Leah Remini files lawsuit against Church of Scientology after 'years of harassment'

Leah Remini is taking legal action against the Church of Scientology.

On Wednesday, Remini revealed on X (formerly known as Twitter) that she filed a lawsuit against the church and its current leader, David Miscavige, following "17 years of 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," Remini wrote. "While this lawsuit is about what Scientology has done to me, I am one of (the) thousands of targets of Scientology over the past seven decades."

Remini’s complaint, filed in the California Superior Court on Wednesday, alleges the actress has been the subject of the church's decade-long campaign "to ruin and destroy (her) life and livelihood," including the spread of "intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts."

"People who share what they've experienced in Scientology, and those who tell their stories and advocate for them, should be free to do so without fearing retaliation from a cult with tax exemption and billions in assets," Remini, who is suing the church on charges such as civil harassment, stalking and intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrote on X.

USA TODAY has reached out to Remini's representatives for further comment.

"This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy," the Church of Scientology responded in a statement shared with USA TODAY Thursday. "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 continued by saying that "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."

Based on the writings of author L. Ron Hubbard in "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," Scientology is a religion that focuses on bettering one's spirit "not the mind or body —and believes that Man is far more than a product of his environment, or his genes," according to its official website. Through processes called "auditing" and "training," a Scientologist can gain better spiritual awareness outside of their body, the religion states.

Remini was a member of the church for 35 years before leaving in 2013. Since her departure, Remini has become one of Scientology’s foremost detractors, authoring a book and hosting a documentary series.

In the lawsuit, Remini alleges that while she was in New York promoting her memoir "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology" in 2015 she was followed by private investigators hired by the church, which caused her to "fear for her physical safety" and hire private bodyguards.

The Church of Scientology claimed in its statement that "Remini has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television," and called the lawsuit a "frivolous" attempt "to stop free speech" after a "decade of harassment and fabrications."

"If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself," the church said in its statement, calling her "toxic."

"The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech," the statement concluded. "If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia."

The religion has garnered many celebrity figures over the years such as Remini, Tom Cruise, Danny Masterson, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Remini and Masterson's former "That '70s Show" co-star Laura Prepon are among the few famous people who have left the religion.

In 2015, "The King of Queens" alum said in an interview that Cruise was one of the factors that led her to leave − because the actor is so tethered to the church, they view an attack on him as an attack on all of them. "He is very aware of the abuses that go on in Scientology," Remini told The Daily Beast in 2018. "He's been part of it."

While attending Cruise's wedding to ex-wife Katie Holmes in 2006, Remini alleges in her complaint that she filed internal reports about "unethical" behavior she witnessed among Scientology executives at Cruise's nuptials. The actress claims she was later ordered to go to the Flag Land Base building, the church's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, for a four-month stay in which she underwent the "Truth Rundown," a church-imposed psychological process that "nearly led (Remini) to have a psychotic breakdown."

In the conclusion of her X post, Remini said people in the entertainment industry "have a right to tell jokes and stories" about their experiences with Scientology "without facing an operation from Scientology, which uses its resources in Hollywood to destroy their lives and careers."

"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," Remini wrote.

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Contributing: Staff and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Leah Remini lawsuit: Actress sues Church of Scientology