Melissa Cronin of Radar Online obtained a confidential 300 page report on the FBI’s 2009 investigation of the Church of Scientology. The FBI investigated Scientology for, among other things, human trafficking.

The FBI document obtained by Cronin is the smoking gun, the irrefutable evidence that confirms the existence of the 2009 FBI investigation into the Church of Scientology as reported by Tony Ortega. Joe Childs and Tom Tobin of the Tampa Bay Times also reported on the 2009 investigation in 2013, but the Church hotly denied that any investigation had ever taken place.

In her reply to the Tampa Bay Times, Church spokesperson Karin Pouw was emphatic in her denial that any FBI investigation had taken place. Thanks to Cronin’s work we now know Pouw was lying when she wrote the following:

Allegation concerning the FBI: The Church had never heard of any FBI investigation until your sources and the media began talking about it.

Your statement that the FBI began “examining” the Church in 2009 is simply that: your statement. The Church has no knowledge that this “examining” ever occurred. Everything your sources claimed regarding the FBI has not materialized. Instead, it is the Times that reported that these same sources knew there was no investigation before they made their wild claims to the media in 2010. This tells you all you need to know about the honesty of your sources.

As we previously advised the Times, a former US Attorney dealt directly with the United States Department of Justice regarding this allegation and confirmed that there was no open investigation of the Church or any of its affiliates or leaders; any report to the contrary is false…

The FBI investigation did take place and the Church of Scientology either lied about the matter, “added time” per LRH policy, or their attorney was not really that competent in his in conversations with the Department of Justice.

The FBI document obtained by Radar makes it very clear that, “a full Civil Rights Investigation was initiated based on the information that the subject organization was involved in Human Trafficking.”