Erasend had this comment to make about my post To Avoid ‘Bloody Beaumont’, Raniere Might Be Wise to Order Return of DOS Slaves’ Collateral
By Erasend
Wow, you give the judge and Feds way too much credit for giving a shit about Keith Raniere.
The case is basically done except for minor cleanup. Would they like to end with a nice bow tie of collateral confiscated (the odds of the women getting it back are basically nil), then sure.
Do they actually give a flying f#@$?
Naw, it’s just a detail to mop up but since it doesn’t really impact this case or any future cases they, have to deal with. It gets filed under “Oh well.”
It began with Keith Alan Raniere’s apprehension in Mexico on March 26, 2018. Some called it the day the blow jobs died because a group blow job had been planned as a recommitment ceremony with five women to reinstitute DOS.
They’ve got cases scheduled already from now to the end of the year and all the work involved in them. The time to use the prison system as leverage has long passed.
Using Jeffrey Epstein and Whitey Bulger are bad examples. Raniere’s crimes compared to theirs is like saying someone that stole $100 is the same as the guy that robbed a dozen banks.
No one in the prison system knows or cares who Keith is. He might be “famous” to us but in the grand scheme of current crime, to call him D-List would be an exaggeration.
At most, he might be a minor hero in prison since he banged some hot woman and I am sure they like hearing stories of that and details on the collateral. I am also sure some of his victims hope he dies in jail but except for maybe a few of the Mexican politicians, few likely have the means or wiliness to try to get him killed.
In short, he is literally too much of a small fry to be worth the effort you think others are willing to give him.
The sister-wives were just about to start it up – and Keith was going to try to get it up – when he got nabbed in Mexico and removed from the country.
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Frank Parlato Response
Frank Parlato
Earasend, I think you are wrong for once.
I believe the feds are interested in the supplemental brief he is filing as part of his appeal – and the Rule 33 motion promised by his attorneys that will allege evidence tampering by FBI agents.
I am not suggesting Raniere is innocent…or that the FBI agents tampered with or created evidence, but these are issues being raised and any accusation may be of some concern. Even false accusations are often believed by somebody.
Then. in his appeal. he has raised issues that may combat the new precedents set in sex trafficking, forced labor and racketeering that seem to have been set in the Raniere case. For those who seek to expand the number of situations in which those three crimes can be charged, the Raniere case may become a landmark case.
Now consider what happened last month.
Marc Fernich
I wonder if any attorney ever insulted Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis the way Raniere’s attorney did at last month’s restitution hearing.
It was shocking to my two correspondents – who covered this court.
Raniere’s attorney, Marc Fernich, was miffed because he was denied the opportunity to go to a friend’s funeral. He asked for an hour delay in the proceedings and was denied. He reacted to the judge’s denial, arguing it was an easy enough thing for the judge to grant – a mere hour.
The judge mocked him by offering a box of tissues. The two men got into a shouting match and been more incredibly, a 30-minute stare down. I mean this literally. The court was silent for 30 minutes, everyone sitting silently, watching as the attorney and judge sat at their respective places glaring at each other.
U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis
The Bureau of Prisons is part of the Department of Justice. The DOJ prosecutors depend on favorable rulings from judges. Most federal judges are former prosecutors who spent the greater part of their career with the DOJ. It is naïve to believe they do not try to please each other and sympathize with each other.
Consider, this so-called, no account, unknown, uncared about rascal Raniere is mounting legal challenges, and accusing the judge of bias, of not conducting a fair trial. He is also accusing the DOJ, particularly the FBI, of criminal conduct in tampering and creating evidence, and of planting child porn on devices they seized.
It does not matter whether you believe it or not, he is accusing them.
The feds know this since they monitor his calls and read his correspondence. They never miss a call, as previous prosecution motions prove.
They monitor his visits and visitors – and investigate them – refusing to let some people visit him based on their online research.
They know about his appeal and his Rule 33 motion since his lawyers have filed an appeal and have announced a Rule 33 motion is coming. The feds also seem to open his mail from lawyers, and he reportedly gets his lawyer’s correspondence delivered weeks later after court deadlines have passed.
In the run-up to his appeal, he is placed in solitary, just three days after the insulting hearing with Judge Garaufis, and he is assigned to solitary – not for the usual 30-days but. instead, for 60-days – which just happens to coincides with the deadline for filing his supplemental brief on his appeal.
At the most critical juncture of his appeal, Raniere, in solitary, can speak with attorneys only once every three weeks and I understand he must do so in handcuffs so he cannot take notes or bring notes with him.
Because the system is not infallible, there is an appeals process. Even Raniere deserves to avail himself of it.
And even if the feds do not care about Raniere and they are not afraid of him or his motions, it is easy to punish him and please the good judge, who will certainly hear about it.
If solitary prevents him from participating in an appeal that insults the judge and a Rule 33 motion that accuses the DOJ of cheating, putting him in solitary is a win, win.
They do not even have to care about Raniere, if they care a little about the judge, who ought to one day return the favor, for one good turn deserves another – even in our highly vaunted criminal justice system, hard as that may be to believe.
