallery, and they were clapping. His friends and family erupted into applause. There was clearly a lot of relief on their end.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and that's what I was going to ask - how Sean "Diddy" Combs reacted or how - what he did in that courtroom, but you answered it right there. So that's NPRs Anastasia Tsioulcas from New York City, where she has been covering the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs. Anastasia, thanks for the hustle on this.
TSIOULCAS: Thanks for having me.
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