The Church of Scientology has responded to a fresh lawsuit filed by former member, Leah Remini, calling it “frivolous.”
Remini — who’s been an outspoken former Scientologist for years, often claiming the religious organization was a “cult” that surpassed boundaries and inflicted an abusive force over her life — filed the suit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. She even released her own Apple TV+ docu-series in 2016 titled “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath”.
In her filings, the 53-year-old actress took her allegations against the Church even further, wielding a steep lawsuit against them that alleges claims of harassment, stalking and defamation, as per a report by The Hollywood Reporter.
Remini left the organization in 2013 after joining at 9 years old with her parents in 1979.
On Thursday, the organization led by David Miscavige — who Remini named as the leading complaint of her allegations — responded to the suit, seemingly brushing off the issues addressed in the multi-claim complaint and slamming Remini as “a horrible person.”
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“This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy,” the statement reads, per Deadline. “Remini spreads hate and falsehoods for a decade and is now offended when people exercise their right to free speech, exposing her for what she is—an anti-free speech bigot.
“Remini’s complaints are like an anti-Semite complaining about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for exposing the anti-Semite’s bigotry and propaganda,” the lengthy statement continued. “Remini’s obsession with attacking her former religion, by spreading falsehoods and hate speech, has generated threats of and actual violence against the Church and its members as evidenced by multiple criminal convictions of individuals poisoned by Remini’s propaganda.
“All the while, Remini has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television,” the church — who often gets defensive in public stances taken against its attackers — claimed, adding: “Now that Remini’s propaganda has been exposed, Remini has spun entirely out of control by filing a frivolous lawsuit attempting to stop free speech exposing her false propaganda. Remini’s decade of harassment and fabrications are all coming back to haunt her.
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“If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself,” the church wrote. “Obviously everybody in Hollywood now knows what we already knew: That Remini is a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her.”
The organization further claims that, “while Remini was in the Church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits. She said so herself—that Scientology was the only thing keeping her ‘monster’ at bay.
“The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia,” the statement concluded.
Remini’s legal documents claim that the actress had been “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated and, moreover, has been the victim of malicious and fraudulent rumours” to silence her scathing public critiques of the Church.
