By: John Tighe
The opinions expressed herein are my own alone. They may or may not reflect Frank’s views. He’s allowing me to express my opinions based on my own horrible experiences with the U.S. justice system – which I very much appreciate.
*****
First, some housekeeping.
Frank is allowing me to opine on various topics concerning El Gordo, “The Fat One,” as I now refer to Keith Alan Raniere. Since this particular post is somewhat time-sensitive, I’m writing it before I post Part 3 of my 4-part series
(Note: Some people have asked very good questions in commenting on my first 2 posts – and I will address all of those in my 4th and final post of the series).
Keith Raniere walking in Clifton Park when he was the Vanguard (Photo courtesy Albany Times Union).
Keith Alan Raniere during his days, front and center, for Consumers’ Buyline.
*****
Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares
P. David Soares
It’s hard to know where I should start in writing about this steroid-fueled, fat bag of wind.
NXIVM was headquartered in Colonie, right in Soares’ backyard – just a few miles from the strip club where David met his new wife. Close members of Soares’ own family – including his sister – were heavily invested in El Gordo’s bullshit.
NXIVM’s headquarters were at 455 New Karner road in Colonie, NY
David must have been aware of NXIVM’s reputation in the community – and of many of the illegal activities the cult and its members were engaged in.
Various organizations going back even before my blog, Saratoga In Decline, were writing about the dubious and nefarious activities of the El Gordo and the NXIVM cult. But instead of investigating what was going on with them, Soares chose to go after El Gordo’s enemies. One of the first was Joe O’Hara.
David Soares twice brought criminal charges against Joe O’Hara at the request of Clare Bronfman and Keith Raniere. All the charges were dismissed.
After meeting with Clare Bronfman, Soares brought in NXIVM loyalist Kristin Keeffe to work at his office to help put together criminal charges against O’Hara. I have to wonder how often he brought in untrained civilians to put together a case against an innocent local businessman.
Although Keeffe is fully detoxed now – and although she provided valuable information to the prosecutors who took El Gordo down – at the time she worked in Soares’ office, she was still under the spell of the Rasputin-like figure of El Gordo
Rasputin
Keith Raniere
(The main differences between El Godo and Rasputin is that El Gordo doesn’t have a huge dick and Rasputin smelled better). Personally, I’m glad she got away from the beast and turned on her tormenter – and that she isn’t stupid enough to be dancing in her underwear for the enjoyment of scorpions and Gila Monsters in the Arizona desert like some of his other imbecilic followers would love to be doing.
El Gordo was Keeffe’s mentor – and she was the mother of his secret son and a self-trained paralegal. She was also much more talented than any of the other paralegals or investigators working in Soares’ office.
With Keeffe being paid by the Bronfman bitches, Soares used her skills and the powers of his office to bring criminal charges against O’Hara shortly after NXIVM had launched a civil lawsuit against him.
Clare and Sara Bronfman
The plan was to force O’Hara to settle with NXIVM – at which point the criminal charges would have been dropped. But that plan went awry when the judge who was assigned to the criminal case dismissed all the charges at the very first hearing.
O’Hara, myself and others continued to provide information about NXIVM’s illegal operations to various law enforcement agencies in the Albany, NY area. But all of them deferred to Soares whose office clearly had primary jurisdiction over these matters.
No matter what came to light about NXIVM and El Gordo, Soares never lifted a finger.
In fact, he was part of the plot against me. When Jim Murphy, the then-Saratoga County District Attorney – and the Office of the New York State Attorney General – both refused to prosecute the computer trespass allegations against me, O’Hara and Toni Natalie, New York State Police Senior Supervisor Rodger Kirsopp and Soares – along with NXIVM tech goon Ben Myers – facilitated the moving of the NXIVM servers that hosted its website from Saratoga County to Albany County to give Soares the jurisdictional basis to prosecute us.
Rodger Kirsopp – he started out looking to uncover NXIVM-related crimes but, for unknown reasons, switched and went after NXIVM’s enemies.
Soares was more than happy to get an Albany judge to sign search warrants for our homes.
The rest, as they say, is history.
*****
Political Corruption Is Rampant
Albany is known far and wide as the most corrupt city in the most corrupt county in the most corrupt state in the country. Albany, in fact, would be the most logical place to build the Museum of Political Corruption.
From former President of the New York Senate Joe Bruno to former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, there have been 41 members of the New York State legislature accused of misdeeds and found guilty in the past 12 years. Though most of their crimes took place in Albany County, Soares never brought charges against any of them. Neither did the Northern District of NY. Instead, all those charges were brought by the Eastern or Southern District of NY prosecutors.
Soares has never been much of a lawyer. Seems everybody knows Albany is a law-free zone for the rich and powerful
What Soares does like to do is prosecute low-level, impoverished street dealers who readily accept plea deals. Soares’ MO is always the same: call a press conference, show off a dime bag of crack and a broken pistol, and brag how you have solved the Albany crime problem.
Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares.
Soares always goes after the low-hanging fruit of the underside of the city. Not to say street-level crime isn’t important but in the larger picture of corruption, Soares is part of the problem, not part of the solution. When I backed Lee Kindlon for Albany County DA, I was trying to be part of the solution. But the rich, powerful and corrupt like things just the way they are in Albany County.
Soares doesn’t bother with big fish. After all, he might lose the case. He is a prosecutor who has never personally tried a case.
And he’s also a prosecutor who has never pissed off the wrong people in order to ensure that his own little peccadillos don’t become public. A man who dreams of running for New York State Attorney General can always use a couple of billionaire nitwit cult sisters along with a few corrupt politicians in his Rolodex.
*****
The Andrew Cuomo Case
Then the case of a lifetime fell out of the sky and into Soares’ ample lap. Sex assault charges against King Cuomo, the great and disgraced ex-governor and former potentate of the State of New York.
Surprisingly, Cuomo, the corrupt and once all-powerful governor of NY, was not brought down by the corruption scandals that engulfed some of his biggest economic-development projects (Examples: The Buffalo Billion Project that saw his friend former SUNY Polytechnic Institute President Alain Kaloyeros convicted of rigging the bid for state-funded contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars – or Joseph Percoco, Cuomo’s former top aide and close personal friend, who – along with his three convicted co-defendants, Lou Ciminelli of LP Ciminelli and Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi of COR Development – was convicted of accepting more than $300,000 in bribes from companies with business before the state). Cuomo walked away from all these scandals with dirty hands confident that people like Soares would look the other way and hand him some soap and a towel.
Former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo
Instead, Cuomo – who many people think is bisexual – was forced to resign due to his boorish and loutish behavior toward female employees. But one of those employees, Brittany Commisso, was relentless in her pursuit of justice. And she wasn’t content with his exit as governor and her civil suit against him. She wanted the bastard behind bars.
I found all this ironic because although sexual assault is a profoundly serious charge, it’s only one of the dozens of laws Cuomo has brazenly broken throughout his lengthy career in public office. In reality, Cuomo should have been charged with numerous public corruption violations.
Nevertheless, it took just one brave woman to stand up against this creep and take him down. So, I applaud Brittany Commisso, the former executive assistant, who Andrew M. Cuomo groped on numerous occasions in the executive mansion, which, ironiacally enough, is just around the corner from Soares’ office.
Brittany Commisso (Photo credit: Will Waldron/Times Union)
Commisso had put up with Cuomo’s thuggish behavior for far too long – and she wanted her pound of flesh. Unfortunately, all the assaults against her took place in Albany County, the domain of the cowardly and corrupt District Attorney David Soares. Commisso – just like all the ones before her (including me and the other anti-NXIVM forces) – was doomed from the outset.
Instead of going to Soares, Commisso turned to the charismatic Albany County Sheriff, Craig Apple. In a highly unusual move – and supposedly without consulting Soares – Apple filed forcible touching charges against Cuomo. This put Apple on CNN and FOX news – and he immediately became a darling of the national press.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple
Now, you would think any prosecutor would love to jump on this case. But I guess all the steroids he’s consumed over the years have caused Soares’ balls to shrink. Instead of forcing Cuomo to go to trial or take a plea deal, Soares advised the court that he believed it might be impossible to prove the charges against Cuomo because Sheriff Apple’s filing was defective.
Soares folded like a cheap tent – and allowed Cuomo to walk away free-and-clear.
I have no doubt Cuomo and his cronies are looking at ways to get back at his enemies – including Commisso. What kind of message does this send to other victims of sexual abuse by powerful people?
What was needed was a skilled DA with guts and determination. What we got was this mess of a human being named David Soares. Completely devoid of character, principles, and virtue.
Instead of moving forward on Cuomo where he had ample evidence to convict, Soares started his own computer trespass investigation regarding me and others that was based on bullshit. But I was a nobody – and I had a big mouth. I was low-hanging fruit and I pissed off the wrong people. So, why not bend the law a little to convict me?
Even though he knew that the alleged crime could not have been committed in Albany County because the server in question was in Saratoga County at the time of the alleged illegal accessing, Soares – with the help of Senior New York State Police Investigator Rodger Kirsopp – conspired to indict me. Soares twisted his bloated body into a pretzel to convince an Albany County judge to sign a search warrant for my house that was in a different county. All to please his masters, El Gordo, and the Bronfman sisters.
A real case involving the sitting governor of New York State is dumped on his ample lap – and Soares takes a pass. Prosecuting Cuomo was a no-brainer. Win – and you’re on the Today Show. Lose – and at least you had the balls to stand up to a bully and protect the rights of women everywhere.
*****
Maybe There’s More to This Story
Or is there more to the story?
Apple and Soares are besties. So, why would the media-savvy Apple – an elected official himself – not check with Soares before bringing charges against Cuomo?
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple and Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares
Call me suspicious but I think it’s possible that Soares and Apple had all this worked out from the beginning to get Cuomo off the hook. After all, the judge who was overseeing the charges against Cuomo was none other than Holly Trexler, who used to work for Soares.
In case you don’t remember, Trexler was also the attorney who was tapped by Soares to be the Special Prosecutor in my computer trespass case. As a reward for her service and my conviction, Trexler was appointed to a judgeship in the Albany City Court in the Third Judicial District of New York by Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan in 2017.
Almost funny, isn’t it? All one big club.
Putting 2-and-2 together, I think the fix was in from the very start. Cuomo was never really going to be prosecuted – it was all a sham. Apple and Soares played their parts. And then Trexler played her part – and dismissed the charges against Cuomo.
Judge Holly Trexler: Willing to do anything she’s asked to do by the Albany Political Machine
Only poor Commisso wasn’t in on it.
“I think it’s deterring women from coming forward,” she said about Soares’ decision not to pursue charges against Cuomo. “The DA’s choice means Cuomo, and potentially other alleged sexual abusers, will not face repercussions for bad behavior. I don’t think that it’s teaching anyone anything,” she complained. “It’s not showing or proving a good message”.
You think?
I really feel sorry for Commisso. She believed that the justice system is fair and unbiased – just as I once did. Instead, she found out that the Albany Machine always looks after its own.
In my opinion, the real threat to American Democracy is political corruption. And that goes for both parties.
As far as Soares goes, there is zero chance that he will ever become part of the solution. He simply doesn’t have any interest in going after the real bad guys – especially when he’s got so many homeless crackheads to round up.
The politicians who work or live in Albany County continue to do what they want – knowing full well that Soares will never do anything about it.
Something stinks in Albany and it ain’t the Hudson
*****
Back soon with Part 3.
*****
