OAN interview baselessly claims FBI planted child pornography during the investigation of NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere | Media Matters for America

Citation From the October 6, 2022, edition of OAN's One America News

NATASHA SWEATTE (HOST): Welcome back and thank you so much for staying with us. It's a time in history when the trust for the government is shrinking. After the Trump raid, many are questioning agencies like the FBI. But there was another case of FBI tampering that sounds like something out of a movie. For more, we turn to Nicole Blank-Becker, attorney for Blank-Becker Law. Thank you so much for joining us.

NICOLE BLANK-BECKER (Attorney for Blank-Becker Law, representation for R. Kelly): Thank you for having me.

SWEATTE: Now, Nicole, you solely focused on sex crimes. And so you hear of the horrific details on a regular basis when it comes to things like sex trafficking and child pornography. Now, what are your thoughts about the case regarding Keith Raniere? I mean, he was a self-proclaimed self-help guru, but then when he was charged with being a sex cult leader, getting 120 years behind bars back in 2020. But it sounds like new information has surfaced regarding the FBI?

BLANK-BECKER: Absolutely. Listen, I've been in doing sex crimes for a really long time and I was chief of the sex unit. And I know as well as everyone else that when someone says sex crimes and something some salacious like sex trafficking, the first thing people want to do is hate that person. It's not an easy thing to be charged with. And in this particular case with Mr. Raniere, it is now come forward that there is actually six different experts, forensic experts, who have looked at the facts in this case and looked at the computers and it simply found that there was actually corruption, there was tampering of evidence done. And the only answer that the government has to these motions that are being filed is they're frivolous motions. If this is the way society is now going to be handled, when there's actual proof, I mean, these forensic experts came up with actual scientific certainty that there was some type of malfeasance going on with the government.

(CROSSTALK)

SWEATTE: Yeah and Raniere is also claiming that, you know, the the Federal Bureau of Prisons is also conspiring to silence him now. So, I mean, there is a lot going on in this case.

BLANK-BECKER: I have experienced this myself with some of my own clients as well, where the government doesn't want the reality of what's happening to be heard. And how do we do that when there's an individual who is wrongly accused in this particular case? By tampering with evidence, we silenced them. Mr. Raniere happened to be a very powerful man. He led a number of of self-help groups, so to speak. And although his power maybe was it I'm not talking financial power, but when I'm talking about his ability to change people's future in their lives. The government. Some - at some point in order to make this case salacious and exciting. It seems as though, based on what the experts have found in this case, they've done just that, the government, by adding child pornography cases excuse me, charges. When child pornography is not really even- has no basis in this case. So the extensive manipulation that's done, it all goes back now. Who's going to pay for it? Well, Mr. Raniere's going to pay for it. And how is that going to happen? They're going to silence him. They're going to put him in solitary confinement. Which the mental damage that something like that does is probably unimaginable to the average person. But I've had clients that this has happened to.

SWEATTE: And of course, you know, you don't have to like Raniere, but it sounds like the government interfering in any case is just incredibly corrupt. So do agencies possibly not trust the justice system if they feel they have to interfere?

BLANK-BECKER: So that's the problem, right? We as Americans think and believe that the justice system is here for fairness. That means no matter if you hate the person who's being suspected of these crimes, how salacious the crimes are. Fairness is always supposed to play a role. And unfortunately, if we have this prime example, a very public example, where there is tampering that has been proven to this magnitude and the government is turning a blind eye, so to speak. I mean, that simply cannot be the way our system was initially meant to be practiced in the United States.

SWEATTE: And so how does- yeah.

BLANK-BECKER: And so

SWEATTE: Yeah. How does someone come back from something like this? I mean, is there even a way to fight back against a huge government agency?

BLANK-BECKER: I-I love that question because it's a very difficult question to answer, because once the government so- United States of America versus so-and-so, that individual, whether it be Keith Raniere or any of us sitting in that seat. We are at a disadvantage, and somehow there's got to be a balance of this justice system, and it's very difficult for one person to stand up against the government. In this case, though, it shouldn't be so difficult, because there are people who are prior FBI agents. There were those who were prior forensic experts for the FBI who are confirming that they, in fact see that there is tampering and corruption that was done. So it's time. I think we're in a place it's a very interesting place where, you know, the government is being challenged. The whole Trump era now and these cases that are obviously corrupt. There needs to be accountability. If there's no accountability, then what kind of system are we really having here in America?

SWEATTE: Yeah, I think a lot of people are asking that very question with all the January six arrests and everything else, there's just a lot that, you know, people really want to get to the bottom of. So, Nicole Blank Becker, attorney for Blank-Becker Law. Thank you so much for your insight on this case.

BLANK-BECKER: Thank you so much for having me. And I hope we can all come together and fight this fight.