Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team is trying a new strategy to get him out of jail.
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According to reports from USA Today, Combs’ legal team is now accusing U.S. attorneys of presenting an “altered” video of him attacking ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. His lawyers claim they edited the footage in an effort to convince a judge he should remain detained.
In new court filings on Thursday, Diddy’s defense attorneys did their best to cast doubt on evidence the government has produced in an effort to prove Combs led a sex trafficking enterprise and that he should remain in jail until his trial next year. One lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, alleged in her filing that evidence provided by prosecutors to the defense last week revealed U.S. attorneys “mischaracterized and concealed critical facts” during hearings, which dealt with the issue of whether the Bad Boy founder should be incarcerated as he awaits trial.
One major piece of evidence a federal judge was presented with was footage of Combs physically assaulting Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel on March 5, 2016, which was published by CNN earlier this year. According to Shapiro, the footage showed an “altered video that omitted key scenes and presented events materially out of order.”
His team goes on to say that the footage the world saw was “an edited, manipulated version of the video published by CNN.”
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Combs’ team hired Conor McCourt, a forensic video analyst, to produce a video that compares the exhibit the government included in its argument against Combs’ bail with two videos prosecutors provided the defense on Nov. 13. All of the clips provided depicted Diddy assaulting his ex-girlfriend at the hotel.
McCourt’s analysis supposedly shows that “the video the government submitted to the Court omits footage corroborating the defense account, changes the sequence of events in material respects, and does not accurately depict the events,” reports USA Today. Because of these claims, the defense argues that the judge should schedule another hearing on Combs’ bail request and “grant bail on the proposed conditions.”
Throughout his legal trouble, Combs and his lawyers have pushed back on prosecutors’ claims that the 2016 video is evidence of Combs’ alleged sex trafficking and abuse. Instead, his attorneys say the footage shows a “domestic dispute” and “a sad glimpse into a decade-long consensual relationship.”
A hearing on Combs’ bail proposal, which has already been denied twice, is scheduled for Friday.
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