Michael Lin Baum, attorney, the senior managing partner with Baum, Hedlund, Aristei is a former staffer with the Church of Scientology’s Guardian Office (the Church’s secret service operation that preceded the Office of Special Affairs) and is an Unindicted Co-conspirator for his work on Operation Snow White, a criminal conspiracy by the Church of Scientology to purge unfavorable records about Scientology by illegally breaking into, entering and burglarizing federal office buildings of the United States Government including the Department of Justice in Washington D. C.
Eleven highly placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organization), pleaded guilty and were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property.
Michael Baum as “Scientology covert operative”
Stipulation of Evidence |US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al | P. 145 (last sentence) and on to p. 146
“Mr. Meisner made one more entry into the Interpol Liaison Office with the defendant Sharon Thomas and Scientology covert operative Michael Baum, through the use of Mr. Meisner’s counterfeit IRS identification card.”
Operation Snow White was one of the largest infiltrations of the United States government in history,[2] with up to 5,000 covert agents.[3] This operation also exposed the Scientology plot ‘Operation Freakout‘, because Operation Snow White was the case that initiated the U.S. government’s investigation of the Church.[3]
Thomas & Baum Burglarized Interpol Office at the Justice Department
Over the next month the defendant Thomas and Mr. Baum burglarized the Interpol Liaison Office at the Justice Department on at least three occasions. Those raids netted some three feet of copies of Interpol documents. On each occasion they used the photocopying equipment and supplies located on the fourth floor of the Department of Justice main building and stole the copies. The documents were given to Mr. Meisner who in each instance excerpted the documents in memoranda identical to Government Exhibit No. 80.
Stipulation of Evidence |US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al | P. 147 2nd Paragraph
Fake IRS Credentials
89/ Between early April and late June 1976, four other Guardian’s Office officials and one Scientology covert agent entered the IRS identification room and made counterfeit IRS identification cards for themselves. In April, the defendant Wolfe and Mr. Meisner took into the main IRS building Information Bureau investigators Patty Pease and Jay Armstrong and made for them counterfeit IRS identification error. The defendant Wolfe, on three other occasions, entered the main IRS building with the defendant Hermann, and Messrs. Joseph Alesi and Michael Baum, where he made similar false IRS credentials for them. Mr. Meisner saw the counterfeit credentials made for those five individuals. All the identification cards were in false names. In mid-May, Mr. Meisner took the defendant Weigand on a tour of the main IRS building in Washington, D.C. , and showed him the offices which had been burglarizedand from which stolen documents had been taken. They were unsuccessful, however, in gaining entry into the identification room and were, therefore, unable to make a false identification card for the defendant Weigand. Mr. Meisner and the defendant Weigand entered the building using Mr. Meisner’s counterfeit IRS credentials in the name of “Foster”.
Stipulation of Evidence |US v Mary Sue Hubbard, et al | P. 122 2nd Paragraph
Other Items of note in the Stipulation of Evidence
Page 146: Middle of the page:
Thomas and Mr. Baum to make weekly entries into that office where they were to methodically examine each file cabinet for any Interpol documents. The documents taken on this occasion were photocopied using the fourth floor Justice Department photocopying equipment as well as United States Government supplies. The documents were returned to their original location and the copies were stolen.
Page 145: 1st sentence
once again using the Meisner fake identification to gain entry. Mr. Meisner brought a variety of lock-picking tools to open the file cabinets within the Interpol Liaison office.
Page 144: ¾ way down the page
They waited until all personnel had left the Interpol Liaison Office on the sixth floor, then entered, without permission, that office.
Additional Reading
- digl-watch.info – A look at Digital Lighwave accounting scandal. Michael J. Baum listed as an early investor.
- Exposing the Underbelly – Scientology Attorneys listed and other info on Scientology
- http://www.michael-lin-baum.com/
- Service Completion Database – These records on Baum show him as a “Founding Patron” ($40000) in 2004
Other Sources
Labaton, Stephen (1993-10-14). “Scientologists Granted Tax Exemption by the U.S”. New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
Ortega, Tony (1999-12-23). “Double Crossed”. Phoenix New Times. New Times Media. Retrieved 2006-06-12.
“Mystery of the Vanished Ruler”. TIME. 1983-01-31. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
“Mary Sue Hubbard et al. Sentencing Memorandum – corrected”.
“Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS”.
wikisource:U.S. v. Hubbard 650 F.2d 293 (1981)
Scientology Scandals 