Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis has directed the government to respond to Keith Raniere’s Second Motion for Bond by no later than November 19, 2018.
I suspect we will see a rather piquant filing much to the point and rebutting much of what Raniere’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has asserted in his motion seeking to free Raniere – for a time with home confinement or perhaps for all time.
It should be a joy to read.
Also due on November 19th is a letter by the defense counsel for Nancy Salzman, Clare Bronfman and Keith Raniere on the issue of attorney-client privilege. The main concern is whether that privilege has been waived on certain emails seized by the government by virtue of the fact that the correspondence with several attorneys was evidently shared or copied to more than one current criminal defendant – potentially breaking the attorney-client privilege.
How significant this is truly is hard to say without knowing what evidence of crimes may be revealed by the emails between attorneys and Raniere, Bronfman and Salzman.
In any event, defense attorneys are billing hours on parsing this issue – researching it and making their respective client’s legal position known to the DOJ and the Court in order to sort through and determine what may very well be much ado about nothing.
This may be more form than substance. Maybe not. But the good news is that the billing rate is by the hour either way.
Also more good news for attorneys for the defense. Lawyers for the defendants asked leave to file joint motions in excess of the judge’s rule of a maximum of 25 pages per motion. Judge Garaufis has granted the motion and we may see some filings coming in at well over 25 pages.
However, the judge has directed that “each party should file its own motion papers at its respective due date. For joint motions, only one Defendant shall file the appropriate papers.”
This should add up to some notable billable hours and some good reading too.
Also expected today is Raniere’s motion to dismiss.
His second motion for bail is a delight to read – filled as it is with comparisons of Raniere to Socrates and assertions of his wondrous ethics, as well as some fanciful yarns about Raniere’s motives for his exploits down Mexico way. The dismissal should be – if Marc Agnifilo writes it – another splendid composition that should border somewhere between legal writing and the finest works of fiction.
