Most Frank Report readers immediately recognize the names of Kristin Keeffe and Joseph J. (Jake) O’Hara. They now have a website – Trials & Truths – that will focus on high-profile trials and issues that are of interest to their readers.
As noted on their website, www.TrialsAndTruths.us , they are committed to “reporting, factually and objectively, about high-profile trials and high-interest issues.”
They will also be writing Op-Eds that will offer their opinions about specific trials and issues.
MK-10’s portrait of Kristin Keeffe.
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How Keeffe and O’Hara Got Together
For several years, O’Hara and Keeffe were on opposite sides when it came to matters involving NXIVM.
Keeffe had some 22 years with Keith Raniere, the co-founder of the NXIVM cult, before she turned whistleblower.
Keeffe worked with O’Hara during the 15-months that he served as a part-time consultant for NXIVM. In December 2004, Raniere and O’Hara had a falling out after O’Hara informed Raniere and the co-founder of NXIVM, Nancy Salzman, that because of his concerns over the possible illegality of some of the organization’s activities, he was resigning from his consultant post.
And that is how O’Hara became one of Raniere’s main targets in the early years of NXIVM.
For more than 15 years, Keeffe and O’Hara had no contact.
But in mid-2021, I arranged for them to talk to each other to discuss their experiences with Raniere and NXIVM.
At first, Keeffe and O’Hara talked about the Raniere trial. They agreed that mainstream media had not identified – nor reported on – many of the major legal issues that were involved in the case. They also found that most of the media reports and stories about the trial did not explain how specific testimony and other evidence that was allowed in by the trial judge, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, was – or was not – related to the charges that the government had brought against Raniere.
After looking at how other high-profile cases had been covered in the media, they concluded that the Raniere case was not unique. Very few media outlets that cover high-profile trials explain exactly what the prosecution must prove in order to convict a defendant. And the few that do cover such trials in that way rarely, if ever, provide copies of – or links to – case filings and/or trial exhibits.
Nor do they report how and why the government introduced certain evidence – and/or whether it met its burden of proof.
Instead, mainstream media tends to focus on the salacious aspects of high-profile trials.
Keeffe and O’Hara observed that in many high-profile criminal trials, the prosecution often uses a “game plan” that begins with an all-out assault on the defendant’s character – and that a lot of civil litigation is conducted the same way. The plan is to make the jury hate the defendant before the defendant has an opportunity to present their defense.
Rarely do reporters raise questions whether judges should have allowed specific testimony to be elicited during the trial. Nor do they evaluate the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of the defense attorney’s cross-examination of the prosecution’s witnesses – and vice versa.
Keeffe and O’Hara followed several trials from beginning to end – and carefully documented the flaws in the media reporting about them. Then they decided to launch a website.
Both have an extensive legal background. Both have superb writing skills.
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Kristin Keeffe
Keeffe was a long-time associate of Keith Raniere – and is the mother of his first child. She served as a paralegal for NXIVM and Clare and Sara Bronfman for 12 years.
The Emblem of the Society of Protectors.
In 2013, Keeffe saw NXIVM become radicalized against women. Raniere introduced a new curriculum through the Society of Protectors that was extremely misogynistic.
Before, NXIVM had offered somewhat mainstream executive training – and attracted clients like Jennifer Anniston, Gerard Butler, and members of Richard Branson’s family.
But, per the new SOP curriculum, NXIVM shifted to an educational system with various tenets that Keeffe found deplorable.
For example, women were portrayed as “fleas jumping from host to host.”
Or women were described as “baby princesses who couldn’t get anything done.”
And although “men needed many sexual partners to achieve fulfillment,” women should only have a sexual relationship with one man.
Keeffe found the changes introduced via SOP to be shocking and horrifying. As she watched the entire organization embrace misogyny almost overnight, she noted that there was zero resistance from the NXIVM leadership or its salespeople.
As she reevaluated her experiences with Raniere and NXIVM, Keeffe realized that the man she thought was an ethical and honest leader was, in reality, a psychopathic maniac.
This led her to investigate whether NXIVM’s operations involved illegal activities – at which time she realized that Raniere and Salzman had lied about many of the things the organization was doing in order to keep her from finding out about what was really going on.
Keeffe reported NXIVM’s illegal activities to the New York State Police – but for some inexplicable reason, they were more interested in investigating other whistleblowers like O’Hara and John Tighe.
Somehow, Raniere found out what she was trying to do with the New York State Police – and Keeffe was forced to flee with their son in fear for their lives.
Keeffe’s allegations proved prescient as the Eastern District of New York later prosecuted many of her findings.
The DOJ acknowledged Keeffe’s help in bringing Raniere and his co-defendants to justice by calling her within minutes of Raniere’s conviction to thank her.
Keeffe has experience working as a paralegal with top law firms in the country – and she has researched numerous high-control groups. This has given her insights into the intersection of cult-like thinking and the law. In addition, her commitment to evidence-based reporting ensures that all her posts will be factual and unbiased.
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Joseph J. (Jake) O’Hara
O’Hara was one of the first to experience NXIVM’s skill at legal terrorism as soon as Raniere had identified him as an “enemy.”
In addition to paying exorbitant fees to law firms to bring countless civil claims against O’Hara, Raniere instructed Daniela, the woman who subsequently spent almost 2-years isolated in a room by herself, to hack into O’Hara’s computer.
Her initial attempt to do so failed because O’Hara chose not to open any of the emails that she sent to him, under various names, with her homemade but lethal spyware imbedded within them.
In her second attempt to get into O’Hara’s computer, Daniela planted spyware on the laptop of O’Hara’s accountant, Jim Loperfido, who was still doing some accounting work for NXIVM. Kathy Russell helped by diverting Loperfido away from the office at NXIVM’s headquarters he was using at the time so that Daniela could sneak in and plant her homemade spyware on it.
Once Daniela could access Loperfido’s computer, Raniere then knew every keystroke the accountant made. In almost no time, Daniela was able to access all of Loperfido’s emails – and obtain all kinds of information from his correspondence with O’Hara. Once he obtained confidential information about O’Hara and his businesses, Raniere was able to use it in his lawsuits against O’Hara.
Marie White’s painting of Clare Bronfman giving a peck to her impeccable leader, Keith Alan Raniere.
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Raniere perfected his lawsuit technique with the financial support of stooge-like Clare Bronfman and her feckless sister Sara Bronfman, who filed a massive but baseless civil lawsuit against O’Hara.
Readers will find the real purpose of their lawsuit in this fact: They sued O’Hara for $2 million but they spent more than $4 million on legal fees. The goal was not money or the merit of the lawsuit. It was to ruin O’Hara and, with luck, put him in prison.
Readers might note that Raniere and Clare reaped what they sowed for O’Hara. Raniere is now incarcerated in sunny Tuscon – and Clare is enjoying a New England summer in Danbury, CT at the women’s federal prison located there.
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P. David Soares, Albany County District Attorney
But the world’s most intelligent man did his best to get O’Hara locked up.
With the help of Clare and Sara, he convinced P. David Soares, the District Attorney of Albany County, to help in this effort.
A good public servant, Soares filed baseless and fraudulent criminal charges against O’Hara on two different occasions
In the end, both cases were dismissed without any findings of impropriety by O’Hara.
The criminal charges against O’Hara had the same old problems as so many other Raniere-Bronfman-fueled prosecutions – no evidence and perjured testimony.
In the second criminal case against O’Hara and his three co-defendants – which was a computer trespass case – only one defendant, Toni Natalie, was guilty. [More on her in an upcoming series.]
Some may justify Natalie’s hacking of NXIVM’s computer.
What was Natalie-esque, however, was her telling others like O’Hara that she had been given legal permission to use the password of a former member of NXIVM to access the site.
She helped to destroy several people’s lives with this lie.
MK10ART’s portrayal of Toni Natalie and her book, both of which are chock full of lies.
What people like O’Hara thought was a legal entry by permission of a current member of NXIVM who had shared her password turned out to be a total lie. The password owner told Frank Report that she never gave Natalie her password – and that she did not even know her. Thanks to O’Hara’s efforts, even guilty Natalie got off.
Indictments are costly, though – and O’Hara incurred massive legal fees as he fought off NXIVM’s various attempts to get him convicted of a crime and/or ruin his businesses. Eventually, he was forced to file for bankruptcy for himself and his various companies.
This pleased Raniere and his stooge, Clare Bronfman, more than the tongue could tell.
P. David Soares, Albany County District Attorney tried twice to snag O’Hara. But he came up empty both times.
Before his involvement with NXIVM, O’Hara had a notable career. He worked in – and for – various city, county, state, and federal agencies. After graduating from Cornell with a J.D. degree and an MPA degree. O’Hara’s governmental career included the following positions
Assistant to the Thompkins County (NY) County Administrator;
Legislative Counsel to NYS Senator William T. Smith;
Assistant Professor, Government & Public Administration, State University of New York/Empire State College;
Executive Director of Washington, DC’s Interagency Council on Family Planning;
Director of the Missouri Division of Family Services;
Director of the Missouri Department of Social Services; and
President of the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators.
Following his retirement from government service, O’Hara founded several companies that provided a wide array of consulting services to county and state agencies – and to more than 1,200 local school districts. Over the course of fifteen years, he helped these agencies and school districts generate more than $1.25 billion in additional federal funding.
O’Hara was also involved in various civic activities – and received numerous governmental awards. He also served on the board of directors for several non-profit entities.
Somehow along the way, O’Hara also found time to serve as the General Manager of three professional sports teams:
– The Albany Patroons in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA);
– The New York Kick in the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL); and
– The Albany Firebirds in the Arena Football League (AFL).
For two years, he also served as Commissioner of the Arena Football League.
Following the death of his former wife, Denise F. Polit, Ph.D., O’Hara moved to Pittsburgh, PA, where his son served as a Public Defender. Father and son are now involved in various charitable activities that are focused on providing assistance to military veterans, returning citizens, and single mothers.
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Check Out Trials & Truths
I encourage Frank Report’s readers to look at the Trials & Truths blog – which should be operational sometime over the July 4th weekend.
Keeffe and O’Hara will provide accurate reporting about important trials – and they will no doubt attract a wide readership.
MadAddie Marketing of Glenville, NY., designed and maintains the Trials & Truths blog.
Frank Report’s readers can also follow Keeffe and O’Hara on Twitter at Trials & Truths (@TrialsTruths) / Twitter – and on Facebook at (20+) trials & truths – Search Results | Facebook (They will reportedly be adding more social media sites in the near future).
