Sean Combs lawyers accuse government of leaking Casey assault video

A lawyer for Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul who is fighting federal racketeering and sex-trafficking charges, accused the government Wednesday of leaking hotel surveillance footage of his ex-girlfriend brutally beating him to CNN, saying they may ask for the widely publicized video. He should refrain from judging.

Prosecutors have made clear in court papers that the video – which shows Mr Combs assaulting singer Casey in a hotel hallway in 2016 – is key evidence in their case. The surveillance footage was released by CNN in May, prompting Mr. Combs to publicly apologize for the “inexcusable” behavior.

It was never clear how the footage reached the news organization, but in a court filing Wednesday, lawyers for Mr. Combs, who has pleaded not guilty and vehemently denies criminal charges, accused the Department of Homeland Security, which raided the defendants' homes in March, of being responsible for the leak.

“The videotape was leaked to CNN for one reason only: to seriously damage Sean Combs' reputation and chances of successfully defending himself against these charges,” the lawyers, Mark Agnifilo and Tenny Geragos, wrote.

The court filing cites a federal rule of criminal procedure that prohibits prosecutors or government agents from disclosing matters that occur before a grand jury.

The lawyers did not cite direct evidence that Homeland Security officials leaked the tape. But they accused the agency of a series of leaks, including anonymous comments to The New York Post, which they said were “all but certain” that the grand jury and a potential trial jury would be tainted. Lawyers have asked for a hearing to determine the government's culpability for leaking the question.

A representative for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives of the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which is overseeing the prosecution, and CNN declined to comment.

In the filing, the defense noted that after notifying the government of its intent to file court papers containing the leak allegations, prosecutors responded that the CNN video “was not obtained through the grand jury process” and that the Department of Homeland Security “did not. CNN was in possession of the videotape prior to its release.”

The video, taken at an InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles, shows Mr. Combs, with a towel around his waist, punching, kicking and trying to drag Casey.

Although prosecutors never named her, the criminal case closely aligns with the account of Casey — whose full name is Cassandra Ventura — filed in November in a lawsuit that accused Mr. Combs of years of physical and sexual abuse. His suit, which was quickly settled, included an account of the events at Intercontinental, which it says Mr. Combs later covered up by paying $50,000 for the security footage.

Last month, prosecutors cited Mr. Combs' lawyer's denial of Ms. Ventura's claims in full — before her apology in May, after the hotel footage was released — as evidence of her willingness to lie about her behavior.

“It wasn't until video surveillance footage of the defendant's attack was leaked to the media months later that the defendant was forced to admit that he had, in fact, carried out the 'despicable' attack,” the prosecution wrote in court papers.

In filings Wednesday, lawyers listed several factors they say were the fault of the Department of Homeland Security, including anonymous comments to the news media by a man identified as a Homeland Security agent. They claimed that a private leaker would be more inclined to give the tape to someone who would pay for it.

“It was leaked to CNN instead that shows a motive other than financial gain,” the filing said. The lawyers wrote that after a hearing on the matter, they plan to ask a judge to order possible remedies, including suppressing the video tapes, disqualifying witnesses or dismissing the charges.

In their filing, Mr Combs' lawyers argued that Casey – identified only as “Victim 1” – was likely not the source of the leak. They say there was no evidence he had the footage, and no apparent motive, saying he had already “received a substantial eight-figure settlement” after suing Mr Combs.

A court denied Mr Combs bail, ordering him to be held in prison pending his trial. Mr. Combs, 54, who is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, appealed the decision for a second time on Tuesday.

Prosecutors accused Mr. Combs, a music industry giant known as Diddy and Puff Daddy, of a decades-long pattern of physical and sexual violence known as “freak-offs” — forcing women into sexual encounters with prostitutes. Through abuse, drugs and financial pressure. They used federal racketeering laws to charge Mr. Combs with running a “criminal enterprise” that helped him commit sex trafficking and other crimes. The racketeering conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Mr. Combs's lawyers argued that the sex that prosecutors outlined was consensual activity between adults, and that the relationship with Ms. Ventura was sometimes toxic and charged with jealousy but far from evidence of sex trafficking.

The government has already begun introducing the hotel footage as evidence that Mr. Combs violated key federal sex trafficking laws, which require that a defendant use force, fraud or coercion as part of the person's conduct. Prosecutors argued in court last month that the video was clear evidence of force involved in a freak-off, events they described as highly organized sexual encounters with male prostitutes, which Mr. Combs conducted, masturbated and often filmed.

According to the government's account of the hotel footage, Mr. Combs assaulted Ms. Ventura in an attempt to stop her from making a getaway; Prosecutors said they had evidence that at least one prostitute was inside Mr. Combs' hotel room when the attack was being carried out in the hallway.

“The evidence shows that the victim tried to escape from the hotel room where the defendant and an escort were without her shoes on,” a prosecutor, Emily A. Johnson, said during a court hearing last month. “The accused then violently beat her and tried to drag her into the hotel room.”

Prosecutors said that after the attack, Mr. Combs offered a hotel security officer who intervened a “stack of cash” to ensure his silence, and that the mogul's team later contacted security personnel to try to cover up footage of the beating. “Three days later, the surveillance video disappeared from the hotel server,” Ms. Johnson said.

Mr. Combs' lawyers countered that the recorded assault — though disturbing — was not evidence of sex trafficking Mark Agnifilo, the lead lawyer for the defense team, said in court proceedings that the confrontation occurred after Ms. Ventura looked at Mr. Combs' phone while he was sleeping and found evidence of infidelity. The lawyer told the court that Ms Ventura then hit Mr Combs over the head with her phone and left with a bag of his clothes, leaving him in a towel and leaving the room.

Mr. Agnifilo said the episode made Mr. Combs realize he had drug addiction and anger issues, prompting him to go to rehab.

Prosecutors denied that Mr. Combs had assaulted Ms. Ventura over a “lovers' quarrel,” presenting the behavior as more serious. They read the messages aloud in court that gave a window into the aftermath of the now widely watched attack.

“Call me. Police are here,” Mr Combs wrote in a message after recording the hotel footage, later adding, “Yo, please call. I'm surrounded.” (Prosecutors said there was no evidence that the police were called to the hotel, although there were indications that Mr. Combs' staff knew that officers had responded to Ms. Ventura's apartment.)

“I have a black eye and a fat lip,” Ms. Ventura wrote in a text message that a prosecutor read aloud in court. “You're sick of thinking it's okay to do what you did.”