Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team in the federal lawsuit against him is trying to get one evidence excluded from the upcoming trial.
A surveillance video—released by CNN on May 17, 2024—that showed Ventura, now 38, being beaten by the music mogul, 55, in a hotel corridor is expected to be used as evidence confirming Combs’ predatory behaviour.
Combs’ legal team filed a motion on Friday, asking for the video to be excluded from the trial.
“There is no longer any dispute that the CNN footage from March 5, 2016, at the InterContinental Hotel, offered by the government at three separate bail hearings, is wholly inaccurate, having been altered, manipulated, sped-up, and edited to be out of sequence,” the filing reads, per People Magazine.
The motion also alleges that the original tape was destroyed and the final video was being presented out of order via editing.
“Accordingly, all the footage from CNN is inaccurate and inadmissible. As for the two items of footage filmed by an iPhone 6, those pieces of footage are inaccurate and inadmissible as well.”
Combs’ lawyers also argue in the filing that the CNN video—and iPhone videos—must be excluded from trial because the government cannot provide sufficient evidence of their authenticity in the federal lawsuit alleging the rapper of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
“Relevant evidence must be authenticated before it can be admitted… The government has not proffered any competent evidence through which it could authenticate these videos.”
Meanwhile, the outlet has denied the accusations, saying, “CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source. CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested.”
The federal trial is due May 5. The Bad Boy Records founder also faces several civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault towards multiple women and men.
