Deposition: Scientology’s targeting of Paul Haggis that isn’t speculation

[Tommy Davis and Paul Haggis]

We’ve been very busy with the Danny Masterson trial here in Los Angeles, so we’ve been unable to keep much of an eye on what’s going on back in New York, where a civil trial has been unfolding between Crash director Paul Haggis and a former publicist, Haleigh Breest, who is suing him because she alleges that Haggis raped her in his apartment after a movie premiere in 2013.

There has been plenty of very good coverage of the trial in the press, especially from publications like Variety and the Daily Beast, and so we’ve been able gather what you probably have: that Haleigh Breest testified along with four other women, all Jane Does, to allegations that Haggis raped or attempted to rape them in incidents going back to 1996.

Haggis himself testified last week, and denied that he’d raped the women, describing his encounter with Breest as a consensual one.

But what’s made the case especially interesting to the media is that Haggis in 2009 became one of the most highly visible defectors from Scientology, and his attorneys are presenting a case that Scientology would have tried to destroy him for speaking out for a New Yorker piece by Lawrence Wright in 2011, and then in an HBO movie, Going Clear, in 2015. (Full disclosure, we also appeared in the film.)

Mike Rinder testified, for example, that based on his history as a top Scientology executive, the organization would never give up in its attempts to destroy Paul for speaking out. And tomorrow, the defense plans to have Leah Remini testify via video link.

Breest’s lawyers have characterized the defense’s presentation of Scientology’s enmity for Haggis as a distraction, pointing out that both sides have stipulated that Breest herself was never a Scientologist. And Haggis’s attorneys have presented no evidence that there is any connection between her lawsuit and the church.

But we didn’t want it to be overlooked that there is real evidence that Scientology targeted Haggis after his 2009 defection, and it came in a video deposition, portions of which were played for the jury. We have now obtained a copy of that deposition, and we thought it was worth memorializing here at the Bunker.

It involves a woman named Shawna Brakefield, a person Leah Remini first told us about at the Bunker in July 2020. Leah told us that she had left a chapter out of her 2015 book Troublemaker about Tom Cruise, and she generously gave us that material to publish at the Bunker. In it, she described the things Shawna had told her about what it was like to work for Tom Cruise, who was described as a cruel taskmaster who used Scientology concepts to guide every aspect of his work and life. But Shawna also told Leah about two disturbing incidents which involved former Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis.

In one incident, Shawna told Leah that while she was working at the Screen Actors Guild, Davis had showed up one day in 2004 boasting about a “dirt file” of incriminating material he had put together about Tom Cruise’s legendary publicist, Pat Kingsley. With that dossier of blackmail material, Scientology was planning to push Kingsley out if she didn’t let Cruise speak up more about Scientology itself. And later in 2004, that’s exactly what happened: Kingsley was dropped by Cruise, and the Top Gun actor hired his own sister as his publicist and early in 2005 began a disastrous few months as Scientology’s very visible ambassador.

The second incident Shawna related to Leah occurred a few years later, in 2009 or 2010, after she had left the Screen Actors Guild, when Davis called her up asking for help breaking into the SAG files of Paul Haggis in order to put together another “dirt file.” This was during the time that Lawrence Wright was working on his story about Haggis, which appeared in the New Yorker in February 2011, and a few years before Haggis’s encounter with Haleigh Breest, in 2013.

When news broke of Breest’s lawsuit against Haggis in 2017, Shawna reached out to him and his ex-wife Deborah Rennard, telling them about the 2010 encounter she’d had with Tommy Davis. They asked her to memorialize it in a letter, which she did.

As the lawsuit developed, Haggis’s attorneys then asked Shawna Brakefield to give a deposition about her encounters with Tommy Davis, and that’s what we’ve obtained. We’ve taken out for you the relevant parts, and removed objections by other attorneys for clarity.

Again, we have no evidence that Tommy Davis or Scientology had any connection to Haleigh Breest. But we think it’s important to memorialize Tommy Davis’s actions as he provided a pretty stark example of the Scientology “Fair Game” policy, that the church will hunt down and try to destroy anyone who speaks out in a significant way about the church. Shawna is questioned here by Haggis’s attorney, Priya Chaudhry.

Priya Chaudhry: Now, first, who is Tom Davis?
Shawna Brakefield: Tom Davis was an executive for the Church of Scientology.
Chaudhry: Do you know what his role within the church was, what his job was there?
Brakefield: He — it varied over the years. During this time, I’m not sure his official title, but I believe it grew to, like, international spokesperson at some point. But I’m not sure for sure. Like — yeah.
Chaudhry: How long have you known Mr. Davis?
Brakefield: Probably since 1997.
Chaudhry: And can you please tell us your opinion of Mr. Davis?
Brakefield: Currently?
Chaudhry: At the time and currently.
Brakefield: OK. At the time Tommy had stepped into a senior position with the church that was very — I just need a second to think about how I want to describe that. At the time of this letter, it was my understanding that he reported directly to David Miscavige, the head of the — the chairman of the board of the Church of Scientology and that he was, yeah, in a senior position with the church.
Chaudhry: And what was your understanding of why he was calling you to ask for Paul Haggis’s production files at the Screen Actors Guild?
Brakefield: Well, it was clear to me that he — he wasn’t after compliments and supportive material. He was clearly after something negative that I could share with him.
Chaudhry: And why did you infer that?
Brakefield: Well, just by the specific request. It was, you know — which was asking me to make copies of complaints or anything negative in the files that had been filed against Paul.
Chaudhry: And what was his tone in this conversation?
Brakefield: He was very aggressive. He was under — he sounded like he was very desperate. He was — had a lot of anxiety and emotion behind the request. I think “desperate” was really the closest thing that describes it. It was definitely intense. And he had a very strong intent to get something out of me for sure.
Chaudhry: And did he tell you why he wanted this material?
Brakefield: No.
Chaudhry: Were you able legally to give him those materials?
Brakefield: No.
Chaudhry: Were you working at the Screen Actors Guild at the time that he called you?
Brakefield: No.
Chaudhry: And what would you have had to do to get these materials for Tom Davis?
Brakefield: I would have had to — I mean, the whole thing is sort of ludicrous. But I would have, like — have to, like, break into the SAG offices or ask someone to do something off policy to get access to them.
Chaudhry: To your understanding, was that a legal request?
Brakefield: Yes. It was — no, it was not a legal request. Sorry. I thought you said “illegal.” It was not a legal — he was not asking me to do something legal, no.
Chaudhry: And what was your belief as to why he was asking you to get these materials about Paul Haggis?
Brakefield: He clearly wanted some kind of dirt, something he could use against him.
Chaudhry: Against him for what?
Brakefield: That, I can’t — I don’t know for sure.
Chaudhry: OK. And at the time that Tom Davis called, do you know if Mr. Haggis had already left Scientology?
Brakefield: Yes, he had.
Chaudhry: And how do you know that?
Brakefield: It was public knowledge in the media.
Chaudhry: Were you still a Scientologist when Mr. Haggis left Scientology?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: And what was the reaction within the Scientology church community to Mr. Haggis leaving?
Brakefield: It was pretty shocking. And it was — I think the church members felt like it was a blow in way to the church because of — he was so high profile as a member. And then to be a high-profile departure, it was — yeah, it didn’t go over well.
Chaudhry: And —
Brakefield: I was friends with him, so I felt like he should be able to leave anything and — on your own. Like, if you want to leave a church, you can leave a church. But…
Chaudhry: OK. And when you say it was a high-profile defection, was there publicity around Mr. Haggis leaving the Church of Scientology?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: Did you ever see an article published in “The New Yorker” about Mr. Haggis?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: OK. And do you know if this call from Tom Davis came before or after this “New Yorker” article came out?
Brakefield: My recollection is from the time of his departure — public departure and prior to this article coming out is when I got the phone call.
Chaudhry: Between Mr. Haggis’s public departure, but before this article was released?
Brakefield: That’s my recollection of it, yes. And I — yeah.
Chaudhry: OK. And did you provide the information that Tom Davis asked you for?
Brakefield: No.
Chaudhry: Why not?
Brakefield: Well, it was — it was ludicrous. I mean, it was clearly an intent to gather information to use against Paul. Paul is a friend, number one. I wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t going to risk my career doing anything like that. And I wasn’t going to do anything illegal, so…
Chaudhry: OK. And is this the first time that Tom Davis had ever called you to ask you for dirt on an individual?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: That’s the first time he ever called you to ask you for information about somebody?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: OK. Were you ever — to your knowledge, did Tom Davis ever participate in a campaign on behalf of the Church of Scientology against another individual?
Brakefield: I was aware of Tom Davis participating in gathering of negative information about someone else, yes.
Chaudhry: And how were you aware of that?
Brakefield: He shared a dossier with me.
Chaudhry: Can you describe this dossier?
Brakefield: He handed a very thick group of documents to me that while — in a very kind of gloating way about the contents of it. And, you know, I vaguely — I kind of flipped through it to — just more out of muscle memory of, like, when someone puts something — and noticed a few things in it and — while he’s telling me the contents of it and bragging about it.
Chaudhry: And what did you notice? What do you recall that was in that dossier?
Brakefield: Personal and private information, financial information. He was telling me personal details about the person’s romantic life, family — details about their family and purchases they had made, things like that.
Chaudhry: And what was your reaction to seeing this dossier?
Brakefield: Disgusted.
Chaudhry: Why?
Brakefield: Because it was just not — on so many levels, it just had a lot of layers to it for me. I didn’t want to think that my church was doing those kinds of, like, just kind of — doing those kinds of things. It was — I was — quite frankly, I was more shocked than anything else. And it felt slimy and dirty, and it felt gross. And it just felt fully and totally inappropriate because it was very personal information I’m sure this person would not want others to have.
Chaudhry: And when you say he was bragging about it, what was he bragging about?
Brakefield: That they were able to obtain it.
Chaudhry: And do you know what they did — Mr. Davis and the church did with that information?
Brakefield: I don’t.
Chaudhry: Do you know what happened to the person who that dossier was about?
Brakefield: She was ultimately fired from a position that she had.
Chaudhry: And was it a high-profile position —
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: — that she had? And would you classify this person who the dossier was about as a — an enemy of the Church of Scientology? [Multiple objections] Are you aware of whether the church had a view on whether this person was an enemy of the Church of Scientology?
Brakefield: I believe they viewed her as an enemy.
Chaudhry: And, Ms. Brakefield, was this dossier ultimately used to ruin the career of the individual about whom it was made?
Brakefield: I don’t know the intention of what — I don’t know for sure what intention was.
Chaudhry: And when Mr. Davis was bragging, did he say anything about whether he used this to ruin the career of this individual?
Brakefield: Not that specific of a statement, but sort of along the lines of “We’ve got her.”
Chaudhry: This event where Mr. Davis showed you this other dossier —
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: — did that happen before he called you asking for Paul Haggis’s SAG files?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: Do you recall how far before it happened?
Brakefield: It was around March of 2004, and so been about five or six years’ difference.
Chaudhry: OK. And so when he called you to ask for Paul Haggis’s SAG files, did you have a belief as to what he was going to do with those files about Paul Haggis?
Brakefield: The phone call had — it definitely had significance.
Chaudhry: And what was the significance?
Brakefield: Based on the prior experience and the — what had come out of collecting negative information about individuals, I made the assumption it was — it just — yeah. It was a very intimidating phone call for me, to put it that way.
Chaudhry: And why was it intimidating for you?
Brakefield: Because I felt that, as a member of the church, you were expected to be very loyal to the group and protect the group at all costs. And me not participating in it would have — could have ramifications on me individually as a parishioner. And, also, having the prior incident happen made it more clear to me that the reason he was after information about Paul was to apply it in a — in a way that could be very harming to Paul.
Chaudhry: Ms. Brakefield, what sort of ramifications were you worried about?
Brakefield: Ramifications for me or for Paul?
Chaudhry: For you, for disobeying Mr. Davis.
Brakefield: I was worried that I would get just repeated phone calls until I complied. There was that. So there was, like, sort of the immediate pressure. And then I was worried that I would be called into the ethics department of the church for not complying with a request of a senior executive.
Chaudhry: And was that a big violation in the church?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: And what were the possible penalties for that?
Brakefield: Aggressive interrogations. All kinds of — it’s hard to explain to non-Scientologists, but assignments of making amends, conditions being applied of, like, somehow that I was in treason to the group for not protecting the group at all costs. So it just — and then that’s costly and costs money to — yeah. I don’t know if that explains it.
Chaudhry: Ms. Brakefield, were you afraid of going against the church at that time?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: Are you still afraid of going against the church?
Brakefield: Yes.
Chaudhry: And why is that?
Brakefield: Anybody who speaks out publicly against the church is just a target for being destroyed.
Chaudhry: Why is that your belief?
Brakefield: Well, I’ve seen them — I’ve seen it happen.
Chaudhry: Can you give us examples?
Brakefield: Just what’s already out there in public — yeah, public knowledge of various people who have spoken out and, you know, personal attacks, hate websites about them. Yeah. I mean, it’s incredibly aggressive and covert and hostile and severe.
Chaudhry: And, in your letter, you write that you were shaken by the call. Why were you shaken by the call from Tom Davis?
Brakefield: I knew — I speculated that the order from him came directly from who he reported to. And so that —
Chaudhry: And who is that?
Brakefield: David Miscavige. So I thought that maybe it would get back to David that I didn’t comply. And then I would be ordered to do something — you know, I’d be ordered into these kind of lower condition things that are hard to explain.
Chaudhry: OK. And at the end of your letter, you say: “I was so terrified to speak about it again, I’d only do so in the privacy of a locked car.” Why did you write that?
Brakefield: I don’t know. I guess I don’t know why I wrote that at the time. But just felt that it was — I don’t know. Maybe it communicated how terrifying it was to even make the statement or to speak out about it at all.
Chaudhry: And to whom did you share that this call happened at the time?
Brakefield: Katherine Moore.
Chaudhry: And was Katherine Moore also a Scientologist?
Brakefield: Previously, yes.
Chaudhry: OK. Did Mr. Davis follow up with you to try to get this information on Mr. Haggis?
Brakefield: Yes, he did.
Chaudhry: And do you recall how many times he followed up with you?
Brakefield: Two or three times.
Chaudhry: And was it the same intense tone when he called you?
Brakefield: From what I remember, honestly I think I just ignored the phone calls at that point and hoped he would just give up.
Chaudhry: OK. And did you hear from him after those few phone calls?
Brakefield: No.
Chaudhry: OK. And why — how is it that Paul and Deborah Haggis learned that Tom Davis had called you that day? Did you tell Paul Haggis and Deborah Haggis that Tommy Davis had called you?
Brakefield: Well, yes, I did tell them that he had called. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Chaudhry: And why did you tell them that?
Brakefield: I told them because when the news broke about this case, it dredged back up for me and — yeah. Go ahead.
Chaudhry: When you say “the news” and “this case,” what case are you referring to?
Brakefield: The Haleigh Breest case.
Chaudhry: And what news are you referring to?
Brakefield: Just when it became a public announcement, I mean, you know, like, in the media headlines.
Chaudhry: OK. And when you heard about this Haleigh Breest case, why did it make you think of this call from Tommy Davis?
Brakefield: Because the first thing I thought of was that the church was behind it.
Chaudhry: Why was that your first thought?
Brakefield: It just had nothing to do with who I knew Paul was. It just — it seemed very — anyway, I don’t want to speculate too much about how I felt at the time, but I just remember having that reaction. And this incident came up when — because he was, you know, speaking out about the church more and more publicly. And he had done Leah’s show. And it was, like, all of a sudden, this came right on the tail end of that. And that was the first thing that came to my mind. And so I felt like, you know, this incident to me felt like it was information I wanted to make known. It wasn’t up to me to decide whether it was relevant to the case or not, but I just felt like now was the time to at least say it out loud.

As we said, Leah Remini is scheduled to testify in the Paul Haggis case tomorrow, and it sounds like things should wrap up pretty quickly after that. We remind you that this is a civil lawsuit, not a criminal trial, so the standard is not “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and the lawsuit seeks to find Haggis liable for damages, not convicted of a crime.

As for Tommy Davis, we are inevitably and regularly asked for updates on him. Our most recent piece on him found that he’d remarried again and had a son (he already had two daughters from a previous marriage). And most recently, his boss, former Donald Trump fundraiser Tom Barrack, was acquitted of federal charges that he had illegally lobbied for the United Arab Emirates.

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A note from your proprietor

Yesterday we sent out a short message to our subscribers on a day off from the Danny Masterson trial. We’re releasing it to everyone this morning, and here’s also the version at our YouTube channel.

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

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