Attorney Marc Agnifilo accused Homeland Security of leaking video of his client Diddy abusing Cassie Ventura to CNN. The government denied anything to do with the leak in emails obtained by AllHipHop.
“The Government did not possess the video published by CNN prior to its public release, and the Government possessed no surveillance video at all from the Intercontinental prior to CNN’s public broadcast,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson wrote to Agnifilo. “Accordingly, we wish to advise you that we consider any assertion in your motion of a purported Government leak related to the Intercontinental surveillance video to lack a good faith basis.”
Agnifilo responded, “I don’t believe you can possibly know what DHS agents did and did not do in regard to this videotape. We are making it very clear that we believe the U.S. Attorney’s Office was not involved in the leak. However, I don’t feel the same way about DHS … We reached out as a gesture of good faith and because we genuinely want to know your perspective. That being said, while you can speak from a position of knowledge in regard to your office, I don’t believe you can do so in regard to the agency.”
Homeland Security raided Diddy’s homes in March. CNN released 2016 surveillance footage of Diddy attacking his ex-girlfriend at a hotel in May. The video corroborated allegations from Ventura’s 2023 lawsuit against the Hip-Hop mogul.
“To be clear, to our understanding, DHS did not have possession of the videotape prior to CNN’s publication of it,” Johnson told Diddy’s lawyer. “Only the Government has authority to obtain grand jury material, and the video broadcast by CNN was not obtained through grand jury process.”
Diddy was arrested for sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution in September. He was denied bail for the third time on Thursday (October 10). His trial is scheduled to begin on May 5, 2025.