Diddy’s prosecutors deny that the video of Cassie’s attack was leaked

Prosecutors protest strongly Sean Combsclaims that a bomb video of his film was leaked brutally beating his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a hotel hallway in March 2016. In a lengthy reprimand filed late Wednesday night, prosecutors said their copy of the surveillance video was still the one they downloaded from CNN broadcast news about it last May. More than 39 pages of arguments argued that Combs’ final three motions, seeking to exclude the video from the upcoming trial, obtain advance access to the prosecutor’s list of victim names and obtain an injunction against witnesses and their lawyers, should be denied.

Combs, 54, was arrested on September 16 on a federal indictment he’s in a federal prison in Brooklyn is awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. The once billionaire founder of Bad Boy Entertainment pleaded not guilty. His trial in downtown Manhattan is set for May 5, 2025.

“All three of defendant’s motions should be denied in their entirety,” prosecutors wrote, saying Combs’ request for an evidentiary hearing and “withholding” of Ventura’s video at trial “should be denied.” They said the video was not protected material when CNN obtained it, and readily admitted that their own attempts to obtain the video were unsuccessful. They said that as of Wednesday they still had “not received CNN’s intercontinental video from any source other than the public broadcast.”

“As the defendant is fully aware, the video was not in the government’s possession at the time of CNN’s publication, and the government never obtained it at any time in the grand jury proceedings,” prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said. York wrote.

“The defendant refuses to acknowledge that many people other than government agents…
including some (Combs) employees may have had access to the Intercontinental video,” they continued. “In fact, the government continues to investigate who had access to and may have obtained the video, including, for example, hotel employees, the security team employed by the hotel, and members of the defendant’s staff who, as discussed in, attempted to obtain the video following the incident in March 2016

With respect to Combs’ request to provide the names of the victims in the form of the so-called “detailed statement,” which means a written itemization of the claims in the lawsuit, prosecutors said it was too early to do so. “In this case, all discovery will be made by December 31, 2024, more than four months before trial, and government productions have intentionally prioritized elements such as search warrant affidavits – which contextualize the allegations in the indictment – ​​as well as other materials required by the accused.” They said that if Combs later determines he does not have enough time to prepare for trial, “appropriate relief” would be to file a motion to postpone the May trial date, which he specifically requested. “Given the defendant’s history, the government has serious concerns about the safety of victims and the potential for witness tampering if the defendant was provided with a list of victim names,” they said.

They said Combs’ third motion, in which he asked the witness for a gag order, should also be rejected as “extremely excessive relief.” They described it as “nothing more than another attempt to force the government to prematurely release its witness list.”

Combs’ camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the government’s conclusions. When his lawyers filed a motion requesting the names of the victims earlier this month said prosecutors “unfairly” forced Combs to play a “guessing game” while he prepared his defense. They said Combs’ 14-page indictment lacked “particularity” to the point that they could not determine who the other unidentified alleged victims were – at least beyond the primary victim. commonly understood as Ventura.

“The government unfairly forces (Combs) to play a guessing game,” defense attorneys Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos wrote. “Without clarity from the government, Mr. Combs has no way of knowing what allegations the government is relying on in its indictment.” Attorneys said Combs’ position “has been made all the more difficult by the onslaught of baseless allegations that desperate plaintiffs are making against him – most of them anonymously – in civil lawsuits seeking to force payment from Mr. Combs and others.”

A preparatory hearing in the criminal case was scheduled for December 18 his indictmentCombs is accused of “abusing, threatening and coercing” multiple unidentified victims to “pursue their sexual desires.” Prosecutors accused Combs of engaging in a “persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse,” but were vague about dates and details about people other than Ventura, who was not specifically named.

I’m talking to Rolling Stone last month, Elizabeth Geddes, a former federal prosecutor who delivered closing arguments in the government’s successful investigation into R. Kelly in Brooklyn, described Combs’ racketeering indictment as based on the “Glecier format,” meaning the crude styling called hello famous case, United States v. Glecier. In her opinion, the advantage of this format is that it provides greater protection for witnesses. “By doing this, they don’t have to list all the motive-based racketeering acts they plan to prove at trial. They can simply list broad categories of crimes (without) citing specific cases or specific victims,” Geddes said.

In addition to the criminal case, Combs also faces more than two dozen lawsuits filed by plaintiffs with claims ranging from sexual harassment to rape. The deluge of civil claims began when Ventura she filed a drastic complaint about sex trafficking in November last year. Combs settled with Ventura for an undisclosed amount within 24 hours, but her 35-page complaint, now the subject of a criminal investigation by the music mogul, opened the floodgates. Combs’ homes were searched in March and May. CNN obtained and released shocking hotel surveillance video showing Combs throwing, kicking, stomping and dragging Ventura in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. After Ventura’s claims against him were first dismissed, Combs issued a video apology regarding the incident, admitting that his “behavior in this video is inexcusable.”