U.S. prosecutors are pushing back on claims they leaked the now-infamous video of Sean “Diddy” Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Weeks after the rap mogul’s attorneys said in a filing that the release of the 2016 clip on CNN in May was the result of “a series of unlawful government leaks,” prosecutors in the case have filed a motion refuting the allegation.
In the Oct. 30 filing obtained by E! News, prosecutors state that the video, which was recorded in the hallway of the since-closed Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, “was not in the Government’s possession at the time of CNN’s publication and the Government has never, at any point, obtained the video through grand jury process.”
The documents add, “Without any factual basis, the Leak Motion seeks to suppress highly probative evidence—a video of Combs brutally physically assaulting a victim in March 2016 that was published by a media outlet in May 2024—by claiming that it was grand jury material leaked by Government agents to CNN.”
The prosecutors instead clarified when they had access to the video. They said the U.S. government “ultimately obtained the Intercontinental Video at the same time as the general public on May 17, 2024, when CNN publicly released the footage.”
They also allege that Combs “refuses to acknowledge that multiple individuals other than Government agents—including some of his own employees—may have had access to the Intercontinental video.”
In their Oct. 9 motion, filed weeks after Combs was arrested in New York and more than six months after Department of Homeland Security agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami, Combs’ legal team wrote that it “seems entirely reasonable that the video was leaked by one or more DHS agents” and called for a “full suppression of the videotape.”
The “unlawful government leaks,” they alleged, have “led to damaging, highly prejudicial pretrial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial.”
CNN declined to comment on the allegations by the 54-year-old’s legal team, which come more than a month after he pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs is accused of using his companies to transport women and male sex workers to participate in recorded sex performances, or “Freak Offs.”
In a federal criminal indictment filed against him in September, the 2016 assault video is mentioned, without naming Ventura, as an example of his alleged recurrent physical abuse of women.
The singer, who dated Combs on and off for 10 years until 2018, had accused the music producer of rape and abuse in a November 2023 civil lawsuit that the two settled one day after it was filed, without an admission of wrongdoing from her ex.
Combs had commented on the surveillance video, which shows him grabbing, shoving, dragging and kicking Ventura in a hallway, two days after it was posted.
“It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,” Combs said in an Instagram video shared May 19. “I was f–ked up. I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
Ventura is one of more than two dozen people who have filed civil lawsuits against Combs over the past year for alleged sexual misconduct. The producer, who has for decades been known for throwing large, star-studded parties, has denied any wrongdoing.
