Trigger warning: DV, SA

Last November, Cassie Ventura filed a federal lawsuit against Sean Combs/Puffy/Diddy for his years of physical and emotional abuse. He was regularly drugging her, assaulting her, raping her and trafficking her to other men. Combs immediately came out and suggested that Cassie was lying about everything. In less than 24 hours, he settled with her, lest the dominos begin the fall. Well, the dominos started to fall anyway. More lawsuits with other victims followed, and it started to get to the point where the federal authorities could no longer sit on the sidelines and hope that the civil courts would handle it. In March, the FBI raided Combs’ homes in LA and Florida and there’s reporting that the feds are building their case based on what they found.

What Cassie did was incredibly brave, and I remember the coverage of her 35-page federal lawsuit. Cassie had enough evidence to scare the sh-t out of Combs, evidence which he never wanted to come out. Speaking of, CNN got their hands of 2016 hotel surveillance footage which shows Combs physically assaulting Cassie as she attempts to leave him.

A 2016 surveillance video obtained exclusively by CNN shows Sean “Diddy” Combs grab, shove, drag and kick his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during an altercation that matches allegations in a now-settled federal lawsuit filed by Ventura in November.

The footage, compiled from multiple camera angles dated March 5, 2016, appears to show the rapper, producer and business mogul during an incident that, according to Ventura’s complaint, occurred at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. CNN verified the location based on publicly available photos of the former hotel’s interior.

In the video, Ventura exits a hotel room and walks to a bank of elevators. Combs, holding a towel around his waist, runs down a hall after Ventura. He grabs her by the back of the neck and throws her to the floor. Still holding his towel closed with one hand, he then turns to kick her, the video shows.

As Ventura is on the ground, Combs retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks Ventura again as she lies motionless on the floor. About four seconds transpire between the two kicks, according to the video. He then briefly drags Ventura by her sweatshirt toward a room before walking away.

Ventura is then seen slowly standing up. She gathers items from the floor and moves to pick up a phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Combs, still in a towel and socks, returns. A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Combs appearing to shove Ventura.

Seconds later, he sits down on a chair, grabs an object off a table and forcefully throws it toward Ventura. Combs is seen walking away, then turns toward Ventura once again when an elevator door opens and someone appears to exit.

Ventura, who reached an undisclosed settlement with Combs, declined to comment on the video obtained by CNN. Ventura’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, said: “The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs. Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”

[From CNN]

I believed Cassie before the video and I hate the fact that too many people only believe her now that the video has been released. I also hate that people are finding photos of Combs with other celebrities and trying to say “everyone knew.” While there was knowledge, especially in recent years, of Combs’ violence and predatory behavior towards women, a lot of people are underestimating how society ignores violence against women. Apparently, this 2016 incident – with the hotel footage – was one of the big reasons why Combs settled with Cassie so quickly too.

Here’s the video. Trigger warning.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.