Nicki Clyne: Raniere Wouldn’t Rape Girl; FBI Cheating Makes Most Sense

Nicki Clyne has made it clear that she does not believe Keith Raniere raped Camila when she was 15. She does not believe he took her photos at that age. She believes Raniere is innocent of all crimes he was charged with.

And it’s on the record in a video interview with the Daily Mail, which the video as part of their story:

EXCLUSIVE: NXIVM founder Keith Raniere’s legal team accuse FBI of bungling procedures and modifying photo evidence to ‘frame’ cult leader for child porn, claiming forensics report shows images were deliberately backdated or altered on PHOTOSHOP

I wish to thank Mr. Allen Stanfield, whom some readers know as Alanzo, for transcribing the video and posting it on his website.

I have edited the transcript slightly for clarity, and added photos, so FR readers can better understand Clyne’s position.

You can see the entire video here:

By Nicki Clyne

I started my career as an actor. Some people may know me from the TV show Battlestar Galactica.

I got involved with Executive Success Programs, which is the coaching program that most people conflate with Nxivm.

There were different companies and programs, and people just called it Nxivm.

I started taking classes in 2005 and loved the tools, the program, became a coach, and continued my involvement for about 15 years.

And I just loved it. I found a lot of improvement in my life internally, as well as externally in relationships and things like that.

And I loved the community.

So it’s been a tragedy for me personally to watch the community be destroyed in the way it has through the media and the court system.

I was pretty much at the center of it all, as close as possible to the center, while still able to be here and speak to you, and I’m grateful for that.

I also see it as a huge responsibility to get the truth out and expose the injustices that occurred in this case.

My understanding is that there are many circumstantial factors that are suspicious, which are not dispositive. But they point to something more going on here.

Then there are the technical findings, which have been confirmed by multiple forensic experts, one of them 20 years in the FBI.

The expert is Dr. J. Richard Kiper, a  top former FBI cyber forensics expert.

Not only did he train the forensic FBI agents, he also trained the trainers of them. He’s extremely well versed not only in the digital and forensic aspects, but also in FBI protocols about how you handle this type of evidence.

So it’s been a steep learning curve for me.

First of all, just understanding how this whole process works. So someone is indicted and investigated. That has been an education.

I’m grateful for it, but I think my mom would have rather I went to law school, but I learned a lot nonetheless.

And, it’s very evident, even for someone like me, that things were not handled properly. The chain of custody was broken.

I think it’s important for people to understand that this evidence was the only digital hard evidence in the entire case. All the other charges rested on testimony and perception of intent. And why things were being done.

But this evidence is the only thing that you can’t argue.

Like there’s no different side to photos of an allegedly underage woman on a hard drive, which is what they use to convict Keith Ranierie of child pornography.

I think the importance of the evidence can’t be underestimated, as well as the inflammatory nature of it.

Even though there was all this salaciousness in the media before this charge was brought, there was still room to look at, “okay, what happened here? Are these people’s stories consistent with reality, and with evidence?”

But once the so-called child pornography evidence came into play, all the codefendants took plea deals.

The six NXIVM defendants, Upper Row: Kathy Russell, Keith Raniere, Nancy Salzman, LowerAllison Mack, Lauren Salzman, Clare Bronfman. All of them, but Raniere, took plea deals shortly after the FBI made an accidental discovery of child porn on a hard drive the FBI alleged came from his library. The accidental discovery was made 11 months after they seized the hard drive. The FBI admitted the child pron was accidentally discovered, because it was outside the search warrant’s scope.  

And that’s when there was no defending Keith Raniere, like, “you just can’t possibly defend that,” and I certainly wouldn’t defend it.

When I heard about those allegations, I had already been introduced to this idea that the prosecution was dead set on winning at all costs.

And the truth was less than secondary. I had friends who had gone in to take proffer sessions, who were threatened and bullied for not agreeing with the prosecution’s narrative.

I already didn’t feel trusting of everything they put forth.

I also had 15 years experience knowing the man accused of these things, and it didn’t add up. It didn’t make sense to me with everything I knew about him.

Nicki does not believe that having sex with a 15 year old girl comports with the man she knows Keith Raniere [l] to be.  Raniere is shown with the Dalai Lama in 2009.

I’m a very rational human being. Obviously, it made me question things. And so, I guess, in short, I really didn’t know what to think.

There was part of me that hoped it wasn’t true. And I didn’t put it past the government to potentially put something forward that wasn’t true, because I’d seen them do that.

I’d seen them say things about my friends or events that I was present for that weren’t true. At the same time, obviously, if it was true, that was problematic.

What I feel grateful for in my own journey, although it was difficult, is that I committed to reserve making any major judgments or conclusions until further down the line when I could get more information.

And now we have that information.

And it makes a lot more sense to me now, although it’s damning on the justice system, and for the FBI.

In this process, I’ve come to know many more people who’ve been prosecuted through the federal system. Some of them are in prison.  Some are out of prison now.

And the most disappointing thing to me is that while our case is unique, this process of injustice is not unique in this country.

And that’s why I feel committed to exposing this and sending a message to prosecutors, FBI agents, and anyone in law enforcement that this is unacceptable, and that we as citizens need to take it seriously.

Even, and especially, when it’s someone who’s hated.

 

While Clyne readily acknowledges that many hate Keith Raniere, she sees him in an entirely different light. She sees a gentle, loving leader of a community now destroyed, and he, unjustly imprisoned.

I feel purposeful, even when it’s very difficult and it’s been difficult. I’ve had to learn to develop a thick skin, which is not natural for me, but I feel it’s important.

I think the tampering is just the tip of the iceberg. I think when people start to understand what was shown in court to justify the other charges, the whole thing will begin to unravel.

And, you know, it’s difficult because these charges, these crimes of forced labor and sex trafficking, are serious and harmful, and people who commit these crimes should be held accountable.

The sex trafficking victim, known only as Nicole at the trial, was laid on this table, nude and blindfolded. Camila entered and performed oral sex on her. Raniere watched. This was determined to be sex trafficking. Raniere got 40 years of his 120 year sentence for that incident.

But I believe in due process. I believe in meeting the actual evidence to support convicting someone of those crimes, not just hearsay, not bending things, or prejudicing a jury so much towards the defendant that they don’t even know what’s needed to qualify as sex trafficking.

They just know this is a bad person.

That’s what I believe happened in this case, and I would implore any journalist or anyone wanting to understand the case better to look at what they used to justify those charges.

In my opinion, it’s dangerous. The precedent set is dangerous for what can be classified as sex trafficking. And someone can be sent to prison for 40 years, based on one person’s testimony about one event they consented to.

I mean, there are many things I would do differently. Knowing what I know now. I don’t know if I regret anything in the sense that I did the best I could. I did it all with the best of intentions.

I didn’t fully understand how the world worked, and how powerful certain people and tools can be if they’re set out to destroy something or someone. I think I was very naive.

People say things to me, like “what it’s like to be in a cult?” or tell me what Nxivm was accused of. I know I traveled all the time. I kept close relationships with friends all over the place, and had much better relationships with my family.

My experience was that I had a better tool set to make decisions that were more in line with my values.

So in that sense, I don’t have regrets. I regret this has caused so much damage. I think people have been hurt. And it’s really sad, tragic, and painful, because people I thought were my friends for life have taken a different path, and I may never speak to them again. And that pains me deeply.

Kristin Kreuk, Sarah Edmondson and Nicki Clyne were once close friends.

I don’t know what I could have done to avoid that. So that might take deeper reflection.

But I certainly regret that this happened in the way it did.

My hope with exposing this issue with the tampering and getting it into the public is that it can create enough attention that it puts pressure on the court to either make a ruling or investigate it, or ideally both.

Because I think one way they could address it is by granting the appeal, you know, and it all kind of just goes away.

But really, we’d like to get to the bottom of this, because whoever did this is still working in the office and potentially doing criminal things to convict more people. So I think it should be investigated. I think the public deserves answers, and I hope enough people see this as problematic that they call for it, and I think the media is a big part of that.

Ideally, the FBI or the DOJ, whoever chooses to respond publicly, has a wonderful opportunity to say “we won’t stand for this,” and “we will investigate and find out how this happened, and make sure it never happens again.”

I don’t think Keith Raniere is guilty of any of the crimes he was convicted of in court. I think he’s guilty of social crimes. I think people misunderstand who he is, how he’s chosen to live his life, and why.

But even the ways in which he might lead, what people might call an alternative lifestyle – it’s not illegal.”