“Battlestar Galactica” actress Nicki Clyne is standing by her man.
The Canadian starlet revealed she was Nxivm leader Keith Raniere’s “partner” for 10 years in newly unsealed court documents.
In a letter to a Brooklyn federal court judge ahead of Raniere’s sentencing for running a master-slave group within the upstate organization, Clyne argued that it was “absurd” to say it “was created for Keith to have sex partners” — and she should know.
“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 of support for Raniere 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.”
Clyne’s letter was one of dozens written by former students and supporters ahead of his sentencing for sex-trafficking and other charges next week.
The 37-year-old actress has previously been identified by federal prosecutors as having been a part of Raniere’s “inner circle” or “first-line masters” in the secret group, called DOS — along with her wife, former “Smallville” star Allison Mack.
Mack, purportedly Raniere’s right-hand woman in DOS, has herself pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges, including extortion and forced labor.
Mack admitted that she instructed women 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 those tasks, because they’d handed over damaging “collateral” like nude photos.
During Raniere’s trial, the court heard DOS “slaves” were starved, branded with his initials and forced to have sex with him as part of their membership in DOS, meaning Dominus Obsequious Sororium — or “master over slave women.”
Clyne, who was not charged in the scheme, argued that had she taken the stand, she would have set the record straight about DOS.
“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.
She also rejected that members were motivated out of fear that their collateral would be released.
“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.
Federal prosecutors claimed in 2018 that Mack and Clyne were wed “at the behest of … Keith Raniere” but the two haven’t spoken for a year and a half as the demure blonde awaits sentencing.
“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.”
Raniere, 60, faces life in prison at his sentencing on Tuesday.
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