Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense accused CNN of altering and destroying a video showing the rapper physically assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Hotel surveillance footage, released by the outlet last May, showed Combs and Cassie Ventura engaged in a physical altercation. While the footage has been provided to Combs’ defense in his federal sex trafficking trial, the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper now claims it has been “substantially altered.”
“The defense has confirmed, through a forensic video analysis of the CNN footage that the government provided to this Court and of the footage provided by CNN in response to the defense subpoena, that all CNN video footage was substantially altered in significant respects,” Combs’ legal team wrote in a letter filed in court Thursday and obtained by Fox News Digital. “This includes covering the time stamp and then changing the video sequence. It also includes speeding up the video to make it falsely appear that the actions in the video are taking place faster than they are. As a result, the CNN videos do not fairly and accurately depict the events in question.”
“Finally, the defense has confirmed that CNN purchased the only known copy of the Hotel’s surveillance footage, uploaded that footage into a free editing software, altered the video; and then destroyed the original footage even though it knew about and repeatedly reported about the federal investigation.”
SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS REACTS TO VIRAL VIDEO OF HIM ALLEGEDLY BEATING CASSIE: ‘I’M DISGUSTED’
CNN denied the allegations, stating that the original copy still exists.
“CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source,” a spokesperson for CNN told Fox News Digital. “CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested.”
Diddy’s homes were raided in connection with a human trafficking investigation in March 2024. The video of Combs with Cassie, which featured a physical altercation that occurred in 2016, was published in May 2024. The musician had accused Combs of physical and sexual abuse in November 2023 through a civil lawsuit that she withdrew one day later.
Combs was later arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution in September 2024.
The rapper was arrested at a hotel in New York, a source confirmed to Fox News Digital at the time. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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Diddy apologized for the behavior in the video, six months after settling Cassie’s sexual abuse lawsuit.
“My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” Combs said in a statement shared to social media after the video aired. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry.”
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Combs is currently behind bars as he awaits trial. Judge Arun Subramanian scheduled the rapper’s trial to begin on May 5. The prosecution expects the government’s case to take six weeks to lay out, while Diddy’s legal team now estimates needing two weeks to argue the rapper’s defense.
Authorities alleged Combs ran a criminal enterprise through his businesses, including Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises and Combs Global, among others. He used “firearms, threats of violence, coercion, and verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse” to fulfill his sexual desires, according to the unsealed indictment obtained by Fox News Digital.
Combs and his employees would “intimidate, threaten, and lure female victims into Comb’s orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs allegedly then used force, threats of force, and coercion, to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs referred to as, among other things, ‘Freak Offs.'”
The rapper has denied all allegations.