Expanding PA Probe, Feds Warn US Church: "All Your Files Are Belong To Us"

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Are you thinking this isn’t true? The linked resource has on it what it claims is an image of the first page of a letter which establishes the claim.
 
That would be correct grammar, but the blog author was trying to be cute by referring to that old meme. I had to check that it wasn’t April Fool’s Day. I guess he’s serious.
 
exnihilo said:
A Pennsylvania federal prosecutor might want to make a name for himself. He wants the entire US Catholic Church to preserve documents for him. There are two issues. One is that each diocese is independent. The other is this federal prosecutor imagines he has authority in every federal district in the US.
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Actually, it’s the Department of Justice that is telling the dioceses not to destroy any relevant documents. And yes, the DOJ does have authority in every Federal District.

www.foxnews.com

DOJ requests that Catholic bishops preserve sex abuse documents: report

Each Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. should preserve any documentation related to the handling of sexual abuse, the Department of Justice requested on Friday, according to a report.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
 
The letter in question is from a United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. And of course even the Department of Justice itself isn’t a court. Prosecutors can’t just order people to do things.
 
Be careful what you wish for. Prosecutors look for evidence to support a crime. They aren’t necessarily looking at crimes and then looking for evidence. In fact that is most definitely what they would be doing here since there is no allegation of a specific crime.

They won’t necessarily be seeking justice. Some will want to gain political power and prominence by taking on the Catholic Church.

If you turned over all of your private documents to the government I can almost guarantee they can find a crime to charge you with. And there is a good chance they would win in court.
 
A crime should be punished. But we also want justice. It isn’t very just to try to prosecute people for decades old crimes. It isn’t very just to sully a dead man’s name when he has no means of defending it. It isn’t very just if parishioners have their contributions lost to huge settlements.

The real issue for me is that the cover ups of sexual abuse, particularly homosexual abuse of young men, stops. A federal investigation is no guarantee that it will.
 
exnihilo said:
The letter in question is from a United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. And of course even the Department of Justice itself isn’t a court. Prosecutors can’t just order people to do things.
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I was wondering what authority the letter carries, if any. The FOX article words it as a request, not a mandate. I am not saying that it is a bad idea to agree to follow the request, but I also do not trust the Trump/Session DOJ to enforce the law with justice.
 
If I recall correctly, the grand jury report previously published included every allegation made, not just proven ones. Any diocese, or any other corporate entity would likely keep in their personnel files records of allegations made, many or most of which might have been unproven or unjustified. This sounds like a mandate for a fishing license.

Suppose a similar request had been made of every public school district in the U.S. or every corporate personnel office. Teachers unions and corporate lawyers would be up in arms.
 
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