Newly obtained surveillance video shows Sean “Diddy” Combs grabbing, kicking and dragging ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during a brutal March 2016 incident at a hotel in Los Angeles.
The footage, obtained by CNN and compiled from multiple security cameras in the hallway of the since-closed InterContinental Hotel in Century City, shows the hip-hop mogul chasing the R&B singer down the hall, grabbing her by the neck and throwing her to the floor.
Clad only in a towel around his waist, the Bad Boy Records founder then kicks Ventura twice as she lies motionless on the floor, before grabbing her by the sweatshirt and dragging her toward a hotel room.
A 2016 video shows Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in an altercation that matches some allegations in now-settled lawsuit https://t.co/fYUQ2z2MYN
— CNN (@CNN) May 17, 2024
After Combs lets go and walks away, Ventura can be seen slowly standing up and making her way to a hotel phone on the wall near the elevators. But Combs returns and shoves Ventura into a wall, then throws at her what appears to be a vase from a hallway table.
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs,” Ventura’s attorney Douglas H. Wigdor said in a statement. “Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
Footage from the altercation appears to back up claims Ventura made in a blockbuster November lawsuit, in which the 37-year-old accused Combs of rape, sex trafficking and years of physical abuse.
In the suit, she detailed a specific incident that occurred at the InterContinental Hotel “around March 2016,” during which Combs became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.”
Ventura said she tried to leave the hotel room after Combs fell asleep, but he woke up and followed her into the hallway.
“He grabbed at her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape,” the lawsuit alleged, claiming Combs paid the hotel $50,000 for the security footage from the hallway.
Though Combs and Ventura settled the suit the day after she filed, other accusers soon came forward with similar accusations.
Multiple women, as well as male producer Rodney Jones, came forward in the ensuing weeks and months with claims that they too had been victims of Combs’ sexual harassment, sexual assault and drugging.
The hotel surveillance video was published one day after Combs’ assistant and alleged drug mule, Brendan Paul, was reported to have cut a plea deal in his federal drug possession case. As a result, the 25-year-old former Syracuse basketball player will not face any time behind bars.
Paul was arrested in on March 25 at Miami’s Opa Locka Airport, the same day federal agents conducted raids on Combs’ properties in Florida and Los Angeles.
The Department of Homeland Security subsequently confirmed the raids were part of a federal sex trafficking investigation.
