Sean ‘Diddy' Combs bribed hotel security guard $100K to hand over Cassie beating video, then called him on Easter: ‘God put you in my life for a reason'
Eddy Garcia said he accepted the cash in exchange for giving Combs what he believed was the only copy of a surveillance video of the 2016 beatdown — and then described getting a bizarre phone call from the music mogul not long after on Easter.
'He said, 'Happy Easter. You are my angel. God is good. God put you in my life for a reason,'' Garcia told jurors at Combs' federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.
'And he asked if anyone had inquired about the video,' Garcia added, noting he told Combs that he hadn't received any questions about the footage since the pair's March 7, 2016, deal.
Combs said 'Great' and then told Garcia to keep him posted if that changed, the witness said.
Garcia — who testified under an immunity deal, meaning he won't be prosecuted for his testimony even if it is incriminating — said he had been working for private security company Securitas at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles when he was told about a 'domestic dispute' involving the hip-hop mogul on March 5, 2016.
Within 48 hours, Garcia testified about how he was allegedly hounded by Combs and his chief of staff Kristina Khorram to help them make the video go away.
During one phone call with Khorram, she put a 'very nervous'-sounding Combs on the phone who tried to justify his actions, he said.
'He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering,' he said.
'[Combs] was just saying he had a little too much to drink,' Garcia said, adding that Combs told him, 'With women, one thing leads to another, and if this got out, it would ruin him.'
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Later, Garcia said Khorram called him on his cell phone — the number for which he hadn't provided — and put Combs on again.
'He stated that I sounded like a good guy,' Garcia testified, adding that Combs again told him, 'Something like this could ruin him.'
When Garcia told Combs he didn't have access to the server to obtain the video footage of the attack, Combs replied that he believed Garcia could make that happen and said 'he would take care of me,' which Garcia took 'to mean financially,' he said.
Garcia checked with his boss and was told he would sell the tape to Combs for $50,000, he said, adding that the music mogul 'sounded excited' when he told him the news.
'He referred to me as 'Eddy, my angel,' Garcia said, adding that Combs told him, 'I knew you could help. I knew you could do it.'
Garcia gave Combs a storage device containing the footage in exchange for $100,000 in cash that Combs fed through a money counter before placing in a brown paper bag.
Garcia said that he signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement at an office building in the presence of Combs' bodyguard and Khorram.
The declaration, which stated that there was no other copy of the video, required that Garcia pay $1 million if he breached the deal, the court was told.
Garcia, who at the time said he was earning $10.50 an hour working hotel security, added that he didn't fully read the documents.
'The goal was to get out of there as soon as possible,' he said.
After he signed the document, Garcia said Combs asked him what he planned to do with the money and advised him not to make any big purchases, which Garcia said he took to mean avoid drawing attention to himself.
Garcia told the court he gave $50,000 to his boss Bill Medrano, $20,000 to another security officer, Henry Elias, and pocketed the remaining $30,000, using some of the money to buy a used car in cash.
He never put the money in a bank to avoid a paper trail, he added.
Garcia also asked Combs if he might have future work with him, to which he said the rapper sounded receptive, although he never responded to his inquiries, he added.
The footage of the attack on Ventura was aired last year by CNN.
Another hotel guard testified that he recorded the footage on his phone so that he could show it to his wife.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that could send him to prison for life, if convicted.

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CNN
3 hours ago
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Abrego Garcia to remain behind bars for at least a month even as judge rejects Trump administration's claim he's dangerous
A federal judge in Tennessee declined on Wednesday to undo a separate judge's decision to let Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain free while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges — though he'll continue to remain behind bars for at least another month. The ruling from US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said federal prosecutors had not shown 'through clear and convincing evidence' that Abrego Garcia would present a danger to others or the community if he were allowed to remain out of criminal custody as his case unfolds. 'The government's general statements about the crimes brought against Abrego, and the evidence it has in support of those crimes, do not prove Abrego's dangerousness,' Crenshaw wrote in a 37-page ruling rejecting a request from the Trump administration that he should reverse a ruling by a magistrate judge in Nashville that also said prosecutors hadn't made a strong case for keeping Abrego Garcia behind bars for now. But the magistrate judge — Barbara Holmes — said in another decision that Abrego Garcia would remain behind bars for at least 30 more days, granting an unopposed request by his lawyers for him to stay in criminal custody. Abrego Garcia's lawyers had made the request earlier this week in an effort to ensure removal proceedings wouldn't quickly begin once he's released from custody. Just as Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, released his ruling, a third judge in Maryland who is overseeing a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia and his family over his wrongful deportation earlier this year to El Salvador released her own ruling that bars the administration from quickly deporting him again should he be released from criminal custody in coming days. That ruling from US District Judge Paula Xinis, also an Obama appointee, is meant to do two things: Restore Abrego Garcia to the immigration position he was in before his deportation in mid-March and ensure his due process rights aren't violated again should officials try to remove him from the US a second time. 'These rulings are a powerful rebuke of the government's lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for Kilmar's due process rights,' said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, in a statement. 'After the government unlawfully deported him once without warning, this legal protection is essential.' Xinis is prohibiting the Trump administration from taking Abrego Garcia into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody once he's released from criminal custody, and she ordered officials to put him back into the position of being under supervision by the ICE Baltimore Field Office, which is what his status quo was prior to mid-March. That supervision allowed him to work and live in Maryland, with occasional check-ins with an immigration officer. 'Once Abrego Garcia is restored under the ICE Supervision Order out of the Baltimore Field Office, Defendants may take whatever action is available to them under the law,' the judge wrote, adding that it's possible he could be ordered to appear before immigration officials in Baltimore, who may begin the process of deporting him. 'So long as such actions are taken within the bounds of the Constitution and applicable statutes, this Court will have nothing further to say,' Xinis wrote. The Trump administration quickly criticized the judge's decision. 'The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can't arrest an MS-13 gang member, indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking, and subject to immigration arrest under federal law is LAWLESS AND INSANE,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X, referring to the government's allegation that Abrego Garcia is a gang member. The ruling also puts guardrails on the government's ability to quickly deport Abrego Garcia to a nation other than his home country of El Salvador. Those measures, the judge said, are meant to ensure the government won't run roughshod over Abrego Garcia's due process rights, which include having the chance to raise a claim that he has a fear of facing torture in the third country the government may want to deport him to. Should officials be planning to deport him to a third country, they must give his lawyers at least 72 hours' notice prior to that intended removal so he has an opportunity to make such 'claims of credible fear or seek any other relief available to him under the law and the Constitution.' The Maryland father of three was wrongly deported to El Salvador in mid-March, setting off a monthslong legal fracas before Xinis, who ordered the government to secure his return to the US. He was brought back to the US last month to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia is currently in pre-trial detention in Tennessee but could soon be released from that court's authority and turned over to the Department of Homeland Security. Last month, his attorneys in the case before Xinis, of the federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, raised concerns that the Trump administration would quickly deport him once he's out of criminal custody and back in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The government has wavered in recent weeks on whether they would deport him before he stands trial in the human smuggling case.' 'All we're trying to do for today is ensure that there is no constitutional violation,' Andrew Rossman, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, said during a recent court hearing. The government is already barred from removing Abrego Garcia to El Salvador because of a 2019 order from an immigration judge.


CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
Abrego Garcia to remain behind bars for at least a month even as judge rejects Trump administration's claim he's dangerous
A federal judge in Tennessee declined on Wednesday to undo a separate judge's decision to let Kilmar Abrego Garcia remain free while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges — though he'll continue to remain behind bars for at least another month. The ruling from US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said federal prosecutors had not shown 'through clear and convincing evidence' that Abrego Garcia would present a danger to others or the community if he were allowed to remain out of criminal custody as his case unfolds. 'The government's general statements about the crimes brought against Abrego, and the evidence it has in support of those crimes, do not prove Abrego's dangerousness,' Crenshaw wrote in a 37-page ruling rejecting a request from the Trump administration that he should reverse a ruling by a magistrate judge in Nashville that also said prosecutors hadn't made a strong case for keeping Abrego Garcia behind bars for now. But the magistrate judge — Barbara Holmes — said in another decision that Abrego Garcia would remain behind bars for at least 30 more days, granting an unopposed request by his lawyers for him to stay in criminal custody. Abrego Garcia's lawyers had made the request earlier this week in an effort to ensure removal proceedings wouldn't quickly begin once he's released from custody. Just as Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, released his ruling, a third judge in Maryland who is overseeing a civil case brought by Abrego Garcia and his family over his wrongful deportation earlier this year to El Salvador released her own ruling that bars the administration from quickly deporting him again should he be released from criminal custody in coming days. That ruling from US District Judge Paula Xinis, also an Obama appointee, is meant to do two things: Restore Abrego Garcia to the immigration position he was in before his deportation in mid-March and ensure his due process rights aren't violated again should officials try to remove him from the US a second time. 'These rulings are a powerful rebuke of the government's lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for Kilmar's due process rights,' said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, in a statement. 'After the government unlawfully deported him once without warning, this legal protection is essential.' Xinis is prohibiting the Trump administration from taking Abrego Garcia into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody once he's released from criminal custody, and she ordered officials to put him back into the position of being under supervision by the ICE Baltimore Field Office, which is what his status quo was prior to mid-March. That supervision allowed him to work and live in Maryland, with occasional check-ins with an immigration officer. 'Once Abrego Garcia is restored under the ICE Supervision Order out of the Baltimore Field Office, Defendants may take whatever action is available to them under the law,' the judge wrote, adding that it's possible he could be ordered to appear before immigration officials in Baltimore, who may begin the process of deporting him. 'So long as such actions are taken within the bounds of the Constitution and applicable statutes, this Court will have nothing further to say,' Xinis wrote. The Trump administration quickly criticized the judge's decision. 'The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can't arrest an MS-13 gang member, indicted by a grand jury for human trafficking, and subject to immigration arrest under federal law is LAWLESS AND INSANE,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X, referring to the government's allegation that Abrego Garcia is a gang member. The ruling also puts guardrails on the government's ability to quickly deport Abrego Garcia to a nation other than his home country of El Salvador. Those measures, the judge said, are meant to ensure the government won't run roughshod over Abrego Garcia's due process rights, which include having the chance to raise a claim that he has a fear of facing torture in the third country the government may want to deport him to. Should officials be planning to deport him to a third country, they must give his lawyers at least 72 hours' notice prior to that intended removal so he has an opportunity to make such 'claims of credible fear or seek any other relief available to him under the law and the Constitution.' The Maryland father of three was wrongly deported to El Salvador in mid-March, setting off a monthslong legal fracas before Xinis, who ordered the government to secure his return to the US. He was brought back to the US last month to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia is currently in pre-trial detention in Tennessee but could soon be released from that court's authority and turned over to the Department of Homeland Security. Last month, his attorneys in the case before Xinis, of the federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, raised concerns that the Trump administration would quickly deport him once he's out of criminal custody and back in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The government has wavered in recent weeks on whether they would deport him before he stands trial in the human smuggling case.' 'All we're trying to do for today is ensure that there is no constitutional violation,' Andrew Rossman, one of Abrego Garcia's attorneys, said during a recent court hearing. The government is already barred from removing Abrego Garcia to El Salvador because of a 2019 order from an immigration judge.

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Is Leah Kateb The Best-Dressed Person on Reality TV?
Love Island USA has been on air since the summer of 2019, but until recently, it frequently felt like the less popular sibling of the original U.K. franchise—that is, until Season 6 rolled around. Whether it was because fans felt the U.K. edition was entering its 'flop era,' or that more and more Americans were becoming curious about what those sexy singles were up to in Fiji, or both, when Leah Kateb hit the island armed with a wardrobe of vintage Roberto Cavalli and runway-fresh Bottega Veneta, something noticeably shifted. (In the words of Love Island U.K. legend Olivia Attwood, 'I'm sat.') Take Kateb's personal style, eye for archive fashion and quippy one-liners, add her infectious chemistry with cast mates Serena Page and JaNa Craig (the three have since been dubbed 'the PPG' girls, in the vein of the Powerpuff Girls), and audiences were enraptured, skyrocketing the season to its highest American viewership yet. (Season 7 has had a similar bump, though it's undoubtedly thanks to the groundwork that was laid by Kateb and company.) Since the season finale, Kateb's and the 'PPG's' careers have taken on a life of their own. Sponsorships, appearances, and brand deals began pouring in. While the former contestants are certainly capitalizing on the sudden limelight, they feel less like reality TV stars-turned-influencers and more like newly minted celebrities in their own right. (Even certified stars were hooked—Kerry Washington was a vocal supporter of 'PPG' on Instagram Reels.) For Kateb, it was immediately clear a new strategy was going to be needed, including using a stylist for the constant slew of VIP appearances. 'I never really paid attention to the U.S. seasons. I hated when they brought it over to America because it just wasn't as salacious or dramatic,' Kateb's now stylist, Timothy Luke Garcia tells ELLE. However, after seeing fans gush over Season 6 on X, formerly known as Twitter, Garcia decided to tune in and was immediately struck by Kateb's taste. Up until this year, Garcia could point to a number of more traditional celebrities on his client roster, including performers like Ice Spice, Kehlani, and Kali Uchis. For Kateb, who had never used a stylist before exiting the villa, and Garcia, who has never worked with an 'influencer' before, their collaboration is a series of firsts in a wholly unprecedented level of reality TV-induced fame. From observing Season 6, one thing about Kateb was abundantly clear: she had an incredibly refined eye when it came to vintage fashion, and this obsession only continued once she started attending brand events. Garcia caught wind she was sourcing looks from Voulez Vous Vintage in Los Angeles, so he decided to leave a message with the store's team that if she was ever looking for a stylist, he'd be more than happy to get in touch. Thankfully, she did, although Garcia jokes that their first time working together during New York Fashion Week got off to a mutually awkward start due to the volume of the pull and an intense time crunch. However, the two stayed in touch and began DMing each other vintage listings and mood board pictures. Eventually Coachella came around and Kateb asked Garcia to work with her again. 'I put her in a Dolce look with Dior cowgirl boots and it just kind of went viral. People were [saying] 'Coachella fits are back,'' he says. After that, the pair began collaborating full-time. For many celebrities, archive fashion pulls have taken over red carpet dressing, and as the space has become oversaturated, it can often feel like forced participation. But Kateb has been buying—yes, buying, not borrowing—pieces for her vintage library since long before her sponsored appearances—if anything, her rising star is even more of an excuse to continue it (sometimes to the chagrin of her family when they see the price tags, Garcia adds jokingly). 'A lot of people are looking at her, and I don't want anyone to ever just be able to go and literally grab the same look we just wore,' he says, noting that he's also confident in pushing her to take stylistic risks. The two now collaboratively scour the landscape for archive designer finds, often turning to their favorite stores Opulent Addict and Nordic Poetry. Sometimes individual parts from full looks need to be hunted down and joined back together, like lost puzzle pieces scattered across the globe. This was the case with Kateb's recent fall 2002 Yves Saint Laurent blouse and capris, which she wore for an appearance on Watch What Happens Live and a spring 2004 butterfly Valentino ensemble, which the two found right down to the belt. If they have to have an assistant run to the airport to ship a suitcase from Naples, Florida to L.A. same day, they'll do it. 'I don't want to say [archive fashion] was a strategy. I think it became a strategy once we realized we were getting everyone's attention,' explains Garcia. And it's certainly working. Kateb is now Garcia's most frequent client due to her sheer number of commitments—from her own Chipotle bowl to a Van Leeuwen ice cream collaboration, for which she sported a printed Acne Studios chiffon dress. As for upcoming looks, Garcia says while sharing photos of recent purchases—including archive Jean Paul Gaultier and Versace—'She has so much coming up that I can't wait for you to see.'