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On Monday, Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said that the
New Yorker article was "nothing but a rehash of unfounded allegations" and that the church "has never been advised of any government investigation."
Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said she could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the investigation.
On Monday, Scobee, Rinder and DeVocht told the
Times that Los Angeles-based Special Agent Tricia Whitehill traveled to Clearwater to interview them at the FBI's office on Cleveland Street.
Scobee said Whitehill interviewed her for two days, Dec. 3 and 4, 2009. She said the agent asked about several topics, including instances of physical violence Scobee witnessed and punishments like the Rehabilitation Project Force or "RPF," a labor detail in which Sea Org members who transgress can work their way back into the church's good graces.
Scobee described RPFs as camps where staffers can languish for years, separated from friends, spouses and other family and given low quality food and living quarters.
She said she first came in contact with the FBI after she sent the agency copies of affidavits and other documents the church had given the
Times and ABC News
Nightline in 2009. The church offered the materials as proof Miscavige never hit anyone. But the documents — including sworn statements by current Scientology executives — acknowledged that violence occurred within the church's top management.
"They are admitting under penalty of perjury that it's happening with wild abandon," Scobee said. "None of them are calling the police. It needs intervention because they somehow think it's okay."
Shortly after Scobee sent the documents to the FBI, the agency called her, said it had an ongoing investigation into Scientology and arranged to meet with her, she said.
While in the Clearwater FBI office for her interview, Scobee said, Whitehill cautioned her not to speak with other employees in the office. She said Whitehill indicated the office might be compromised when it came to Scientology.
She said Whitehill also interviewed her husband, Mat Pesch, a longtime church staffer in Clearwater who defected with her in 2005.
Scobee said she gave the FBI a long list of contact information for people who had left the international base and was impressed that the agency had already interviewed some of them.
Asked why she decided to talk about the investigation now, despite the FBI's request that she remain quiet, Scobee said: "I didn't hear anything for a year and I got fed up. They're either going to do something or they're not."
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http://www.tampabay.com/news/fbi-investigating-scientology-defectors-say/1150248
