On Wednesday, RedState reported on a lawsuit filed by actress Leah Remini, against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige, for what she alleges were years of harassment, stalking, surveillance, and intimidation, at the hands of the Church. At the end of that report, it was stated that as of Wednesday afternoon, there had been no comment or response from the Church regarding Remini’s lawsuit. On Thursday afternoon, the Church released a statement, and a copy of it was tweeted directly to RedState and to me. The Church calls the lawsuit “ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy” and claims that the basis for Remini’s lawsuit is that she is offended by the Church exercising their right to free speech. The statement goes on to call Remini “an anti-free-speech bigot,” and if she does not believe in free speech, she “should consider emigrating to Russia.”
The tweet came from an entity called “Hate Monitor, with the Twitter handle “@standmonitor.” The Twitter page is run by associates of the Church, and the description of the group states that they “expose discrimination and bigotry, whether by anti-religious extremists, anti-Scientologists or irresponsible media who give their hate a platform.” Any group that exposes discrimination of any kind should be applauded, and the Church of Scientology has every right to defend itself against what they feel are unfounded allegations. But there are a few questions. On the standleague.org website, the mission statement says they are dedicated to fighting all forms of religious hate – a very good thing – and “defamation and bigotry toward Scientologists and the Scientology religion” – also fine. A Values statement refers to a Scientology Code of Honor. But a quick look at the Hate Monitor Twitter page contains mostly personal attacks on Leah Remini, some other former members who have publicly criticized the Church, and journalists who have reported on the Church.
Among some of the journalists seen on the Hate Monitor page is Dominic Patten, who covers major lawsuits that take place in Hollywood for Deadline.com. He was labeled a “bigot” and an opposer of free speech. Patten reported on Leah Remini’s lawsuit. Tracey McManus is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. She covers a lot of different types of stories in the greater Clearwater, Florida, and Pinellas County area. But she focuses on the Church of Scientology because they are one of the largest and most influential property owners in the area. Hate Monitor claims that McManus “uses sources that she knows will make false claims.” Aaron Smith-Levin grew up in Scientology and talks about it on a podcast. Hate Monitor claimed that Smith-Levin “came out” as an anti-Semite. Remini appeared on that podcast and claimed that Scientology operates over 200 social media accounts.
One of the things that Remini alleges in her lawsuit is the fact that the Church has tax-exempt status and uses some of those funds to pay social media companies to “promote” Scientology posts and also to pay private investigators to follow and surveil “suppressive persons” and former Church members. Here at RedState, our only goal was to report the story that Leah Remini had filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, which is factual. Leah Ramini is a public figure, and what she does makes news.