Dateline’s interview with the controversial figure is airing on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
NXIVM founder Keith Raniere is speaking out in a rare interview since his arrest in March 2018.
In what NBC News is calling Raniere’s “first interview since his arrest,” the leader of a group that federal prosecutors said enlisted “sex slaves” will appear alongside investigative journalist Frank Parlato (who is facing his own legal troubles) in a Dateline interview that will be partially shown on NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt on Friday. The full interview will be shown on a future Dateline episode.
In a preview of the Dateline interview released early Friday, the leader of the supposed self-help group tells the news program, “You know, one of the things that’s most important in our country is the justice system. And although, you know, people can hate me and do, and think I’m an odious type of a character, you know, awful actually.”
He adds, “Both the devil and a saint should be able to get the exact same treatment under our justice system.”
Raniere was convicted on all counts of sex trafficking and charges of coercing women into sex by using “collateral” to force them into intimate acts in June 2019.
Last month, Raniere also gave an interview to the documentarians of HBO Max’s The Vow, which focuses on women who joined and later left NXIVM, that aired during the series’ finale on Oct. 18. The series said the telephone interview occurred in Sept. 2020. The Vow has been renewed for a second season, HBO announced last week.