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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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. []

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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 []

Paul Haggis: Marty Rathbun is using private info I gave him against Lawrence Wright

 In the latest video that Mark “Marty” Rathbun posted to his website as part of his general attack on Lawrence Wright and his 2013 book Going Clear, Rathbun calls Wright’s book a “phony narrative,” and accuses Wright of deceiving readers about the way that director Paul Haggis came to investigate and leave the Church of []

Understanding Marty Rathbun: For the first time, his full deposition of 2014

 On Tuesday, we examined the complete history of Mark “Marty” Rathbun’s website, “Moving On Up a Little Higher,” looking for some clues for what led the former top Church of Scientology official to go from one of church leader David Miscavige’s most vocal and effective critics to give up that role so []

Memories of a Scientology warrior: Marty Rathbun’s curious career as church rebel

 Last week, we caused a bit of an uproar in the Scientology Watching community when we reported evidence that Mark “Marty” Rathbun gave a Church of Scientology attorney in Israel a copy of an email that independent Scientologist Dani Lemberger sent to Rathbun in 2013, and which contained private information about Lemberger’s Scientology auditing. []

As Louis Theroux’s ‘My Scientology Movie’ hits U.S., troubling news of co-star Marty Rathbun

[Marty Rathbun and Louis Theroux in ‘My Scientology Movie’]

On Friday, Louis Theroux’s unconventional documentary My Scientology Movie opens in select U.S. cities after a successful run in the U.K. and Australia. The movie was largely shot in Los Angeles in 2014, and besides featuring Theroux himself it spends much of its time considering the veracity []

The most incredible lie Scientology attorney Monique Yingling told ABC ’20/20′

 Jeffrey Augustine is back with another investigation of Scientology’s essential []

Marty Rathbun defends Scientology leader David Miscavige as he trashes tell-all memoir ‘Ruthless’

 Late last night, Marty Rathbun posted at his blog a lengthy broadside criticizing Ron Miscavige’s memoir, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and []

A STAR IS BORN: Scientology attorney Monique Yingling steals the spotlight on ’20/20′

 ——————–

 That was some episode of 20/20 last night, wasn’t it? We had a great time reading back the live-blogging our commenters engaged in last night. And we noticed that the break-out star of the program was Scientology attorney Monique Yingling. You loved her! []

VIDEO LEAK: See former Scientology official Marty Rathbun interrogated under oath

We’ve got another explosive story for you today here at the Underground Bunker. It’s the first portion of a videotaped deposition former Church of Scientology executive Mark “Marty” Rathbun sat for last month in a federal fraud lawsuit against the church.

Rathbun spent 27 years in Scientology and was its “inspector general for ethics,” the second-highest []