The security guard at the California hotel where Sean “Diddy” Combs was reportedly filmed assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016 testified on Tuesday, stating that Combs’ team compensated him for the incriminating footage and his silence.

Eddy Garcia, the security supervisor at the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles, recounted that Combs indicated the footage could devastate his career. Garcia said Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, initially approached him about obtaining the video, but noted he didn’t have the authority to release it without a subpoena, NBC reported.

Garcia alleged that Combs proposed to “take care” of him in exchange for the video, suggesting he believed this meant financial compensation. Garcia claimed he communicated with his superior — who demanded $50,000 for handing over the sole copy of the footage.

According to NBC, Garcia testified that he had a FaceTime call with Combs and Ventura. Combs allegedly had Ventura tell Garcia that she also wanted the video to disappear.

Garcia reportedly got $100,000 for himself and two other employees to conceal the 2016 hotel beating. Garcia testified that hotel security signed nondisclosure agreements before Combs arrived with a brown paper bag and a money counter.

Garcia claimed Combs put stacks of money on the counter until it reached $100,000. The New York Times reported that Garcia’s boss received $50,000, while he got $30,000. A colleague got the remaining $20,000, Garcia testified.

The alleged nondisclosure agreement stipulated a $1 million penalty for breaching it. It also declared that the video given to Combs was the only copy. NBC reported that the document was shown to the court.

Garcia said authorities were not contacted regarding the 2016 assault, not did Ventura seek medical attention or law enforcement.

Combs was arrested on September 16, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has been denied bail three times, as Judge Andrew L. Carter determined there was a “serious risk” of witness tampering in this case.

Federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Holmby Hills, California, and Miami in March 2024. Reports indicated that the raids were connected to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation that resulted in his arrest months later.

The raids also occurred four months after Ventura accused him of sex trafficking and abuse. In a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, she alleged that Combs drugged her and forced her to have sex with other men. The pair settled the lawsuit a day after its filing.

However, in May 2024, CNN publicized hotel surveillance footage allegedly showing Combs assaulting Ventura. After the video was released, Combs released a video expressing remorse for his behavior.

Two more accusers came forward a week after Ventura’s lawsuit. One of the women claimed Combs drugged and raped her at Syracuse University in New York in 1991. Combs denied those allegations before a third accuser, Liza Gardner, levied similar allegations against him.

Days after footage of the Ventura assault was publicized, two more women filed lawsuits against Combs. One of those women was April Lampros, a New York Fashion Institute of Technology student who reportedly met Combs in 1994. Lampros accused Combs of sexually assaulting her on four occasions between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s.

Combs has been accused of committing or facilitating sexual abuse in at least 30 other lawsuits — including one, filed in October, which alleges he and Jay-Z raped a 13-year-old girl in New York in 2000. The accuser in that case had her lawsuit dismissed in February.

Combs turned down a plea deal days before jury selection began. His trial is expected to last two months.

[Feature Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File]