Nxivm leader Keith Raniere claims he was attacked in prison

Twisted Nxivm leader Keith Raniere was battered in prison by a fellow sex trafficker who left him with a black eye and dizzy for days, according to court documents.

The sex-slave perv complained in a flurry of court filings that he was attacked in his Arizona prison by Maurice Withers, 33, who is serving 18 years for trafficking five women, including at least one minor.

“On July 26, 2022, I was assaulted while walking to a table with my food in the dining hall. I did not fight back,” Raniere said in an affidavit in his ongoing lawsuit about conditions while he serves his 120-year sentence.

His lawyers said Withers hit him “with a closed fist” on his “head and face.”

“I have had no contact with Mr. Withers prior to his assault on me,” Raniere said of the attacker, who prosecutors previously said has a tattoo reading, “Ain’t No Money Like Hoe Money.”

“I was dizzy for several days and could not get out of bed,” Raniere complained of the attack at USP Tucson.

His attorneys also said that the cult leader “suffered a black eye, swelling, nausea, and dizziness for over a week,” and was hit so hard he “has limited knowledge of the assault.”

“Mr. Raniere asked for ice packs to help with the pain and swelling but the request was denied,” his attorney complained in the filing.

The battering was likely caught on surveillance footage, but he “has not been permitted to view the video,” the filing said.

Wardens knew the cult leader was a victim, but punished him “following a pattern of retaliation” against him, Raniere and his attorney claimed.

“I was given a disciplinary ticket for ‘fighting’ and have had my privileges revoked and was placed in segregation ‘pending investigation,’” Raniere said in the affidavit.

“I believe that I was given a disciplinary ticket as retaliation for the recent publicity that my case has received as a result of my efforts to challenge my conviction.”

While in a Special Housing Unit, he “was denied contact legal visits with his attorneys, and forced to either yell through plexiglass or be handcuffed and shackled to a belly chain to communicate with his attorneys,” his filing complained.

Even when his disciplinary ticket was dismissed, he “was still forced to wear painful handcuffs and belly chains” when his attorney visited, the filing said.

Raniere has also been put in a cell with an intersex woman — and forced to eat his lunch “next to day-old human feces … smeared all over the wall,” according to other documents cited by The Sun.

He was previously also forced into SHU after illicitly getting another inmate to pass a love note on to actress Nicki Clyne, the ex-wife of Nxivm’s other most high-profile member, fellow actress Allison Mack, after she was banned from visiting.

“Mr. Raniere spent a total of 97 days in the SHU for saying ‘Send her my love,’” his lawyers said, calling Clyne a “close personal friend and partner of Mr. Raniere’s for over 15 years.”

The “Battlestar Galactica” is only one of a handful of Nxivm members who have been barred from visiting him in prison, the documents noted — with others including Danielle Roberts, the doctor who lost her medical license for branding the cult leader’s victims with his initials.

Even one of his attorneys, Suneel Chakravorty, had gone through Nxivm training, the documents noted while arguing for his right to continue attorney visits.

Raniere is serving a 120-year prison sentence after he was convicted on a host of charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering, for running a sex cult known as “DOS” that pulled members from his various self-help groups, including Nxivm.

His alleged attacker, Withers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2017 for trafficking women into prostitution in Wisconsin as well as Las Vegas. He was convicted of nine counts of sex trafficking, including three counts involving a minor, prosecutors said at the time.

According to his trial, Withers met the women on social media and then “used violence, threats, intimidation, degradation, and psychological manipulation to force them” into prostitution.

A federal prosecutor told jurors that Withers was “proud and even boastful about” being “a pimp,” with his explicit tattoo, the Times Union noted.

“He sells women and girls for sex. You will hear that he would do anything to make money … All he needed was a steady supply of women and girls to sell,” the prosecutor said, according to the report.

The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear if disciplinary action had been taken against Withers for the alleged prison attack.