Diddy's Attorneys File Motion to Exclude Cassie Assault Footage From Sex Trafficking Trial

Diddy's legal team has filed a motion to get the disturbing 2016 hotel surveillance footage in which he brutally assaulted Cassie excluded from being used as evidence in his upcoming sex trafficking trial.

As reported by Variety, attorneys for Sean Combs don't want the assault video, which was shared by CNN last year, presented as evidence at Diddy's trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. During a pre-trial hearing on Thursday, April 17, his attorneys entered a motion requesting that the video be excluded or, "in the alternative, to permit Mr. Combs to present evidence at pre-trial hearing regarding the unreliability of the existing and available video evidence."

They argued that the government has not provided enough evidence to support the authenticity of the footage, which his attorneys previously claimed CNN had doctored and destroyed the original tapes of. Since the original version of the hotel video has seemingly not been presented as potential evidence, they said it shouldn't be presented because of the "best evidence" rule. They also argued that the evidence could have a "dramatic impact" on the jury.

CNN has already denied the allegations that the footage was altered to convey Diddy and his actions more negatively, and also shot down the suggestion that the company destroyed the original copy. They said the source of the footage "retained" the original copy. "CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested," a spokesperson for the company added. Cassie's lawyer Douglas Wigdor also denied the footage was altered.

Cassie is expected to testify using her real name in the upcoming trial. In a motion filed earlier this month, she was said to be "prepared to testify under her own name," after previously being named in the indictment as "Victim-1."

On Friday, Cassie was ordered to turn over drafts of her memoir by a judge in Manhattan federal court. The judge also ruled that the three other victims named in the indictment can testify against Diddy anonymously.

The most recent motion from Diddy's lawyers comes not long after his legal team requested that the trial be delayed by two months. They argued that the newest version of charges against the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder is different than the case they were preparing for.