Marc Agniflo has pretty much summed up the weakness, he says, of the case against NXIVM and the government’s foolish notion to pursue it – in a memorandum of law filed on Dec. 28.
The estimable lawyer for Keith Raniere writes:
“Everything about this case, the Government’s Response included, betrays a clear reality: the prosecutors read about branding in The New York Times, spoke to different people writing books, making podcasts or starring in television dramas and endeavored to construct a criminal case from media and Hollywood-driven detritus.
Central to the Government’s success was keeping Raniere in prison. It accomplished this by falsely telling this Court that he escaped to Mexico
The Government did not inform the Mexican authorities, for instance,
that it possessed months of written communication between Raniere and numerous Jane Does that clearly showed a normal, consensual intimate relationship.
The truth is that the sex trafficking charges that led to this misconduct are baseless, and are hanging by a thread, and the Government is still trying to cobble together a case by promising a last-minute superseding indictment.
Throughout the last year, different witnesses have told the Government time and again that they were not sex trafficking victims and that Raniere is innocent. Unwilling to accept these answers, the Government in repeated interviews sought to convince these witnesses that while the witnesses may have been unaware of it, they were actually sex trafficking victims.
Now, having been called on these tactics, the Government denies it ever made such statements or suggestions to any witness, and further refuses to admit that it has clear Brady material [evidence that might exonerate Raniere].
Keith Raniere again asserts his innocence to these charges. He continues to object to his being held without bail and he continues to press for this trial to commence with opening statements on March 18, 2019″.
