At the end of the day, lead attorney for the defense presented the judge with motion for mistrial. Evidently, during the testimony of the first prosecution witness, Sylvie Lloyd, she mentioned the last name of another person affiliated with NXIVM.
Mark Agnifilio has asked the judge to declare a mistrial since the judge's own order said witnesses are protected from having their last names mentioned. Ain't that a peach?
The judge will hold a hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, at 9am EDT to decide on a mistrial. Judge Garaufis told the defense that if a mistrial was declared, the next court date would be September at the earliest. Agnifilio said he was fine that.
That would mean the Vanguard, Keith Raniere would stew in the Manhattan Federal lockup until then.
I don't think the judge will declare a mistrial based on a slip of the tongue of the FIRST witness. Jeez. We'll see. But now we have a glimpse of the defense's strategy, paid for we assume by Clare Bronfman. She got off with money, why shouldn't she pay to get Raniere off with just more money on technicalities? She's paying for his lawyer anyway.
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NXIVM update.
Click on this twitter link for a reporter who is posting updates on the trial. No electronic devices are allowed in the courtroom, but she’s taking notes and posts on breaks.
https://twitter.com/AylaFerrone?lang=en
Here is the morning thread on unroll. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1125820525153005573.html
Here are the afternoon postings https://twitter.com/AylaFerrone/status/1125901697144979457
Too many threads to post. Just reading notes on Sylvie’s testimony is compelling. The reporter has to break down the threads into bite sized pieces on twitter.
Sylvie Lloyd says she was brought back into anorexia going down to 90 pounds for Vanguard, then being subjected to daily weigh ins to get her back to 100. So much that she couldn’t go home for Christmas with family because Bronfman, Salzman and Raniere required her daily weigh ins.
She slept on the floor of Clare Bronfman’s room during this time.
Check the links. The trial testimony will be disturbing, so don’t click if you need the fainting couch.
Judge Garaufis denied the defense motion for mistrial this morning. The trial resumes.
Assistant US Attorney Tanya Hajjar gave the government's opening statement. Here is a transcript. Pretty powerful.
Lead attorney for the defense, Marc Agnifilo (correct spelling - I've been spelling his name wrong in previous updates) gave his opening statement. He asks the jury to consider things from Raniere's point of view, to "crawl inside his skin and walk around". I can imagine that's going to be thrown back in his face at some point. Probably not the best analogy.The defense statement is a catalogue of logical fallacies and some outright lies about ages and timelines. Long read, but it's a good view into the likely defense strategy.
That's how prosecution witness Sylvie described her first intimate encounter with Raniere in her testimony. I wrote about her in yesterday's update. I wonder if the jurors, once they spend several weeks hearing and seeing all this stuff, will ask themselves, "How come only Raniere is charged?"
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