NOTE: The following article contains disturbing details and video footage. Please read at your own discretion.
Sean “Diddy” Combs told a former Los Angeles hotel guard it would ruin his career if a security video of the hip-hop mogul kicking and dragging his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016 were made public, the security specialist testified Tuesday at Combs’ federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial.
Eddy Garcia, 33, testified to a jury that Combs made the comment repeatedly in March 2016, soon after the attack, as he tried to buy what he hoped was the only copy of the video.
Prosecutors have made the footage from the Intercontinental Hotel a centrepiece of evidence against the Bad Boy Records founder, saying it supports the claims of three women, including Ventura, who allege Combs abused them sexually and physically over the past two decades. They also say Combs’ persistent efforts to hush up the episode fit into allegations that he used threats and his fortune and fame to get what he wanted.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of an indictment accusing him of a pattern of abuse toward Ventura and others.
Day 15
After the attack, Garcia said, he spoke several times to Combs’ chief-of-staff, Kristina Khorram, telling her he couldn’t show her the recording but “off the record, it’s bad.”
Garcia, who is testifying under an immunity order, said during one phone call she put a “very nervous” sounding Combs on the phone. He “was just saying he had a little too much to drink” and that, as Garcia surely knows, “with women, one thing leads to another and if this got out it would ruin him.”
“He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering,” Garcia added.
In the evening, Garcia said, he became nervous and scared when Khorram called him at home on his cellphone — a number he had not provided — and put Combs on.
“He stated that I sounded like a good guy,” Garcia testified, adding that Combs again said “something like this could ruin him.”
“He was concerned that this video would get out and that it would ruin his career,” Garcia told the court.
When he told Combs he didn’t have access to the server to obtain the video footage, Combs said he believed Garcia could make it happen and that “he would take care of me,” which Garcia said he took “to mean financially.”
Garcia said he checked with his boss and was told he’d sell the video to Combs for US$50,000.
When he told Combs, he said the music producer “sounded excited.”
“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.”
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Within two days of Combs’ attack on Ventura, Garcia delivered a storage device containing the footage to Combs, who paid him $100,000 in cash — feeding bills through a money counter and putting them in a brown paper bag.
Garcia signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement (NDA), shown in court, that required him to pay $1 million if he breached the deal. At the time, he said, he was making $10.50 an hour working hotel security.
Garcia said he signed a declaration swearing that, under the penalty of perjury, there was no other copy of the video.
“He said it had to be the only copy and that he didn’t want it getting out and if I was sure nothing was on the cloud,” Garcia said.
He said he signed the papers in an office building with Combs’ bodyguard and Khorram present. Garcia said he didn’t fully read the documents, explaining that he was nervous and “the goal was to get out of there as soon as possible.”
After signing, he said, Combs asked him what he planned to do with the money and advised him not to make any big purchases. Garcia said he took that to mean he shouldn’t do anything that would draw attention.
Garcia said he gave $50,000 to his boss, who had talked about selling the video for profit before Combs intervened, and $20,000 to another security officer. He pocketed $30,000 and used some of it to purchase a used car, he said.
He used cash and, avoiding a further paper trail, never put the money in the bank, he said.
A few weeks later, Garcia said, Combs called him and asked if anyone had inquired about the video. Garcia said no, recounting Combs’ ebullient greeting: “Happy Easter. Eddy, my angel. God is good. God put you in my way for a reason.”
Garcia said that on the call, he asked Combs if the rapper might have future work for him, and Combs sounded receptive. But Combs never responded to his later inquiries, the witness said.
Ex-hotel employee spoke with former colleagues after video resurfaced in 2024
Garcia said that after the video resurfaced in the media in 2024, he reached out to his former colleagues, Israel Florez and Henry Elias.
He said he was contacted by law enforcement in June 2024 about the incident but testified that he wasn’t honest about his involvement.
Garcia added that he deleted his text messages with Florez and Elias after meeting with investigators.
He said he hired legal counsel and met with the government later in 2024 and disclosed that Combs had paid him for the video.
Combs’ former head of finance takes the stand
Derek Ferguson, the former head of the finance department for Combs Enterprises, said he was testifying in compliance with a subpoena.
He said he worked for Combs and his companies from 1998 until 2017 and that he was the chief financial officer at Bad Boy Entertainment from 1998 to 2012.
Ferguson said his responsibilities included accounting, record-keeping and being involved in joint ventures and strategic partnerships. He was also responsible for Combs’ personal finances.
He said that when he first started at the company, he interacted with Combs “a couple times a week” but the interactions became less frequent once he was brought in to run the company.
Ferguson would then report to the company president and when there was no president, he reported directly to Combs.
Prosecutors showed financial records from one of Combs’ bank accounts, which included a $20,000 wire transfer from Ventura’s father on Dec. 23, 2011.
Ventura’s mother previously testified that Combs demanded the family pay $20,000 after he threatened to release explicit sex tapes of her daughter after learning she was dating rapper Kid Cudi.
Prosecutors also noted two other $20,000 transfers that same month, with an outgoing transfer to Ventura on Dec. 14, 2011 and another to an unidentified account on Dec. 27, 2011.
What Combs is on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing women with help from a network of associates who helped silence victims through blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that includes descriptions of “freak-offs,” which are defined in the court doc as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come forward to accuse Combs of terrorizing people into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, according to prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled someone from a balcony.
Although dozens of men and women have alleged in lawsuits that Combs abused them, this trial will highlight the claims of four women.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied all the charges against him and has rejected a plea deal, choosing to go to trial instead.
If found guilty in the New York court, he could face life in prison.
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Day 14 testimony
Day 13 testimony
Day 12 testimony
Day 11 testimony
Day 10 testimony
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Global News will be covering the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please check back for updates.
— with files from The Associated Press
