NEW YORK (AP) — Soon after viciously attacking his longtime girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway, Sean “Diddy” Combs sought out a security guard and predicted accurately that his iconic career would be ruined — his image as the affable, successful “Puff Daddy” destroyed — if video of the beating ever became public.
Eddy Garcia, 33, testified Thursday that the hip-hop mogul made the comment repeatedly before giving a brown paper bag stuffed with $100,000 in cash to the then guard, in order to buy what he hoped was the only copy of surveillance footage of the March 2016 assault.
Prosecutors at Combs’ sex trafficking trial in Manhattan have made the footage of Combs kicking, beating and dragging Cassie at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles a centerpiece of their federal case against him. They contend it supports the claims of three women, including Cassie, who allege the Bad Boy Records founder sexually and physically abused them over two decades.
Prosecutors say Combs’ persistent efforts to hush up the episode fit into allegations he used threats and his fortune and fame to get what he wanted.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
