WEBVTT

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Alex Gibney claims to be a documentarian…

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But Alex Gibney’s idea of a documentary

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on the Church of Scientology?

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Start with a book written by his buddy
Lawrence Wright.

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Disregard that the book was filled with
unsubstantiated innuendo,

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unsupported rumors,
and allegations so outrageous

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a federal judge dismissed them as baseless.

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Ignore the fact that the main source for the
book was this man Marty Rathbun —

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leader of a tiny failed cult
whose members had all been

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expelled from the Church
for discreditable activities.

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Then spend two years in secret
turning that book into a film…

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and never once present
any allegations to the Church.

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And to ensure that the media
would consider it tweet-worthy,

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find an expelled former Church member
well known for his dishonesty

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willing to spread all manner
of lies and false accusations,

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regardless of who he hurts.

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Someone like Mike Rinder.

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So who is Mike Rinder?

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Just ask those who know him best –
his family.

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Mike as a child was aloof,

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different, didn’t participate,

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didn’t particularly have many friends.

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When I was in hospital,
when I was getting married,

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when I was needing help
on any part of my life

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in any situation, he was never there.

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He didn’t make time for anyone.
You were not important,

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you were not important unless
he needed something from you

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or it was on his agenda.

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Mike Rinder failed as a family man,
and failed on the job.

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Contrary to his claims to the media,

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Rinder held only a junior position
in the Church

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for the five years before he suddenly left.

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Abandoning his wife of more than 30 years,

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his two children and the rest of his family,

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including his elderly mother.

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In 2007,  he went off to England
for a work-related trip.

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And he didn't return and
I didn't hear anything from him at all.

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After three days, Mike Rinder
finally sent an email –

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not to his wife, not even to a friend,

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but to a co-worker,
with instructions to pass it along.

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The email was literally three lines long.

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And that was it. That was the
length of the communication.

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He never tried to call me or even saying,

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“I realize we've been married
for over 30 years

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but I've decided that I actually don't want
to be there and—” nothing.

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He didn’t even ask about
me or my brother or say,

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“please make sure they do well”,
or any well wishes or goodbyes,

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nothing, not a word.

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My family is the tightest knit,

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loving group of people you have ever seen.

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My brother chose to leave that.

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Without his former family and associates
to support him,

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Mike Rinder quickly found
he couldn’t hold a job.

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After several failed attempts at employment –

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as a car salesman, a freelance marketer
and other odd jobs –

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Mike Rinder discovered he could make money
criticizing the Church --

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his family’s religion.

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Family members and their Church chaplain

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would later recount the horrific events
that happened the day

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they appealed to him to stop.

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I was standing there with
my uncle and my mother,

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trying to sort out our relationship
and get him to please just stop,

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live his own life.
I'm perfectly fine with that.

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But he still wouldn't talk to us.

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His eyes were glazed and he was scruffy.

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I was somewhat shocked at his appearance.

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And Mike jumped in his car
and put the keys in the ignition,

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like he was running away
from his own brother.

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Andrew happened to have his hand
laying on the steering wheel

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and Mike almost broke his finger –
crushing him. He was like a psycho.

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Then Rinder turned on his wife.

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And what he did in his fit of
monstrous rage was truly shocking.

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He was so mean to my mother,
he was very aggressive.

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You wouldn't believe it.
He literally went straight at her arms

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and vice gripped her and would not let go

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and she was yelling
at the top of her lungs,

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"Let me go, let me go."  He wouldn't let go.

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It was a total, utter shock.

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I started hearing inside my ear
my bones creaking like

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when you have a toothpick
and it starts to crack.

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As I was screaming for him to stop

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he started screaming right in my face,

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"You bitch, you bitch."

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And he stuck his eyes right up to my eyes.

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And he was so hateful...

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I remember looking at him and thinking…
he wants to kill her.

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The next thing I looked down at Cathy's
arms and they're bleeding,

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like literally just dripping with blood.

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There was chunks of her flesh
actually missing.

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The gouges in her arm were thick.

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Luckily an ambulance came and, you know,

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I was with her and they were busy
trying to put stuff on to stop the blood

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and wrapping her arms up.
Mike Rinder didn’t even say,

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"Look, I'm sorry, look at your arms."

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He couldn't care less.
And that's the true colors.

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That's who Mike Rinder is.

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Instead of facing up to the brutal assault
he had just committed,

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what did Mike Rinder do?

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While a team of paramedics rushed to treat
his severely injured wife,

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Rinder quickly called a reporter before the
medical report became public…

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all to spin this savage attack on his wife

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as something that had
nothing to do with him.

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Yet here is Cathy Rinder,
treated for multiple lacerations,

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nerve damage, a separated collarbone

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and a fractured and dislocated shoulder.

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He hurt my mom so bad in that incident...

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I’ve had to, you know,
help her with normal things,

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getting dressed, making her bed,
for quite some months

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while she was recovering because
she had to get surgery on her shoulder.

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A shoulder that Mike Rinder –
a man twice her size –

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had so brutally shredded.

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The injury so severe,
that despite years of rehab,

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her surgeon says
she will be disabled for life.

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She still continues to
have problems with this shoulder.

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She does not have full range of motion.

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She still has pain and discomfort
which is constant.

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It's a permanent disability
that will always be there with her.

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When Mike Rinder was later
confronted by a reporter

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about the cold-blooded attack on his wife,
this is what happened:

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- "Mr. Rinder, let me ask you a question.

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I interviewed your ex-wife, Cathy…"

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- "Do you have a business card?

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Lay out the ground rules
and have a business card."

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- "She showed me the marks on her arms
where you gouged her arms."

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- "Really."

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- "Absolutely. And she needs surgery."

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- "Excuse me."

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- "She needs surgery."

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- "Do you have a business card?"

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That’s how much Mike Rinder
cared about his wife

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of more than three decades
and the mother of his two children.

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His reaction...

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"Really?"

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– heartless mockery.

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And Alex Gibney – in full possession
of Cathy Rinder’s medical reports

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and knowing full well
what Mike Rinder had done

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not only sticks up for him, he parades
his wife-beating source around

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as a promotional tool for his film.

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That’s Mike Rinder, the husband and father.

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And then there’s Mike Rinder, the son.

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Just after brutally assaulting
his wife and brother,

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Mike Rinder unexpectedly
showed up in his native Australia,

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broke into his elderly mother’s apartment
with cameras rolling

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and rifled through her possessions.

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He somehow managed to
talk his way in with a film crew

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and filmed her room...
It disturbed my mother immensely that

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he could just walk into her room
when she wasn't there.

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And when we walked back in, my grandma,

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I mean I saw her and
she’s looking and she’s like,

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"He’s been through my stuff."
She was shaking, she was so upset.

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And she was like,
"I've been violated, by my own son."

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Mike Rinder’s mother sent letter after letter

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appealing to her son to stop harassing
his family and their religion.

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“Michael, you are destroying
everything that I am…” she wrote.

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“I need a promise from you
to desist from these actions…

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“It is important for me,

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because there is not a lot
of mileage left in this body.”

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No reply ever came.

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Barbara Rinder would pass away
before ever hearing from her son again.

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In spite of 14 attempts to set up a meeting

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to lay out the truth about Mike Rinder,

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Alex Gibney was not interested.

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That left Cathy Rinder no choice
but to ensure that her voice was heard.

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I decided I had to go to
New York myself and see HBO

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and see the director, Alex Gibney,

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in order to fill him in on the true story
of what actually happened.

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People need to know what Mike's really like.

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He turned on me like an animal
and hurt me on purpose.

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So the fact that Alex Gibney wouldn't see me

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just for a few minutes
shows a lot about that man himself

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and what he personally must be like.

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He doesn't even have the guts

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to look me in the face, says a lot.

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But what would anyone
expect when you know

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that one of your prize sources
is an admitted liar

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and a violent spouse abuser.

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And to add insult to injury,

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even after Cathy Rinder
finally tells her story to the media

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Alex Gibney comes to
Mike Rinder’s defense.

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He not only excludes all of Cathy Rinder’s
statements from his film,

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but he also refuses to see her
after she flies to New York.

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Instead, he adds a sound bite
to his film from Mike Rinder,

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who callously belittles his wife once again

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by claiming she made up the whole story.

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Of course, her surgeon and over a dozen
eyewitnesses know what Mike Rinder did –

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since it’s all a matter of medical record.

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But Gibney doesn’t care.

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For in Mike Rinder,
Alex Gibney uncovered a man

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who would say anything for
a little face time in Gibney’s film.

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A guy who abandoned his family,
battered his wife,

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then scrambled to cover his tracks
with cold-blooded efficiency.

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This is a man Alex Gibney
holds up as a “hero”.

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A man Gibney flew on an all expenses-paid
trip to the mountains of Utah

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and followed up with another free junket
to New York City.

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Someone he proudly casts as
the poster boy of his film.

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Mike Rinder, the face of
a campaign of hate and bigotry.

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Ultimately – he is who he is
and that is someone who is quite evil.

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Always has been, always will be.
No care of others.

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There’s Mike Rinder,
and there’s Mike Rinder,

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and there is Mike Rinder –
in that order.

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That’s Mike Rinder.

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A vicious wife beater,
Alex Gibney’s “star witness.”

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A man only a hater of women could love.

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In future segments, we’ll show you
other sides of Mike Rinder

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that Alex Gibney won’t show you…

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Rinder’s lying, his criminal activities

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and yes, more of his violence…

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You’ll also hear more about the
emotionally unhinged Marty Rathbun.

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Shut the fuck up!

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Mike Rinder’s “guru” who ran
that tiny failed Texas cult.

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It’s a bizarre love/hate relationship

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where Rinder himself receives
a savage beat-down from Rathbun,

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then becomes the minister at his wedding.

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You won’t believe what happens after that.

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But Alex Gibney isn’t revealing the
whole story behind his prize “sources.”

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So we’ll do it for him.

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I think we got the story that we wanted.

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It’s not the truth. It’s Alex Gibney. On HBO.