Tampered Justice: FBI’s Evidence Games Put Raniere Case in Question

Conviction Under Media and Public Pressure

Back in 2019, the media and the public were interested in NXIVM and its leaders, and the FBI and prosecutors were under intense pressure to win a conviction.

Allegations of Tampering: Manipulating Metadata

When Keith Raniere went to trial, the prosecution, led by Assistant US Attorney Moira Penza, presented evidence of 22 photos of child porn she said came from a hard drive recovered during a raid of Raniere’s library at 8 Hale Dr. in Clifton Park, NY.

The hard drive, the prosecution alleged, had photos of a then-minor – Camila – when she was 15 – taken on two dates in November 2005.

She was 28 when the trial occurred. She also did not appear at trial – a choice that the prosecution made. Neither did the defense call her to testify.

She was one of Raniere’s lovers for a dozen years.

Forensic experts retained by Raniere and paid by his wealthy supporter, the heiress Clare Bronfman, who is still in custody (in a halfway house), say the digital photographs show inconsistent metadata – pointing to tampering to date it to fit with other photos in a file called “Studies.”

The camera card also got lost at the FBI. Then found again, but not until someone accessed it and changed the metadata on every file.

 Questionable FBI Raid

But even more intriguing was the FBI raid at 8 Hale Drive, Halfmoon, NY.

Conducted on March 27, 2018, one day after Raniere’s arrest, the raid was led by FBI Special Agent Elliot McGinnis and consisted of a team of agents and a dog who searched the townhouse Raniere called his library.

In his recent 2255 motion, Raniere, represented by attorney Deborah Blum, offers two experts, a former FBI Senior Evidence Technician and a retired FBI and OIG Special Agent, who determined:

Four of the nine FBI search team members were complicit in fraud during the raid, with two serving as key orchestrators: Special Agents Elliot McGinnis and Christopher Mills.

Wouldn’t you know it? FBI Special Agent McGinnis led the search.

Check out his efforts in the OneTaste case.

Or how he behaved when he was a NYPD officer.

Fake It Till You Make It, and Fido Too

Before arriving at the raid, FBI Special Agent McGinnis forged the names of agents, including SA Kevin McGee, who, though his name is signed as if he were there, was not at the search.

But to make up for this, McGinnis left “Max” out. FBI protocol mandates everyone on-site be documented for accountability – even the dog.

Though McGinnis did not bother to record Max’s presence, the dog put his best paw forward and accidentally appeared in one of the FBI photos.

If you are going to sneak a dog on a raid, don’t accidentally photograph his foot.

The Evidence Recovery Log was Pre-filled

Before arriving at the scene, SA McGinnis used either psychic abilities or his usual method of cheating to pre-fill the evidence recovery log with items he anticipated seizing. He recorded room labels, locations, and a predetermined sequence for discovering the items to be seized.

Is it mystical or just plain fraud? Was he inside 8 Hale before he raided it? The door was always unlocked. Anyone could enter at any time.

The evidence of McGinnis’s filling out the form in advance includes crossed-out entries on a later page of the log that correspond to items listed on an earlier page, arranged in a different sequence. This reveals a pre-planned effort to fit the narrative, rather than provide real-time documentation.

Targeting of Key Evidence

The Canon camera and Western Digital hard drive in the upstairs study, labeled Room F, were prioritized in the search as the first 2 items collected, even though the standard procedure would have started with Room A downstairs.

Their prioritization demonstrates the FBI knew their locations and (future) importance.

This contradicts the government’s claim of an “accidental” discovery of “child pornography” eleven months later on the hard drive (with metadata showing the camera took the photos).

Incompetent Evidence Photos

The Canon camera with the memory card is missing from any FBI photograph, and no image of the memory card was captured.

The FBI took pictures of a case in which the camera was supposedly stored.

During the raid, the key evidence, the camera that allegedly captured the child pornography and its memory card, were not photographed.

See all the FBI Photos of 8 Hale

Planted and Uncollected Camera

Speaking of cameras, here’s a real cutie: A second camera, whose origin is unknown due to the lack of an “in place” photograph, was staged, labeled, and photographed as evidence. Still, the FBI forgot to take it with them.

Leaving a camera behind in a search for photographic evidence would be strange if it were anyone other than Agent McGinnis. For him, this is part of his game.

The FBI was after the blackmail, the “collateral,” which was primarily photos. So why did the FBI leave a camera behind? 

Intentional Mislabeling

The number one evidence in the whole case – the child porn – was “found” on a black hard drive (11 months after McGinnis seized it).

McGinnis described it as evidence Item #2.

At the search, a silver/gray LaCie hard drive was mislabeled and photographed as Item #2. At the same time, McGinnis correctly described Item #2, as a Western Digital hard drive  – right down to a serial number.

Scenes were staged to take evidence photographs.

Bookshelf Scene

Agents created false scenes on the bookshelf, adding two sex trafficking books of unknown origin, not photographed “in place,” and possibly planted to create incriminating photographs.

Note the books are photographed (but not taken).

These books, related to the main alleged crime linked to the search, sex trafficking, were not collected. In other words, the FBI photographed them, but did not take the books. Maybe they had too much evidence to fit it in their truck.

Someone should check McGinnis’s library card to see if he borrowed them from the public library and returned them. After all, McGinnis has a habit of losing evidence.

The search photographs were presented to the jury.

Proof of Staging

#36 is taken with a Rubic’s cube next to it and the two sex trafficking books.

#37 is taken with a Rubic’s cube next to it (and the books) but #36 is gone.

But look below. #37 is also #2 – the supposed hard drive… But it is not next to the Rubic’s cube. And #36 is off to the right.

During the search of 8 Hale, Mills photographed the silver LaCie twice. He took a second photo and placed card #37 in front of it.

The FBI appears to have moved the black Western Digital hard drive out of the way.

McGinnis should know that the same device cannot be two different evidence item numbers. He might have realized he did not photograph the black Western Digital hard drive. Maybe he did not. The FBI appears to have moved the LaCie.

When Mills photographed the silver LaCie as evidence item #2, it was near the end of the bookshelf.

Note the location of the monitor in the photo above. The FBI moved the LaCie about five or six inches to the left. The FBI added books and a Rubik’s Cube. Then Mills took the photo of evidence Item #37.

It is one thing to photograph them separately – but why stage them with a Rubic’s cube and place two books to the right? They are supposed to be photographed in place.

And how the hell did you photograph the same item twice and think it is two different items? And how the hell did it happen to be the one evidence item you photographed wrong – just happened to be the only evidence item with the child porn?

Chain of Custody Abruptly Ends Following ‘Accidental Discovery’

Yes, the FBI lost the hard drive.

The Western Digital hard drive’s chain of custody contains no entries after SA Michael Lever checked it out of Evidence Control on February 22, 2019—months before it was presented at trial—and there is no record that it was ever returned, raising doubts about the handling of this evidence.

Where did the black hard drive go? Did it even make it to trial? At the trial, the jury was shown a picture of the wrong hard drive—the gray LaCie—and called it evidence Item #2.

I mean fraud right in front of the jury. The prosecutor asked Special Agent Mills if this was the hard drive he seized, and he said yes.

Then in the cutest move, the prosecutor brought in a black hard drive and asked, is this where the FBI found the child porn?

He said yes.

Hajjar did not bring the silver LaCie hard drive Mills identified on the screen. Instead, she brought out a black hard drive, which is exhibit 503.

Hajjar showed Mills a black hard drive.

Hajjar: What is it?

Mills: This is a hard drive. The brand is, I believe, Western Digital.

Improper Log Entries

SA McGinnis likes to sign other people’s names. He had no problem signing SA Mills’ name 32 out of 40 entries (80%) in the evidence recovery log, violating FBI protocol.

An agent is supposed to sign his own name.

The government was in a tough spot. Thanks to my reporting, the whole world was on Raniere’s tail, and if the government lost this one, they would look like the biggest ass clowns to ever hit the big time.

When they made the belated “discovery” of child porn on the hard drive, the case was headed to trial.

There were six codefendants with 27 Bronfman-funded attorneys. That’s no joke. All of the witnesses for the prosecution were going to undergo grilling by expert attorneys.

The defendants stood united because they believed in Raniere; the accusers were adults. That was the defense’s argument – all the women who were now victims were consenting adults.

So what’s the solution? Child porn was the backup plan. To be able to plant evidence at will. So that’s why when the defendants stood united, it was just in the nick of time to discover or plant a little child porn.

Now here is where I differ from Raniere.

The evidence was likely planted. But Raniere probably did take the pictures of Camila. Maybe she was 15, or perhaps she was older. You can’t trust the EXIF data.

I never saw the pictures. I suspect the FBI got them from Camila’s sister, the computer hacking expert Daniela Fernandez, who had access to all of Raniere’s digital devices for years.

Yeah, Raniere no doubt despoiled Camila when she was underage – he used to call her Virgin Cami. But that doesn’t give the FBI the right to plant evidence to make their case.

If they do it to the guilty like Raniere, they will do it to the innocent like the OneTaste defendants.

But then again, it’s OK cause we don’t like them.

It’s not cricket, though; next thing you know, the FBI will do it to you. After all, we don’t like you very much, or we won’t after the media, in goose step with law enforcement, write about your charges as if the presumption of innocence was nonsense and every word of the indictment is valid.

And if we need a little evidence to plant on you, it’s what we do.

God bless us, every one.

To be Continued….

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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