Prominent Scientology whistleblower Mike Rinder told a New York jury Friday how the Million Dollar Baby writer emerged as one of the Church of Scientology’s top-three public enemies following his public defection in 2009.
Rinder testified Friday at the trial of director Paul Haggis, who’s on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a publicist in 2013.
The Crash writer—and fellow former Scientologist—who’s accused of raping and forcing oral sex on ex-publicist Haleigh Breest at his New York SoHo loft following a movie premiere in 2013, has long-accused the church of fabricating the accusations in retaliation for publicly renouncing the controversial religion in 2009.
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Rinder, 67, took the stand inside a New York State Supreme Court shortly before 4 p.m. Friday and fielded a variety of questions from Haggis’ legal team about his immersion into—and “escape”—from Scientology, as well as a range of controversial practices the church allegedly employs.
Rinder, who became a Scientologist at the age of 5, and was a church member for 35 years, served as one of the top lieutenants to church leader David Miscavige, until his public exit in 2007. He served as Scientology’s international spokesperson, head of its Office of Special Affairs, and sat on the Board of Directors of Church of Scientology International from its inception in 1983 until his departure in 2007. Rinder has since gone on to partner with fellow former Scientologist Leah Remini on the Emmy-winning A&E series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. The pair are currently co-producing the podcast Scientology: Fair Game.
Haggis’ counsel questioned Rinder about various Scientology policies, including “disconnection,” “auditing,” “suppressive persons,” “plants” and “Fair Game”—the doctrine conceived by Scientology founder and science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, which dictates members retaliate by whatever means necessary against enemies or critics of the church.
“Who would the Fair Game tactics be aimed at?” Haggis’ lawyer, Seth Zuckerman asked.
“Anyone that was perceived as an enemy. In Scientology—the Scientology world—an enemy is someone who is doing insane things that Scientology believes hinders their ability to save all of mankind. So that could be someone who leaves and speaks to the media, it could be a reporter, it could be the IRS, there was a lot of enemies in Scientology,” Rinder said.
“In terms of suppressive persons, does Scientology have a list or ranking of its biggest enemies?” Zuckerman asked Rinder.
“Informally,” Rinder stated.
“And the informal enemies that you’re aware of, where do you [stand]?”
“Number one or number two,” Rinder said.
“Who else is in the top-three?” Zuckerman followed up?
“Leah Remini and Paul Haggis,” Rinder stated.
Rinder, testified he was involved with “hundreds” of Fair Game missions, in which he along with other clergy members stalked, harassed, and intimidated “suppressive persons” and other enemies of the church.
“It is a policy that was written by L. Ron Hubbard in the mid-sixties regarding the enemies of Scientology where he said they may be injured, have their property taken, lied, tricked, sued with no penalty for any Scientologist that engaged in those things.”
Mike Rinder, right, is seen leaving court with Paul Haggis, center.
Dorian GeigerRinder also described on the witness stand how his entire family “disconnected” from him after he left the church roughly 15 years ago.
“It’s called disconnection,” Rinder explained. “My wife and children, my mother, my brother, my sister—everybody that I’d ever known, I became dead to them.”
Rinder testified he routinely used “plants,” or spies to influence and manipulate the church’s critics—while simultaneously divulging how he, too, was routinely spied on, slandered and physically attacked by clergy members after leaving the religion.
Following a 2007 incident, where seven Scientology members allegedly attacked him in a parking lot, Rinder told the court that the church concocted an organized campaign to smear him as a “wife beater.” Rinder said the church also ordered his daughter, who is still a Scientologist, to speak out about her father at #MeToo protests.
“We’re liars, we’re thieves, we’re criminals, we’re wife beaters, whatever,” Rinder said.
Rinder testified that he knew Haggis as a celebrity figure inside the Church who had achieved OT VII—or Operating Thetan—status, the highest tier possible within the religion, noting the Church’s obsession with recruiting Hollywood stars.
“[Haggis] was a celebrity,” Rinder said. “Celebrities have great status within Scientology, they are treated as important people to get—[and] gain credibility—for Scientology, to get new people to be attracted to it and come in.”
Paul Haggis, who won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for the movie Crash.
Toni Anne Barson ArchiveRinder, who said he considers Haggis a friend, also recalled the moment he learned the Canadian screenwriter publicly split with the church in 2009.
“I was pleased that he had seen the light as I had seen the light and I was also particularly pleased that he had the courage of his convictions and that he spoke up about it,” Rinder said.
Two years later, Rinder said he felt “very happy” after reading The New Yorker’s groundbreaking 2011 expose, “The Apostate,” by Lawrence Wright, which dived into the Canadian screenwriter’s departure from the church.
“I was very happy that the bigger picture and the bigger story that Paul was seeking to tell had been told by Larry Wright,” Rinder told the jury. “That was a first. It was the most in-depth, extensive interview-driven article that had ever been.”
Haggis’ lawyers also showed the jury portions of The New Yorker article, in which Haggis predicted the church would somehow seek revenge against him, apparently suggesting Breest’s accusations were a manifestation of speculation.
“These people have long memories,” Haggis told Wright in 2011. “My bet is that, within two years, you’re going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.”
Karin Pouw, a spokesperson for the Church of Scientology, slammed Rinder after his testimony, telling The Daily Beast he was a “liar.”
“For the past 15 years, Rinder has distorted and manipulated the truth for anyone willing to pay him. He supports himself by orchestrating the harassment of his former church and its members through false police reports, incendiary propaganda and fraudulent testimony and media stories contradicted by facts, public documents and his own past statements. As to Haggis, he has been penning false stories about the church for a decade in an effort to cover up whatever bad deeds he is engaged in, and today flew in Mike Rinder, an inveterate liar and paid witness, to be his co-conspirator,” Pouw said.
Rinder declined to comment on the case as he left court Friday afternoon.
“No, I’m not going to make any comments, sorry buddy,” Rinder told The Daily Beast before getting into an elevator.
Rinder and Remini previously spoke out in defense of Haggis.
“We expect the next ‘revelations’ about Paul Haggis in this campaign to destroy him to be based on information culled from his Scientology files in the form of more ‘anonymous’ accusers, hiding behind a lawyer who will never have to disclose who is paying their bill,” they said in a statement.
Remini, along with actress Susan Sarandon, are also rumored to possibly testify at trial. Haggis is expected to take the stand next week, his lawyers said.
In September, Hon. Judge Sabrina Kraus ruled Haggis could argue that the Church of Scientology was behind the case. Haggis’ attorneys have argued the Church manufactured the allegations—and was bankrolling—the case against him.
During her opening statements last week, Priya Chaudhry, another attorney representing Haggis, described the Church of Scientology as a “world-famous criminal organization.”
“We don’t have to affirmatively prove that Scientology is behind this because we don’t have the burden of proof here,” Chaudhry told the jury last week. “But as you will see, the circumstantial evidence of Scientology’s involvement here will be powerful.”
Haggis has long-maintained the incident involving Breest was consensual.
Breest’s lawyers, meanwhile, who assert that Haggis forced Breest to perform oral sex on him before raping her in 2013, honed in on Rinder’s assertion in court that he “knows nothing,” of the incident, painting him as an unreliable witness who spent decades lying on behalf of the Church of Scientology.
“Have you ever asked [Haggis] what happened that night?” Ilann Maazel, Breest’s lawyer, asked Rinder during cross-examination.
“No,” Rinder replied.
Breest’s team have characterized Haggis’ legal strategy involving Scientology as “nonsense.”
“[It’s] pathetic, absurd, ridiculous, embarrassing,” Breest’s attorney Ilann Maazel told The Daily Beast outside court on Friday afternoon. “This entire Scientology idea is an effort to distract the jury from the actual case, the actual evidence. This is not a case about Scientology. This is a case about what Paul Haggis did to Haleigh Breest.”
The Church of Scientology has also denied accusations regarding their involvement in the case.
“The Church has nothing to do with the claims against Haggis nor does it have any relation to the attorneys behind the case of the accusers,” Karin Pouw, a spokesperson for the Church, told The Daily Beast in a statement. “The Church has nothing to do with the claims against Haggis nor does it have any relation to his accusers.”
Trial proceedings are expected to resume Monday morning.
