A newly released video shows Sean “Diddy” Combs manhandling and kicking singer Cassie Ventura – his former girlfriend – in plain view of hotel surveillance cameras in 2016, before the rapper, music producer and businessman rapidly settled a lawsuit that she brought against him this past November, according to footage exclusively obtained by CNN.
The video in question illustrates in the most graphic nature possible one of the beatings alleged and described in Ventura’s lawsuit, which Combs had vehemently denied.
Ventura’s lawsuit preceded federal authorities’ March raid of Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami as part of a sex-trafficking investigation.
Combs, in the footage obtained by CNN, is seen exiting a room at the since-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles’s Century City neighborhood while holding a towel around his waist. He runs down a hallway after Ventura, grabs her by the back of the neck and throws her to the floor near a bank of elevators.
The video – which had never before been seen publicly – shows Combs then kick Ventura twice and drag her before letting her go and walking away.
Ventura later stands up, gathers some of her items from the floor, and picks up a telephone on the wall next to the elevators. Combs soon returns – still clad in just a towel and socks – and shoves Ventura into a corner while they are in front of a mirror directly across from one of the security cameras that captured footage of the attack.
This is hard to watch. P. Diddy should be in jail and rejected from polite society. Real men don’t do what he did.
pic.twitter.com/26eeLu5voT— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) May 17, 2024
He throws something at Ventura before starting to walk away. The clip shows Combs then double back to Ventura when one of the elevator doors opens and someone apparently exits.
A statement that Ventura’s attorney, Douglas H Wigdor, provided to CNN called the video “gut-wrenching”. Wigdor said the footage “further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr Combs”.
“Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light,” Wigdor said.
Combs did not immediately comment on the footage, which vividly contradicted his prior vehement denials of Ventura’s allegations.
Ventura’s lawsuit in November accused Combs of rape and severe physical abuse spanning more than a decade. She also detailed how he allegedly forced her to have sex with male prostitutes and used his network of powerful entertainment contacts to entrap her in the relationship, which reportedly started in 2007 – when she was 19 and he was 37 – and lasted on and off until 2018.
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