Watch then-Rep. Xavier Becerra carrying water for Scientology in Congress

[UPDATE: Becerra now says he’s seen the light about Scientology.]

On Wednesday, we raised some questions about surging California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra’s past as a Scientology booster.

In the year 2000, when he was a US representative, Becerra helped Scientology dedicate the new international headquarters of ABLE, the church’s subsidiary that runs its front groups, like Applied Scholastics and Narconon.

Not only did Becerra give a speech at that event, he was introduced by ABLE president Rena Weinberg, a woman who, a few years later, became an inmate in Scientology’s notorious prison for executives, The Hole, and later simply vanished.

In 2003, Becerra was again a featured speaker, this time at Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre gala, which was attended by such church luminaries as Tom Cruise, Kelly Preston, and Jenna Elfman.

Becerra was photographed with Elfman and Scientology executive Kurt Wieland, another church official who was put in the Hole and hasn’t been heard from in decades.

We also learned that as recently as 2016, Becerra’s office sent representatives to help out with another Scientology front group, Youth for Human Rights.

In response to our inquiry about showing up at the 2003 Celebrity Centre gala, we received this statement from Becerra’s spokesman, Jonathan Underland: “As a member of Congress, Xavier Becerra met with constituents from across his district and made a point of engaging with all communities and organizations represented there.”

Well, that’s nice. But it doesn’t really speak to Becerra giving speeches at Scientology events, or hanging out with church officials who later went missing.

Meanwhile, a reader tipped us that Becerra had also spoken about Scientology during a session of the House, in 1997. We hunted down a C-SPAN video of Becerra speaking in favor of House Concurrent Resolution 22, at a session on November 9, 1997.

This was during the fierce sniping between American and German officials over the way the German government, sensitive to a totalitarian organization like Scientology extorting its citizens, was cracking down on David Miscavige’s strange “church,” including calling for boycotts of Tom Cruise’s film Mission: Impossible, and Chick Corea’s concerts.

Congress fought back with this resolution, expressing its outrage over the treatment of Top Gun in the name of religious liberty.

Here, take a look at Becerra speaking up for the resolution. It’s only a couple of minutes long.

House Congressional Resolution 22 is about preserving religious freedom, plain and simple. I learned the depth of this problem when I was introduced to the hardships faced by Scientologists in Germany. Early in my congressional career about five years ago, I met with Chick Corea, the renowned jazz pianist, and learned that he had been barred from public performances in Germany. He was set to go, he had performances all lined up. And all of a sudden he was not granted a visa to go into Germany even though most of his performances had already been for the most part sold out. At the time I was able to work with a number of my colleagues and we put letters together and sent them off to the German government protesting such actions.

Back in 1951, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.” Those freedoms he listed were freedom of speech, of expression, of being free from want, and freedom from fear. He also told us of “The freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, everywhere in the world.” I mention that because just yesterday, if you read the newspaper, the Washington Post, you saw that there was an article — or excuse me, the New York Times — there was an article that said a Federal immigration court judge in Tampa, Florida, granted asylum to a German citizen who was a member of the Church of Scientology. Her asylum claim was based on the fact that she would be subjected to religious persecution had she returned to Germany.

Many of my constituents, as I suspect many of your constituents, are members of religious minority groups like the Church of Scientology. This resolution calls for protecting their rights if and when they spend time in Germany. They deserve this protection. German citizens themselves who are members of minority religious groups deserve religious freedom as well.

As you cast your vote on House Congressional Resolution 22, remember the words of President Roosevelt listing religious freedom as one of the four essential human freedoms. As he said, “Freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world.” Today is one of those future days that President Roosevelt spoke of. And today we should be standing together to say ‘aye’ to Congressional Resolution 22.

You probably caught that FDR wasn’t giving speeches in 1951, since he had died six years earlier. But in 1941 he did speak out about the “four freedoms,” Becerra was right about that.

As for the asylum case he referred to, that’s pretty notorious. Yes, a Tampa court had granted political asylum to a German Scientologist named Antje Victore, which was very unusual and, as Becerra noted, covered by the New York Times.

However, in 2000, Stern magazine revealed that it had all been a hoax: The letters that Victore submitted to the court supposedly showing that potential employers wouldn’t hire her because she was a Scientologist were actually fakes that had been written by her fellow Scientologists. It was all a sham intended to embarrass Germany by having one of its citizens granted asylum in the US.

In those days, one of the top officials who handled the German kerfuffle for the Office of Special Affairs — Scientology’s secret police — was Klaus Büchele, who only came forward with his story here at the Bunker in 2024.

We thought he might know something about the Antje Victore scheme, and he did.

“Yes, it was a stunt, and the church was involved. It was one of many ways we tried back then to publicly embarrass the German government,” Klaus says today.

So, in November 1997, then-US Representative Xavier Becerra was helping out by citing the asylum case in order to help pass a resolution condemning German efforts against Scientology.

Perhaps he didn’t realize he was being used in a Scientology hoax.

But here’s the thing. There’s still time, before California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary, for Becerra to tell voters how he feels about Scientology today.

Does he now understand that he was being used by an abusive organization that extorts the young and the elderly, rips apart families, and forces young women to have abortions — all of which has been fully documented in journalistic exposes and court documents in the years since Becerra was such an enthusiastic Scientology booster?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass expressed regret for the way she was similarly used. She gave a speech at a 2010 Scientology “Ideal Org” grand opening on Sunset Boulevard, but in 2020 she said she had seen the light after watching Leah Remini’s A&E series Scientology and the Aftermath and no longer supported Scientology’s methods.

Can Becerra say the same? Or is he going to continue to say he was just meeting Scientologists like he would any other constituent?

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Tom Cummins celebrates his 69th

Scientology megadonor (more than $130 million) Tom Cummins is celebrating his 69th birthday with some images on social media. There was this one with dog whisperer Cesar Millan…

The helicopter life with wife Victoria…

And with business partner Jim Bridgeforth…

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The HowdyCon agenda update!

We’re excited to announce Geoff Levin will be joining us as a speaker at this year’s HowdyCon. His documentary, Brothers Broken was recently released on all major streaming platforms and we’re looking forward to hearing from him in September.

The agenda has been updated to reflect Geoff’s addition to the line up, which you can view here.

Second release tickets will be available soon. If you missed out on the first round, make sure you join the waitlist to be first in the know.

And finally, HowdyCon 2026 is being organized in support of the Michael J. Rinder Aftermath Foundation. We’ll be holding a silent auction to raise funds and we’re looking for items Bunker readers would be willing to donate. Whether it’s an old e-meter or handmade jewellery, if you’d like to contribute send us an email.

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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

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