Emily Armstrong’s tepid response to backlash seems designed to protect Scientology

On Friday, we recounted our reporting regarding Emily Armstrong, the Dead Sara singer who has now been announced as a new addition to Linkin Park as the band returns from a seven-year hiatus following the death of Chester Bennington.

We pointed out that we had first mentioned her name when we interviewed Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala in 2018 about the harassment that he and his wife Chrissie Carnell-Bixler were going through after Chrissie and two other women had come forward to the LAPD with allegations about being sexually attacked by Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson.

Cedric and Chrissie had both been involved in Scientology themselves, and Cedric told us that when he was going through the Purification Rundown, Scientology’s quack sauna-and-vitamins “detox” program, another musician doing it at the same time was Armstrong. And the two of them appeared in a photo at the 2013 annual gala at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

Then, we mentioned Armstrong again in 2020, after Masterson had finally been charged by the District Attorney’s Office and was facing arraignment.

Of course, in 2020 any court hearing was a challenge because of the pandemic protocols in place. And here’s what we said about that day four years ago, when Danny showed up in person to face a judge for the first time…

We had expected that the arraignment would be a very quick affair. Masterson would answer a few questions, plead not guilty to the charges, and the whole thing would be over in minutes. Instead, it took hours. Why? Because Masterson showed up with a large entourage.

That threw the court, which was practicing social distancing methods, into a quandary, and what should have taken a few minutes instead took a couple of hours. Masterson was ultimately able to bring in only six people from his posse, and he chose his sister Alanna, brothers Will and Jordan, brother-in-law Billy Baldwin, producer Paige Dorian, and another woman we weren’t able to identify.

Left on the outside were several of Masterson’s longtime friends, which included fellow Scientologist Emily Armstrong, lead singer of Dead Sara.

So Armstrong had showed up with Masterson that day in what the victims told us was a classic attempt to pack the courtroom and intimidate them. (The three victims were there with Leah Remini and her assistant Valerie Haney.)

Armstrong did not get inside the hearing, but she had demonstrated her support to a man who was facing a potential life sentence for raping multiple women. (Three years later, last September 7, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life after being convicted on two of the three counts of forcible rape he’d been charged with. He’s currently in state prison.)

On Friday afternoon, Armstrong confirmed that she had showed up at that 2020 Masterson arraignment in a story post at her Instagram account (although she did not mention Masterson by name).

Hi. I’m Emily. I’m new to so many of you, and I wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back.

Several years ago, I was asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance, and went to one early hearing as an observer. Soon after, I realized I shouldn’t have. I always try to see the good in people, and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since. Unimaginable details emerged and he was later found guilty.

To say it as clearly as possible: I do not condone abuse or violence against women. and I empathize with the victims of these crimes.

The first thing that jumped out at us was the lack of any reference to Scientology, which was probably the main reason that Armstrong had showed up to the courtroom that day in 2020.

And plenty of other people have noticed how much is missing in her response. We were especially struck by the lengthy message that Yashar Ali posted online. Yashar has been a frequent target of Scientology’s “Fair Game” attacks, which Scientology’s celebrities like Emily Armstrong never acknowledge. Here’s a large portion of what Yashar posted:

First, I want to note that Emily says nothing here about Scientology. No attempt to distance herself from a ruinous, evil, and criminal organization. Even to lie about it. She is a high-level militant Scientologist who remains closely connected to some of the most powerful Scientologists—people you have never heard of.

Second, she doesn’t apologize to the women who survived Danny Masterson’s predation, women she attempted to intimidate at a court hearing.

Scientology is a totalitarian organization; it holds total command over the lives of Scientologists, whether they’re part of Scientology’s workforce (Sea Org) or civilian Scientologists like Emily.

Every single thing that Scientology and Scientologists do is guided by the thousands of policies written by L. Ron Hubbard when he was alive. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. This includes everything from how to wash windows to how to run complex operations to undermine and destroy Scientology’s enemies (these enemies include survivors of rape).

Scientologists consider these policies, which can never be changed and must be interpreted literally, to be the laws that govern their lives. They consider these laws to be of more importance than civil laws, the laws that all of us follow every day in the real world. They see our laws as so unimportant they refer to them as “wog law” — wog is a slur that Scientologists use for non-Scientologists.

In Scientology, there is no “orthodox” or “reform” — there is no casual or cafeteria Scientologist. Every Scientologist is an extremist, and every Scientologist is fully in. That’s because L. Ron Hubbard’s policies require total and complete dedication.

Scientologists are required to do whatever it takes to protect Scientology: lie, cheat, steal, everything.

Scientologists will lie to non-Scientologists all day long about what they believe or what they’re involved in because they are required to. They will do this to your face and will even do it if you consider them to be a best friend.

There are two L. Ron Hubbard terms you need to know to understand this Emily situation: “acceptable truth,” which is one of L. Ron Hubbard’s lessons and commands to Scientologists on how to lie, and “the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics,” which basically means the ends justify the means.

Emily getting this position in Linkin Park is seen as a major win in Scientology, where good PR and celebrity are seen as fuel to keep Scientology growing. Emily must do everything she can to protect it. This includes lying about her relationship with Danny, the Masterson family, and completely disappearing everything she has been involved in.

Emily is withholding important information from you, the public, and the fans of Linkin Park, and she is also outright lying.

Please, please remember that all the normal rules of how human beings react to the world get thrown out the window when it comes to Scientologists.

There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, a Scientologist won’t do to protect Scientology.

We’re interested in what you think. Was this a huge, unforced error by Linkin Park to hire Emily Armstrong? And do you think this controversy is going away anytime soon?

---

A special treat for our subscribers

Today subscribers will receive episode 82 of our special podcast series, “Group Therapy.”

We discuss the week’s revelations with our gang of jokers and degraders, including our transoceanic friend Pete Griffiths. And in Colorado, the genial Bruce Hines!

It’s all the enturbulation you could want!

We’re offering this series as thanks to our subscribers for helping to support the work we do here at the Underground Bunker!

---

Want to help?

Please consider joining the Underground Bunker as a paid subscriber. Your $7 a month will go a long way to helping this news project stay independent, and you’ll get access to our special material for subscribers. Or, you can support the Underground Bunker with a Paypal contribution to bunkerfund@tonyortega.org, an account administered by the Bunker’s attorney, Scott Pilutik. And by request, this is our Venmo link, and for Zelle, please use (tonyo94 AT gmail). E-mail tips to tonyo94@gmail.com.

---

Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

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

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

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

Here’s the link to today’s post at tonyortega.org

And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning.

Paid subscribers get access to a special podcast series…

Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news