Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Scientology goes after Mike Rinder with a document he gave only to Marty Rathbun

[Former pals, Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun]

On Saturday, in anticipation of the L. Ron Hubbard birthday walking tour in Clearwater, we posted a letter from Scientology secretary Glen Stilo to show that the church was really panicking about the []

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Leah Remini podcast: Attorney Ray Jeffrey on Marty Rathbun’s betrayal

 Leah Remini and Mike Rinder have one of our favorite people on their podcast this week, Texas attorney Ray Jeffrey, who has made plenty of Scientology lawyers break out in a cold []

The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 18: Mark ‘Marty’ Rathbun

 In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, []

2017: In June, Rathbun became Scientology’s attack dog, but we got mile high in Denver

[Claire and Marc Headley at HowdyCon 2017]

To our readers from the north, Happy Boxing Day! We’re continuing to look back at 2017’s most significant stories here at the Underground Bunker and today it’s a flashback to June in our annual Scientology []

Paul Haggis: Rathbun does what I feared, and outs ex-Scientologist we vowed to keep secret

[Paul Haggis and Marty Rathbun]

We heard from a lot of readers who were impressed by the candor and class exhibited by Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis in a piece he wrote for us that we published on Saturday. []

Director Paul Haggis pens an open letter to Marty Rathbun after Scientology’s latest smear

[Paul Haggis and Leah Remini]

Yesterday, we received this remarkable piece of writing from Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis. His appearance on this week’s Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath resulted in, predictably, a full-throated attack from the Church of Scientology. But something in that attempt to smear him stunned Haggis. We’ll let him []

Ford Greene responds to Marty Rathbun, and brings up a previous Scientology secret deal

[Ford Greene]

We heard this week from Ford Greene, the California lawyer who was involved in important litigation against the Church of Scientology and who also recently appeared on a special 2-hour episode of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. He’s also the former two-time mayor of San Anselmo, []

The Rathbuns hire a lawyer, and Ray Jeffrey answers questions about his legal salvo

[San Antonio attorney Rich Reynolds]

We spoke to Ray Jeffrey yesterday about the petition he filed on July 5 along with Elliott Cappuccio and Marc Wiegand, asking the Bexar County District Court to order that their former clients, Mark “Marty” Rathbun and Monique Rathbun, sit for depositions and turn over financial records. []

RAY JEFFREY TO JUDGE: ORDER RATHBUNS TO TURN OVER FINANCIAL RECORDS AND TESTIFY

[Attorney Ray Jeffrey; Marty and Monique Rathbun]

One of our court watchers in Texas stumbled on a stunning document: On July 5, Monique Rathbun’s former attorneys filed a petition in a San Antonio court, asking for an order to compel their former clients, Monique and Mark “Marty” Rathbun, to submit to depositions and turn over detailed []

HowdyCon: Aussie journalist Steve Cannane’s response to Marty Rathbun

[Steve Cannane and your proprietor in Denver]

Saturday night in Denver, those of us who were there had the privilege of hearing London-based Australian journalist Steve Cannane address the crowd at our annual gathering, HowdyCon. He had prepared remarks for his talk, and we obtained his permission to publish those notes here on the blog today. []