Daniella, aka Dani, continues her testimony for the prosecution today. The US Attorneys are introducing piles of emails and texts into evidence backing up her statements. We continue to find that Raniere is a filthy perv and his enabling 'inner circle' was no better. Catching up from yesterday afternoon, Dani related the tribulations of her relationship with Raniere. The proximate cause for her split with Keith was that she had kissed another guy. It was another NXIVM cult member named Ben Myers who worked around Dani in IT matters. She felt so...in love?...with Ben at that first kiss that she told Keith about how wonderful she felt. She had never had a boyfriend before she met Keith, and he had never shown her any affection in their various sexual encounters, so she really didn't know what it was like to have feelings like she had for Ben. Turns out Raniere is pathologically jealous and exiled Dani from his presence. This was the start of her "punishments" that would ultimately lead to her incarceration in a room for almost two years.
Before Keith ostracized Dani, he impregnated her and made her get an abortion. He did the same thing to her older sister. Twice. And her younger sister at least once. Raniere told his slaves that abortions were good because they made women lose weight and be more athletic. Dani and her two sisters were in the country illegally and Raniere and Nancy Salzman had taken her documents. With no ID, no money, and nobody, she was left to the depredations of the cult. Dani's testimony is scheduled to run through the afternoon and she hasn't even gotten to the part where she was imprisoned in a room.
As a somewhat follow-up, a legal observer offers his take on the chances of an appeal based on the judge stopping cross-examination of Lauren Salzman by counsel for the defense Marc Agnifilo a couple days ago. A couple days ago, while defense was questioning Lauren, Raniere was passing sticky notes to Agnifilo. Apparently, since Raniere knows exactly how to manipulate Salzman, he was giving his lawyer instructions on how to pressure her during questioning. At the verge of a nervous breakdown, the judge stopped the proceeding (in front of the jury) and told Agnifilo to sit down. The defense filed for a mistrial that evening, which the judge rejected the next morning. The author at the linked article says a successful appeal for this action by the judge is unlikely due to the mountains of evidence against Raniere, and Agnifilo brought it on himself. Our take is anything can happen on appeal and we hope the cult leadership is indicted for other crimes in other jurisdictions for years to come.