Only a few days before Danny Masterson’s pre-sentencing hearing, Remini started the legal action. Danny Masterson is a well-known Church member and convicted rapist. “For 17 years, Scientology and David Miscavige have subjected me to psychological torture, defamation, surveillance, harassment, and intimidation, severely affecting my life and career,” she said bluntly in her Instagram message. Though I don’t think I’m the first person Scientology and its practices have targeted, I do want to be the last.
Remini’s lengthy 60-page dossier claims that after she formally left the Church of Scientology in 2013, the organization has actively pursued her and violated her privacy. Unexpectedly, organized campaigns against her started in 2006, even before she left the group.
The Office of Special Affairs (OSA) of the Church of Scientology, which is in charge of keeping an eye on both Scientologists and those deemed to be opponents of the faith, is expressly mentioned in the case. The creator of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, is credited with developing this strategy, which is referred to as a “series of directives.”
Remini says that OSA and its agents have been after her nonpublic departure from the Church. Their intention was to ruin her utterly, to silence her completely and destroy her reputation. According to the lawsuit, hundreds of social media profiles under the direction of Scientology—a group whose main goal is to intimidate and disseminate false information—were used to disseminate nasty and fraudulent rumors against Remini. Remarkably, Scientology even used tax-exempt monies to pay social media sites like Twitter to promote these messages.
There was more persecution to come. The lawsuit goes on to detail the persistent harassment and targeting of Remini’s friends, family, coworkers, and business acquaintances by the Church of Scientology. She has lost company contracts, personal relationships, and other profitable chances as a result of this unrelenting intervention.
The lawsuit mentions the Twitter account @standmonitor, which has posted hundreds of derogatory and threatening messages about Remini, as one particularly unsettling example. They targeted Remini with over 247 tweets in March 2023 alone, some of which included manipulated photographs and fictitious comments implying that Remini is in favor of rapists. These erroneous accusations were also amplified with the usage of the hashtag #ReminiLovesRapists.
To allay her uncertainties regarding Shelly Miscavige’s location during Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ nuptials, Remini was told to go to the FLAG Land Base facility located in Clearwater, Florida. As a Scientologist, she referred to the “ethics cycle” she endured there as one of her greatest nightmares.
Remini received a lot of internal reports regarding her behavior during the wedding from other Scientologists during this procedure. She realized she was being punished for her reporting on David Miscavige and other people, as well as her investigations into Shelly Miscavige. For four months, Remini was detained at the FLAG base and subjected to an expensive and emotionally draining operation that almost drove her to her breaking point.
In the end, she gave in to pressure and recanted her statements. She was even made to tell lies to her loved ones when she got back to Los Angeles about what had happened in Florida.
Remini filed this action in an effort to uphold the rights guaranteed by the US Constitution to both herself and other people. She aims to report the facts about Scientology and speak the truth without worrying about retaliatory actions. Please help us spread the news if you stand with Leah Remini and other ex-members of the Church of Scientology.
