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

Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon sides with prosecution on search warrants.

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 4th 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 20th – and copies of those redacted documents were disclosed to the affected parties the very next day.

On November 26th, 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 5th 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.

About the author

K.R. Claviger

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  • Allison has a very smug, sly aura/expression. Her recent photos don’t show a woman as phased as she should be. I wonder if she’s so deluded/ cocky that she thinks she’s going to walk away free? She’s probably planning a book deal in her head!

  • One asks oneself….
    When will we be done with this lot of which nothing good has come from it?
    Enslavement of women (how have we betrayed our own sex and consciously?), sexual predation of the young, criminal activity, mysterious deaths, families broken, careers sacrificied on the pyre of Keith, and ad nauseum.
    One weeps for women who will forever be childless, tossed away wealth, careers, talent and all for one man.
    A man who believes himself to be a demi god.
    Be careful, ladies, what, and whom you worship. No one is worthy of such.
    I wonder…what exactly, and how did Keith phrase it to entrap such women? Nevertheless they are irredeamable now. Not to be trusted ever as friend, lover, carer, nothing.
    Very big sigh.
    Frankly I weary of the never ending saga of the NXIVM flock.
    Can they not just be locked away, far from us, and fed bread and water until the day they are no more and then placed in an unmarked grave?
    I wish it so.

  • The trial is never going to happen in March 2019. The defense will have enough time to properly prepare for trial when it does happen.
    This Judge is very smart and is taking every motion into appeal consideration when making decisions.
    The DOJ needs to protect their on going investigation and not show certain cards to the defense as to tip them with information that will have a negative impact on Justice Servered.
    Many people are watching to see what the next round of indictment/arrests will be. Hopefully it will be before Christmas as one of the best presents ever. If not, its knowing Little Lord KAR will have to spend even more time at the MDC before he gets his weeks in court

  • Joy to the world! Would be so awesome if the trial gets pushed back further into September. Poor little baby Keith would have to endure high-mite season at MDC next summer. Don’t let the bed bugs bite 🙂

    Didn’t someone on here state that Keith has been known to set off radar detectors, or smoke alarms? or something along those lines? Would be so funny to make a spoof video of Keith sitting in the passenger seat of a car and driving around town, while setting off traffic lights, fire hydrants, car alarms, etc. I wonder if Keith actually told people about this stuff, his powers, as if to impress them. I mean, seriously, you can’t make this shit up because it’s so ridiculous. What would be even more scary is if people actually believed it. Might as well start a rumor that Keith is 5 months pregnant. That would be a hoot!

    • Yes, TK, Keith convinced his acolytes that his genius “Vanguard” aura interacts with electric power, energy waves after seeing the movie, “Mothman,” with my sister and pals in the ‘80’s.

      Movie nights with Keith were always a mind trip — “Mothman” was one of the movie’s he liked to use repeatedly to mind condition his young prey. Richard Gere, hot actor in the day, starred —romantic plot, the hero acquires omniscient superpowers due to tradgedy that “kills” or “transforms” his wife, Debra Messing, after they’re attacked by a giant moth. Gere himself starts to set off electric storms and heroically saves people by predicting major tragedies. There’s some time travel element in the movie, if I remember right. I think Gere saves Messing from ever dying to begin with and they both live happily ever after in Mothland or something.

      But from then on, Keith’s own Mothman-like powers — that set energy waves a flutter in his presence — were extolled to newcomers.

      This phenomenon was also Keith’s excuse for why he could never drive. The real reason Keith didn’t have a drivers license was because: HE FAILED THE WRITTEN NYS DRIVER’S EXAM required to renew his license and instead of retaking it blamed the “illogic” and idiocy of the exam itself. I think he had Karen U make a complaint or redesign the exam at first. But the final solution was that Keith was to be chauffeured everywhere due to the dangers of his Mothman powers to other drivers and society.

      Good excuse as any to keep him off the streets behind bars.

      Oh, also if you ever repeat this to anyone — that Keith failed the driver’s test — it’s said, “tragedy will strike your life like lightening.”

      So, keep that to yourself or Mothman’ll getcha.

  • Those additional crimes are likely to fall into one or more of these categories: financial-related, immigration-related and/or public corruption-related.

    Did someone at NXIVM bribe immigration officials to issue fraudulent Green Cards and other immigration documents?
    I don’t believe it.
    Those fine folks at NXIVM are so Ethical!
    I know that Clare Bronfman would never stoop so low as to bribe public officials!
    And Allison Mack would never enter into a bogus marriage to shelter a non-citizen!
    I’m shocked!
    Shocked!

  • Looks like the defense will either ask for a delay in starting the trial and/or appeal the case because they weren’t given enough time to prepare. After all, the judge has determined this to be a complex case. Either way, Raniere spends more time in jail, and that’s a good thing.

  • KAR must be having the biggest meltdown ever!
    Little Lord KAR is not getting his way with anything these days and nothing he really wants is “just appearing”.
    No Bail Granted
    No Unsealed Documents
    No visitors from his followers
    No stable of women to be his toys

    What could KAR have put on this list for Santa to bring him for Christmas? You know things just appear for Little Lord-KAR
    A pony
    New glasses
    An Orange Jumpsuit, Orange is the new black you know.
    A little lump of coal – KAR has been very naughty this year

  • Thanks for these important updates and legalese translates, KR.

    Keith’s Mom’s name was Vera, too. She must be so proud of her little genius now. (Sarcasm.)

About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” In addition, he was credited in the Starz docuseries 'Seduced' for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premieres on May 22, 2022.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Parlato,_Jr.

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

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