Paul Haggis’ Protection Workforce Calls ‘Scientology And The Aftermath’ Co-Host As First Witness – Deadline

A former high-ranking official within the Church of Scientology mentioned Friday that the group by no means forgets its enemies “till they’re destroyed,” and he mentioned that filmmaker Paul Haggis, who stop Scientology, stays certainly one of its largest targets. 

Mike Rinder, an Australian who was Scientology’s prime enforcer and who co-hosted the Emmy-winning docuseries Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, was was the primary witness for the protection within the New York sexual civil assault trial of Haggis.  

The Oscar-winning screenwriter of Crash and a significant determine in a 2015 documentary exposé about Scientology, Going Clear, Haggis is being sued by Haleigh Breest, a publicist in New York who claims that he raped her in his Soho condominium in 2013. Haggis says the intercourse was consensual and, on the trial’s eighth day, his protection started with a typically chaotic flip within the witness field for a fellow ex-Scientologist, Rinder, who mentioned the 2 males are mates.

Rinder informed jurors that he “escaped” Scientology in 2007 after greater than 40 years in its ranks, and chunks of his testimony have been shot down as rumour as a result of, because the decide, Sabrina Kraus, famous, “The witness has testified he was not affiliated with the church” after 2007. 

However over quite a few objections from a lawyer for Breest, Rinder was allowed to implicitly join Haggis’ exit from Scientology to the a number of sexual assault allegations in opposition to Haggis being aired on this trial. 4 ladies from Canada who labored in movie and tv have testified alongside Breest that they, too, have been assaulted by Haggis in separate incidents between 1996 and 2015. 

Rinder mentioned that when he ran the group’s so-called Workplace of Particular Affairs, its function was to silence critics and opponents — or “suppressive individuals,” in Scientology jargon — by way of blackmail and reputational or monetary sabotage whereas leaving not one of the group’s fingerprints on these operations. “The covert intelligence operations, Scientology won’t ever admit to,” Rinder mentioned, indicating these operations proceed at the moment. 

Haggis himself mentioned in a 2011 New Yorker article that impressed the documentary, “These individuals have lengthy recollections. My wager is that inside two years you’re going to learn one thing about me in a scandal that appears prefer it has nothing to do with the church.” That excerpt was learn aloud in courtroom Friday regardless of an objection from Breest’s legal professionals that noticed each authorized groups exit the courtroom with Choose Kraus for a bench convention. 

Rinder mentioned his proof that Breest’s lawsuit may be linked to Scientology is a documentary mentioning the case that was within the works for an Australian tv outlet.

“And Scientology bought that present spiked,” Rinder informed a lawyer for Haggis, Seth Zuckerman. 

A Breest lawyer, Ilann Maazel, pressed Rinder to confess he has no actual proof of his former group deploying an operation in opposition to Haggis. However the alternate was repeatedly lower brief by objections from Zuckerman. 

“You might have completely no thought what Mr. Haggis did to these 5 ladies,” Maazel mentioned, his voice rising. Noting that the 2 are mates, Maazel mentioned, “Have you ever ever requested him what occurred that night time?” which means the night time Breest was in Haggis’ condominium. Rinder mentioned he hadn’t. 

Rinder additionally denied, after which admitted, that he had written an e-mail to the Haggis camp saying, “I hope his legal professionals and PIs pull the strings on any of the ladies’s causes for talking out.”

On pleasant redirect, Rinder mentioned if there have been an operation in opposition to a “suppressive” like Haggis, Scientology is so good at overlaying its tracks by utilizing layers of “lower outs” that “no person would have any data of that” — basically arguing {that a} lack of seen proof for such an operation was proof it could possibly be occurring. 

A day that opened with each events agreeing Breest is just not a Scientologist ended with hints of a hidden Scientology conspiracy. 

“I feel we’re performed for this week,” Choose Kraus informed jurors with a nervous snort. 

Earlier than then, Zuckerman ended his cross-examination of Breest’s knowledgeable psychologist, Lisa Rocchio, by asking if Rocchio’s charges may be paid by “a 3rd social gathering” — prompting a lawyer for Breest, Zoe Salzman, to shake her head. 

Breest’s legal professionals have criticized the Haggis workforce for suggesting Scientology has any function within the litigation. Exterior the courtroom, Salzman and Maazel each mentioned neither they nor their agency has any connection to Scientology and has by no means obtained a dime from the group.

“The entire Scientology protection is embarrassing,” Maazel mentioned. “It’s absurd.” He mentioned the protection’s solely motive for introducing it’s to “distract” from his shopper’s case. 

The trial resumes Monday and Haggis himself might testify as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.