Open Letter to President Trump: Do Not Pardon Nicole Daedone

Mr. President,

We write on behalf of the people harmed in the OneTaste case.

A federal jury convicted the leaders of OneTaste, Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, of forced labor conspiracy after hearing weeks of testimony. A judge has now sentenced them. Those results came after a full trial, with evidence tested in court and witnesses heard.

There is now a push to ask you to undo that.

Please do not.

You are being told this case is about silencing and disempowering women, restricting free speech, lawfare, and criminalizing thoughts and beliefs.

That is false. The charges were about conduct. The jury heard evidence about coercion, pressure, surveillance, and control used to extract labor and services. This was not a case about ideas. It was a case about what was done to people. It was a case about forced labor and sexual exploitation.

A pardon here would tell victims that even after they come forward, even after a jury believes them, and even after sentence is imposed, the result can still be undone if the defendant has enough reach.

For those who lived through coercion, the harm did not end when they got out. It followed them. Then came the effort to rewrite what happened. They were told that they chose it, that it empowered them, and that they had misunderstood it. A pardon would place the authority of the presidency behind that lie.

You have the power to grant mercy. Using it here would tie your name to undoing a jury verdict and sentence in a case built on abuse and control.

It would stain your legacy. You campaigned on a promise to reform the justice system, ensure fairness, and eliminate abuse. Do not let bad actors exploit your good intentions, trade on influence, and help real criminals evade justice.

There is a legal path already in place. Appeals exist. Courts review convictions. That process treats defendants the same, regardless of access or influence.

This case should follow that path.

The attached addendum explains the clemency push now underway on Daedone’s behalf. Please, Mr. President, for the sake of both the victims and justice, do not pardon Nicole Daedone.

Carlos Watson, a media personality and founder of Ozy Media, was convicted in July 2024 of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft for a $50 million scheme to deceive investors. He was sentenced to 116 months, nearly 10 years, in prison for inflating company revenue and fabricating business deals.

The conduct was not minor. Watson lied about Ozy Media’s financial performance, inflating revenue by more than 100 percent, and falsely claiming high-profile investors and celebrity partnerships. He fabricated contracts. He even arranged for the impersonation of YouTube executives during a call with Goldman Sachs to lure investment.

People who trusted those representations suffered catastrophic losses. They lost retirement savings, personal investments, and funds that could never be replaced.

After the sentence, a coordinated campaign reshaped the story. Watson and his supporters assembled a team to build a direct clemency campaign aimed at people in your orbit. They used language tied to “lawfare” and pushed their message through media and social channels to reach the White House.

The focus moved away from the fraud and toward claims of unfair treatment.

Messaging tied the case to themes like “lawfare,” “racial discrimination,” and selective prosecution.

The effort targeted voices and platforms aligned with the White House.

The standard clemency process was bypassed in favor of direct White House access.

A small, well-connected group drove that effort:

• Juda Engelmayer, a high-profile crisis publicist for notorious felons such as Harvey Weinstein, Jerry Sandusky, and the Alexander brothers, handled messaging and connections.

• Frank Parlato, a media personality known for his sensationalist reporting on the NXIVM case, amplified that message through ongoing coverage in his outlets, including Frank Report and Artvoice.

• Topeka K. Sam, a criminal justice activist whom you pardoned for cocaine possession and distribution, used her connections to you, your pardon czar Alice Johnson, and others to bring access and credibility in clemency circles.

Supporters pushed the narrative through media and influencers.

It worked. In March 2025, Watson’s sentence was reduced to time served, and financial penalties were removed.

We understand that you have to rely on trusted advisers when weighing clemency requests. But when that advice is wrong, the damage falls on the victims. In Watson’s case, they were given no real voice and no real path to justice.

Even before her conviction, Daedone and her supporters at OneTaste identified the architects of the Watson clemency effort and started their own clemency campaign. They courted and employed the same actors:

• Juda Engelmayer to shape the narrative.

• Frank Parlato to lead the media campaign through his outlets and connections.

• Topeka K. Sam to recast the case as an injustice and use her direct access to the White House.

Engelmayer and Parlato would be compensated with substantial cash payments. Topeka Sam would be rewarded through endorsements and high-profile involvement in speaking engagements and questionable nonprofits called Women Over Dinner and Prison Monastery/Unconditional Freedom, all suspiciously timed, conceived, and bankrolled by groups linked to Daedone.

The team supporting Daedone, and Daedone’s broader network of supporters, have taken more extreme action than Watson’s team, possibly because her crimes are more serious or because they have access to more resources.

Without disclosing his relationship to Daedone, Frank Parlato published a prolific number of articles criticizing the case, the prosecutors, and the judge, and viciously degrading the witnesses.

The campaign expanded on several fronts. The team hired Alan Dershowitz, who publicly announced his support for a pardon request. They paid for a series of articles in Revolver and arranged media appearances on White House-friendly programs such as Dr. Phil Primetime and The Matt Gaetz Show. They also courted Roger Stone and outlets such as Reason to generate sympathetic coverage. Stone has a connection to Frank Parlato through his past work as a consultant to NXIVM. Others connected to Parlato, including people he employed, published articles criticizing the case in respected outlets, often without revealing that connection. Tony Farina’s series in the National Law Review is one example.

Even more diabolically, OneTaste filed lawsuits against several of Daedone’s accusers, inflicting further emotional distress, draining victims’ finances, and discouraging them and other victims from speaking out while the organization reshaped the narrative.

These campaigns require money, access, and reach. The defendants have all three. They can fund sustained messaging, hire specialists, silence critics and get their case in front of the right people.

The victims do not have those tools. Many live quietly, without resources or platforms, while a coordinated campaign speaks over them. They have quietly suffered while an expensive PR campaign has been used to erase their experience and destroy their lives.

Watson’s case showed how money and influence can distort justice even after conviction, leaving victims to carry the cost. Daedone’s clemency effort follows the same pattern: a coordinated campaign of money, media, and insider access designed to rewrite the case, drown out the people harmed, and turn clemency into a tool for the powerful.

A pardon here would not correct an injustice. It would create one.

Please do not pardon Nicole Daedone.