Hotel surveillance footage of Diddy attacking his former partner Cassie in 2016 has surfaced following his ongoing sexual assault allegations.
Diddy – real name Sean Combs – is currently facing a series of ongoing investigations regarding alleged sex trafficking, sexual assault and harassment. The rapper’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided in March, seemingly in connection with the accusations.
Back in November, the rap mogul’s ex-girlfriend Cassie – real name Cassandra Ventura – filed a lawsuit in federal court against Diddy, accusing him of rape and physical abuse (per The New York Times). Ventura and Combs were in a romantic relationship between 2007 (when she was 21 years old) and 2018.
A few weeks after, Diddy took to his official X/Twitter account to deny all of the allegations against him.
Cassie and Diddy settled their abuse lawsuit one day after it was formally filed. According to a release sent by attorney Douglas Wigdor, who represented Ventura, both have settled their lawsuit to their “mutual satisfaction”.
Today (May 17), CNN obtained and published hotel surveillance video from March 2016 that appears to show the rapper physically assaulting Cassie in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.
The footage aligns with the allegations Cassie made in her lawsuit against the rapper. According to the lawsuit (per CNN), she alleged that ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ singer “became extremely intoxicated and punched [her] in the face” at the hotel.
She claimed that she attempted to leave the hotel room while the rapper was asleep but “as she exited, Mr. Combs awoke and began screaming at [her]. He followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her. 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 complaint also alleges Diddy paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage from that evening.
“The gut-wrenching video has only 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,” read a statement shared by Cassie’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor (per Pitchfork).
A week after Cassie filed her lawsuit against Diddy in November, two new allegations by two different women also came out with one claiming that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her and the other alleging that Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall took turns raping the plaintiff and her friend in 1990 or 1991 – with Diddy allegedly turning violent days later.
Producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones sued Combs in February for sexually assaulting him, having parties where sex workers and underage girls were present, and coercing him to sleep with prostitutes. Diddy replied, saying Jones’ claims were “pure fiction”. He denies any wrongdoing.
In other news, Ashton Kutcher shared that there is “a lot I can’t tell” about Diddy‘s infamous parties in a resurfaced interview. Also, an old clip of Usher commenting on his experiences at Diddy‘s home as a 13-year-old went viral, saying “There were very curious things taking place and I didn’t necessarily understand it”.
Meanwhile, Diddy re-shared the seven-minute-long music video for his 1998 track ‘Victory’, in which he is running away from Los Angeles police.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.