NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to deny NXIVM leader Keith Raniere’s motion for a new trial, saying the convicted sex trafficker’s bid is frivolous, based on irrelevant testimony and defies "common sense."

The 59-year-old Raniere faces a possible life sentence for his multitude of crimes while operating his cult-like personal growth company based in Colonie.

Last June, a jury convicted the former Halfmoon resident known by his disciples as “Vanguard” of every charge he faced following a nearly two-month trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Raniere was found guilty of sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy and racketeering charges with underlying acts of identity theft, obstruction of justice, wire and visa fraud, forced labor, human trafficking, sex trafficking, money laundering, child exploitation and possession of child pornography.

The disgraced guru, who led a dedicated flock of followers from Saratoga County to Vancouver to Mexico, in early March requested a new trial through his attorneys, Marc Agnifilo and Paul DerOhannesian. The lawyers claimed that two witnesses who testified against Raniere at trial were “knowingly lying about their intention, plan and role in bringing a civil lawsuit against Raniere and others for monetary damages.”

The two witnesses he claimed lied are among over 80 victims of Raniere and NXIVM who are suing Raniere and 14 of his associates in a federal lawsuit filed in Brooklyn’s Eastern District on Jan. 28.

In the government’s response filed late Monday night, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar said the defense bid failed to show that either woman lied under oath about their intentions to sue Raniere. She said prosecutors were unaware that either women planned to sue Raniere. At most, she argued, it shows the women "changed their mind at some point" between their testimony and the filing of the lawsuit in January 2020.

"That does not entitle Raniere to a new trial," Hajjar said.

The prosecution said the allegations “defy common sense” in light of the women’s testimony at trial.

“In light of the government’s overwhelming evidence of Raniere’s guilt, it is inconceivable that Raniere would have been acquitted had (the women) testified that they were planning to sue Raniere,” stated the response from Hajjar, joined by Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Trowel.

Hajjar said Raniere’s request for a new trial was “frivolous, belied by the record, and impermissibly based on facts that the government disclosed to Raniere before trial.” The government, she noted, had disclosed to Raniere’s attorneys that both women were represented by attorney Neil Glazer, who later filed the lawsuit.

In addition, the prosecutor said Mark Vicente, a former high-ranking NXIVM executive who became a key prosecution witness, testified that he planned to sue Raniere. The former resident of Halfmoon was not cross-examined on it, nor did Agnifilo mention Vicente’s plans in his closing argument, Hajjar said. Vicente, also represented by Glazer, is part of the lawsuit filed Jan. 28.

“Raniere, in other words, knew full well that the point was all but irrelevant, and would have had no effect on the jury or on its verdict,” Hajjar said. “Any doubt on this point is erased by Raniere’s counsel’s reaction — silence — to Vicente’s testimony that he had also retained Glazer and he was, in fact, planning to sue Raniere.”

The two women whose testimony is at issue both testified that they became sexually involved with Raniere and were abused by him. Raniere directed one of the women be confined to a room in her family’s townhouse on Wilton Court in the Knox Woods townhouse complex for nearly two years. The punishment, imposed between March 2010 and February 2012, was because the woman had dared to kiss another man, she testified.

The woman, who was ostracized by her parents and siblings who remained loyal to Raniere and NXIVM, left the room on her own but faced an uncertain fate -- she was driven to the Mexican border nearly penniless. She has since turned her life around and became a key witness for prosecutors.

Raniere’s lawyers argued that when Agnifilo asked her if she planned to sue Raniere, she lied. She had said she had no such plans to sue him.

The attorneys accused the other witness, an actress from California, of also lying about plans to sue Raniere. The woman was a member of Raniere’s secret master/slave organization known as Dominus Obsequious Sororium or DOS, which in Latin translates to “Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions.”

She testified that she unwittingly became a “slave” to actress Allison Mack, who became her “master” and led her to become a slave to Raniere, who became her “grand master.” His involvement in DOS, testimony showed, was kept a secret in the supposedly all-female group.

Raniere demanded members of DOS adhere to demands that included complete obedience to their master’s whims. They were forced to live on a 500-calorie-a-day diet, reply to "readiness" text messages at all hours of the night and sexually please Raniere. The actress whose testimony is now under scrutiny by Raniere’s lawyers testified that Raniere blindfolded her, tied her to a table and subjected her to sexual abuse by a stranger.

She said she was also branded with Raniere's initials on her pelvic region – a painful process conducted by a person using a cauterizing pen.

Raniere has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, where his lawyers recently said he was considered a "high risk" for COVID-19. Prosecutors disagreed, saying the designation was solely due to Raniere's age and not due to any medical condition.