Nxivm lawyer: Gals wanted to be branded
The lawyer for the upstate cult leader accused of keeping “slaves” who were forcibly branded with his initials says the women wanted the marks seared on their skin — and it was just like Marines getting tattoos.
“Talk to all the football players who have a branding on their arm. Are they all in cults? You know what the difference is? They’re men,” attorney Marc Agnifilo told NBC’s “Dateline” in an episode that aired Monday night.
“Women have a secrett society, women brand themselves and they’re poor little dears and they’re victims. When men do it, they’re Marines.”
Agnifilo’s client, Keith Raniere (below), is facing sex-trafficking and forcedlabor conspiracy charges for the secret master-slave “sorority” in his Albanybased self-help organization Nxivm.
Prosecutors say the slaves were duped into handing over damaging “collateral,” then ordered to have sex with Raniere — and participate in the twisted branding cere-re mony, where they wereere held down as their nether regions were burned with a cauterizing pen.
But the attorney insists the women participated willingly and that it was all their idea.
“I don’t think [Raniere] enjoyed it, I think it was something the women wanted to do and that he thought was not inappropriate if that’s what they wanted to do,” he said.
When interviewer Megyn KelKelly asked if football play- ers ever have to “sit around naked” and hand over damaging information before getting branded, Agnifilo suggested it was a sexist question.
“I’m not sure how the men were branded and you know why? Because we’ve never bothered to ask. Because they’re men,” he said.
Agnifilo spoke to “Dateline” as part of a larger report on “Dynasty” star Catherine Oxenberg and her efforts to save daughter India (near left) from the sex-slave group.
In a follow-up interview on “Megyn Kelly Today” on Tuesday, Oxenberg said she has now reconciled with India and her daughter is “moving on with her life.”