Mike Rinder: Vicious Wife Beater Who Peddles Hate on A&E

Like his BFF Leah Remini, wife beater Mike Rinder has been after the money in the aftermath. Nearly a decade ago, the Church expelled him for gross malfeasance and has had nothing to do with him since. Good riddance.

Since then he can’t find a decent steady job, let alone one that had the stature he enjoyed with the Church. He’s sold used cars and worked in telemarketing.

Unable to move on with his life and still seething that he was expelled, Rinder now spends day and night obsessively lurking on the fringe of the Internet trying to make a buck spreading hate toward his former faith and helping contingency fee lawyers trying to score a jackpot suing the Church. It’s the deadbeat’s full-time job.

This is the same Rinder who is such a tainted source that he once admitted under oath to being paid $175 an hour by plaintiffs’ attorneys to assist them in filing frivolous and harassing lawsuits against the Church. In one case, attorneys adverse to the Church paid Rinder more than $22,000. Rinder’s help proved to be a waste of money when their baseless case went down in flames in court.

Father From Hell, Ultimate Disconnector

But what really screams hypocrisy is that Remini is holding Rinder out as sanctimonious pontificator about good family relationships, estrangement and disconnection. That’s because Mike Rinder is the true father from hell, the ultimate disconnector who by his own choice blew up his own family.

Said Rinder’s daughter Taryn, now grown: “My whole life I actually thought my father hated me. I was constantly trying to figure out what I was doing wrong or was there something wrong with me, because he wouldn’t see me.”

Rinder’s lengthy list of family members he chose to disconnect from include a son, a daughter, a former wife, a brother and even his late mother in the years before she died.

Revealing his true character, Rinder did not even attend his mother’s funeral and was nowhere to be found when his son was battling life-threatening cancer. Instead, he was busy fathering a child with another woman young enough to be his daughter.

Of course, that was when he wasn’t busy viciously attacking his former wife, permanently injuring her arm in a violent incident on a public street to the point where she may never regain full use of it. On top of that, he nearly broke his brother’s finger during the same crazed outburst.

Now Rinder is bosom on-camera buddies with reality TV actress Remini, positioning himself as a shoulder to cry on for families, when the truth is he has always been a failed, deadbeat dad to his own family.

A Man Who Loves to Abuse Women

Documentary evidence supports that Rinder abused his family, his former wife and even his co-workers—men and women:

• When Rinder’s ex-wife went to see him to inform him that one of their children had been stricken with cancer, he physically attacked her. Ms. Bernardini underwent surgery for nerve damage, and to this day experiences pain and has not regained full use of her arm and shoulder, as reflected in the EMT report and doctor’s reports on Ms. Bernardini’s injuries. Rinder has repeatedly ignored this documentary evidence of wife abuse, causing Ms. Bernardini to obtain current medical records from her attending physician and physical therapist.
• Internal reports support that Rinder has abused several other women, including hitting one with a clipboard, breaking her tooth, and pushing another female he worked with under his desk. He was disciplined for his actions and dismissed, and eventually expelled for his unethical behavior.
• Rinder has harassed Church parishioners by storming into a Church in London and taking pictures and video footage while religious services were taking place. He has made similar appearances at other Scientology Churches.
• Rinder and several cohorts went to a Church facility in Florida and attempted to storm their way into the lobby, conveniently accompanied by a camera crew. When they ignored requests to leave, police issued a formal trespass citation. Rinder admitted he staged this incident for a UK media organization so the Church “can stop saying I don’t want to see my kid, because now I’ve proven you won’t let me see my kid!” (That is exactly why his son did not want to see him, as this wasn’t the act of a father, but of an opportunist.)
• In July 2010, Rinder tried to gain similar unauthorized entry to a Church in Australia, attempting to force his way inside, with cameras rolling. During this trip, which was paid for by Channel 7 TV Australia, Rinder also trespassed on the assisted-living facility of his own mother, a Founding Scientologist in Australia. His mother was away at the time and extremely upset about her estranged son’s actions. She was equally upset by his attacks on her faith.

“I have had a totally criminal moral code”

Rinder’s history in the Church is as an abject failure who slept through meetings and who lied every chance he got. He suborned perjury in an important Church legal case. That led to his removal from any position of responsibility and his ultimately being kicked out of the Church.

The truth about Mike Rinder is nothing like the sanitized version Leah Remini presents for reality TV viewers. The real Mike Rinder is a former external affairs staffer whose malfeasance and chronic lying caused the Church numerous problems that took years and millions of dollars to correct. Ultimately, the intervention of the ecclesiastical leader was needed to clean up Rinder’s final and greatest mess, resulting in his removal in disgrace.

It’s all in his own words. In a moment of candor, after his removal and before his ultimate dismissal from the Church, Rinder wrote about his performance and lack of truthfulness:

Bottom line is that I have had a totally criminal moral code and operated with a totally criminal mind attitude that I have not fully confronted (even down to lying about lying and doing illegal things).

With the justifications I have had in place, telling the truth under certain circumstances was in my universe no different than telling a lie or withholding.

Rinder’s description of “lying… and doing illegal things” barely scratches the surface. Along with two others, he secretly conspired to suborn perjury, which was finally revealed when it was reported by a newspaper in 2009 after the statute of limitations had run. His suborning of perjury in turn triggered a criminal investigation and a civil case in which the leader of the Church became the target. The Church was ultimately vindicated and the criminal case dismissed, but the civil case carried on for years thanks to the irresponsible and illegal actions of Mike Rinder and his co-conspirators.

Don’t take our word for these facts. Mike Rinder himself wrote in late 2003 in a report entitled “My Honesty” that it was his dishonesty and misconduct toward the leader of the Church that led to his own downfall:

Many times I’ve looked at the overts [Scientology terminology for transgressions] I’ve committed when I have lied to you, and I’ve always had the idea that it was bad because it had caused upset—but not really confronted it as a basic violation of integrity, and therefore something far more fundamental and degraded—it is a reflection of my cowardice and lack of integrity that I would do this and it’s just black and white wrong … especially under the circumstances of being in the midst of a war, it’s suppressive. I don’t mean it’s OK at any time, it’s not—but the times I have done this with you have been when my ‘neck’ has been so precious to me that I have been willing to put you and the Church in danger because of it. (Mike Rinder 2003 report, “My Honesty”)

Professional Anti-Scientologist

Rinder’s claims of leaving the Church over alleged mistreatment are a smokescreen to cover up the real reason he is no longer a Scientologist. His is a concocted story “corroborated” by a handful of bitter ex-Scientologists with whom he now associates. Rinder claims to have “escaped” from the Church to avoid “abuse” and says he was being held against his will. The clear evidence this is a lie is that Rinder left the Church from London in 2007 where he had been for months working on an assignment, coming and going as he pleased on a daily basis. Rinder left when his request to transfer back to Los Angeles was denied; he knew he would never again rise to the position he once held.

Financial motives are the key to understanding why Rinder says what he does. In addition to being paid thousands of dollars a year by attorneys adverse to the Church, Rinder revealed in deposition that he had plotted with others to launch a “class action” lawsuit against the Church.

Rinder knows well the modus operandi of professional anti-Scientologists and seeks to profit from these despicable tactics. It starts with an orchestrated media attack involving the most heinous and outrageous allegations, “corroborated” by others who are part of the same group and willing to lie on command. Back in 1998 while serving as a Church spokesman, Rinder correctly summed it up to ABC’s 20/20: “They [anti-Scientologists] sat in a room, they figured out what they were going to say, they wrote their bits, they passed them around, they made sure they were consistent. And yes, they were paid for that.”

Earlier, in 1994, Rinder authored a declaration under penalty of perjury describing the conduct of a group of anti-Scientologists, which describes his current conduct:

These people have gathered around them a few others who are bitter and harbor an unabiding resentment of Scientology and what it stands for and for their own failures in the Church. They view the Church as their ‘lottery ticket’ and pursue their jackpot with lies and threats at the expense of the millions of happy and satisfied members who support the Church with their time and donations… Though they either do not know David Miscavige, or had some remote contact with him many years ago, they are willing to make vindictive allegations, not based on personal knowledge or the truth, and defame him personally and as the leader of the religion. The tactic is as transparent as it is unconscionable—spread venom in the hope that the victims of the hate campaign will eventually be forced to buy their silence so the Church can get on with its real purpose of expanding the Scientology religion and helping more people. (Mike Rinder Declaration of April 11, 1994)

Rinder Tells a Different Tale Under Oath

Rinder told a different tale in a deposition of January 6, 2015, than the kind of story he usually spread. He admitted to the truthfulness of declarations he made supporting the Church and its leader while he was in the Church:

Q. In paragraph 23 you go on to say: “As I work with him often, know many of the people that know him, I’m aware of the high regard in which he,” meaning Mr. Miscavige, “is held by Scientologists and those he comes in contact with. I’ve never heard a negative statement made about him by anyone, other than those who seek to extort money from the Church. It really is simple.” That was a true statement, wasn’t it, sir?

A. Yes, absolutely. …

Q. And so you were testifying truthfully about your feelings for Mr. Miscavige and the admiration which he [enjoyed] among the parishioners of the Church, is that fair?

A. Absolutely. …

Q. “It is because he has demonstrated time and time again his integrity and selfless willingness to serve for the good of others that he enjoys the support of the staff and parishioners of the Scientology religion.” That’s true, isn’t it?

A. Oh, absolutely.

Rinder further testified in this deposition that during his tenure in the Church he was familiar with litigation brought by plaintiffs with meritless causes, and that those individuals were “getting together and making false accusations against the Church and corroborating one another.” In doing so, Rinder perfectly described what he does now.

Here is what Rinder swore to in 1994, which he recently testified under oath remains truthful:

While these so-called experts have no personal knowledge concerning David Miscavige, I do. I have known and worked with him since 1976.

The sheer volume of despicable allegations made about him are intended to create the false impression that where there is smoke there is fire. These ‘witnesses’ know only too well from their experience in the Church that the tactic of telling bigger and bolder lies has been a strategy employed against the Church in litigation for years. Tell enough lies, and make enough allegations, and an impression will be created which accomplishes the end of destroying a reputation no matter how untrue the allegations are. Public figures are especially susceptible to this fraud as any study of history shows. Jesus Christ was crucified based on the false accusations of Judas Iscariot and the prejudice of the Romans.

I know David Miscavige personally. As such I know him to be completely honest, and sincerely dedicated to helping people. For what he has done to expand our religion, he has the respect and admiration of millions of Scientologists. And for this same reason, he has earned the enmity and particular scorn of those with a vendetta against Scientology.

In the last decade, he has personally done more to ensure Scientology is standardly applied and made more widely known and available than any other single individual. After L. Ron Hubbard, the Founder of Scientology, passed away in 1986, the religion entered a new phase. While there will never be another L. Ron Hubbard, his death marked a time of potential disruption and upheaval, and Mr. Miscavige shouldered the responsibility for not only keeping the Scriptures pure, but for guiding our religion into a time of great stability and rapid growth. He never sought personal power or aggrandizement; he was thrust into the position he currently holds precisely because he is so dedicated to helping others through our religion. It is because he has demonstrated time and time again his integrity and selfless willingness to serve for the good of others that he enjoys the support of the staff and parishioners of the Scientology religion. (Mike Rinder Declaration of April 11, 1994)

This is Leah Remini’s new best buddy, Mike Rinder. He now emulates the very people he once criticized who smear the Church and its leader in the press, instigate frivolous lawsuits with the end goal of achieving financial gain, all the while breaching the waivers and covenants that he signed. But worst of all is the betrayal to his own family and children whom he deserted and now spends his time harassing and attempting to make their and their mother’s lives miserable.

Mike Rinder is a bitter man who spews religious hatred about his own family’s religion on a cheap reality TV show for an actress past her prime time, to make the only money he can. That’s how low the two of them have sunk.