Scientology leader David Miscavige unloads epic rant about Leah Remini after mistrial
We want to thank the reader who brought something rather amazing to our attention that we had overlooked.
Immediately after a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the Danny Masterson trial in Los Angeles, a Scientology website posted a statement that has to be seen to be believed.
It uses the opportunity of the mistrial to unload on Leah Remini, and there’s no mistaking who authored this unsigned screed. Of course it’s Scientology leader David Miscavige. They didn’t even bother to attach church spokeswoman Karin Pouw’s name to this thing, which is usually what Miscavige does to disguise his authorship.
This is pure, unadulterated Miscavige, unloading his vitriol on the person he blames for the weeks and weeks of drubbing in the press Scientology has received during the criminal trial of Danny Masterson in Los Angeles and the civil trial of Paul Haggis in New York.
Let’s take it a look at it in some bite-sized chunks.
Note that the document does not spell out what “this case” is referring to. Danny Masterson’s name is not included, and there’s no explanation that Scientology was a heavy part of his criminal prosecution not only because Masterson is a well-known Scientology celebrity, but also because the three women he’s accused of raping were all Scientologists at the time of their allegations between 2001 and 2003. Judge Charlaine Olmedo allowed a limited amount of testimony about Scientology’s policies that the women say prevented them from coming forward to law enforcement sooner and that caused them to be terrified of Scientology retaliation for speaking up.
And while Scientology was brought up again and again during the six-week trial at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, one name that almost never did come up was Leah Remini’s. The former Scientologist and television actress was simply not a factor during the trial. But Miscavige is reminding us here that Danny Masterson’s previous defense attorney, Tom Mesereau, was pushing this theory almost every chance he had: That the case against Masterson was actually cooked up by Remini, and that the women were coordinating their testimony at her behest.
Mesereau represented Masterson during the preliminary hearing that was held in May 2021, and we said at the time there was plenty of evidence that he was following direct instructions from Miscavige, which led to some pretty disastrous moments in court. And here again, Miscavige makes it pretty plain that he was behind that strategy to blame Remini for the case against Danny.
It was at the preliminary hearing last year that the three women accusing Masterson first testified that while they were in Scientology they were instructed, as all Scientologists are, that they must keep all disputes with other Scientologists inside the church itself. It’s even spelled out in Scientology’s “ethics” handbook, that a Scientologist cannot turn in a fellow church member to “civil authorities.” And as Mike Rinder explained in our special Thanksgiving podcast, how that language in the ethics book translates is that Scientologists believe that turning a member in to the police or the courts will deny them the benefit they could receive by going through Scientology’s own “technology” and through its justice procedures.
We have never met a former Scientologist who didn’t confirm that this is what they were taught in the church, that they should not give up a Scientologist to the police, no matter how heinous the crime they were accused of. But day after day, Miscavige had Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw deny to the press what was in Scientology’s own ethics book.
You can see, from the use of bold and italics, how Miscavige is nearly blowing his top over the way the court testimony about this has bugged him. And we’ll remind you, at one point he was so upset about Judge Olmedo’s ruling that the quotes from the ethics book be read at face value, he even dispatched a church attorney down to the courthouse to try and intervene in the criminal case.
Miscavige now turns to the civil lawsuit that was filed by Masterson’s accusers in 2019 against the That ’70s Show actor and against the Church of Scientology itself (and against Miscavige, although he’s still not been served the lawsuit formally). The lawsuit is not about the rape allegations, but instead about the harassment that the Jane Does say they have experienced since they came forward to the LAPD in 2016.
It’s really rich that Miscavige is ranting that there is no evidence of this harassment, while his attorneys have done everything they can to prevent the lawsuit from going into a discovery phase so that evidence could be gathered and entered into the court record. The church was initially successful at having the lawsuit derailed by arguing that the plaintiffs, most of whom were former Scientologists, had signed contracts while they were in the church obliging them not to sue but to take their grievances to Scientology’s internal brand of “religious arbitration.” But an appeals court in January reversed that ruling and the US Supreme Court refused to hear Scientology’s epic whine about it.
The civil case is still on hold, at least until December 13, and Scientology has already indicated that its next move will be to file an anti-SLAPP motion, which would likely halt the case for another year.
We have personal knowledge of evidence that supports the allegations by these women, that they have been the subject of Scientology’s familiar harassment and retaliation operations, and we think it’s going to be pretty epic when that evidence is finally entered in court. And the case was also bolstered when we learned during Masterson’s criminal trial that former Scientology celebrity Lisa Marie Presley is prepared to testify that she was instructed by the church to try and dissuade Jane Doe 1 from reporting her allegations to the LAPD — in other words, exactly the kind of interference and obstruction that the women are alleging.
Miscavige can cry and whine that no evidence of Scientology harassment and retaliation has been presented in court, but he’s spending boatloads of money on attorneys trying to prevent the lawsuit from getting to that point. Neat trick.
Leah Remini stood up in court and testified for her friend Paul Haggis, who was not “convicted” of anything, but was found liable in a civil lawsuit. Miscavige, meanwhile, is terrified of stepping foot in a courtroom, and has evaded service in numerous lawsuits. At a recent court hearing in Tampa, a federal judge remarked that Miscavige’s efforts to avoid service in a labor trafficking lawsuit was so extreme, it was something he’d never seen in his years on the bench.
It’s quite clear that Miscavige is thrilled with the results in both New York and Los Angeles: A large award against Haggis and a hung jury in the Masterson trial. But it’s really something that he used those results to put out such an unhinged stemwinder, with such generous use of italics and bold type.
We can only hope, as the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office considers whether to retry Masterson in the spring, that it gives this document a good look.
Marc Headley is rapping on YouTube
The inimitable Marc Headley is dipping his toe in the water at YouTube, and he let us know that he’s posted his epic “Blown for Good” rap song…
…but we still prefer the version that featured Nazanin Boniadi.
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
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When Miscavige unloads on Leah Remini his supporters hear it. That might be 20,000 people almost all of whom already think that Leah Remini is the devil. Miscavige is a rumour at best. Hardly anyone in America has even heard of him, let alone cares what he says.
When Leah Remini talks about Miscavige it goes out to millions of people. They become innoculated against Scientology. And there is nothing at all that Miscavige can do about it.
Tiny little unloved man screaming into the void... Bless.