Federal prosecutors tore into Sean “Diddy” Combs’ for his “false and misleading” accusations that the government leaked the shocking footage of him beating his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura to “mortally wound” his reputation.
Prosecutor Emily A. Johnson denied that the government was behind the leak, writing in an email to the defense that officials did not have access to the video of the brutal beatdown in a hotel hallway before it aired on CNN earlier this year.
“As the Government made clear to the defense both orally and in writing before it filed the motion, the Government was not in possession of the video before its publication by CNN,” prosecutors wrote in the filing. “Indeed, at the time of CNN’s publication, the Government did not possess any video of the March 2016 incident.”
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Defending the disgraced and embattled music mogul against an avalanche of sex-crime allegations, the defense filed an appeal on Wednesday accusing the Department of Homeland Security of architecting a smear campaign to tank their client's reputation.
His lawyers are alleging “misconduct” and “underhanded tactics” on the part of the DHS—which carried out the raids on his homes that turned up 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lube—in appealing Diddy’s jail sentence as he awaits trial.
“Defendant Sean Combs moves for four forms of relief related to what the defense believes was a series of unlawful government leaks, which have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial,” legal documents filed Wednesday read.
In May of this year, old security footage leaked to CNN, showing Diddy attacking Cassie in exactly that way and catalyzing the case against him. Though an allegedly “incensed” Diddy publicly apologized for his behavior, he’s now blaming the DHS for putting the video out in the first place, in alleged “violation of grand jury secrecy.”
“Rather than using the videotape as trial evidence, alongside other evidence that gives it context and meaning, the agents misused it in the most prejudicial and damaging way possible,” his attorneys argue, per Deadline. “The government knew what it had: a frankly deplorable video recording of Sean Combs in a towel hitting, kicking and dragging a woman in full view of a camera in the hallway of the hotel.”
Diddy’s attorneys are demanding a hearing “to determine exactly what the DHS did and did not do regarding these leaks, and what the U.S. Attorney’s Office did and did not do to stop them.”
Diddy was arrested in mid-September after a grand jury indicted him on charges of sex-trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prosecution; he’s been held without bail at the notoriously hellish Metropolitan Detention Center since.
In the indictment, prosecutors say he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others to fulfill his sexual desires,” namely by forcing them to participate in his now-infamous “freak offs”: Orgies Diddy allegedly orchestrated between the women in his circle and hired sex workers.
According to the indictment, he would often distribute drugs “to keep his victims obedient and compliant,” sometimes making them perform for days. Diddy has also been accused of financial, “physical, emotional, and verbal abuse” to ensure cooperation, sometimes kicking, hitting, and dragging his victims by the hair.
