HUNTER: How the hell did Sean 'Diddy' Combs walk on sex trafficking?

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Even for the most enthusiastic libertine, the tawdry details that emerged from the trial of hedonistic hip-hop impresario Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs were alarming.

The “freak offs”, the orgies, the drugs, the abuse, the lifetime supply of baby oil. None of it mattered a wit.

What did matter was that Combs is a celebrity.

Combs, 55, and the owner of Bad Boy Records with interests in fashion, TV and other businesses had been charged with sex trafficking, prostitution and racketeering.

But despite a mountain of evidence and sordid details that could get you booted from the Playboy Mansion, Combs was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering. He was convicted of prostitution charges.

He could have gone to prison for the rest of his life, but now, experts say his stretch in the pokey could be down to months.

Veteran journalist Barry Levine wrote the blockbuster, The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, that covers similar ground. The difference, he told The Toronto Sun on Wednesday, was that the twisted twosome’s victims were underage.

Somehow, he said, the jury viewed Combs’ victims as less worthy.

“It’s yet another blow to the #MeToo movement in this era,” Levine told the Sun from his home in New York City. “There was a mountain of evidence, what do you have to do to convince jurors at a trial that someone is a sex trafficker?”

He added: “This has to be devastating to Cassie Ventura [Diddy’s former girlfriend] and the other women who testified. But he will go to jail, for how long is the question.”

The veteran journalist said it was clear to him that Combs appeared guilty. He noted that it was a “pretty strong case,” but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

While Combs was acquitted on the sex trafficking charges, there was a conviction for flying men and women around the country for sexual encounters. It went down as prostitution, but somehow, not sex trafficking?

“There was a lot of complexity in this trial. There are no perfect victims,” Levine explained.

Cassie Ventura, former Diddy gal pal, was the prosecution’s star witness, and even though she was victimized by the music mogul, she participated willingly in his sex-charged, baby oil-infused “freak offs.” Levine said that while she may not have liked the orgies, “she was in love with Diddy.”

And her duties included having sex with other men and women while the rapper watched.

“For her, it was a real relationship. Cassie sent texts saying that she ‘can’t say I enjoy taking part in the freak offs’ but she wasn’t totally opposed either,” Levine said, adding she also received a lot of money from the rapper.

Levine also believes the celebrity factor and wall-to-wall media coverage were on the marquee.

“In a celebrity trial, the jurors may have been influenced by that, with some of them possibly being the type who put celebrities on a pedestal,” he said. “Maybe the defence made enough points. Combine that with the star factor, and here we are.

“If it were you or I up there instead of Diddy, we probably would have seen a completely different verdict.”

Ventura’s lawyers stood behind their client and credited her with moving the matter forward.

“She displayed unquestionable strength and brought attention to the realities of powerful men in our orbit and the misconduct that has persisted for decades without repercussion,” they said in a statement.

“This case proved that change is long overdue, and we will continue to fight on behalf of survivors.”

Sadly, we have heard this refrain before.

And those powerful men and a bedazzled public will almost certainly retain the status quo. They will insist.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun