Leah Remini has been branded a "bigot" and a "horrible person" by the Church of Scientology.
The 'King of Queens' actress filed a lawsuit against the organisation and leader David Miscavige earlier this week, in which she accused them of subjecting her to 17 years of
“harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and defamation” , and the church has now hit back at the 53-year-old star, branding her claims "ludicrous".
They said in a statement: "This lawsuit is ludicrous and the allegations pure lunacy. 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.
"Remini’s complaints are like an anti-Semite complaining about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for exposing the anti-Semite’s bigotry and propaganda."
Leah quit the church in 2013 and has campaigned against the controversial religion since, and the organisation accused her of causing "threats of and actual violence" towards members, as well as circulating "false propaganda".
The statement continued: "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.
"All the while, Remini has profited handsomely from her fabrications, through the sale of hate books, hate podcasts and paid-for tabloid hate television.
"Now that Remini’s propaganda has been exposed, Remini has spun entirely out of control by filing a frivolous lawsuit attempting to stop free speech exposing her false propaganda. Remini’s decade of harassment and fabrications are all coming back to haunt her.
"If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself. Obviously everybody in Hollywood now knows what we already knew: That Remini is a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her.
"While Remini was in the Church, she had to restrain her antisocial traits. She said so herself—that Scientology was the only thing keeping her “monster” at bay.
"The Church is not intimidated by Remini’s latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia."
The lawsuit alleges the Church of Scientology “stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated” Leah and allegedly and created “intentional malicious and fraudulent rumours” about her “via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and -coordinated social media accounts” that she said existed “solely to intimidate and spread misinformation”.
The former 'Talk' host added her family members, friends and colleagues allegedly have also been “incessantly harassed, threatened, intimidated, and embarrassed”.
In 2018, the actress alleged the church was sending her death threats because they “try to destroy our lives”.
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