NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere claims FBI planted child porn found on his computer as he seeks new trial for sex trafficking crimes
- Raniere said he could prove that the evidence against him was planted,
- Prosecutors shut down his claims, saying they were ‘entirely without merit’
NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere has claimed that the child pornography found on his computer was planted by FBI as he hopes to get a new trial for the sex trafficking crimes he is currently serving 120 years for.
Raniere said he could prove that the evidence against him was planted, but prosecutors shut down his latest attempt to get a new trial, saying it was ‘entirely without merit’, according to a response filed in Brooklyn federal court on Friday.
They also said his motion should be denied since it is ‘untimely, unfounded, legally unsupported, and contrary to the evidence adduced at trial’.
It is Raniere’s third attempt to get a new trial since he was sentenced to 120 years in prison after he was convicted in 2019 of all charges of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and racketeering charges with underlying acts that included possession of child pornography, extortion and identify theft.
He filed for a new trial in May last year, claiming he had found evidence showing the government ‘manufactured child pornography and planted it on a computer hard drive to tie to him’.
Raniere said he could prove that the evidence against him was planted, but prosecutors shut down his latest attempt to get a new trial, saying it was ‘entirely without merit’, according to a response filed in Brooklyn federal court on Friday
It is Raniere’s third attempt to get a new trial since he was sentenced to 120 years in prison after he was convicted in 2019 (pictured in the middle here in a courtroom drawing from the trial) of all charges of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and racketeering charges with underlying acts that included possession of child pornography, extortion and identify theft
His legal team’s report pointed to alleged ‘anomalies with the FBI search’, such as the unusual manner in which agents collected evidence from Raniere’s study at a home in Halfmoon, New York in March 2018.
They claimed that investigators ‘bypassed’ several areas of the home and went ‘straight to a study area where, under a desk, were the very first two evidentiary items they collected: the Canon digital camera along with its camera card.’
READ MORE: Jailed NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere is left unconscious after being punched in the head by inmate before being put with intersex prisoner next to a cage smeared with human feces
Those two items were, ‘notably,’ the ‘only two pieces of digital evidence the government used to prove the child pornography and child exploitation RICO acts, which would stem from an allegedly accidental discovery of photos eleven months later,’ the report stated.
But prosecutors detailed the evidence they found in Raniere’s New York residence – which included nude photos of his first sex slave Camila, who was 15 at the time – in response, the New York Post reports.
‘Raniere was entitled to a fair trial and he received one. Raniere’s victims, including Camila, should now have the opportunity to obtain some measure of closure from the finality of Raniere’s conviction and sentence,’ court papers state.
In NXIVM, which was based in Albany, New York, the cult leaders forced women to sleep with Raniere and branded them with his initials.
But even at his trial, Raniere plead not guilty and insisted all his accusers were lying.
NXIVM was partially bankrolled by Seagram’s heiress Claire Bronfman, who was prosecuted alongside Raniere and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain and to fraudulent use of identification in April 2019.
Her lawyer, Duncan Levin, said the ‘evidence’ of tampering by the FBI presented by Raniere was cause to throw out all the NXIVM convictions.
‘Society cannot live in a world where law enforcement is tampering with evidence,’ he said.
‘If these allegations are true, it means that all of the defendants in the case should have all of the charges thrown out. There should be no opportunity for a do-over for the government.’
Earlier this month, ‘Smallville’ actress Allison Mack, who was a ‘sex master’ in NXIVM, was released from federal prison on July 3 after serving less than two years.
Allison Mack, who starred in the hit Superman origin series ‘Smallville’ (pictured during the series here), was among the NXIVM leadership accused of running a sex trafficking ring
Mack helped prosecutors mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society that included brainwashed women who were branded with his initials and forced to have sex with him. Mack was pictured at a bank on July 5 in her first public sighting since being released from prison early
Mack admitted to helping Raniere create a secret society of brainwashed women who were branded with his initials (above)
She had been sentenced to three years in prison in June 2021 after pleading guilty to her role in the cult but was released early for good behaviour.
Best known for her role as a young Superman’s close friend on Smallville, Mack, 40, had pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges that she manipulated women into becoming sex slaves for NXIVM leader Raniere.
READ MORE: ‘Smallville’ actor Allison Mack is quietly released from prison a year early after being jailed for three years for brainwashing and recruiting sex slaves for NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere who is serving 120 years
She avoided a longer prison term by cooperating with federal authorities in their case against Raniere.
Mack helped prosecutors mount evidence showing how Raniere created a secret society that included brainwashed women who were branded with his initials and forced to have sex with him.
Mack was pictured at a bank on July 5 in her first public sighting since being released from prison early.
She expressed ‘remorse and guilt’ before her sentencing in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Mack started acting and modeling at the age of four but landed her first acting gig on a TV show when she was 15 and in 2001 went on to play Chloe Sullivan, the best friend of a young Clark Kent, in Smallville.
The series ran from 2001 to 2011 and earned Mack two Teen Choice Awards and multiple TV award nominations. It was while Smallville was filming that Mack first attended a NXIVM meeting back in 2007.
She eventually moved to New York City when Smallville finished airing in 2011. Mack regularly attended NXIVM seminars and would often travel to Albany where Raniere lived.
In 2012, she chose to move to Albany to be closer to NXIVM and Raniere instead of pursuing an application to Yale Drama School.
Raniere had started NXIVM in the 1990s in Albany as a purported self-improvement group that then expanded across the country.
It first became known for its ‘Executive Success Program’ courses, which purported to give students the ability to achieve their goals in life by overcoming mental blocks.
Raniere started a secret branch, known as the DOS, in about 2015 that was just for women.
Smallville actress Allison Mack (pictured following her 2021 prison sentence) had told a reporter that she joined the NXIVM sex cult to be a star again
Mack, who joined NXIVM in 2006, was once part of Raniere’s inner circle. They are pictured together during a filmed interview for the group on his YouTube page
Prosecutors say the secret society was comprised of brainwashed female ‘slaves’ who were blackmailed into having sex with him, following dangerously restrictive diets and being branded with his initials.
Mack became a master, as well as Raniere’s slave, around 2016.
In her role in the cult, Mack admitted that at Raniere’s direction, she obtained compromising information and images of two unidentified women – called ‘collateral’ within the group – that she threatened to make public if they didn’t perform ‘so-called acts of love.’
Prosecutors also said Mack ordered victims ‘to perform labor, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere’.
As an investigation into NXIVM was underway in 2017, Raniere and Mack were among those who fled to Mexico to try to reconstitute the group there.
He was arrested at a luxury villa in Puerto Vallarta and sent back to the US in March 2018.
Mack was arrested a few days later in New York and charged with racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking.
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