Leah Remini mourns the estranged father who denounced her on behalf of Scientology

Last night on Instagram, Leah Remini revealed that she had received the news that George Remini, her biological father, had died in August and there had been a funeral and she was only now finding out.

If you have been following her saga and her A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath, and our coverage here, you know why Leah didn’t hear a thing about her father being sick.

After the first season of Aftermath concluded and was a huge surprise hit for the network, A&E put on a special two-hour episode to tide viewers over until it could put on a second season. That special aired on May 29, 2017. But in the hours before it appeared, a strange 18-minute video was posted to the Internet by the Church of Scientology that stunned us with its cruelty.

Scientology had convinced George Remini, 69, to denounce his own daughter.

The video was shot in an amateur style, and from an odd angle, like the person shooting it was surprised that they’d been able to get George’s permission to talk. He and his much younger wife, Dana Connaughton, 36, sat at their dining table as George talked about how rude and inconsiderate his famous daughter had been to him over the years.

 
What had convinced him to talk to Scientology? We assume there was money involved, and that became pretty obvious as he continued to make additional videos for the church’s use. But also he apparently had been unaware that two years earlier, in 2015, Leah had come out with her memoir Troublemaker and had said something revealing about him.

“My dad sold cocaine (and committed various other crimes), and then served time at Rikers Island,” she wrote about George without naming him as she tried to lay out all of the things about her and her family that Scientology might try to use against her in the church’s well-known habit of retaliating against defectors and journalists with smear campaigns.

He wasn’t happy about that, and it appears that it was Scientology’s operatives who had made him aware that he’d been mentioned in the book. The video posted by Scientology also contained a screenshot of an email that George’s former wife and Leah’s former stepmother, Donna Fiore, had written angrily chiding Leah ten days after the death of her half-sister, Stephanie.

Fiore told us she had no idea how Scientology had obtained the email, but she dismissed it as a typical family emotional outburst and nothing more. Fiore herself was hounded by Scientology to do her own video, she told us, but she refused.

The videos featuring George Remini had no effect on A&E’s airing of Leah’s show. It didn’t keep Leah from winning an Emmy for that first season of shows. And it was only one of numerous videos that Scientology posted of former friends or family members denouncing Leah, her co-star Mike Rinder, or other people who appeared on the series.

It was, in other words, entirely typical for the cruelty of the church, which continues to follow strategies written down by its founder L. Ron Hubbard in the 1950s and 1960s about how to attack its perceived enemies.

Last night, Leah and her sister Nicole revealed that they had been told on Friday about the death of their father. What Leah posted on Instagram was pure class…

On Friday, I received a message from my sister Nicole, who had been contacted by a stranger passing on his condolences for the passing of our father, George Anthony Remini. We had no idea that he had died a month ago.

We weren’t aware that he had been sick leading up to his death. A funeral came and went and none of us knew anything about it. We were not able to say goodbye. He was not able to redeem himself, to ask for forgiveness for his failures and hurts, to become a better man to those of us who couldn’t help but love him. If you read my book, you’ll know my father and I had a difficult relationship, but I always forgave him with a daughter’s painfully endless love and hope. Regardless of his neglect and abuse, I had hoped to one day have some closure. I hoped for him to acknowledge who he had been and what he had done to us as his children. That alone would have been healing in its own way. We never got that, yet, I can’t help but grieve. I am angry at myself for crying for someone who didn’t ever cry for me. I am angry that I still wanted this man’s love.

I’m angry that the last chapter in our relationship was dictated by Scientology. Scientology took my dad in as a pawn against me and likely robbed him of any last ounce of heart that might have been left in him. I’m angry that Scientology found his personal weak spots and got him on board not with their beliefs but with their smear campaign against me. That was his last presence in my life. Knowing my father, after taking the offer from Scientology to betray me, he wouldn’t have thought that he could ever come back from that in our relationship. If he thought that, though, he would have been wrong. I would have forgiven him as I always did. The little girls inside of my sisters and me will never forgive Scientology for taking away our last chance to have the one thing we always wanted from our father… And that was for him to say “I’m sorry and I loved you.”

It’s too late for George Remini to apologize. But some day, the private investigator or former-journalist-for-hire who made that video will be exposed, likely in a government action or in a lawsuit.

We ask them, why not come forward now, when you can prove your own humanity and reveal what you know about this cold-blooded operation before you are forced to in a court of law?

We’re easy to reach. Drop us a line.

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Meanwhile, in Canada…

 
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Source Code

“And by the way, anybody who had sexual relationships with a little boy ought to be killed! The idea! Horrible! Why that’s the most disgusting thought he’s ever heard. What? Sexual relationships with a little boy? Oh, no. Except in the DED you find him taking a little boy and driving the little boy up to sexual enthusiasm, up, up, up, up, up and the little boy just can’t give any more, and so forth, and on the last jolt of demand on the part of the thetan, the little boy who actually did have a thetan in him anyhow, goes PANG. And it goes straight down to 0.0. BzzzUm. And that’s why being a body is death of a body, is thetan into the body. That’s 0.0. Death of the body is being the body. And you’ll find him having his most enjoyable times thereafter as a little boy. He, he’s doing a super life continuum for this little boy. And this little boy bit the dust and was chewed up and spat out maybe 70, 60, 30 trillion years ago.” — L. Ron Hubbard, September 23, 1952

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“I found studying remote viewing and the data they discover really helps me to understand hubbards philosophy, you really understand that time and the physical universe are not what it seems.”

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology’s private cruise ship had a fitful history before becoming a floating cathedral
[TWO years ago] Director Paul Haggis pens an open letter to Marty Rathbun after Scientology’s latest smear
[THREE years ago] Beware, protesters: Scientology has been training attack dogs at a Clearwater warehouse
[FOUR years ago] We’re in Cleveland today to talk about Scientology and you’re invited
[FIVE years ago] David Miscavige, you’ve been served: Leader of Scientology will need to respond to NAFC suit
[SIX years ago] LEAH REMINI: Scientology Wants Me to Fail on Dancing With The Stars
[EIGHT years ago] The Top 25 People Crippling Scientology, No. 4: Tom Cruise

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 23, 2019 at 07:00

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