UPDATE: We’ll have a correspondent at the courthouse this afternoon as Clare Bronfman and Kathy Russell plead guilty. That only leaves Keith Raniere — will Vanguard take on the prosecutors all on his own?
While we wait for the Nxivm trial to begin in a few weeks, things have settled down a bit on the legal side. So let’s take a look at other ways Nxivm is making the news.
— HBO announced that it will be doing a deep dive on Nxivm with a documentary series directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karin Amer. As NBC notes, Noujaim had a brief introduction to Nxivm in 2010 through an Executive Success Program seminar, so she brings some personal experience to the project.
— The NBC affiliate in Albany, meanwhile, takes a look at what might have been if Nxivm hadn’t been foiled by federal prosecutors. At one time, they note, Keith Raniere was making plans for a massive “world headquarters” compound in Halfmoon, New York.
— At the National Post, columnist Marni Soupcoff says that Nxivm proves (to her, at least) that women are more susceptible to cult indoctrination because they are more spiritual in general, or something. We’re not so sure about this one. Our experience with Scientology suggests to us that the susceptibility to undue influence is pretty equally divided between men and women.
— At Frank Parlato’s blog, a correspondent gives an interesting outline for how the trial is going to go, and predicts that prosecutors will overwhelm Raniere with a program of “shock and awe.”
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 19, 2019 at 12:00
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Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects at The Underground Bunker. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)
