Hotel Security Guard Testifies Diddy Paid $100K Cash to Obtain the Video of Cassie Ventura’s Assault

Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

Sean “Diddy” Combs paid $100,000 to get hold of the surveillance video showing his assault of Cassie Ventura, a hotel security guard testified at Combs’ trial on Tuesday.

Combs is facing multiple felony charges, including racketeering, conspiracy, fraud, and sex trafficking related to an alleged decades-long criminal enterprise that abused, threatened, and coerced his victims, including Ventura, his ex-girlfriend. The serious nature of the charges against him, the alleged length of time and number of incidents involved, means that, if convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The surveillance video, from March 2016 when Combs and Ventura stayed at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, showed multiple angles of the then-couple’s interactions in the hallways after Ventura left the hotel room, including moments where Combs grabs her, throws glass vases at her, shoves her, hits her, kicks her while she was on the floor, and attempts to drag her along the floor back to the room.

The video was obtained by CNN last year, but according to the testimony of Eddy Garcia, a security officer at the InterContinental Hotel in March 2016, Combs took significant steps to prevent the footage from being seen, paying Garcia $100,000 in cash to keep the video a secret.

According to a recap of Garcia’s testimony by CNN, Garcia testified under an immunity order after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Garcia testified that Combs’ personal assistant Kristina Khorram visited the hotel, asking the security officers to view it or obtain a copy, and Combs called him on the hotel security phone line and on his personal cell phone, asking for help with the video:

“He stated that I sounded like a good guy, that I sounded like I wanted to help, that something like this could ruin him,” Garcia testified. “He was concerned that this video would get out and that it would ruin his career.”

Garcia testified that Combs also said he “would take care of me” if Garcia helped him. Garcia said he believed at the time Combs was making a reference to money.

According to Garcia, his boss Bill Madrano agreed to provide the video to Combs, downloaded it onto a USB drive, and gave it to Garcia to take to Combs. Madrano told Garcia it was the only copy and had been deleted from the server, Garcia said.

Garcia also testified that Combs had him sign a non-disclosure agreement and a declaration that he had given him the only copy of the video, and photos of those documents were shown to the jury. After he signed the papers, Garcia testified, Combs took the documents and came back with a brown bag and a money counter, counting out $100,000 in cash. Garcia said that he gave $50,000 to Madrano, $20,000 to another security officer involved, and kept $30,000, which he used to buy a used car.

Law enforcement contacted Garcia in June 2024 to ask about the incident, Garcia testified, but he was dishonest at that time and deleted his messages with other hotel security staff about it. According to Garcia, he met again later with government investigators and to retract his previous story and to tell them about the video and that Combs had paid him for it.

Watch the video above via CNN.