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Sean Combs repeatedly called a hotel security guard “my angel” and offered the man his favorite tea during a high-stakes negotiation to purchase and bury the stunning video of Combs kicking and dragging his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a hotel hallway in March 2016, the security guard testified Monday.
Eddy Garcia took the witness stand and told jurors he initially rebuffed the first few calls from Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, in which she sought to view and obtain the incriminating video recorded at the now-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. Garcia said he told Khorram she either needed to contact the hotel’s general manager or get a subpoena. But Khorram eventually called him on his personal phone, making him “nervous,” he testified. He was unsure how she obtained the private line, he said. Khorram then handed the phone to Combs, who started playing on Garcia’s sympathies, he said.
Combs called Garcia a “good guy” and allegedly told him that if the video got out, it would “ruin his career.” Combs then floated the idea of coming to some kind of arrangement, he recalled. Garcia said he checked with his supervisor about brokering a deal, and the supervisor allegedly agreed to sell the video for $50,000.
“Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it,” Combs gushed when he learned they could make a deal, Garcia told jurors.
Garcia recalled being directed by Khorram to a high-rise office building with the video on a thumb drive. When he arrived, his voice was cracking because he was so nervous, he said. Combs purportedly noticed and ordered Khorram to “go get him that tea I like,” Garcia said. Combs then asked for confirmation that the video on the thumb drive was the only copy left in existence, Garcia said. Combs wanted reassurance that “nothing was on the cloud,” Garcia testified.
When Garcia said he was concerned he might get in trouble if Ventura reported the incident, Combs allegedly placed a video call to Ventura, who was bundled up in a hoodie.
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“Let this guy know you want this to go away too,” Combs instructed Ventura during the call, Garcia said. Ventura purportedly said she had a movie coming out and wanted the incident to “go away” as well. He said her demeanor was calm at the time. (In her own testimony, Ventura shared photos of the busted lip and bruised face that she snapped after fleeing the caught-on-camera beating at the InterContinental.)
Garcia testified that once he heard from Ventura, he signed a declaration that the video on the thumb drive was the only copy. He also signed a non-disclosure agreement dated March 7, 2011, two days after the hotel assault. The documents were printed on letterhead from Combs’ company, Combs Enterprises, according to images shown in court. The agreement said Garcia would be on the hook for $1 million if he violated the confidentiality clause. Garcia said he barely skimmed the paperwork and did not receive his own copies of the agreements.
“I was nervous, I was in a rush to get out of there,” he testified. Garcia said after he signed, Combs presented him with a brown paper bag filled with $100,000. Combs ran the cash through a money counter in front of him, separating the bills into stacks of $10,000, Garcia recalled. The former security guard said Khorram was walking in and out of the room during the meeting and that Combs personally walked him out of the building, warning him not to make any big purchases that might raise suspicions.
Garcia said he gave the first $50,000 to his boss and another $20,000 to the fellow security officer who agreed to turn over his ID card to Combs. Garcia said he kept $30,000 for himself, using it buy a used car. He said Combs called him on his personal phone a couple weeks later, wishing him a “Happy Easter” and again calling him “Eddy my angel.” He said Combs wanted to make sure no one had followed up with him, asking questions.
“God put you in my life for a reason,” Combs purportedly told him. Garcia said Combs ended the call saying that if Garcia “needed anything, to let him know.”
After Garcia was excused, jurors heard that the security guards’ ID photos and the non-disclosure agreement shown during Garcia’s testimony were extracted from devices belonging to Khorram. Jurors heard that the electronics were seized when Combs and his entourage were detained at an airport the day that federal investigators raided Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March 2024. One of Garcia’s numbers was saved in the phone under the contact “Eddy My Love.”
Combs, 55, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. If convicted as charged, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
During her opening statement delivered on the first day of Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said Combs used his inner circle to help facilitate the $100,000 bribe and “keep his reputation and his power intact.” She said the alleged instance of bribery and obstruction of justice supported the racketeering conspiracy charge in Combs’ indictment.
In filings and oral arguments over the last eight months, prosecutors have claimed Combs ran a criminal enterprise that manipulated women into drug-fueled, highly orchestrated sex marathons with male escorts that Combs watched and recorded. The encounters were known as “freak-offs” and “wild king nights,” they said. Beyond bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors claim Combs and his inner circle also engaged in forced labor, kidnapping, and arson.
Combs’ defense lawyer, Teny Geragos, said in her opening statement that the $100,000 payment wasn’t paid to obstruct justice, as prosecutors claim. “This was solely related to preventing bad publicity for both Combs and Cassie, and had nothing to do with obstructing a law enforcement investigation,” Geragos said.
She and other members of the defense team have maintained that Combs was a “swinger” who indulged his “kinky” preferences with other consenting adults. They’ve acknowledged Ventura was the victim of an episode of domestic violence at the InterContinental, but they deny Combs was a sex trafficker.
Cassie testified during the first week of trial that she and Combs were at the InterContinental in March 2016 for a freak-off with a male escort. She said her movie premiere was just days away at that point, so she was engaging in “damage control” when she agreed to meet Combs for the voyeuristic sex performance. “If I pleased him with a freak-off, then my premiere would run smoothly,” Ventura testified May 13.
Ventura told jurors that Combs punched her in the face during the freak-off and then threw her to the ground and kicked her near the bank of elevators when she tried to escape. She didn’t fight back because she already had a black eye and “didn’t want him to do any more damage than he had already done,” she said.
According to prosecutors, Combs committed sex trafficking when he allegedly used violence, threats, and manipulation to coerce Ventura and another woman into freak-offs with male escorts. The video from the InterContinental Hotel is considered critical to the government’s case because it not only captured violence, it also allegedly showed what happened when Ventura purportedly tried to flee a “freak off.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a member of the public was ejected from the courtroom before jurors were brought in. The woman had tried to communicate with Combs, yelling out, “Diddy, these motherfuckers are laughing at you!” She began to yell and curse at court officers, resisting as they physically removed her from the room.
Prosecutors also noted that another person had been barred from the courtroom. Addressing U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, they said someone inside the courtroom on Monday had gone on their YouTube channel and disclosed the real identity of Combs’ former personal assistant “Mia.” The court previously sealed Mia’s true name and allowed her to testify under the pseudonym.
From Rolling Stone US
