It took Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura a day to reach a settlement—after a lawsuit was filed last year—all because of recently released surveillance video, says Tracy Walder, a former CIA and FBI special agent.
On Friday, May 17, CNN released surveillance video from March 2016 from the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles that shows the towel-clad music mogul grabbing, kicking and shoving his ex-girlfriend Ventura in front of an elevator. The video resembled the scenario described in her lawsuit, which accuses Diddy of rape, sex trafficking and domestic violence.
Ventura described an incident in which Combs became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, bruising her eye,” the suit detailed. The lawsuit alleges that after Combs fell asleep, Ventura tried to leave the hotel room, but awoke to her standing up and following her into the hallway screaming.
“He grabbed her and then picked up glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing the glass to shatter around them as she ran toward the elevator to escape,” the lawsuit states.
Hours later, Walder spoke exclusively to PEOPLE, describing the video as the reason why Combs “settled so quickly with his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in November 2023.”
Will the footage of Diddy punching and dragging Cassie help the federal investigation into human trafficking charges against him?
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura in January 2018.
Kevin Mazur/Getty
“Diddy never expected the video to go public. It’s very disturbing that this has exceeded the statute of limitations. It depends on what the charge might be, but it can range from one to three years. Aggravated assault in California has a statute of limitations of three year,” says Walder. “Since this stemmed from an incident in 2016, she would not be able to press charges of assault or battery in Los Angeles.”
“It really throws water on Diddy and his legal team’s argument that the government used too much force in his search warrants,” Walder continues.
Walder worked as a CIA agent for six years, starting in 2000, and immediately after that she worked for the FBI, where she was a special agent for four years.
He suspects the music mogul “knew about this tape, he knew about the other things he was accused of, even though he was acquitted, he knew he had an armed security team, so this was a perfectly appropriate use of force.”
“I think maybe something is going to happen soon in terms of charges, but it’s interesting that it’s been announced now,” Welder adds. She claims that “any [Cassie’s] attorney or the hotel gave CNN the tape because the hotel was only paid $50,000 to keep it quiet,” according to Ventura’s lawsuit.
“I wonder if Cassie or her attorney is frustrated that the federal government hasn’t filed criminal charges yet and that’s why they did this. I’m guessing Sean Combs won’t be fighting any civil cases now,” adds Welder.
In the past few months, five people have accused Combs of sexual assault and similar allegations. In November, he was accused of drugging and raping a woman named Joi Dickerson-Neal while she was a student at Syracuse University in 1991.
That same day, Liza Gardner filed a lawsuit against him, claiming he and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall took turns raping her and a friend in New Jersey (according to new case documents) more than 30 years ago. A month later, Combs was accused of sexual assault by a fourth victim, who accused him, former Bad Boy Entertainment president Harvey Pierre and a third person labeled as the “Third Assailant” of sexually assaulting and gang-raping her when she was 17 years old.
In a statement to PEOPLE in December, Combs flatly denied all the allegations against him.
“TOO MUCH IS TOO MUCH. For the last few weeks, I’ve sat in silence and watched people try to kill my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” he said.
The mogul added: “Individuals looking for a quick payday have made sick accusations against me. Let me be absolutely clear: I have done none of the aforementioned awful things. I will fight for my name, my family and the truth.”
Cassie’s husband Alex Fine posts about violence against women after Diddy abuse Video: ‘Believe’
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in March 2018.
Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/SplashNews.com
In February, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him during the time they worked together.
Following the multiple allegations, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) raided Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami. Diddy’s sons Justin Combs, 30, and Christian ‘King’ Combs, 25, were pictured handcuffed outside their Beverly Hills home on March 26.
“I assume they searched all the residences at once to prevent destruction of evidence. This is just a practice used when search warrants are served on multiple properties where evidence is located (computers, external and flash drives, etc.) can be destroyed. It’s about conservation,” says Walder.
“RICO charges are hard to win and involve a very large defense team because there is so much to go through. They are extremely complex and it can take months or years to fully build a trail of criminal financial documents. They have to prove a repeating pattern which takes time “, she continues. “I don’t think anything will be different here. Law enforcement has no respect for people in Hollywood.”
“This is all going to have to go to a grand jury and they’re going to decide whether to indict or not, and I haven’t seen the evidence so I can’t say if he’s going to be arrested. But I suspect the investigation will take time just based on the amount of evidence they might have.” , she adds. “The sentence for RICO can be 20 years. But I don’t know the evidence, so I don’t know what the sentence would be. But the video is just infuriating and I hope everyone who calls her a gold digger feels terrible.”
PEOPLE reached out to attorneys for Combs and Ventura and CNN for comment on the details of the recording, but they could not immediately be reached.
Earlier today, after the surveillance footage was released, Ventura’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, said in a statement shared with PEOPLE that “the gut-wrenching footage only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs.”
“Words cannot express the courage and strength Ms. Ventura showed in coming forward to bring this to light,” the statement continued.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or go to thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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Source: HIS Education