Raniere Cites US Violation of the Vienna Convention as “Newly Discovered Evidence;” Tells Judge to Release Him From Prison

Federal prisoner Keith Raniere wrote a 200-plus page Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Motion for a new trial, which Frank Report is reviewing in a series. One of his many arguments concerns his ejection from Mexico on March 26, 2018.

Known to followers as Vanguard, Raniere was enjoying a retreat at a seaside villa known as Casa Chocolate, located in Chacala, within the municipality of Compostela, Nayarit, when on a day of infamy – or for some, “the day of most joy” – the afternoon of March 25, 2018 – armed men with rather loutish countenances, dressed in Mexican Federales uniforms, appeared without an invitation, claiming Raniere, a resident of the United States, had not verified his regular residency status in Mexico.

In other words, a visa check.

Raniere says it was a ruse. The Mexican authorities knew he had a valid visa, he said in his motion.

They were there to apprehend him, aware of a US arrest warrant charging Raniere with federal sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, and forced labor.

After Raniere emerged from a closet he was hiding in, the Federales laid hands on him, escorted him to their vehicle, and whisked him away.

Raniere says this operation was not prompted by any violation of Mexican law, but was an “an illegal extradition, breaching the bilateral US-Mexico Extradition Treaty.”

After the Mexicans snatched the man known in his community as its ethicist, they kept him overnight, photographed him, got him to admit they did not ill treat him.

In the morning, they told him he was leaving on a jet plane. The US DOJ paid for his transportation back. He traveled by air, on American airlines, to Dallas, where, upon arrival, FBI agents placed handcuffs on him. This was a wise precaution that prevented the former East Coast Judo champion from reducing the agents to a whimpering, supine, immobility, and shackles on his legs meant to limit his lordly but square-footed steps. This was doubly wise. Raniere had informed his followers that he once tied the NY state record for the 100-yard dash.

Conspiracy to Get Him to US

Raniere was arrested in the US six years ago. He has not experienced a moment of freedom since he was forced to return to his native land.

He argues he was in Mexico legally. Mexico did not charge him with violating any laws that might warrant deportation. But both the US and Mexican governments represented his ejection from Mexico as “a deportation.”

Raniere says to be deported, someone with a legal visa must do something wrong in the country they visit – i.e., Mexico.

Extradition is different. It occurs when a person is alleged to have done something wrong in another jurisdiction, such as the US, and the authorities in that country go through a formal process with the jurisdiction where the individual lives lawfully, such as Mexico, to secure the suspected wrongdoer’s custody.

Raniere says the “transfer operation, devoid of formal extradition proceedings and treaty adherence, constituted an illegal extradition.”

Get Me Out of Jail

Raniere says US District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis must vacate his conviction based on the US-Mexico Extradition Treaty, which provides US citizens with due process guarantees. This was “a breach of the good faith required in upholding international treaties, as per the Vienna Convention.”

It gets worse, according to Vanguard.

The US illegally extradited him based on sex trafficking and forced labor charges. After he returned to the US, the DOJ charged him with racketeering, which, he says, “contravenes the Rule of Specialty, which restricts trial offenses to those explicitly stated in the extradition request or those closely related.”

He cites a 19th-century case, United States v. Rauscher, which holds that a defendant brought back to the United States via an extradition treaty can only face the charges cited in the extradition order, and any later charges must be dismissed.

But it gets even worse, Raniere says.

The prosecutors deliberately lied about the snatching of the Vanguard, telling the court that it was a deportation when they knew it was an (illegal) extradition.  And this isn’t just old news. Vanguard calls it “newly discovered evidence.”

It wasn’t until three years after his conviction that his lawyers finally got his immigration file through the Mexican government. In a word, Raniere argues that his “illegal extradition,” which led to “a violation of the Rule of Specialty,” is “newly discovered evidence,” which is part of his “Ineffective Assistance of Counsel” motion.

Since you and I and everyone else we know were not listed in the 1989 Australian edition of the Guinness Book of Records for having the highest score on a IQ, even if the test was a take-home test, it is understandable that we won’t immediately understand how this deportation vs. extradition issue somehow led to his lawyers failing him.

But in our next post, we will allow the Vanguard himself to explain it to us.

Frank Parlato