A San Francisco company long criticized by prosecutors as operating like a sex cult has launched a concerted push for clemency on behalf of its convicted leaders, combining formal pardon requests with informal outreach to figures in President Trump’s orbit, CBS News reported. OneTaste founder and former CEO Nicole Daedone and ex-head of sales Rachel Cherwitz were convicted in 2025 of forced labor conspiracy; a federal judge sentenced Daedone to nine years and Cherwitz to more than six years in late March. The company has filed formal pardon petitions with the Justice Department while also pressing allies and media allies for high-level intervention.
Legal and clemency experts say the campaign illustrates how contemporary petitioners increasingly rely on private influence and back channels to reach the president. NYU law professor Rachel Barkow, an expert on executive clemency, told CBS News the scale of OneTaste’s outreach is unusually large, and she warned that ordinary petitioners who lack such connections are disadvantaged by a system that has been sidestepped.
Prosecutors say Daedone and Cherwitz ran a coercive operation that pressured staff into degrading and traumatic tasks, including sexual acts, while paying little or nothing. The defendants’ lawyers maintain OneTaste was a women’s-empowerment enterprise whose members were free to leave; appeals are pending.
OneTaste has sought backing from well-known conservative figures and operatives. High-profile defense attorney Alan Dershowitz advised the group and later provided pro bono support, arguing the indictment raised religious-freedom concerns. The outreach reportedly included former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who featured the case on his One America News program and suggested participants were not forced to stay; political consultant Roger Stone, who discussed the convictions on his podcast and framed them as raising constitutional questions; and attempts to contact Steve Bannon and influencer Laura Loomer, who either declined to comment or said they did not recall the outreach.
MAGA-linked lawyer Adam Katz, who has worked on other clemency efforts, sent a pre-conviction letter to the Justice Department asking for review. OneTaste’s current CEO, Anjuli Ayer, has described the campaign as pushing back against an injustice and said supporters are motivated by concerns about justice rather than money.
The company has also mobilized allies with ties to the official pardon-review apparatus. A former OneTaste employee, Marcus Ratnathicam, engaged publicly with Mike Howell, an associate of Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney. Howell, who runs the Oversight Project and has publicly advocated on the case, helped produce a report highlighting OneTaste’s claims. Ratnathicam has briefed members of the House Judiciary Committee and spoken with policy groups including the Cato Institute and the ACLU.
Cynthia Hughes, who runs the Patriot Freedom Project and has worked closely with Martin, has been an outspoken supporter. Records indicate Martin served on Hughes’s nonprofit board and received a stipend, and Hughes’s group has labeled the prosecution “weaponization,” posted commentary by Dershowitz and Stone, and promoted videos of Ayer criticizing the case. Hughes’s organization has a history of advocating for pardon seekers, including some Jan. 6 defendants, and has said it played a role in securing past clemency for others.
Visitor logs reviewed by CBS News show Hughes attended multiple meetings at the pardon office with Martin and other officials. Ayer and Ratnathicam reportedly met at the pardon office in January and February 2026. OneTaste told CBS News it has not paid Hughes or donated to the Patriot Freedom Project.
The White House says it maintains a thorough pardon-review process involving the White House counsel, the Department of Justice, and ultimately the president. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has cautioned that spending money to lobby for pardons is unlikely to be effective. Still, critics and observers note that President Trump’s clemency decisions in his second term have sometimes favored allies or those who used intermediaries within his circle, underscoring the potential power of informal advocacy.
Supporters of OneTaste argue members participated voluntarily and warn the prosecution could set a troubling precedent; opponents point to the convictions and prosecutors’ findings of coercive, exploitative conduct. Meanwhile, the company is continuing formal petitions while pursuing high-level outreach to try to secure clemency for Daedone and Cherwitz.