Clare Webb Bronfman wrote a letter to Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis asking for leniency and, at the same time, expressing loyalty to Keith Alan Raniere, who was convicted in his courtroom of sex trafficking, forced labor, racketeering and other crimes.
Some think it was an unwise move on her part to profess loyalty to a convicted sex trafficker to the very judge that presided at his trial and will be sentencing her. See: Clare Bronfman to Judge Garaufis: I Will Not Disavow Keith Raniere, Nxivm or DOS!
One commenter, who evidently spent some time in prison, gave Clare some good advice in a previous post, Ex-Prisoner Has Advice for Clare Bronfman – ‘Prison Can Be a Great Opportunity. Now ALWAYS Anonymous has more to say and is addressing Clare Bronfman directly. Who knows, this being Clare Bronfman month at Frank Report, she might be reading the posts.
By ALWAYS Anonymous
Dear Clare;
I know you are greatly worried and under great stress concerning your imminent incarceration. I’ve been there and more.
The letter you wrote on your own behalf to Judge Geraufis was a total disaster. Despite your love and appreciation for Keith Raniere, a sentencing hearing is not the appropriate time and place to display it. No one is interested that you learned a lot in Nxivm, even if it is totally, 110% true. No one wants to hear that you still support a convicted felon, child pornographer and child abuser (even if the girl gave her consent, was a full 15 years old and it wouldn’t have been a crime in Mexico).
I’ve spent time in prison. I’ve been through parole hearings. The commonality between a pre-sentencing hearing and a parole hearing is that neither is fair.
In both situations, you’re walking in there as a convicted person. You are powerless to change others’ minds about your crime and the crimes of your friends.
In prison I had a really good friend who was convicted of murder. I loved the guy and would have done anything for him. But, speaking up for him at my parole hearing was not appropriate even though I loved him. It’s the same for you. You may love Keith Raniere but it is not appropriate for you to speak up for him at your hearing. Doing so invites disaster, for you and him.
I overwhelmingly suggest you rescind your letter written to Geraufis and admit you were blinded by misguided sense of loyalty and insanity. Throw yourself upon the mercy of the court and request to write a new letter.
I am not a professional prison consultant but, If you need help writing a new letter, I can give some guidelines. The court is interested in the following:
1) That you admit what you did was wrong (list all the crimes you did, state specifically the impact and pain it caused others);
2) Apologize to those you hurt (list them 1 by 1) and what you will do to make amends to them (restore them to complete financial health, apologize publicly);
3) State what you learned overall from a deeper understanding of your crime;
4) State specifically what you will do in your life to change to rectify the harm you have caused. Be specific. State how you will live your life each day, state what efforts you will take each day to restore yourself to full membership in society. (Pledge yourself to help others like you leave cults, publicly condemn sexual abuse to children).
What I’ve said above may seem shameful and disloyal to your friends. It is, in fact, disloyal. But, you need to reflect upon not just the good they’ve done but the harm they’ve caused. It’s this harm that has put in the situation you are in right now. You have the opportunity to rectify this harm by speaking out against the abuse they’ve committed.
Question to Claviger, is it legally possible at all for Clare Bronfman to withdraw her letter to the judge? Isn’t it the case that the judge has to consider the content of the letter and take it into account in assessing the sentence, even if Clare Bronfman writes a new letter and distances herself from her first letter?
There is no Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure that specifically addresses your question – and it’s unlikely there’s any local rule in the EDNY that does either. So, the matter would most likely come down to the judge having the discretion to let Clare withdraw the first letter or to let her merely supplement the first letter with a second one. Of those two options, I think the judge would likely follow the second one – since that would ensure that he has the full record in front of him when he considers what her sentence should be. The only exception might be if Clare and her attorneys could convince the judge that the letter Clare submitted was submitted in error: e.g., it was the first draft of a letter that went through multiple drafts – and they simply attached the wrong version to the packet that was submitted to the judge.
BTW, I don’t think that any of this is going to happen. Clare may be a woman of few words but the ones she wrote to the judge are going to have big implications for her.
It’s the least Clare could/should do. I am one of the people who was on the receiving end of her violent acts with her litigation and money. Do the right thing, Clare, and follow this wise advice.
It’s too late for Clare Bare to change her mind, she’s had two years and if she pretended to change her mind now it would come off as phony/fake. LOL
You should take this advice. I realize you may be hesitant to do so since it is free and you did not pay your gaggle of barristers a fortune to give you this advice but it is very sound advice nonetheless. There is nothing noble about standing by Keith and NX, it is simply your pride an, in effect, condones Keith’s abhorrent behavior and will be viewed as such by the Court.
I predict snowmen will pass through the gates of hell intact, before dumb-dumb rescinds her letter.
Clare Bronfman should list all the crimes she has committed. But that would be much more than the crimes she pleaded guilty to in her plea deal and the crimes she was accused of in the trial. She should save it for new charges. Antoinette T. Bacon is the new acting U.S. attorney appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr for the Northern District of New York. Let’s look at whether the corruption of the legal system in the northern district of New York continues or not.