New surveillance footage has emerged that appears to show Sean “Diddy” Combs violently attacking Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, who last year settled a lawsuit in which she accused him of rape and abuse.
The video, which was obtained by CNN, appears to show Combs with a towel around his waist chasing after Ventura, hitting and kicking her and then trying to drag her back down a hallway. Combs also appears to shove Ventura in a corner and throw an object in her direction.
The video, dated March 5, 2016, is footage assembled from several surveillance cameras. Neither NBC News nor MSNBC has verified the video, and NBC has reached out to representatives for Combs and Ventura for comment.
Ventura’s lawsuit against Combs was filed in November and then swiftly settled for an undisclosed sum the next day. Combs has denied the allegations in her suit, calling them “offensive and outrageous” and accusing Ventura of “blackmail.” In announcing the settlement, his lawyer Brad Brafman said it “is in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”
The violent scene and the timestamps in the footage appear to line up with some details in Ventura’s suit. Among the incidents of alleged abuse described in the lawsuit is one that took place at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016, in which Ventura said an “extremely intoxicated” Combs punched her in the face. According to the suit, Ventura then tried to leave the hotel room when Combs was asleep, but he woke up, followed her down the hall, “grabbed at her” and threw glass vases at her.
Ventura said she left the hotel, but returned later to apologize to Combs. The complaint described her as “completely stuck in his vicious cycle of abuse” and fearful that “her running away that would cause Mr. Combs to be even angrier with her.” The lawsuit stated that she was stopped by the hotel’s security staff, who suggested they had seen him strike her in security footage and advised her to leave.
The suit also alleged that Combs paid hotel management $50,000 for the surveillance footage. In the month following Ventura’s suit, three other women filed separate lawsuits against Combs, with allegations that include sex trafficking, sexual assault and gang rape. In a statement on Instagram in December, Combs called the allegations “sickening” and accused people of trying to “assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and legacy.” “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,” he wrote. Since then, two additional sexual misconduct lawsuits have been filed against Combs. He has denied those allegations as well. NBC News also reported in March that the producer is the subject of a federal investigation that has led agents to search two of his properties and conduct interviews with several people about sex trafficking allegations.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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