Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, one of a team of legal experts retained by convicted NXIVM “sex cult” leader Keith Raniere, said Thursday on Newsmax that the possibility that the FBI manipulated a time stamp on a photograph used as evidence against Raniere points to the need for a new, fair trial.
"A key point of evidence against him was a photograph of a young woman that was dated with a date that would make that woman underage," Dershowitz said on Newsmax's "National Report." "Experts have now come in, former FBI experts, people who really have a lot of credibilities and say that it is very likely that the date on that photograph was manipulated, and a group of lawyers is now seeking to get an evidentiary hearing solely on that issue."
Dershowitz appeared on Thursday's program with another member of the panel, former Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins. Other team members include Harvard Law School professor Ron Sullivan, California-based attorney Joseph Tully, former FBI special agent and computer forensic examiner and instructor Dr. J. Richard Kiper, and former FBI senior forensic examiner Stacy Eldridge, reports Law and Crime.
Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison after his conviction in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of children by force, fraud, or coercion; sex trafficking conspiracy; sex trafficking; attempted sex trafficking; racketeering conspiracy; forced labor conspiracy; involuntary servitude; wire fraud conspiracy; conspiracy to commit identity theft; sexual exploitation of a child; and possession of child pornography.
Raniere's case is the focus of an HBO documentary, "The Vow." His cult-like group, which he described as a self-help organization, kept women on starvation diets, branded them with his initials, and ordered them to have sex with him.
But Dershowitz Thursday told Newsmax that the issues of Raniere's conduct or misconduct are not the issues with which he's involved in the case, "except to say that when people are hated and despised, it's much more likely that government agents might bend the truth and stretch the law and change dates."
"All we're seeking is an evidentiary hearing," said Dershowitz. "Nobody wants to see a government changing evidence in manipulating evidence, even against people who they don't like. So we're hoping that the whole truth will come out and then courts can make the proper judgment."
Cummins, meanwhile, told Newsmax that if the allegations are true that someone tampered with the evidence, Raniere "absolutely is deserving of a retrial," and his co-defendants, many of whom pleaded guilty because they were facing going to trial alongside him, should be entitled to reconsider their guilty pleas.
Meanwhile, when Dershowitz was asked about how cults so often fly under people's radar until they are exposed, he said he's not an expert, but normally, people are willingly involved in such activities so nobody brings the actions to the attention of police until they drop out of the group.
But with Raniere, whether "he's a devil or an angel, it doesn't matter," said Dershowitz.
"What matters is whether our government should never, no matter what the circumstances are, be allowed to tamper with evidence without accountability and without a hearing," said Dershowitz. "If there is a new trial, then a lot of evidence can come in, evidence on all sides of the issue, but the jury won't be prejudiced by a photograph that may, in fact, not be an accurate reflection of the dates and times.
"All we're asking for is an opportunity for a fair trial, something that if there was tampering with the evidence we all agree should never be permitted in the United States of America."
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