Leah Remini is taking her fight against the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, to the courtroom.
The “King of Queens” alum announced on Twitter Wednesday that she filed a lawsuit after 17 years of alleged “harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and defamation.”
“While advocating for victims of Scientology has significantly impacted my life and career, Scientology’s final objective of silencing me has not been achieved,” she wrote in the lengthy statement.
“While this lawsuit is about what Scientology has done to me, I am one of thousands of targets of Scientology over the past seven decades.”
The actress hosted a documentary series titled, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath,” from 2016 to 2019, in which she highlighted the stories of those who left the church and were allegedly ostracized from their loved ones and harassed by the church as a result.
She added in her tweet that people who “share what they’ve experienced in Scientology” and those who advocate for them “should be free to do so without fearing retaliation from a cult with tax exemption and billions in assets.”
Remini then noted how the press has a “right to report” about Scientology without alleged threats to their personal lives and careers, law enforcement should be able to investigate crimes in the church “without fear that they will lose their jobs” and those in entertainment should be able to “tell jokes” without the same threats.
“Children, mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles have a right to request welfare checks on their family members without fear of an operation activated against them by Scientology for doing so,” the “Kevin Can Wait” alum also said.
She concluded, “With this lawsuit, I hope to protect the rights afforded to them and me by the Constitution of the United States to speak the truth and report the facts about Scientology without fear of vicious and vindictive retribution, of which most have no way to fight back.”
According to a copy of the lawsuit, filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by Pvnew Wednesday, the Church of Scientology allegedly “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated” Remini and created “intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts that exist solely to intimidate and spread misinformation” about her.
Her family members, friends and colleagues allegedly have also been “incessantly harassed, threatened, intimidated, and embarrassed.”
Following her tweet, the Church of Scientology released a statement where they called Remini’s lawsuit “ludicrous” and her allegations “lunacy.”
They went in on the actress, claiming, “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.”
The Church claimed that Remini “attacking her former religion by spreading falsehoods and hate speech” has caused “actual violence against the Church and its members as evidenced by multiple criminal convictions.”
They further claimed that the actress “has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television” and is “attempting to stop free speech exposing her false propaganda.”
Additionally, they dubbed Remini as “horrible” and “toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her,” which they claimed has caused her to not book any more jobs in the industry.
They concluded their lengthy statement by stating that they are not “intimidated” by her “blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech.”
Pvnew exclusively reported in 2013 that Remini was leaving the church after decades of taking part in it. A source told us at the time that the TV star did not approve of policies that did not allow parishioners to question Miscavige’s management or the reported abuse of members of its Sea Org religious order.
She also disagreed with the fact that followers had to “disconnect” from family members branded as “suppressive persons” if they chose to leave the church.
Remini herself then addressed her departure, stating that same year, “I believe that people should be able to question things. I believe that people should value family, and value friendships, and hold those things sacrosanct.
“That for me, that’s what I’m about. It wouldn’t matter what it was, simply because no one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can, and cannot, talk to.”
Remini continued to be an outspoken advocate for those who left the church, like herself, in the years that followed.
She released her memoir, “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology,” in 2015 and later won an Emmy for her “Scientology and the Aftermath” series.
In 2018, Remini alleged the church was sending her death threats because they “try to destroy our lives.”
