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’
A hotel security guard detailed in Manhattan court Tuesday how Sean “Diddy” Combs bribed him with $100,000 to bury now-infamous footage of the Bad Boy Records founder brutally beating his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
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.
