Diddy paid $100K to make the Cassie assault footage disappear, hotel security guard says

Yahoo

3 days ago

Before the gavel banged in the start of the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, a security tape showed much of the world footage of the music mogul assaulting then-girlfriend Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura Fine in a hotel hallway.
That footage, released publicly by CNN a year before the trial, has factored heavily into the closely watched court proceedings playing out in Manhattan – first with Combs' lawyers attempting to exclude it as evidence, then with potential jurors being asked if they had seen it, and now with a hotel security guard alleging he was paid $100,000 to destroy it.
On Tuesday, June 3, a former security officer at the InterContinental hotel at the time of the 2016 assault took the stand. Eddy Garcia told jurors that shortly after the incident, he received a call from Combs' chief of staff Kristina "KK" Khorram, asking "if there was any possible way to get a copy of the video."
What ensued, he said, was a cover-up facilitated by Combs' bodyguards, his hotel boss and a bag full of cash.
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At the time, Garcia told Khorram "she would have to reach out to hotel management or get a subpoena," but about an hour later, she showed up looking for him, allegedly telling him she and Combs wanted to know "what exactly they were dealing with." Garcia said he told her, "Off the record, it's bad."
Later that day, Garcia said Khorram put him on the phone with Combs, who "sounded very nervous." Combs allegedly explained to Garcia that he "had a little too much to drink" and said "you know how it is with women," adding that the video, which shows the music mogul physcially assaulting Ventura Fine and dragging her down the hotel hallway, "could ruin him" if it got out.
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When Garcia said there was nothing he could do, Combs allegedly pressed further, saying he would "take care of" him. When Garcia went to his boss, Bill Medrano, and told him that Combs was offering to pay for the video, Medrano allegedly said that he would do it for $50,000. When Garcia called Combs and Khorram back to relay the news, the Bad Boy Records founder "sounded excited," Garcia said, telling him, "Eddy, my angel. I knew you could help."
Garcia then told jurors that he was given an address by Combs where he could drop the USB that contained the footage of the assault. Medrano told him to tell the other security guards he was running an errand, Garcia said, describing the drop-off spot as "a big high-rise building," where he was met by one of Combs' bodyguards in the lobby.
On the elevator ride up, Combs' bodyguard told Garcia he had known the rapper for a long time and that "he was a good guy and I was doing a good thing."
"I was very nervous and my voice kept cracking," Garcia said, describing the moment he met with Combs and Khorram to drop off the tape, which he assured the music mogul was the only copy. During the meeting, when Garcia expressed concern over getting in trouble should Ventura Fine file a police report, Combs assured her she wanted the video gone too, going so far as to get her on the phone to corroborate it.
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Garcia recalled Combs making him sign a non-disclosure agreement, which jurors then saw a copy of, certifying there were "no duplicates, backups, stored drives" containing the video.
After Garcia signed the documents, Combs brought him $100,000 cash in a paper bag, and, after asking how he would spend the money, advised him not to "make any big purchases." The directive was made to protect the secrecy of the payoff, Garcia said, explaining he knew Combs was warning against big purchases "because it would draw attention."
Garcia gave $50,000 to Medrano and kept $30,000 for himself, he said. The remaining $22,000 went to the other officer on duty that night. He bought a used vehicle in cash with the money, he told jurors, never depositing any of it in a bank account or reporting it on taxes.
The heavy stacks of cash fit into a pattern emerging throughout the trial as prosecutors attempt to paint Combs as a man spoiled by success, able to hide a tendency for abuse and criminality through a large staff and an ever-larger fortune.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Diddy hotel video: Guard was paid $100K for Cassie assault tape