Sean 'Diddy' Combs' lawyers accuse government of leaking video of Cassie assault

Sean "Diddy" Combs' legal team accused the U.S. government of leaking information, including a 2016 video of him physically assaulting Cassie Ventura, which they say biased the public against the music mogul.

In a letter supporting their motion for an evidentiary hearing filed in U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York and reviewed by USA TODAY Wednesday, Combs' lawyers asked the judge "for four forms of relief related to what the defense believes was a series of unlawful government leaks, which have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr. Combs of his right to a fair trial."

His lawyers, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, say there should be a hearing to investigate alleged government misconduct and for government agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, which led the raids on Combs' homes in March, that are involved in the case to reveal communications and records related to alleged "leaks" to media outlets.

Further, they ask the judge to issue an order prohibiting federal employees from disclosing evidence to the news media as well as the "suppression of any evidence leaked by government employees."

Combs' team believes that since March the government has been "strategically leaking confidential grand jury material and information, including the 2016 Intercontinental videotape, in order to prejudice the public and potential jurors against Mr. Combs."

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This has raised "public hostility against Mr. Combs in advance of trial," they wrote. In May, CNN released 2016 hotel surveillance footage showing Combs kicking, hitting and dragging ex-girlfriend Cassie near the elevators of a hotel. Combs, in a video, apologized for his "inexcusable" behavior; his lawyers have painted the abuse as the result of a toxic relationship rather than evidence of sex trafficking.

Prosecutors have claimed that in the video Cassie was fleeing one of Combs' so-called "freak offs," which they described in a September letter to the district court judge as "elaborate sex performances" that were often recorded and "sometimes lasted multiple days, and frequently involved multiple sex workers."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. USA TODAY has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security.

Diddy's team claims Cassie received 'eight-figure settlement' and 'likely' didn't leak 2016 video

"By far the most likely source of the leak (to CNN) is the government," Combs' lawyers claim in their Wednesday filing. They posit that had the source of the leaked footage been a third party, they would have sold the tape to a tabloid for profit rather than handing it to a news organization like CNN.

"The government knew what it had: a frankly deplorable video recording of Sean Combs in a towel hitting, kicking and dragging a woman in full view of a camera in the hallway of the hotel," the filing reads.

They raise the possibility that "Victim 1," presumably Cassie, shared the video but say she "is not a likely source of the leak. There is no evidence that either she or her lawyers had possession of the tape." If she did have access to the hotel surveillance footage, the allegations in her November lawsuit accusing Combs of rape, abuse and sex trafficking "would have been entirely different and far more specific than they were."

Combs and Cassie settled her civil suit a day later. Now, Combs' attorneys are revealing she "received a substantial eight-figure settlement" and that the government's investigation into Combs commenced after her lawsuit.

Diddy's lawyers accuse Department of Homeland Security of leaking information to the media

Combs' attorneys believe the Department of Homeland Security – rather than the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which brought criminal charges against Combs last month – orchestrated these alleged "leaks." Homeland Security Investigations, one of the federal agencies that led the investigation into Combs, is a law enforcement agency within DHS.

"The reason a hearing is needed is to determine exactly what the DHS did, and did not do regarding these leaks, and what the U.S. Attorney’s Office did and did not do to stop them," the filing reads.

Combs' defense team also gives several examples of unnamed sources quoted in various news stories about the criminal investigation into Combs and claims DHS agents issued this information.

"Between the grand jury leaks and the incendiary public statements, the agents all but ensured that the grand jury would be tainted as well as the general public from which we will soon select a jury," their filing reads.

What is the latest in Diddy's case?

Combs's lawyers are due to appear in court Thursday for a status hearing.

The hip-hop superstar was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on Sept. 16 and arraigned on sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution charges the following day. Investigators say the 54-year-old elaborately schemed to use his finances and status in the entertainment industry to "fulfill his sexual desires" in a "recurrent and widely known" pattern of abuse.

He has been incarcerated in the Special Housing Unit at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since then and has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty on all federal criminal charges, despite mounting civil lawsuits over the past year.

Combs' lawyers are trying to get him released from jail until his trial, which does not yet have a start date. On Wednesday, his team filed a motion for pretrial release in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that challenged Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr.'s Sept. 18 decision to deny his request to be released from jail.

His team has proposed a "robust bail package" that includes a $50 million bond and his family surrendering their passports.

Before this latest appeal, Combs lost two bids to be released on bail. The first judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky, sided with U.S. attorneys' argument that Combs posed a risk if he were to be released for home detention.

"I don't believe that counsel has the ability to control you, given the very significant concerns I have, particularly because of substance abuse and what seem like anger issues," Tarnofsky told Combs and his counsel, according to a court transcript reviewed by USA TODAY.

"The danger, I think, is quite serious," she added of Combs' release, deciding that the bond package his team offered would not "assure his return to court or the safety of the community, or a lack of witness tampering."

(This story was updated to add new information.)

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.