The media obsession with the unfolding case against Sean “Diddy” Combs is impossible to ignore. It’s everywhere, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, CNN, Fox, basically on every timeline, blog, and broadcast. The headlines are loud, the speculation endless, and the commentary often more about celebrity scandal than justice. As this spectacle plays out in public view, I found myself revisiting the 2021 federal conviction of R. Kelly, and with it, a disturbing pattern in how America chooses who to punish, and how severely.
R. Kelly was convicted under the RICO Act and sentenced to 30 years in prison, eerily similar to what Sean Combs is being charged with. A year after R Kelly first conviction, another federal case was added to that sentence, bringing his total to 31 years behind bars. The charges included racketeering, sex trafficking, and child pornography. The government argued that he led a criminal enterprise, supported by staff and enablers who helped him recruit and control young victims, despite being the only one charged. The use of RICO, a law designed to dismantle organized crime syndicates like the mob, was a bold move, typically reserved for drug kingpins, gang leaders, or mob bosses. In Kelly’s case, it somehow worked. The full weight of the system came down on him.
Now compare that to the cases of Mike Jeffries, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, was publicly accused in 2023 of running an elaborate international sex trafficking operation targeting young men from multiple countries. Dozens of young men who were children at the time of the assaults, came forward to describe a system involving international travel, handlers, coercion, NDAs, and systematic abuse. The allegations sound terribly worse than the criminal enterprise described in R. Kelly’s case. Yet Jeffries has not been charged, arrested, or even publicly booked. No mugshots. No indictment. No RICO charges. No salacious articles. No seizure of properties. Nothing.
Then there’s Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Their operation was also international, and larger, and longer, and involved far more victims than Robert Kelly’s. Epstein ran a global sex trafficking network that serviced elite figures across politics, business, and even royalty, yes no one has been charged despite the world knowing the names. Our current administration even ran on releasing the names and all the documents and as of June 2025, we have nothing. These young underage girls were flown across borders. Some ended up permanently silenced, some threatened, and some ignored entirely. And still, neither Epstein nor Maxwell was ever charged under RICO. Maxwell was sentenced to just 20 years in prison. No broader conspiracy was prosecuted. No clients were named. No victims were allowed to name their abusers. No systemic breakdown occurred in court. The people who funded it, covered for it, and participated in it remain untouched.
So we’re left with a question no one in power wants to answer.
Why is RICO reserved for Black men like Robert Kelly and Sean Combs, and not white billionaires like Jeffrey Epstein or Mike Jeffries? Why does the justice system move swiftly against Black celebrities, while it drags its feet or completely ignores the same crimes committed by wealthy white elites?
Hopefully people understand that this is not about defending Robert Kelly or Sean Combs for what they are accused of and in Kelly’s case charged with. All victims deserve justice. But if justice is truly blind, then it should swing as hard with RICO charges at those who look like Jeffries, Epstein, and Maxwell. Instead, we see a two-tiered system, where race predominantly, along with status, and power determine who faces the full might of the federal government, and who gets protected by the silence of that very same government.
Nkozi Knight 