A surveillance video from 2016 shows Sean “Diddy” Combs grabbing, pushing, dragging, and kicking his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during a fight. This fits with the allegations Ventura made in her now-settled federal lawsuit in November.
The video from March 5, 2016, from several camera views, seems to show the rapper, producer, and business mogul during an event that Ventura says happened at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. Photos of the inside of the old hotel that were available to the public helped CNN confirm the location.
Ventura goes out of his hotel room and toward a bank of elevators in the video. Towel around his waist, Combs runs down a hall after Ventura. He throws her to the ground by grabbing her behind the neck. That’s when he turns to kick her, with one hand still on his towel shut.
A purse and a suitcase are taken from the floor near the stairs by Combs while Ventura is on the ground. He turns around and kicks Ventura again while she is lying on the floor still. The movie shows that there are about four seconds between the two kicks. After that, he walks away after quickly pulling Ventura by her sweatshirt toward a room.
After that, Ventura is seen slowly getting up. Before going to pick up the phone on the wall next to the stairs, she picks up some things from the floor. Combs comes back, still wearing a towel and socks. A mirror right next to the security camera shows what looks like Combs pushing Ventura.
After a few seconds, he sits down on a chair, picks up something from a table, and throws it hard at Ventura. Combs can be seen heading away. He then turns back toward Ventura when an elevator door opens and someone comes out.
Ventura, who reached a deal with Combs that wasn’t made public, wouldn’t say anything about the video that CNN got.
Douglas H. Wigdor, Ventura’s lawyer, said, “The heartbreaking video has only added to the evidence that Mr. Combs is acting in a disturbing and predatory way.” There are no words to describe how brave and strong Ms. Ventura is for coming forward to bring this to light.
From 2007 to 2018, Combs and Ventura, a model and singer known for songs like “Me & U,” were dating on and off. On March 7, 2016, they were seen together at the opening of the movie “A Perfect Match” in Los Angeles.
Combs got “extremely drunk and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye,” according to Ventura’s lawsuit, which said the fight happened “around March 2016.”
The lawsuit said that Ventura tried to leave the hotel room after Combs fell asleep but woke up and “followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her.”
In the report, it was said that he grabbed her and then picked up glass vases in the hallway to throw at her. As she ran to the elevator to get away, the glass broke around them.
Ventura’s complaint says that she took a taxi to her apartment after getting off the lift.
Combs has been sued five more times since November in civil court, each time for a different type of sexual misbehavior or other illegal behavior. He has rejected the claims, and the cases are still going on.
A senior federal law enforcement source who was briefed on the investigation said that Combs’ homes in California and Florida were searched in March as part of a federal investigation. The investigation was led by a Department of Homeland Security team that investigates crimes involving human trafficking. A second law enforcement source familiar with the searches said that the investigation is based on many of the same sexual assault claims made in the civil cases.