Diddy Paid Hotel Security $100K for Beating Video

Sean "Diddy" Combs tried very hard to keep the infamous video footage of him beating Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway from going public. A security officer at the Los Angeles hotel testified on Tuesday that Combs paid him $100,000 in cash in exchange for the drive with the video on it, reports the New York Times. It was supposed to be the only copy in existence, and it remains unclear how CNN later obtained its own copy and aired it.

• The hotel's Eddy Garcia told the court that Combs' assistant and then Combs himself pleaded with him to turn over the 2016 video, but Garcia initially rebuffed their requests. He said he consulted with his supervisor, who agreed to turn it over for $50,000.

• But at the hotel, Combs handed over $100,000, double the agreement, in a brown paper bag and advised Garcia not to make any big purchases, per NBC News. Garcia said he kept $30,000 and gave the rest to his supervisor and another colleague.
• The security officer said Combs put Ventura on FaceTime to make clear that she, too, wanted the video to remain under wraps. "She said that she had a movie coming out and it wasn't a good time for this to come out and she wanted it to go away," Garcia recalled her saying.

(More Sean Combs stories.)