On July 2, a New York jury cleared Sean “Diddy” Combs of federal sex trafficking, convicting him only on two Mann Act counts for transporting people for prostitution.

Jurors did so after reading a text from anonymous accuser Jane Doe to Combs – "I need a break. I don't want to" – and reviewing evidence that included leaked surveillance footage of him beating former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura Fine, along with testimony describing sex on demand behind locked hotel doors.

An acquittal isn’t innocence. It is confirmation that even overwhelming evidence can be dismissed when it defies our narrow image of what trafficking looks like. If a jury cannot recognize coercion this blatant, the failure is not in the facts – it is in a culture unwilling to see exploitation unless it arrives in chains.

Why did the jury miss it?

Our culture still

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