Nicki Clyne defends Nxivm leader Keith Raniere, says 'absurd' to think cult was created to get him sex partners
'Battlestar Galactica' star Nicki Clyne has revealed she was Nxivm leader Keith Raniere’s “partner” for a decade and defended him in newly unsealed court documents. Clyne wrote a letter to a Brooklyn federal judge ahead of Raniere’s sentencing for running a master-slave sex ring within the Albany, New York organization. She argued that it was “absurd” to say NXIVM “was created for Keith to have sex partners," Page Six reported. “I find this idea completely absurd and even offensive — as a woman and a partner of Keith’s for over a decade,” Clyne wrote in a letter unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. “I have never known Keith to want intimacy with someone who doesn’t want it, and it’s a ridiculous notion to think he would have gone to all that trouble for sex.”
According to the report, Clyne's letter was one of dozens written by Raniere's former students and supporters in the days leading up to his sentencing next week for sex-trafficking and other charges.
Federal prosecutors have previously identified Clyne, 37, and her wife, former “Smallville” star Allison Mack, 38, as having been a part of Raniere's “inner circle” or “first-line masters” in the secret sex cult.
Mack was purportedly Raniere’s right-hand woman in DOS, an acronym for Dominus Obsequious Sororium — or “master over slave women.” She has herself pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges, including extortion and forced labor. The 'Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves' actress admitted that she instructed her sex slaves in the group “to perform services for me” and that the system was “designed to make them think they could suffer serious harm” if they didn’t perform said tasks. According to her, the victims had handed over damaging “collateral” like nude photos which cult leaders used as leverage.
The court heard during Raniere's trial how DOS "slaves" were "starved, branded with his initials, and forced to have sex with him as part of their membership in DOS," Page Six reported.
But Clyne, who has not been charged in the scheme, argued in her letter that she would have set the record straight about DOS had she taken the stand. “My testimony would have countered much of what the prosecution’s witnesses alleged and dismantled the Government’s entire theory about DOS, reframing it from a sinister ‘sex cult,’ to a group of women who sought guidance from a trusted and intelligent man, and created a secret sorority for women that implemented some somewhat unconventional practices in the pursuit of growth and personal freedom,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, she also dismissed allegations that members were threatened with "collateral" if they didn't perform sex acts as instructed. “Not only was collateral never intended to be used in this way, there are numerous examples of women going against or failing to do what they committed to, and no one’s collateral was ever released,” Clyne argued.
In 2018, federal prosecutors said that both Mack and Clyne tied the knot “at the behest of … Keith Raniere." However, the two reportedly haven't spoken in a year and half. “Part of the conditions of her bail is that she can’t speak to anyone who is affiliated in any way with the case or Nxivm,” Clyne said in a recent interview. “This has been the hardest, most humbling experience of my life.”
60-year-old Keith Raniere faces life in prison at this sentencing on Tuesday, according to Page Six.