Sean “Diddy” Combs Moves to Suppress Evidence of Cassie Assault Video

Lawyers for the hip-hop mogul claim that the government leaked footage of Combs beating the singer to secure a grand jury indictment.

Sean Combs, who’s facing sex trafficking and racketeering charges, is accusing the government of vast misconduct related to leaking evidence to the media that he says prevents him from receiving a fair trial.

Lawyers for Combs, in a bid to get a hearing on the issue filed on Wednesday, seek a court order that would keep a potential jury from considering such evidence, including hotel surveillance footage of him violently assaulting the singer Cassie, or the dismissal of all charges if it’s proven that the government was the source of the leak. The video published by CNN was part of a seven-month campaign initiated by prosecutors and federal law enforcement agents to “raise public hostility against Mr. Combs in advance of trial,” they claim.

The motion was filed on the heels of Combs, also known as “Diddy,” appealing for a second time on Tuesday an order by the court denying him bail. He’s currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

In September, federal prosecutors brought a three-count indictment accusing Combs of crimes related to an alleged decades-long pattern of physical and sexual violence against people in his orbit. The government accused him of directing a vast criminal enterprise through which he assaulted and trafficked women with the help of his various business associates since at least 2008.