Convicted NXIVM cult leader's defense accuses FBI of evidence tampering

Expert cybercrime analysts for a convicted sex trafficker say evidence for some of the most shocking charges against him was tampered with and planted on storage drives that were supposed to be in secure FBI custody, according to court documents.

The FBI declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

In addition to the abuse against adult victims, federal prosecutors charged that Raniere was 45 and a child victim, identified only as "Camila," was 15 when he took photos of her and sexually abused her. 

Raniere's lead attorney, Joseph Tully, told Fox News Digital the evidence used to convict his client of the "most heinous" charges - child pornography and child exploitation - was "provably" doctored and planted by the FBI.

"If I could just have a hearing, I could just show the world that, as outrageous as it seems, that this tampering did happen, and it did happen while in FBI custody," he said. 

He told Fox News Digital that if Raniere's experts are correct, it would amount to "a staggering government act of misconduct." If the allegations prove true, it could affect other cases.

He said the late introduction of charges involving a child tipped the scale in favor of the prosecution.

"They had an alleged very, very, very weak case against the defendant, very weak. He easily could have won the case, and then, at the last minute, they 'discovered' a photograph of a female, naked, who they claim was underage," he told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Now, once you introduce into evidence anything involving an underage female, the case is over."

But defense experts, in a series of declarations filed in federal court last month, now say the photographs were taken when the woman was above the age of consent and then tampered with to make it look like they had been done earlier.

"Why shouldn't we have a hearing? And this doesn't only involve Mr. Raniere. It involves every American," Dershowitz said. "When you have somebody in jail, who is there as a result of tampered with government evidence, it's the Soviet Union. It's Iran. It's China. It's not the United States of America."

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the defense experts' findings. The U.S. Attorney's Office that handled the case declined to comment. A response is not due in court until Jan. 27.

It's unclear why the FBI or federal prosecutors would allegedly frame Raniere, but Tully, who wrote a 2018 book about corruption in the criminal justice system, said his client had extremely wealthy enemies and was just unpopular.

"They wanted to 'get him,'" he told Fox News Digital. "When the popular kid in school wants to make one of the poorer kids who has holes in his shoes the laughingstock of the school, they do it. And that sort of human behavior doesn't change when those kids grow up and get their law degree and want to become prosecutors."

Newsweek first reported the allegations in late December, but Raniere has still not received a hearing nearly a month later.

"And the government is desperate not to have a hearing," Dershowitz said. "They do not want the public record to show that seven experts, including some who worked for the FBI, who they use to get convictions against people, are now saying that this was a tampered piece of evidence."

Raniere's defense lawyers are asking for a new trial. In a court filing, they alleged that the "government knowingly used doctored evidence to secure a conviction" based on the conclusions of seven of their experts.

WATCH: NXIVM cult survivor recounts mental, physical abuse

Dr. Richard Kiper, a leading expert and former FBI agent who specialized in cybersecurity and digital evidence, wrote in a 59-page affidavit that while reviewing the case for the defense, he "discovered specific actions that were taken to manually alter the evidence" and support the prosecution's allegations.

"In my 20 years serving as an FBI agent, I have never observed or claimed that an FBI employee tampered with evidence, digital or otherwise," he wrote. "But in this case, I strongly believe the multiple, intentional alterations to the digital information I have discovered constitute evidence manipulation."