Victims to deliver thousands of pages of clergy abuse-related documents from statewide church whistleblowers to WI AG Kaul's office Tuesday morning
Documents raise troubling questions as to Senator Ron Johnson's possible involvement in 2007 shredding of priest abuse files in Green Bay
WHEN: Tuesday, January 18th, 2022, at 11:30am
WHERE: State Capitol Building, State Street Entrance, Madison, Wisconsin
WHAT: The directors of Nate’s Mission, a Wisconsin-based project of Ending Clergy Abuse, will deliver to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul thousands of pages of secret abuse-related church documents obtained from church whistleblowers from across the state of Wisconsin. The documents contain material concerning all five Wisconsin dioceses and several state religious orders.
WHY: Last April, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced that he was joining twenty-two attorneys general in launching a statewide investigation into the clergy abuse and cover-up crisis in faith-based organizations. In a press conference, Kaul promised to “follow the evidence wherever it leads” saying, “no detail is too small.”
The new documents being turned over to Kaul include personnel files, meeting minutes in which church leaders discuss tactics and strategies to evade prosecution and transfer credibly accused clergy to new parishes, insurance paperwork, and internal lists of accused priests that contain almost twice as many names as those released to the general public, and more.
Among the materials gathered by the church whistleblowers is new evidence pertaining to the systematic destruction of abuse files by the Green Bay diocese in 2007. The destruction included criminal evidence, not only of hundreds of child sexual crimes by Green Bay priests, schoolteachers, and volunteers, but also possible charitable fraud by several top church officials managing abuse cases for the diocese.
The order to destroy the documents was issued by then Bishop David Zubik on July 17th, 2007, six days after a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision allowing victims to file fraud suits against the church was issued. This action was designed to destroy all evidence of fraud by church officials in abuse cases. Furthermore, it effectively prevented prosecutors from pursuing criminal investigations of clergy alleged to have abused children. The following day, July 18th, 2007, Zubik held a press conference announcing his promotion by the Vatican to be the next Bishop of Pittsburgh.
In order to take this extreme action, Bishop Zubik, by canon law, would have been required to receive the approval of the Green Bay Diocesan Finance Council, a body on which Senator Ron Johnson served at the time, because it involved current and potential litigation. Less than three years later, Johnson, still a member of the Green Bay Diocesan Finance Council, was dispatched by church officials to testify against the Child Victims Act before the Wisconsin state legislature. At the time of his testimony, Johnson did not identify himself as a member of the Finance Council. If the Child Victims Act had passed in 2010, the alleged actions of Johnson and the Green Bay Diocese would likely have been uncovered in court proceedings.
Among the newly obtained documents is a 2017 letter from the Green Bay diocese’s corporate lawyers to church officials instructing them to preserve documents related to child sexual abuse “indefinitely.” It is unknown if the diocese’s corporate lawyers had knowledge of the 2007 document destruction, but it clearly demonstrates that destroying such documents, as was done by the Green Bay Diocese and likely approved by Senator Ron Johnson and his finance council, may have been illegal or in violation of state law.
When Attorney General Kaul opened his statewide investigation into clergy sexual abuse and institutional concealment, he vowed to investigate actions such as those undertaken by the Green Bay Diocese and anyone who aided and abetted the coverup of child sex crimes, including commission of fraud. The Wisconsin Department of Justice has assured victims of their statutory authority over charitable trusts such as the Diocese of Green Bay.
Johnson would not be the first prominent politician in the state of Wisconsin to assist a Catholic diocese in covering up child sex abuse. He is among well-known Democrats such as failed gubernatorial candidate and former head of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Matt Flynn and longtime Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann. Johnson’s fellow Republican, disgraced former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, also aided the Green Bay Diocese in concealing and transferring one of their most notorious abusive clergy when he was the Outagamie County District Attorney.
In meetings with survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Attorney General Kaul assured victims that he could be trusted to conduct a thorough and independent review of the evidence regardless of who was or is involved. Because of this promise, hundreds of victims in the state of Wisconsin have re-lived some of the worst moments of their lives recounting their abuse to representatives of his office. Wisconsin Catholic officials have openly announced that they will not cooperate with Kaul’s investigation. Statewide church whistleblowers have now provided evidence that demonstrates the necessity for Kaul to secure the release of documents by issuing subpoenas to Wisconsin dioceses and compelling the testimony of church officials. Given the evidence delivered to his office this week, anything short of these actions would be a betrayal of his promise.
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