In May of last year, disturbing surveillance footage of Diddy and Cassie from 2016 was released by CNN. In it, the songstress can be seen walking down a hotel hallway when the Bad Boy founder runs up behind her, pulls her to the ground, kicks her, and tries to drag her back to his room.
The footage is likely to play a big role in Diddy's trial, which is expected to begin next month. A forensic video technician on his team, Conor McCourt, said in a sworn deposition that he has an issue with two versions of the footage he's seen. He alleges that both show "significant distortion," per TMZ.
One version of the footage is the one released by CNN. McCourt claims that it appears to be sped up due to "transcoding." This is the process of one type of file being converted to another. He says this adds, subtracts, and duplicates frames.
The other version McCourt saw was surveillance footage filmed on an iPhone 6. He says this footage makes Diddy look bigger than he actually is. As a result, he thinks the mogul could be perceived as more intimidating.
Diddy's Legal Battle
On top of these issues, McCourt claims that at least three timestamps portray different times for the same moment. He also claims the same timecode in the two different videos appears to show different moments. He says the timecode issues mean "a viewer does not know what happened during those numerous breaks in video."
McCourt came to the conclusion that allegedly, "none of the available video files are accurate and reliable copies of the original." His comments come just a few weeks after Diddy's defense accused CNN of destroying the original footage after purchasing and altering it. CNN vehemently denies these allegations.
"CNN never altered the video and did not destroy the original copy of the footage, which was retained by the source," a spokesperson for the company told TMZ, "CNN aired the story about the video several months before Combs was arrested."
