Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs claims CNN altered video of Cassie assault
Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs has alleged the security footage of him assaulting Cassie in 2016 was altered by CNN. The video in question saw the Bad Boy rapper kicking and dragging the singer, his ex-girlfriend, through the hallways of a Los Angeles hotel.
Combs made his latest claims in a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian and the US Attorney’s office before a pre-trial hearing on March 14th. He’s facing charges of racketeering, sex trafficking by force and transportation for purposes of prostitution, with his trial set to begin on May 5th.
“The defence has confirmed, through a forensic video analysis of the CNN footage that the government provided to this Court and of the footage provided by CNN in response to the defence subpoena, that all CNN video footage was substantially altered in significant respects,” the letter from Combs’ defence reads, according to Deadline.
“This includes covering the time stamp and then changing the video sequence. It also includes speeding up the video to make it falsely appear that the actions in the video are taking place faster than they are. As a result, the CNN videos do not fairly and accurately depict the events in question.”
They added, “Finally, the defence has confirmed that CNN purchased the only known copy of the hotel’s surveillance footage, uploaded that footage into a free editing software, altered the video; and then destroyed the original footage even though it knew about and repeatedly reported about the federal investigation.”
A spokesperson for CNN denied the allegations, 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.”
Cassie’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, insisted the footage was authentic and claimed Combs was being insincere. “It’s not surprising Diddy would make a disingenuous argument to exclude the disturbing video from being shown to the jury in the upcoming trial,” he said. “I am confident that the video fairly and accurately represents what happened, will be admitted into evidence, and that Combs will be held accountable for his depravity.”