Three weeks before Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial is set to start, a hearing in New York today ruled that the shocking 2016 LA hotel security footage of the half naked Bad Boy Records founder seemingly beating then girlfriend Cassie Ventura will be shown to the jury.
Moving quickly through various pre-trial motions before jury selection and the May 12 trial kickoff, Friday’s session before Judge Arun Subramanian revealed that much-accused ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ performer Combs did in fact reject a plea deal from the feds that could have made a lot of his criminal charges go away.
Confirmation of the much-rumored plea deal came up almost casually when an assistant U.S. attorney mentioned the development , near the end of an almost 90-minute hearing on motions and other matters as jury selection nears. Combs was in attendance Friday for the entire hearing. The terms of the plea offer were not immediately clear, however, and Judge Subramanian said that next week he will address the rejected plea deal in court with a so-called “allocution” by Combs.
A spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the spurned agreement Combs’ lead attorney, Marc Agnifilo, confirmed afterward that his client turned downed the deal but also did not reveal the terms.
Arrested in a New York City hotel lobby in mid-September by the feds and the NYPD, once mini-mogul Combs is facing life behind bars if found guilty on all charges. The 55-year-old was initially facing one claim each of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Subsequent indictments from a grad jury have added forced labor allegations and two additional charges of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Informed in no small part by the quickly settled ($30 million) assault and abuse suit of late 2023 from Ventura the government has stated Combs and his inner circle over the decades coerced women and men into marathon sexual encounters called “freak-offs.” From big A-lister events, private homes and more, those session allegedly featured male and female prostitutes, drug use, threats of violence and imprisonment in the hotel rooms where the action was staged and videotaped.
Also up against dozens and dozens of civil suits of abuse and assault, Combs has insisted he is innocent of all charges.
Even though initially offering an apology last year for his conduct depicted in the raw video of his apparent attack on 2007 – 2018 girlfriend Ventura eight years, Combs has since walked that back, as well as claiming all his relationships and the “freak offs” were consensual.
More recently, Combs and the defense have tried over and over to discredit the 2016 footage that CNN obtained last year of the White Party host chasing an escaping Ventura down an L.A. hotel hallway, beating her and dragging her back to his room where allegedly one of his so-called freak offs was happening. On March 13 this year, CNN strongly denied Combs’ claims that they altered the timestamp and fundamentally re-edited the violent footage.
Identified as “Victim-1” in the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York last fall, Ventura has said she will testify openly and under her own name in Comb’s trial. The ruling by Judge Subramanian this morning to allow the harsh video into the trial is a serious blow to Combs and his team. A blow perhaps made all the harder by the fact that Combs bought what he thought was the only copy of the footage for $50,000 the day after the assault it shows occurred.
Failing on three occasions to get bail on a $50 million bond and home confinement conditions, Combs (aka inmate 37452-054) has been incarcerated for the past several months at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center with a number of other high-profile defendants.
In their defense, and peeling back a glimpse at their likely trial strategy Combs and his lawyers have repeatedly gone on the offensive. Earlier this year, Combs and his legal team declared the feds are using “racist” laws against him and desiring to “police non-conforming sexual activity.” On February 24, the defense took a swing at “unconstitutionally broad” search warrants that had been used on Combs in raids of his Los Angeles and Miami homes, devices, digital storage and more.
The trial is exepected to last about four weeks
The post Sean “Diddy” Combs Fails To Have Cassie Ventura 2016 Hotel Beating Footage Excluded From Sex Trafficking Trial; Rejected Plea Deal Revealed appeared first on Deadline.
