This article will be longer than my norm but it is important.
On May 4, 2024 Aaron Smith-Levin produced his most financially successful video in recent months.
Boasting a whopping 159,165 views (and views equal cash) this production promised to reveal; “The Elephant in the Room”.
For those not familiar with this idiomatic phrase, it means something obvious that everyone is ignoring.
Smith-Levin promises to finally reveal, once and for all, the who and the why behind all that has befallen him and the SPTV community in the past many months.
Ironic that due to his inability for honest self reflection he completely missed the mark.
Now it’s time for the elephant to be seen.
Aaron begins with what is most important to him; keeping the infighting off his channel because it’s “bad for business.” Note he doesn’t say it is bad for the people caught up in the hate, rather the intimation is that the infighting is OK as long as it’s not on his channel.
Because it’s bad for the bottom line.
Or so he says.
The stats seem to prove otherwise.
Aaron then says at 6:27 that the first issue is “People trying to expose my private life.” Continuing at 7:02 “I went public with that information (about his marriage) back in November because a number of people over the years and then a number of people back in November including Mike Rinder, Marc Headley, Claire Headley have basically tried to use information about my private life, information about relationships I’ve had since November 2019 to, in various ways, humiliate me, embarrass me, blackmail me…”
When did John Q Public become aware of Aaron Smith-Levin’s private life?
Did the board members of The Aftermath Foundation discuss his marriage or his infidelities during their podcasts?
Was his excessive drinking a topic of discussion during the original SPTV episodes?
Was there a Mike Rinder blog dedicated to Aaron’s bad choices? Was it Mike that revealed the daily illegal use of mushrooms?
The Aftermath Foundation officially issued a statement concerning Aaron’s removal only because Aaron’s subsequent actions left them no choice.
Aaron immediately took to YouTube and portrayed himself as the victim of a coup by the other members of the board. It was all about how everyone else attacked him. He led his viewers to believe that he was blindsided and that the reasons were trivial and just his private life, which is no one’s business, being exploited.
Even in their statement they did not detail anything about Aaron Smith-Levin’s private life that was not already publicly known. They protected his private life in spite of the fact that Aaron was attacking them and inciting his viewership to anger and outrage.
Actually, Aaron did slip up with some unintended truth. He actually admitted that there was no real public airing of his private life.
“If you guys only knew…”
How is that revealing anything he’s done?
January 20, 2022
“Twice over the last two years, law enforcement officers have been called to local bars to quell altercations involving Aaron Smith-Levin, now a candidate for Clearwater City Council.”
This is not the beginning of a blog post by Mike Rinder nor is it from a video produced by Marc or Claire Headley.
Neither is it a comment on social media by Leah Remini.
In fact it is the lede for an article in The Tampa Bay Times.
From this column questions began to arise concerning Aaron’s marital status. People naturally asked, “he was flirting with women in bars? I thought he was married!”
Note: It was after this incident that Aaron told me that he was in an “open marriage” and that Heather was a willing participant in this arrangement. As is now known Aaron himself has since stated that Heather was not in agreement with this arrangement.
To defend Lindsay, this is the same thing Aaron led her to believe; that Heather was in agreement of and aware of the “open marriage” concept. When she realized that Heather was not a willing participant in this so-called arrangement Lindsay was crushed.
During the 2023 Danny Masterson rape trial, Masterson’s attorney Philip Cohen asked for a mistrial after Smith-Levin created a public scene in the hallway outside the courtroom.
Aaron’s actions could very easily have resulted in a violent rapist being freed. (Echos of Ashton Kutcher and a Hollywood killer?)
At the same time while in Los Angeles, Aaron hooked up with a young woman he just met resulting in her taking to social media posting photographs of bruises and a bloody head.
Again, this event was not made public by either Leah Remini or any member of the Aftermath Foundation. It was actually Juliana who went public with this because she was desperately trying to get someone to believe her.
To this very moment I am ashamed that I let her down.
Juliana sent the photos of her injuries to the board asking how someone who could do something so horrible could be on a charity foundation dedicated to helping people.
It was a reasonable, legitimate question.
Aaron’s accusations that anyone other than himself is responsible for the airing of his private life are empty. As are his baseless claims that Leah Remini (or Mike Rinder, or Claire Headley) is the grand master behind a giant conspiracy to destroy him.
He has provided NO proof, nothing tangible, nothing that can be checked. Aaron has never once given a “why” that any of his friends, let alone Leah Remini, would do such a thing in the first place.
All evidence instead clearly shows that Smith-Levin is lying.
Aaron’s video is 2 hours of him trying to convince his audience (or maybe himself) that there is substance where none exists. All he really has is supposition and conjecture. He never shows a single solid bit of evidence that Leah is a ringleader. The best he’s been able to produce is a liked tweet.
She blocked him. So have a lot of people. Is it because Leah Remini is captain of a conspiracy or because she got tired of her former friend hurting everyone around him, lying and inciting strangers to hatred and bullying people she cares about?
His bit about Lindsay talking to Claire or Leah is nothing short of underwhelming. Even if Lindsay did talk to someone about Aaron, is that not her right?
So what?
He already displayed his need for control when he publicly admitted he was upset with Heather for seeking support from her best friend.
It is obvious that Aaron believes he is to be allowed to hurt people and they are supposed to simply accept it without comment.
Isolation and control.
Someone in a painful situation is not permitted the solace of support from those around them?
He sure is surrounding himself with defenders and brownnosers.
Now for the real elephant in the room.
Aaron Smith-Levin alone is responsible for the public airing of his private life but there is so much more here that needs to be addressed.
This is not about whether Heather was in agreement with the marriage arrangement Aaron decided was going to be her new norm.
It is about how the vice-president of a charitable foundation dedicated to helping and protecting vulnerable people is, in fact, a vicious, despicable abuser and liar.
Aaron’s claim that the board of the Aftermath Foundation sneakily adopted an ethical code of conduct mere months before he was ousted in order to facilitate his removal is completely false.
Has it not occurred to anyone to ask why, after years of being like family, years of vacationing together, working together and facing Scientology together Mike Rinder and the Headley’s would suddenly wake up one morning and decide it was time to band together and kick Aaron to the curb?
According to Aaron he was the one doing all the work for the foundation and that other board members only agreed to join under the agreement that “they didn’t have to do anything”.
Aaron claimed that they “hadn’t been friends for a long time.” So why did he help set up the fundraiser for Mike’s cancer treatment?
I was told by a source who questioned Aaron about how he was destroying his long time friendships that Aaron’s response was, “fuck that, Mike’s as good as dead and he didn’t even thank me for the fundraiser I did for him.”
He didn’t?
“Our friend, Aaron Smith-Levin, took it upon himself to post a YouTube video yesterday asking viewers to donate to help. He directed people to the donate button here on Mike’s blog. We had no idea he was going to do that. Mike and I are overwhelmed by the outpouring as a result.”
Similarly literally overnight Mike Rinder became public enemy #1 simply because Aaron Smith-Levin said so.
On the day after Aaron’s removal Rinder was the exact same man he’d been the day before. Aaron using Mike as a target was simply to get people to look anywhere other than at him.
None of that is reasonable nor does it make any sense.
Leah, Mike and Claire did not sneak an ethics clause in then use it to vote Aaron out.
Aaron Smith-Levin’s signature is on the code of conduct dated 2017.
That accusation is now dead.
Smith-Levin’s next statement is that nothing in his private personal life should have been cause for his removal from the board.
At one point he stated that even had he committed a crime it’s “fine”.
How often have celebrities and sports figures been fired, removed from companies who sponsored them or had lucrative deals taken away once unethical, illegal behaviors became known?
Firing or dropping people who, by their actions have become liabilities to companies concerned with their image is a reasonable, standard business practice.
Add to this the fact that Scientology is constantly looking for a way to destroy the Aftermath Foundation and the need to protect their image doubles.
Had Smith-Levin conducted himself with even a modicum of restraint his private life could have remained private.
Unfortunately for him, his choices and actions were on full display in public venues. Thus there was always the risk that the charity he was part of would be impacted.
The Aftermath Foundation was more than patient with Aaron.
Take his trip down to Medellin, Colombia, South America.
Aaron is the one who publicly revealed this trip.
Of all the places in the world he could go, he chose one of THE most notorious places for drugs and human trafficking. Not for Aaron Smith-Levin the friendly Cartagena. No, Aaron went to the place infamously known for the trafficking of minors, drug abuse and forced prostitution.
Vice president of a charity dedicated to helping people free themselves from a dangerous, abusive cult, Aaron spent his time hiring sex workers and partying down.
According to sources who know what happened, it is claimed that Aaron hired a transgender sex worker.
These facts were independently corroborated by a disinterested witness. Aaron is free to do what he wants, but to use and abuse people is unacceptable when he claims to be a champion of victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking.
Allegedly according to one source, in describing his experiences in Medellin, Aaron was abusive to the trans sex worker. Aaron allegedly said, “It is amazing, you can do whatever you want to these people, what are they going to do, call the cops?”
Then he laughed.
Allegedly.
People knew what he’d done while in Colombia. It wasn’t private it was known. All it would have taken was for one person to expose Aaron and the foundation would have also been damaged. Certainly Scientology would have been all over it like white on rice.
He was taking real risks without a second thought for anyone other than himself. (Not even mentioning placing the health of every person he sleeps with at risk.)
Aaron (allegedly) was abusive and dismissive of the sex workers in Colombia, laughing that he could do what he wanted, even not paying them because they wouldn’t call the police.
These trafficked people do not have the ability to consent. What is it called when someone is forced to have or cannot consent to sex?
What is it called when someone takes something without paying for it?
Yet he claims to be an advocate for and friend of victims of Danny Masterson.
When did the public first hear about Aaron’s trip to Medellin? Was it from Leah? Claire? Did Mike Rinder write a blog about it?
Rather, it was when Aaron mentioned it himself on YouTube.
From his (alleged) treatment of people in Medellin, Colombia to twice mistreating women (that is known) who refused his advances in Clearwater to four years of coercive control and emotional abuse of a vulnerable young woman to a violent assault against another vulnerable young woman in Los Angeles.
There is a history of behavior here by Aaron Smith-Levin that has gone ignored, dismissed and excused for long enough.
Aaron Smith-Levin’s insistence that it is Claire, Marc, Mike and/or Leah who outed his private life is debunked.
Lindsay Villandry.
Aaron is claiming that Leah and/or Claire are the ones behind Lindsay’s decision to go public with her story.
Neither of them had anything to do with her decision.
I know for a fact and am willing to swear to this, that Lindsay came to me after speaking with a friend of mine, VoodooKitty on Twitter.
I have literally hours of dm conversations with Villandry but the bottom line is that over and over I begged her not to go public. I told her to work on herself first, to get healthy and stronger before even considering something like going public.
VoodooKitty advised her the exact same thing.
Neither of us believed that Lindsay was in a good place at that point and exposing herself to the hate filled nastiness that was going on would have been seriously detrimental to her mental health and possibly her very sobriety.
Ultimately Lindsay made the choice by herself. No one coerced her, urged her or pushed her to tell her story on YouTube. That was entirely Lindsay’s choice and Lindsay’s choice alone.
In fact, go and watch her first video about Aaron. During the video you can clearly see she was struggling still with whether or not to speak. Her friend Adam even told her the choice was hers.
There is the real proof as to how her and Aaron’s story became public.
Think about it, had Leah Remini told Lindsay she supported Lindsay going public wouldn’t that have mostly eradicated the hesitation? Does it really make sense that Lindsay was so wary and worried on her video about coming forward if she’d really had the backing and encouragement of a Hollywood celebrity?
Go back and watch her video.
Lindsay acted on her own. She made her own decision.
I know this to be true.
Aaron’s claim that Leah is the reason Lindsay went public is disproven.
Now to the LA incident.
First a trigger warning going forward.
If you are easily affected by details of assault and domestic violence then please do not continue with this article.
Please.
This is BAD.
Aaron Smith-Levin hooked up with a young woman in Los Angeles during the Danny Masterson rape trial in 2023.
As is his wont, Aaron later dismissed this woman as “crazy”.
First, for the sake of argument let us assume that he was telling the truth and this woman had mental health issues. The question then becomes; should a man who represents an organization that helps victims of sexual, mental and physical abuse be engaging in sexual activity with a woman he claims was herself dealing with mental issues?
Should Theodore McCarrick be in charge of a boys’ school?
If someone is, indeed “crazy” can they truly consent?
Does his dismissal of her as “crazy” excuse his using her in such a way?
Juliana is not, in fact, crazy.
Aaron has taken to YouTube since his removal from the board to tell his story about what happened that day in May 2023.
He explained it on Down the Rabbit Hole and on other videos. Specifically on Down the Rabbit Hole, he clearly says he never put his hands on Juliana.
During his description of what transpired Aaron claims that Juliana threw a 10 pound mic stand severely cutting his toe. According to him the injury was bad enough to warrant a trip to the ER though he chose not to go.
Here is an actual photograph of the terrible wound:
“She pulls out her cell phone…”
If Juliana was having a mental crisis and was violently attacking Aaron and destroying the room why would she want to record her behavior?
Perhaps it makes better sense to wonder if she was attempting to record HIS?
Aaron has also made the statement that he is 220 pounds and Juliana maybe 110 soaking wet. He scoffs that she could actually hurt him. In fact he actually says he never felt he was in danger from her.
From 25:26 to 39:33 on Down the Rabbit Hole News Aaron explains what supposedly happened on the street outside of the CVS Pharmacy.
What he actually told me was that she jumped into his arms then arched her back and threw herself backwards hitting her head on the brick wall in the process.
No matter which version he tells, he is always the victim.
Many people have been following the Sean “Diddy” Combs situation playing out in the media and on social platforms.
When Cassie Ventura first accused Combs of assaulting her, he immediately went on the defensive, putting out a terse statement insisting upon his innocence and called them “offensive” allegations.
It was all good until a video appeared and shot him down in flames.
Sadly for Aaron there also has been a new development that will put paid to his victimhood and protestations of wide eyed innocence.
On the day I announced my resignation from the board of the Aftermath Foundation I received an anonymous email that contained a video.
I watched this video over and over and it is one of the most disturbing, vile, vicious and disgusting things I’ve seen in a very long time.
This video is cctv footage from outside the Los Angeles CVS on the day that Juliana was (allegedly) assaulted.
Beginning in the upper left of the screen near the road Aaron and Juliana are seen stepping onto the sidewalk together. Although zoomed in and grainy, Aaron’s bald head, beard and trademark black shirt are recognizable.
Rather than an angry out of control maniac attacking him, Juliana is seen walking with Aaron and grabbing his arm in a manner reminiscent of saying “Aaron stop and talk to me!”
Aaron angrily jerks his arm out of her grasp, she reaches for him again and he pushes her. Then Juliana comes up behind him (when you watch the video note that her feet stay on the ground). Aaron then whirls around, grabs her and literally FLINGS Juliana into that brick wall.
She did not trip or fall into that building.
Aaron flung her into the bricks where she falls to the ground unmoving for several seconds. Look at Aaron’s body, his feet are widespread and he is leaning back from the force of him throwing Juliana forward.
Aaron Smith-Levin calmly turns and walks away from her.
Juliana lay on the sidewalk injured. Bleeding.
By his own admission Aaron says he knew it “was bad”.
She could have been unconscious. She could have had a concussion or worse, a serious head injury. People have died from blows to the head.
Aaron Smith-Levin walked away from her.
He left her laying on the sidewalk like a piece of trash.
Note too, that there was no Uber. No cars pulled up to take Juliana home. There are no cars parked anywhere near where Aaron and Juliana were on that sidewalk. Initially Aaron and Juliana were walking toward the camera, then Aaron turned and walked away in the other direction. If there had actually been an Uber there waiting, why did Aaron walk away instead of to a car?
Once again Trigger Warning, this is incredibly hard to watch.
Even if the rest of this article is discounted leaving only this video, it should be enough to show the real Aaron Smith-Levin.
It should be enough.
Even one angry blow is abuse.
Not only did he lie about what happened he re-victimized Juliana by claiming she was “crazy”.
Was this simply a part of Aaron’s personal life that should not have been a reason to remove him from the Aftermath Foundation?
Given this video it is obviously not private after all.
It happened in broad daylight in the middle of downtown Los Angeles which begs the question; if he was that violent with her in the middle of a busy sidewalk, what really happened when they were alone?
Had Aaron still been on the board when this video surfaced there would be no question of him being removed.
No company anywhere would accept the vicious assault recorded on that cctv footage.
Why vilify the Aftermath Foundation for choosing to remove him partially because of him abusing a young woman?
How are they wrong?
I reached out to Juliana as I believe that this video rightfully belongs to her. She was shocked, saying she’d had no idea it even existed. She told me that had she known she would have handled things much differently at the time.
Juliana expressed that she was relieved the footage was found and gave me permission to post it saying she was glad it proved she wasn’t lying about what he did to her.
Finally she stated that she has moved on from the events of that horrible day and has found happiness. She asks that people respect her privacy and allow her to continue to heal and move forward with her life.
This is not truly about Juliana, Sky Daily or Lindsay Villandry. It is not just about the state of Aaron’s marriage or how he has treated Heather. It isn’t just about drugs, sex workers or alcohol.
Any one of these things by themselves is serious and unacceptable.
All of this combined however creates a consistent pattern of horrendous behavior by one man.
Aaron Smith-Levin.
Not an elephant; a monster.
Isn’t it time to stop ignoring, justifying and excusing the truly vile, disgusting things he is doing?
In NO sense is even one of these events acceptable for the vice president of a charity dedicated to helping abuse victims to be engaging in.
Verbally abusing women for rejecting your advances, is NOT OK.
Calling any woman a cunt is NOT OK.
It is twice as wrong considering Aaron has daughters who are learning about how men are supposed to treat women from him.
Sitting your wife, the mother of your children down and informing her that you are going to engage in random extramarital escapades even knowing it is not what she wants is NOT OK. Nor is demanding she explain herself for reaching out to her best friend for emotional support.
Traveling to a known human trafficking hotspot for drugs and prostitutes is NOT OK.
Engaging in a four year long affair, including bringing your mistress to your marital home while your wife is there is NOT OK.
Taking advantage of young, vulnerable women is NOT OK.
Viciously flinging a woman half your age and half your size into a brick wall (or any woman for that matter) then leaving her discarded, injured and bleeding on a Los Angeles sidewalk is not only NOT OK, but it is violence on a level that should leave every right thinking person with even a rudimentary conscience livid.
None of these actions are simply one man’s private life that should be protected.
The members of the foundation dealt with all of this until it became impossible to ignore any longer. Aaron made his choices. He was given a chance to change but he refused.
It came down to a choice between risking the foundation or letting Aaron go.
What happened was exactly what any other business would do under the same circumstances.
It is time to stop blaming Mike, Claire, Marc and Leah.
Recently someone said “when you smell shit around you then maybe you’re the asshole.”
In all of the events beginning in November of 2023 Aaron Smith-Levin is the single common denominator.
Had he stopped making dangerous choices, he would not have lost his position on the board, nor would he have lost his friends.
Had he not selfishly decided he was immune to common human decency and any form of ethical, moral behavior he would still be on the board.
Had he had even an iota of self truth, he would have kept his mouth shut about his removal from the board and just moved on.
Instead he took to social media spun a web of twisted truths and outright lies that ultimately he cannot back up, designed to manipulate people into attacking good people while making himself an innocent victim.
Aaron not only destroyed his own relationships but the relationships between a lot of other people.
Aaron’s actions are what resulted in the one statement by the board of the Aftermath Foundation. They tried to explain as best they could why the difficult decision had been made. Knowing so much more about Aaron’s narcissistic, abusive proclivities than they ever said is absolute proof that even faced with his malice his friends still tried to protect him.
Aaron again spun their words into a money making business of falsehoods, rage and hate.
Some people bought it hook, line and sinker.
It is time to stop enabling Aaron Smith-Levin and his abuse.
Thank you, reader for hanging in this long.
I only have one more thing to say.
Given the facts laid out here in this article, especially the video, anyone who still decides to defend Aaron is going to be making an enormous personal statement to the world.
Any response other than a loud and clear distancing from a man who threw a young woman into a wall and left her on the ground like trash will be seen by normal, right thinking human beings as a defense of abuse.
Some people are now standing on a precipice.
Whether they back away or jump to their fate is up to them.
Updated to add this link to https://www.reddit.com/r/SPTV_Unvarnished/new/ for discussion.
Confront And Shatter 