NEW YORK — Believing it would “ruin” him, Sean “Diddy” Combs went to extreme lengths to ensure that hotel footage of him brutally beating his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, never saw the light of day by incessantly pressuring security staff to provide it to him in exchange for a brown paper bag filled with $100,000, a Manhattan jury heard Tuesday.

Eddy Garcia, a former security supervisor at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, said Combs paid him the massive sum for a copy of the March 2016 camera footage showing him pummeling Ventura, whose stage name is Cassie, after he had repeatedly refused his requests.

Prosecutors contend the footage makes clear Combs resorted to violence and abuse to control his victims and say the bribery efforts were just one example of him and his inner circle closing ranks and doing damage control to keep his crimes out of public view and protect his reputation and his power.

Ventura previously testified that the savage assault came after she tried to leave a “freak-off” sexual performance with a male escort after Combs punched her. She sued Combs in November 2023, alleging he had subjected her to years of physical and psychological abuse throughout their 11-year relationship, along with coercive and degrading sexual performances with other men.

Combs thought he had purchased the only copy of the video that existed, but another hotel worker, who testified earlier in the trial, used his cell phone to record the footage to show his wife. CNN then published the video last May, blasting domestic violence allegations against Combs into public view.

Garcia, who took the stand in Manhattan federal court under an immunity deal, said one of Combs’ assistants, Kristina Khorram, first inquired about the footage in the attack’s aftermath and soon after turned up at the hotel.

“She wanted to know what they were dealing with,” Garcia recalled, which he said he couldn’t help with. “I said, ‘Off the record: It’s bad.”

After dealing with Khorram in person, she called him and put Combs on the line.

“He asked me if I knew who he was. I said yes,” Garcia said. “Mr. Combs sounded very nervous — just was talking very fast.”

Combs reasoned to Garcia that he’d had too much to drink and “one thing [led] to another,” telling the hotel staffer the video becoming public “could ruin him,” Garcia testified. After that call, Garcia said, a relentless Combs would later call him again on his personal cell phone, promising to “take care of me.”

Garcia, who was earning $10.50 an hour working security, delivered it to Combs at an L.A. high rise days later on a USB drive, confirming it was the sole copy and signed a nondisclosure agreement outlining that if any terms were violated, he would be on the hook for $1 million. In exchange, Combs handed over a brown bag filled with $100,000 cash. Combs then walked Garcia to his car outside and told him “not to make any big purchases.”

Garcia said he kept $30,000 of the payment and gave his manager $50,000 and $20,000 to another security guard. Combs had demanded copies of all of their IDs. Under questioning by Combs’ defense team, Garcia acknowledged that there was no provision in the agreement that he had to lie about the video if questioned about it in legal proceedings.

Later Tuesday, prosecutors called Derek Ferguson, the former chief financial officer of Bad Boy Enterprises, who oversaw all financial aspects of a collection of companies that fell under the Bad Boy umbrella from 1998 through 2012, some individually held by Combs and others through joint ventures.

Ferguson verified a long list of company accounts, credit cards, real estate holdings, and other records that could prove crucial to establishing racketeering elements in the government’s case, which alleges that Combs operated a criminal enterprise.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment, including allegations of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for prostitution. If found guilty in the case, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The feds say Combs ran a criminal enterprise akin to a mob, in which his security guards and various staff members engaged in crimes like arson, kidnapping, sex trafficking, and obstruction of justice to facilitate his desires.

The hip-hop entrepreneur’s attorneys conceded from the trial’s outset that Combs had committed domestic violence. But they’ve argued that he’s not charged with such — and that he’s innocent of the counts being tried by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office. They say “freak-offs” may disturb some, but they were not criminal in nature and involved consent from all participants.

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