Magistrate Rules For Prosecution: Search Warrants To Remain Sealed Until 6 Weeks Before Jury Selection

In yet another defeat for the horde of attorneys that make up the defense team for Keith Raniere and his five co-defendants, Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon has ruled in favor of the prosecution in terms of what information they have to disclose about potential new charges and when they have to do so.

In a ruling issued earlier today, the judge granted the prosecution’s December 4^th request that it be permitted to defer the disclosure of sealed, unredacted copies of three search warrants – and the underlying affidavits that had been used to obtain them – until six weeks before the jury is selected in the case (The defense attorneys wanted that information NOW!).

The three search warrants concern one of Raniere’s email accounts (keithraniere@yahoo.com), one of Clare Bronfman’s email accounts (clarewbronfman@gmail.com), and some of the electronic information that was stored on the various electronic devices that were seized from Nancy Salzman’s home back in March of this year.

Redacted copies of the three search warrants were unsealed on November 20^th – and copies of those redacted documents were disclosed to the affected parties the very next day.

On November 26^th, the defense attorneys filed what Frank Report described at the time as a “whiny motion” asking the court to order the prosecution to unseal the redacted portions of the search warrants “…at least to the portions of the affidavits that refer to the alleged schemes already charged in the Superseding Indictment returned over four months ago…” – and to explain why any other portions of the search warrants needed to remain under seal.

In its response, the prosecution cited an ex parte filing with the court that has been not made public – and the language in the search warrants themselves – as reasons for the court to keep everything  sealed until we get much closer to the start of the trial (Even though the currently scheduled “start date” for the trial is March 18, 2019, several observers have opined that the trial may not start until September of next year).

Although he had not even read the prosecution’s reasons for requesting the deferral because its filing had been done ex parte, Marc Agnifilo, the lead attorney for Keith Raniere, alleged that the government had “…failed to show a credible risk to witness safety or the integrity of an ongoing investigation—at least with respect to the affidavits supporting conduct charged in the superseding indictment”.

Apparently, Judge Scanlon didn’t agree with Agnifilo’s opinion.

So, what the hell is this all about, you ask?

Well, the key may be found in a line from Agnifilo’s  December 5^th letter to the court: “Instead, the search warrant affidavits are based upon information that the Government has already investigated (without the need for the devices and the email accounts) and is now being used as a basis to find more information in the defendants’ devices and accounts”.

What Agnifilo is suggesting is that the government may have found evidence of more crimes than they listed in the original affidavits and search warrants.

No real surprise there – at least not to those of us who have been following the development and expansion of the NXIVM crime syndicate for years.

And certainly, it would be easy enough for Raniere to simply tell Agnifilo what those other crimes are.

But Raniere has spent his entire adult life – and, for that matter, probably his entire pre-adult life too – lying to people and/or withholding important information from them.

One of the challenges that every attorney hired by NXIVM has to overcome is the fact that they can’t trust their clients to tell them the truth.

Now, Agnifilo knows that things are about to get much worse for Raniere – and he basically has to beg the court to help him out and make the prosecution reveal what other charges are going to be filed against his client.

Kudos to Magistrate Judge Scanlon for telling Agnifilo he’ll have to wait until the next superseding indictment comes out to find out what Raniere won’t tell him.

But, here’s a little hint for Agnifilo. Those additional crimes are likely to fall into one or more of these categories: financial-related, immigration-related and/or public corruption-related.

Now, stop complaining, Marc – and get back to work running up those billable hours!

By the way – as a hint on how to get a few more billable hours, Marc can always appeal the magistrate’s decision.