few Twats from NXIVM Courtroom today - Collateral Leverage of nicole
from sarah berman Verified account @sarahberms
on the witness stand nicole described her first in-person encounters with NXIVM founder keith raniere. allison mack would schedule 3-4AM walks for them, one time instructing nicole to tell keith she would do anything he asked her to do.
because allison had the power to release her collateral, nicole managed to blurt these words out. the first time raniere asked her if she meant it and she said no. allison instructed her to do it again the next day.
in these discussions raniere asked nicole for her darkest secrets: the worst thing she's ever done, what's the worst thing she could imagine him asking her to do. she was overwhelmed thinking of worst case scenarios—told him sexual stuff wouldn't be as bad as hurting her family.
what happened next is one of the most brutal allegations described in the indictment. it was heartbreaking to listen to. afterwards raniere told her she was brave and she couldn't tell anyone about it.
(see attached screen gab)
yesterday the jury saw photos of a table with a tripod next to it, taken from whatsapp photos between camila and raniere. prosecutor moira kim penza asked if nicole knew she was being filmed while she was blindfolded and a stranger was performing oral sex. she replied no.
nicole testified she had no idea who performed oral sex on her, or if other people were in the room. raniere told her it was a woman and she would never find out who it was. we now know it was camila.
nicole continued to be allison mack's slave after this, and continued to see raniere in albany. mack described it as an arranged marriage, that she would learn to love allison and raniere as her master and grand master.
nicole testified at times she considered the witness protection program as a possible escape, hoping her collateral wouldn't be released.
this afternoon we heard about mack introducing more monthly collateral and group "family photos" where her slaves had to take their clothes off.
nicole said she argued about these the most. said the photos made her feel really unsafe, like she wouldn't want to spend time with the other girls because she could be asked to take her clothes off at any minute.
https://twitter.com/sarahberms/status/1137087749624930304