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Two days after CNN published video footage showing him striking, kicking and dragging his former girlfriend, Sean Combs posted a video on social media on Sunday calling his behavior \u201cinexcusable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The footage<\/a> that surfaced on Friday showed Mr. Combs, the hip-hop mogul known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, kicking and dragging his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, in 2016.<\/p>\n Last year Ms. Ventura filed<\/a> and then quickly settled<\/a> a lawsuit against Mr. Combs accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. The footage shown Friday, which appeared to come from security cameras, was consistent with some of the allegations in her lawsuit, which accused Mr. Combs of assaulting her at an InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016 as she tried to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, but sometimes you got to do that,\u201d Mr. Combs said in his apology video, which he posted<\/a> to Instagram. \u201cI hit rock bottom \u2014 but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I\u2019m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I\u2019m disgusted now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A lawyer for Mr. Combs had previously denied the allegations in Ms. Ventura\u2019s lawsuit. In a statement following the suit, which was filed in November, the lawyer said that Combs \u201cvehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.\u201d The next day, Mr. Combs said, \u201cWe have decided to resolve this matter amicably.\u201d<\/p>\n In her lawsuit, Ms. Ventura accused Mr. Combs of forcing her to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him in encounters that he called \u201cfreak offs,\u201d which she said he instructed her to arrange. Her court filing said that the 2016 assault took place after a freak off during which she said Mr. Combs \u201cbecame extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.\u201d Ms. Ventura tried to leave the hotel room after Mr. Combs fell asleep, the lawsuit said, but he awoke and began screaming, following her down the hallway and picking up glass vases and throwing them at her.<\/p>\n According to her account in the filing, she managed to leave and take a cab to her apartment, but then decided to return to the hotel \u201cwith the intention of apologizing for running away from her abuser.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she returned, hotel security staff urged her to get back into a cab and go to her apartment,\u201d the lawsuit said, \u201csuggesting that they had seen the security footage showing Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura and throwing glass at her in the hotel hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit accused Mr. Combs of having paid the hotel $50,000 for the security footage from that evening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n IHG, which owns InterContinental, said in a statement that the hotel was no longer under its management and that it does not have access to footage or incident records.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After the hotel footage surfaced, the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office released a statement<\/a> saying that the assault happened too long ago to prosecute.<\/p>\n After Ms. Ventura settled her lawsuit, Mr. Combs was sued by three women who accused him of rape, and a male music producer who accused him of unwanted sexual contact. Mr. Combs has vehemently denied the accusations in the civil suits, calling them \u201csickening allegations\u201d<\/a> from people looking for \u201ca quick payday.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Combs\u2019s legal troubles escalated in March, when federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach and stopped him at a Miami-area airport, confiscating his electronic devices. Officials have said that the inquiry is at least in part a human trafficking investigation.<\/p>\n Mr. Combs\u2019s lawyers have been fighting the lawsuits in court and have called the raids a \u201cgross overuse of military-level force.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But in Sunday\u2019s video, Mr. Combs struck a tone of contrition in response to video evidence of his assaulting Ms. Ventura.<\/p>\n \u201cI went and I sought out professional help,\u201d he said. \u201cI got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I\u2019m so sorry. But I\u2019m committed to be a better man each and every day. I\u2019m not asking for forgiveness. I\u2019m truly sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n