Protecting Predators: Leah Remini’s Unconscionable Defense of Rapist Paul Haggis

Leah Remini continues to show no hesitation in standing by disgraced filmmaker Paul Haggis—even after he was found liable in a high-profile rape trial that justifiably decimated his reputation, career and finances.

Before his self-inflicted crash and burn, Haggis was known for films such as Million Dollar Baby and Crash. Today, however, he is infamously remembered as a sexual predator, rapist, liar—and Hollywood pariah.

Or as Haggis confessed in a prescient moment: “I am a selfish prick…a very disturbed human being.”

So, how can anyone forget when Remini, in January 2018, leaped to Haggis’s defense with a highly publicized open letter that ran in The Hollywood Reporter and elsewhere, coauthored by her TV cohost Mike Rinder (another woman abuser who permanently disabled his first wife), lauding Haggis as “a gentleman,” a “humanitarian” and a “good man.”

If the ensuing seven years have taught Remini anything, it should be an awareness that one needs to learn from one’s mistakes. Yet, to this day, she refuses to withdraw her defense of Haggis.

Haggis’s Real Story

What is there to defend in Haggis’s case? It is a black and white tale of dissolution, dishonesty and depravity—a predator exposed, caught and punished.

In fact, it is a tale that began decades ago, long before Haggis came into Scientology. When he did join the Church, he did so with a predictably Haggis deception.

“Paul was never a Scientologist,” said Kathy Haggis, Paul’s sister. “As I said, he just hung around the fringes in order to be able to take advantage of the celebrities who are part of Scientology, the real celebrities, get to know them and advance his career.”

Haggis continued to play both sides—cultivating associations in the Church to gain influence in Hollywood and advance his career while flouting the ethical standards, such as marital fidelity, expected in the Church. His ex-wife testified at his rape trial that he was unfaithful and had more than 20 affairs during their marriage.

Although while in the Church he was given assistance and support to help improve his conduct and ethical choices—it was all to no avail. In the end, Haggis rejected the help and walked away.

August 2009: The Departure Publicity Stunt – Haggis’s Big Lie

In 2009, Haggis orchestrated his departure from the Church as a media event, calculated to generate headlines and forward his narrative.

It included a fictionalized plot that the Church supported California’s Proposition 8, which sought to make same-sex marriage illegal. This was a bald-faced lie: the Church—because of its status as a tax-exempt religious and charitable entity—is barred from taking any political positions. And as a prominent advocate of human rights, the Church does not discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Haggis knew all that, yet carefully crafted this narrative to make him appear to be a principled gay rights defender acting in support of his two gay daughters.

Haggis insisted the Church make an exception just for him and publicly support Proposition 8. He used its inevitable refusal to do so as a premise for his resignation letter from Scientology in August 2009, which was predictably “leaked” to the media.

The deception was exposed by Mark “Marty” Rathbun, who at the time was Haggis’s former “guru.” Himself an anti-Scientologist, expelled years ago, Rathbun admitted that he had engineered Haggis’s departure story from the Church.

“Paul Haggis consulted with me every step of the way, on how he should position this and how he should do this,” said Rathbun. “He rode this sort of pro-gay rights wave as a PR vehicle…to paint himself as heroic…And it was critical…to the whole false narrative.”

“Paul Haggis is lying through his teeth,” Rathbun concluded.

It took Haggis a while to contrive the details of his “departure from Scientology” narrative, but it was important to him to make it convincing. It was to be the career springboard designed to pump life into his sagging prospects.

(Not surprisingly, Leah Remini, before she left the Church, was the only member to congratulate Haggis on his betrayal of friends and family. Haggis would later repay her the favor with a fawning letter of support when Remini contrived her own PR stunt of a departure.)

The fiction continued when Haggis was featured as an anti-Scientology poster boy in a 2011 article published by The New Yorker.

As his sister Cathy later remarked, “Paul has always had this mistaken belief that any publicity is good publicity. So just like The New Yorker—he had to trash Scientology in order to get a profile in The New Yorker.”

Haggis actually thought he’d finally regained some measure of the fame he craved. But he quickly learned he was just the foil. The real draw was Scientology, he was told. “Why else would we be interested in you?” The New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright said to Haggis.

The most ironic part of that article came from Haggis himself: “My bet is that, within two years, you are going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the Church.”

That laid in a very convenient excuse for any future wrongdoing…

So it was, at the highpoint of the #MeToo movement in 2017, that Leah Remini showcased Paul Haggis on her anti-Scientology cable TV show—another boost for Haggis’s sagging career.

“I wrote the letter to The Hollywood Reporter saying what a person of integrity you are and how much I admire you,” Haggis said, still fawning over Remini.

“Paul, that means the world to me,” gushed Remini.

“Well, we do things for our friends,” said Haggis.

December 2017 – The Rape Accusations

Only three months later came the breaking news that Haggis was being sued by publicist Haleigh Breest, who accused him of raping her in 2013.

ABC 7 Eyewitness News summed it up: “A civil lawsuit has been filed accusing filmmaker Paul Haggis of rape.”

Another broadcaster reported: “Haggis forced himself on the then 26-year-old publicist and raped her.”

CBC News Network then followed with a new development: “Three more women have come forth with allegations…. One of the three women alleges Haggis told her he needed to be inside her but she managed to get away.”

Haggis’s response? To immediately shift the blame.

“Paul Haggis Has Been Accused of Rape and He’s Blaming the Church of Scientology” reported various news outlets of the developing story.

January 2018: In an unprecedented move in the #MeToo era, Remini defended Haggis and shamed his victims.

“Paul Haggis made big news,” announced an eTalk newscaster. “Today he’s got a high-profile defender in his corner…

“Along with former Scientologist Mike Rinder, Leah Remini pens an open letter for Paul Haggis—quote: ‘Paul Haggis is a good man who has been a friend to us and so many others.’”

Remini and Rinder’s letter ran in The Hollywood Reporter and in it, the duplicitous duo reiterated Haggis’s outrageous and baseless claim that the Church was somehow behind the accusations.

Remini and Rinder then conspired with the tabloids to run their fabricated story:

“Leah Remini: Scientology is behind Paul Haggis rape claims,” stated Variety. Deadline and others followed suit.

That left Haggis’s victims to publicly defend themselves.

“I am a Paul Haggis sex assault accuser and I am anonymous. Here’s why…” proclaimed one headline in The Hollywood Reporter. “Leah Remini… Shame on you. Such baseless statements attempt to silence all of us and the entire #MeToo movement,” said the accuser.

“The women accusing Haggis of sexual misconduct deny any connection to Scientology,” stated another newscaster.

“[Plaintiff] has nothing to do with the Church. That entire defense is contrived, phony, ridiculous,” the victim’s attorney was quoted in The Daily Beast.

And in the New York Post: “The Scientology defense is the last cynical gasp of a desperate man. How stupid does he think we are?”

Finally, even Haggis’s legal team was forced to admit the Scientology defense was absurd.

“Attorneys for Both Sides Agree There Is ‘No Evidence’ Accuser Is Connected to Church of Scientology,” a Variety headline announced.

But Leah Remini didn’t care. She took to the stand as Haggis’s key witness.

“I’ve known Paul to be a good man,” she said. “He is very much for what is right.”

And finally, Remini’s message for the jury: “It is Paul who is the victim here.”

The media ran with it: “Leah Remini testified in a trial of Paul Haggis saying that the Church of Scientology actually faked the rape accusation…” (Fox 5 Good Day New York)

November 2022 – The Verdict

Now it was the jury’s turn—for the first time Remini, Rinder and Haggis’s fabrications would be put to the test.

It took those jurors only 6 hours to decide.

The verdict: Haggis found liable for rape. Unanimously.

“Filmmaker Paul Haggis has been found liable in his civil rape trial,” said one newscaster.

“Jury tells filmmaker Haggis to pay $10M total in rape suit,” reported Associated Press.

The jury awarded Haleigh Breest $7.5 million in compensatory damages and then tacked on $2.5 million in punitive damages.­

Haggis received the notoriety he had long sought as international headlines reported the $10 million judgment in favor of his victim, Breest, for raping her in 2013, when he was 59 and she was 26.

The jury didn’t just reject Haggis’s claims; they rejected him completely. His story, supported by Remini and Rinder, was deemed an outright fiction.

“It’s the perfect defense,” the plaintiff’s attorney scoffed in his closing. “There’s no evidence of it, so it must be true.”

Today, Haggis is swamped in legal and financial debt. He hasn’t paid the Breest judgment. He also owes millions in legal fees. A court is being asked by the victim to force the sale of his New York apartment after he allegedly transferred ownership to his ex-wife in a ploy to avoid payment.

The Enabler – Enough is Enough

And Leah Remini?

She remains the only woman in Hollywood defending sexual predators.

Why? Because proximity to “big names”—even disgraced ones—keeps her relevant in the eyes of a media industry that thrives on notoriety. To a certain extent, it has worked. Despite public outcry and 89 documented warnings from the Church to media outlets about Haggis’s misconduct, Remini is still sought out by unscrupulous, tabloid-minded journalists.

Those same outlets—Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times—ignored every warning. Instead, they published 258 articles parroting Remini’s narrative. Not one of them meaningfully held Haggis accountable.

In fact, they gave him and his defender a free ride.

Maybe they should have listened to Haggis himself, who once said of Harvey Weinstein’s enablers: “You have got to focus on those who may have colluded and protected [the rapist].

“For me, they are as guilty as he is and in some cases more so.”