By Scott Johnson
It wasn’t so much hate the Department of Justice (DOJ) had, as Keith Raniere said, they just wanted joy since “he who has the most joy wins.”
In his post, Pyramids, Abortions, and Kinky Sex Life of Victim — Were Keith’s Legal Rights Violated? – Part IV. K.R. Claviger couldn’t be more wrong when he wrote, “the term ‘pyramid organization’ is not a pejorative term.”
Most people don’t use the word “organization” when referring to a pyramid and instead include words such as “business” or “scheme” or “scam” or simply the term “pyramid” by itself. Therefore, it is an extremely pejorative term. Claviger is so clueless it’s almost funny, but it’s too serious of a topic to be funny.
About the only thing that Nxivm appears not to be is an illegal pyramid scam, because the definition of that word is essentially Multilevel Marketing that has little-to-no retail sales to non-distributor customers, and Nxivm appeared to have lots of those.
DOS could be considered to be an illegal pyramid scam because there were no customers — only compliant downline slaves who recruited more compliant downline slaves.
But was Nxivm really a pyramid scheme?
Regarding the abortion records, unless Raniere himself had one or more abortions, that information isn’t his to complain about being disclosed. The abortions were the women’s sensitive information, and so Raniere, in Claviger’s vocabulary, had no standing in that matter.
Keith Raniere teaches a group of his followers. Among the women, how many of them had abortions?
Why does Claviger keep missing the obvious? It must be that she isn’t a very bright lawyer.
The judge should have allowed the inclusion of cross-examination of Nicole’s other sex-life behaviors, as Raniere was maintaining what he did to her was normal for her. It’s an obvious 6th Amendment right to confrontation violation.
Allison Mack ordered Nicole to make contact with Keith Raniere. Nicole thus began communicating with Raniere and the nature of her communications were not permitted to be introduced as evidence at the trial by the defense. The claim is that the texts and emails would have shown that Nicole was consenting to a sexual relationship with Raniere and that, in fact, she sought him out. The prosecution claimed that her texts and emails and other visible signs of consent were only given because she was under duress because she gave collateral to Mack, and this was an unseen force driving her to make these efforts at seeking out and seducing Raniere.
Claviger is wrong about the person who voluntarily transcribed the video; wrong that it cannot be considered to be forced labor. Plus, the jury wouldn’t buy it.
Pamela Ann Cafritz died in Nov. 2016. Nicole was told/asked to transcribe video for use in Cafritz’s memorial service and review a number of articles written by Keith Raniere, She spent perhaps 40 hours doing so. Although she appeared eager and willing to do the work, it was later charged as forced labor since she had collateral hanging over her and she could not, it was argued, refuse to do the labor. For her 40 hours of computer work, Raniere got 40 years for this offense.
