We open with video of Nancy talking about justice and punishment. “Justice is upholding one’s ethics,” she says. Upholding justice requires “punishing with integrity when necessary.” Watching this video clip, I felt like I could see the barracuda behind the cheesy smiley golly gee shit Nancy likes to put out. She probably carried a shiv in her purse, ready to stab anyone that dared to say a word against Nxivm. “What did you say about my company!?” stab stab stab Intro.
We open with prosecutor Moira Penza telling us she realized ESPian and DOS member Camila was the key to the case. Because she was not going to testify in court, the prosecution would be using text conversations Keith had with Camila. Genius Keith saved all of these messages going back years. Hundreds of texts exchanged a day. “Keith’s own words were probably the most powerful evidence we had in the case against him,” Moira tells us. Poetic justice is like, “Heyyy Keith! How’s it going?”
FBI Agent Rees presents the texts in court. They reveal a secret sexual relationship between Keith and Camila. I’m not going to go into detail about what the texts from Keith say, because it’s been well established how shamelessly repugnant he is.
We cut to a video clip of Keith whining to Camila. “[I] haven’t heard from you, you don’t send flowers, no candy, no nothing.” I’d think he was joking, but I heard in a podcast ESPians brought him chocolates and things like that all the time, so, who knows?
Keith asks her if she’s “in a better state” in a tone of voice that implies he really cares. He doesn’t care, not at all. But he does that fake soft and gentle shtick that makes me want to stick chopsticks in my ears as I watch this. Holding up his fists, he makes a face like she had been feeling combative. He says he’ll see her later and tilts his head up for his kiss. Gross.
We cut back to court and the texts. They discuss a relationship Camila had behind Keith’s back with a young man her own age. Keith was obsessed with this, comparing himself physically and sexually to the guy. He wanted Camila to make him feel better. He wanted her to say she hadn’t found the other guy attractive and he, Keith was the one she wanted.
If you read the trial transcripts* of the texts, you see Keith was constantly threatening her as well. It basically was, make me feel better or I’m sending you back to Mexico. Since she was completely isolated and her whole family was in Albany at this point, it really scared her. Below is the number of times he threatened her by text in a single day:
“If you can’t fix these things now, you must leave immediately and not come back.”
“Then leave now.”
“Either fix, leave or you’re done.”
“Then fix, leave or we’re done. Which?”
“Not good enough. Leave now.”
“Move your stuff out.”
“I’ll give a test later or else leave.”
“Show me you know you’re being manipulative in a bad way or just leave.”
“You change dramatically or leave.”
*Thanks to tellytugboat on Reddit for supplying the links.
We cut to Marc Agnifilo outside the courthouse:
“Ummmm… *sharp exhale* Keith uhh saved the- all the WhatsApp messages… for history… The problem with this case and the problem with this afternoon… None of that’s charged.” His voice pitches higher to almost a wail, “None of that’s charged!”
Why does Marc sound so caught off guard? He knew about this evidence beforehand, right?
We cut back to the texts from court. They reveal the intense power imbalance between Camila and Keith. Keith took full advantage of that power imbalance to manipulate and dominate her. He wanted her to agree to take “a vow” to be his slave.
We cut to Nancy reading the texts on her laptop. Nancy comments they are from 2014. “So, this is the beginning of DOS… I guess.” Her tone of voice has a subtext of, “I swear I didn’t know anything about DOS!”
We hear more texts from court. Keith wants Camila to find girls he can train to be his “fuck toys.” He tells Camila he wants her to get branded for him, too.
We cut to Moira who says the texts obliterated Keith’s defense DOS was about women’s empowerment or anything other than sex. They also reveal Keith started having sex with Camila when she was 15 years old.
We cut to a video of Keith leading a training session where the module is about abuse. We’ve heard the audio from this clip before. It’s the one where Keith is saying “abuse is a made up human construct.” As opposed to a made up alien construct. Or one made up by bears or something.
What Keith really wants to focus on is the “construct” of what is sexual abuse. “Is the person a child? Or, is the person adult-like?” Keith asks. Spoken like a true pedophile. “Often when you counsel who we say are children of what we call abuse.. some little children are perfectly happy with it. Until they found out later that it’s bad.”
In a video, we see Nancy is reading the written module of the spiel we just saw Keith give. Same exact words. Like a kindergarten teacher, she reads, “In other words, they didn’t know it was bad.” She repeats a variation of this point again and says, “In that case, is it more society that’s abusing them?” She gives the example of ancient Rome as a society that was okay with whatever and concludes with, “…but we’re not in Rome and we should know that.”
Discussions like this were supposed to be part of some kind of “thought experiment” where the darkest parts of humanity were explored. I heard in a podcast if you were sitting there listening to this crap thinking, “What the fuck??” You wouldn’t dare say anything, because ESPians were taught any discussion you took issue with was really about something that was inside of you.
The whole thing with Keith is he really seemed to believe human beings could be programmed like computers. It was just a matter of deciding what programming you wanted for yourself. Compassion? Empathy? Morality? Trauma? Just outdated software.
The module debating abuse was introduced by Keith in 2005, Nancy tells us, when Camila was 15 years old. She thinks now that probably Keith put different modules into the training sessions to normalize his criminal behavior.
The filmmakers have Nancy watch the video of herself. She says she sees that lecture very differently today. She feels a lot of remorse she was willing to read that to people. She did not know Keith was having a sexual relationship with Camila. She does not believe in or support the idea any underage person has the capacity to give consent.
We cut back to court and the texts. They refer to nude photos of Camila that Keith took “from way back.” We cut to Moira who tells us since the investigators already knew Keith liked to keep everything, it was only a matter of finding the pictures. Once the investigators did, on Keith’s hard drive in a folder labeled “Studies,” it was all over. “This was game changing evidence,” Moira tells us.
We cut to journalist Emily Saul, who tells us about the jurors seeing the photos of Camila taken when she was underage. They were presented solemnly in a binder only the jurors could see. Emily says it was apparent they had a strong reaction to the images and they found them very upsetting.
Outside of the courthouse, Barbra Bouchey, EXSPian and ex-girlfriend of Keith, is badly shaken up. She feels sick. She can’t believe she felt love for Keith once. How did he hide his darkness so well? She calls him disgusting and a monster. She starts to cry, “He stole her childhood.”
I think of Keith as having an aboveground version of himself and then the underground version. Keith reveals the underground version to a select few and even then, not entirely. His dark side has many parts. Barbra has known about some parts of Keith’s dark side for a long time. Imagine finding out he’s worse than you thought and even worse than that. The shock must have been intense.
We are now in the final week of testimony. On the stand is a former DOS member named Nicole. She was brought in by Allison who first introduced her to the Nxivm sub-company, The Source.
Nicole was an aspiring actress, but things weren’t going well for her at the time. “Honestly, my life wasn’t that great. I was really struggling,” she says. Allison became like her mentor. Allison told Nicole DOS would be the thing to “fix” the problems she was having. Nicole trusted Allison so she decided to join the group. Initially, Nicole found Allison attentive and supportive.
We cut to Moira who explains one of the most serious charges in the case was sex trafficking for commercial purposes. Allison was, in effect, providing women to Keith for sex, because it improved her relationship and status with him. Also, I’m going to add, he was withholding money from her. He wouldn’t pay her commission earnings until she delivered on something (or someone) he wanted. I read she was essentially broke
We cut to Nancy who says, “Someone can go from victim to perpetrator very quickly.” In Nancy’s opinion, because Allison was an actor from a young age, she didn’t grow up “in a normal reality.” She also believed in stuff like Tantric Yoga (which can involve physical intimacy with a partner as a means to spiritual enlightenment.) But, she was also very insecure about herself sexually and felt Keith was helping her with that, too. Nancy says that may sound crazy to some, but it’s what Alison believed.
We then cut to an audio clip where Keith and Allison are discussing the brand. Sarah Edmonson brought up this scene on an episode of her and Nippy’s podcast A Little Bit Culty. Keith’s gaslighting of Allison really got under her skin. And mine. And everybody hearing this audio:
Keith: Maybe each of the strokes has something that’s said with them. And maybe repeated.
Allison: Mhm
Keith: You’ve done it. So, what would have been the most meaningful, deep, surrendering, focusing for you?
Allison: I think probably having it whispered in my ear and then me repeating it out loud.
Keith: Uh-huh. Well, ask the others. It’s not all you.
Allison: Oh, I thought you were asking me!
Keith: No, I said all of you guys who’ve gone through it.
Allison: Yeah. Okay. …I understand that it’s not just me. Hahaha… I’m sweating now.
Keith: Do you really understand that? How deeply? (Mimicking Allison) I thought you were asking me! Heh heh. That would be a great narcissist poster. I thought you were asking me. Or, I thought you were talking about me. Hee hee hee.
Nancy says Allison was jealous of Keith having sex with other women. In Nancy’s opinion, Keith probably just made it seem like the things he wanted her to do, such as recruiting for DOS, were to help her get over her problems. Only a jealous narcissist would keep his wonderful programs to herself.
We watch a clip of Allison at V week, weeping onstage while she reads some crap about love, pride and humility. All the things Keith liked to blather to people about, but doesn’t have any understanding of at all. He really loved to obsessively beat women over the head with accusations of being prideful and arrogant. Allison couldn’t prostrate enough as far as Keith was concerned.
In Nancy’s opinion, Allison was a victim who was sent out to do something she believed was good because she believed Keith was good. “And that is how he did it,” Nancy says.
Keith really knew how to tap into people’s need for approval and he kept it just enough out of reach. On the one hand, ESPians believed they were ethically evolved beings who were creating a new and better world. But then Keith would talk to this person or that person and he’d make them feel like complete failures. Mark Vicente touched on this in season one. He said Keith was really good at finding people’s most vulnerable spots.
Keith understood the power of being unpredictable, too. I heard (or maybe I read) with Allison, he would be warm, then suddenly and unpredictably cold. He’d just ignore her for periods of time. Or, like in that audio clip above, catching her off guard by criticizing her for some imaginary flaw he just pulled out of his ass. She’s sweating? Really? Keith’s got her believing she’s the narcissist? Bitch, please. He had her twisted in a knot.
There was a lot of pressure on Allison to bring in more women for DOS, too. Especially the women he had his eye on, like India Oxenberg and Nicole. Maybe she thought she was doing something good by roping women in for Keith but, I have my doubts. I don’t think good or bad really came into the equation. She was just living for Keith. If he said “do this,” she did it. His approval had become everything.
Back to Nicole on the stand. About a year into her involvement with DOS, Allison told her she had a special assignment for her.
If you read the court transcripts, you know Nicole had already been made to understand DOS was for life life. In court she gave an example where Allison called Nicole’s bosses at work to report a family emergency. She told them Nicole needed to call her immediately. She had been unable to respond to a “readiness drill” that Allison had texted her. She was on the floor waitressing and it was rush hour. Nicole had 60 seconds to respond.When she didn’t text back in time, Allison pulled that stunt. It just shows the lengths Keith’s minions would go to over even the most inconsequential shit. So Nicole had been made aware she could not leave DOS. And since there was no going back, what she was told to do was a non-negotiable.
First, Allison told Nicole to send Keith emails. When he didn’t respond, Allison encouraged her to write more often and think of ways to engage him. If you can’t get him to respond, Allison told her, I’m going to have to take a penance for your failure.
So, it started with emails and then it was walks. On Nicole’s first walk with Keith, he called it their first date which weirded her out. Nicole did not admire Keith. She had no desire to get to know him and she definitely didn’t find him appealing. Her experience with Nxivm and DOS was through Allison and the people she knew through The Source. Keith hadn’t been a part of that.
Nicole tells the court, one day, Allison told her to meet Keith for one of their morning walks. She was to tell him she’d obey whatever he commanded. She was very scared of what that might mean, but she didn’t believe she had any choice.
Keith was waiting for her outside of Allison’s house. First, he had her put on a double blindfold so she wouldn’t know where she was going. Once at this secret location, while she was still blindfolded, Keith tied her to a table, naked. Someone performed oral sex on her. She knew it wasn’t Keith, because he was talking while this was going on. Terrified, Nicole did not know who was involved, because she couldn’t see, but it turned out to be Camila.
Outside of court, Emily Saul says she was horrified to learn Camila had become a perpetrator. That was why the prosecution didn’t put her on the stand. Keith had taken her from a victim, and having groomed her, to victimizer. “That was just a whole next level of fucked up,” Emily says.
Moira says it was very powerful for the jury to see the progression of Camila from a teenage girl to a woman who was willing to do very bad things for Keith Raniere. She tells us by this point, she felt the prosecution had proven their case.
We cut to Marc Agnifilo who paces in his home office while he ponders what he will say for his final summation. He thinks the best thing to do is just go straight in, addressing the worst stuff, and try to open the jury’s mind and hearts to seeing things from Keith’s perspective. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work, Marc.
I don’t get it. Why did he agree to take this case to trial? Volumes and volumes and volumes of Keith’s own words, damning himself. I know very little about court proceedings, so I wonder a lot about how much Marc actually knew and how much he was truly prepared for the defense.
From what I have read from a few people who attended the trial, Marc seemed deflated towards the end. His overall vibe was one of a lawyer who had given up. I would think a high profile lawyer like Agnifilo would want to be seen as fighting for his client to the end. On the other hand, if he didn’t know about the child sex abuse, he might have, at least emotionally, walked away from the case. A bridge too far to defend. But, who knows? I wish I had been there to judge for myself. I would be so interested to hear Agnifilo’s true thoughts about Keith.
We are outside of the courthouse. Plenty of press. We hear reporters in voice over who describe the case as having been “intense.” It’s now in the hands of the jury. Predictions are the verdict will take at least 24 hours, but less than a week to come in.
4 Hours Later.
The verdict is in. Everybody rushes back to court. Sitting on a park bench across from the courthouse, Emily was eating her lunch. She runs back to court dropping pages of notes on the way.
Guilty on all charges. Reporters say the mood outside the court is jubilant and celebratory. Barbra Bouchey describes the guilty on all counts verdict as “breathtaking.” Which is accurate and kind of poetic.
The prosecution speaking to the press horde says Keith “has ruined marriages, careers, fortunes and lives.” His crime spree is finally at an end.
Marc Agnifilo says to the press in terms of sentencing, he thinks it’s a rare defendant who doesn’t deserve “the glimmer of hope” of living as a free man again one day. Even if it’s as “an elderly free man.” Ouch. Not too good if your own lawyer is like, maybeeeeee senior citizen Keith will get out of jail one day? “Keith maintains his innocence,” Marc says. They do plan to appeal.
Part one finishes here. Part 2 is all about the loyalists, Nancy, sentencing and whining by Keith, of course.
Recapulet 
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