Northeast
Sean 'Diddy' Combs hotel video likely to speed up federal case, investigator says
The shocking release Friday of years-old hotel security video that allegedly shows billionaire entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs beating up then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in Los Angeles is likely to speed up the federal investigation into the Bad Boy Records founder’s conduct, according to an expert on hip-hop related crime.
Derrick Parker, a former investigator with the NYPD’s rap intelligence unit who played a role in the 1999 investigation into a nightclub shooting where Combs was charged but later acquitted, said federal prosecutors are going to react strongly to the newly emerged footage.
“Everybody’s gonna see this, and they’re gonna see what a real dirtbag he is,” Parker told Fox News Digital. “The public itself is gonna see him in a different light. The government now is likely gonna accelerate his case.”
SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS ALLEGEDLY ASSAULTS EX-GIRLFRIEND CASSIE VENTURA IN NEWLY RELEASED HOTEL VIDEO
Sean “Diddy” Combs and Cassie Ventura attend “The Perfect Match” premiere in Los Angeles March 7, 2016. (Matt Baron/Shutterstock)
He predicted federal racketeering (RICO) charges against Combs before July 4.
The video, recorded in 2016, remained hidden from public scrutiny until CNN exclusively obtained it Friday afternoon.
It allegedly shows Combs, wearing just socks and a towel around his waist, brutally beating Ventura in the hallway of a luxe Los Angeles hotel.
“This video is very damaging to his case,” Parker said. “This is gonna hurt him badly, because it adds credence to what Ms. Ventura has been alleging about the abuse from him.”
A still image from Los Angeles surveillance video appears to show Sean “Diddy” Combs attacking girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016. (Obtained Exclusively by CNN)
Ventura sued Combs in November, alleging physical and sexual abuse and described the encounter in court documents. The parties settled a day later for an undisclosed sum.
SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS ACCUSERS CAN’T BE SILENCED BY NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS IN TRAFFICKING PROBE: EXPERTS
“Mr. Combs became extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye,” her lawyers alleged in court documents.
He was drunk, according to the lawsuit, and when he passed out, she tried to sneak out. But he allegedly woke up and resumed screaming at her, followed her into the hallway, threw her on the ground and smashed a vase on the floor.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team filed a new motion to dismiss claims in one of four lawsuits against the rapper. (Shareif Ziyadat)
More accusers came forward in the following months, and federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations raided two of Combs’ mansions in March, leading to widespread speculation that criminal charges would follow.
In addition to the accusers coming forward with civil lawsuits, authorities in Miami arrested a Combs associate named Brendan Paul on drug charges.
“They build these factors into a RICO case,” Parker said. “They had this one supplying him guns. This one supplying drugs. He had all these women at sex parties.”
SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS PROBE: RECORD LABEL FIRES BACK AFTER MALE MUSIC PRODUCER ACCUSES MOGUL OF SEX ASSAULT
Sean “Diddy” Combs rides a bicycle from his home across the Star Island Bridge in Miami Beach, Fla., April 4, 2024. (Romain Maurice/Mega for Fox News Digital)
Parker said he expects racketeering and trafficking charges.
And the video is going to hurt his defense, Parker said. A lot.
READ THE VENTURA COMPLAINT – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:
“It makes him look like a liar, because he said all these things are false allegations against me,” Parker said. “You can’t clear your name over that, kicking her and dragging her and slapping her.”
Combs’ team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Parker, who wrote the book “Notorious C.O.P.” about his experience in the NYPD’s hip-hop unit, warned in April that evidence in Ventura’s case would be subpoenaed by the Justice Department, overriding any potential nondisclosure agreement reached in the settlement.
Sean “Diddy” Combs smiles at boaters as they pass by his Star Island home in Miami Beach, Fla., April 7, 2024. (Zak Bennett for Fox News Digital)
“She already alleged some criminal acts, right before he settled with her,” Parker told Fox News Digital. “They could subpoena her about what she said, how she knew.”
In court filings, she claimed Combs not only raped her and subjected her to physical abuse but also blew up another man’s car, regularly hired prostitutes and forced her to carry his gun and procure drugs.
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Northeast
Venezuelan leader Maduro, wife arrive at Brooklyn detention facility after capture by US forces
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Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, Saturday evening after being captured by U.S. forces at their South American compound earlier in the day.
Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the U.S.
The indictment also lists his wife and son as defendants.
A DOJ plane containing captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife lands at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., Saturday. (WNYW)
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President Donald Trump shared a photo of Maduro after his capture aboard the USS Iwo Jima, though he and his wife were not clearly seen when they landed aboard at Department of Justice plane at Stewart Air National Guard Base in upstate New York late Saturday afternoon.
Operation Absolute Resolve follows a series of U.S. military strikes on suspected drug vessels allegedly linked to the Venezuelan regime in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.
The Venezuelan government said in a statement the attack was carried out to seize the country’s oil and minerals and was an “attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a ‘regime change,’ in alliance with the fascist oligarchy.”
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is led by officials while in custody from a DOJ airplane Saturday in upstate New York. (ABC Affiliate WABC via Reuters)
RUBIO TO CUBA: ‘I’D BE CONCERNED’ AFTER US MILITARY ARRESTS VENEZUELAN LEADER MADURO
Trump warned the U.S. is prepared to stage a “second and much larger attack,” confirming U.S. forces remain in position.
“We’re there now, and we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place,” Trump said.
Police patrol the West Side Heliport in New York City Saturday ahead of the expected arrival of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro and his wife arrived in the U.S. after his capture by U.S. forces in Caracas. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
The operation comes nearly 40 years after the U.S. military last removed a leader in Latin America.
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Panama dictator Manuel Noriega was successfully ousted in 1989, though it brought with it long-term challenges in stabilizing governance.
While Venezuelan celebrations began in other countries, Fox News reported those inside the country were stockpiling food amid fears of instability.
Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
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intentionally and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to violate Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c).
35. It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that NICOLÁS MADURO MOROS, DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDÓN, RAMÓN RODRÍGUEZ CHACÍN, CILIA ADELA FLORES DE MADURO, NICOLÁS ERNESTO MADURO GUERRA, a/k/a “Nicolasito,” a/k/a “The Prince,” and HECTOR RUSTHENFORD GUERRERO FLORES, a/k/a “Niño Guerrero,” the defendants, and others known and unknown, during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime for which they may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, to wit, for MADURO MOROS, CABELLO RONDÓN, and RODRÍGUEZ CHACÍN, the controlled substance offenses charged in Counts One and Two of this Superseding Indictment, and for FLORES DE MADURO, MADURO GUERRA, and GUERRERO FLORES, the controlled substance offense charged in Count Two of this Superseding Indictment, knowingly used and carried firearms, and, in furtherance of such crimes, knowingly possessed firearms, and aided and abetted the use, carrying, and possession of firearms, to wit, machineguns that were capable of automatically shooting more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger, as well as destructive devices, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 924(c)(1)(A) and 924(c)(1)(B)(ii). (Title 18, United States Code, Sections 924(o) and 3238.)
36.
FORFEITURE ALLEGATIONS
As a result of committing the controlled substance offense charged in Count One of this Superseding Indictment, NICOLÁS MADURO MOROS, DIOSDADO CABELLO RONDÓN, RAMÓN RODRÍGUEZ CHACÍN, the defendants, shall forfeit to the United States, pursuant to Title 21, United States Code, Sections 853 and 970, any and all property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the defendants obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of the offenses, and any and all property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit,
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Jackets shook off a sluggish start to dispose of Boston College, 65-53.
Georgia Tech guard Chas Kelley III finishes a layup past Boston College’s Marko Radunovic on Saturday, Jan. 3 at McCamish Pavilion. (Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics)
Trailing late in the second half Saturday at McCamish Pavilion, Georgia Tech needed a spark. Cole Kirouac delivered.
The 7-foot freshman found himself unguarded inside the arc on the left side of the court. Without hesitation he bolted toward the rim, took flight and slammed home the ball with two hands to tie the score at 46 with seven minutes left on the clock.
Kirouac’s dunk brought many of the 5,978 to their feet and changed the energy in the building while the Yellow Jackets threatened to lose to the worst team in the ACC. Instead, Tech took the lead shortly after Kirouac’s play and never trailed again in a 65-53 victory.
“Originally, it was just supposed to be a handoff. I saw my man sagging off. I just took one dribble, went up and dunked it,” Kirouac said. “I feel like I was pretty tired in that moment. I feel like that energized me a lot. I think we had energy as a team, but I feel like it probably boosted it a little bit.”
Said Tech coach Damon Stoudamire: “That was a heck of a dunk he had. That ignited us, ignited the crowd. Proud of him and happy for him.”
Saturday’s victory was the 10th of the season for Tech — all 10 have come at home and all 10 have come against opponents which reside in Quadrant 4 of the NCAA’s NET rankings. Per that metric, Boston College was the ACC’s lowest-ranked team at No. 179 going into Saturday.
But the Jackets (10-5, 1-1 ACC), the ACC’s second-worst team in the NET, found themselves in a dogfight for much of the afternoon despite leading by 10 late in the first half. The Eagles (7-7, 0-1 ACC) had momentum on their side and led by four with 9:14 to play before wilting at the end.
Tech guard Lamar Washington flirted with a triple-double by finishing with 17 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Kowacie Reeves scored 16 and Baye Ndongo had 10 points and eight boards.
Twenty of Tech’s 65 points came from the free-throw line. The Jackets also had 23 fast break points — Boston College had none.
“We’re a good team,” Washington said. “When we play together and we play with confidence and we play how we’re supposed to play, we can — I feel like we can beat anybody in the nation.”
Tech was sluggish and sloppy at the outset, suffering through a field goal drought of 6:04 while missing nine of its first 10 shots. But a Ndongo layup followed by a Kam Craft 3 from the right corner tied the game at 11-all a little less than eight minutes into the fight.
The Jackets began to get a feel for things offensively from there and took their first lead on a Jaeden Mustaf layup at 13-12. Akai Fleming’s powerful finish from the right block 3 1/2 minutes later put the home team ahead 19-15.
Tech had six assists on its first seven made shots at that point.
Fleming’s score began an 10-2 Tech run that also included a Fleming dunk and two Fleming free throws that upped the lead to 27-17.
But the Jackets wouldn’t score the rest of the half and had to settle for a 27-24 lead at the break. The Eagles, despite shooting 9 of 34 from the floor, ended the period on a 7-0 run to close the gap.
“I was actually disappointed the last three minutes of the first half because BC, they’ve played a lot of games where they just rock you to sleep,” Stoudamire said. “You’ll feel like you’re in control of the game and then all of a sudden you lose a rhythm offensively, and then they start scoring some buckets and they hit a bank-shot 3 and you just have all kind of things start happening, and that’s when the game turned. The momentum of the game, it shifted. And we couldn’t find it back offensively.”
A back-and-forth first eight minutes of the second half saw Boston College finally tie the game at 36 before Tech squeaked ahead by four thanks to two Washington free throws and a Reeves layup.
The Eagles responded with a 7-0 run and took the lead on a Donald Hand Jr. 3, and then went up 43-40 on Chase Forte’s layup at the 10:33 mark. Boden Kapke’s putback after a missed free throw gave BC a 46-42 edge 64 seconds later.
That was the last little glimmer of hope the visitors had.
“We couldn’t have won games like this last year,” Stoudamire said. “The way I look at everything that’s happening, I think sometimes people get bent out of shape when you play teams and you don’t beat ‘em by how many points they want you to win by or different things of that nature. We went to Duke and we lost by six. We come back (Saturday) and it was kind of a grimy game.
“But we’ve been playing close games, so we’re seasoned in these games. Doesn’t matter who you play, you’re seasoned in ‘em, and I think that what you’ve seen. You didn’t see no panic with our guys coming down the stretch.”
Hand and Kapke both scored 13 for BC, which shot 18 of 66 from the field and 4 of 29 from long range.
Tech returns to action at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Syracuse (9-5, 0-1) at McCamish Pavilion.
Chad Bishop is a Georgia Tech sports reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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