It's been a quiet day for NXIVM today. There are still a number of motions and requests the judge has yet to rule on, so updates may come quickly. Jury selection continues.
The prosecution has asked the judge to decide some ground rules for the trial. These include protection of witness identities, and trying to gently keep Raniere's and his lawyer's (Agnifilio) antics to minimum.
Another issue that the defense is pressing for is tossing the photo evidence of Raniere's child-sex crimes. At issue is the FBI warrant that stated they could look for crimes back to 2015. The photos were dated 2005. Defense argues that the seizure of photos was outside the scope of the search warrant.
This should be an easy one for the prosecution. Though the photos were dated 2005, he still maintained them in 2018. Clearly within the scope of the warrant. The FBI should have gotten an expanded warrant to include electronic media and all contents, but they didn't. Still I can't imagine tossing this evidence based on the defense's argument.
The other factor is the prosecution already has one victim lined up and ready to testify. Raniere started raping her when she was about 12 and it went on for years. She's now in her 30's I think. There is a second victim (the one from the photographs) who is still loyal to Keith, but may be forced to tesify. Either way, the jury will hear evidence that Raniere is a pedophile.
Here is a longer article discussing some of the ways Raniere is asking to have evidence suppressed. The short story is he's claiming "residency" and a "reasonable expectation of privacy" at one of the locations where evidence was gathered. The problem is, to avoid other legal entangelemnts over the years, he made sure his name didn't appear on any official paperwork for his real estate, businesses, or finances. That's one of the ways he accomplished so much tax evasion as well. He hasn't filed in something like 20 years. He does have a passport though (or used to). That's what he used to flee to Mexico before his extradition. I'm sure the prosecutors will be interested in what address he used for that.
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If these vile criminals do not receive strong punishment, our justice system deserves to be thrown on a burn pile.