Kamala Harris ‘Covered Up’ Church Sex Abuse and ‘Deep-Sixed’ Release of Evidence ID’ing Predator Priests, Furious Victims Blast
By Aaron Tinney
Radar
August 13, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris has been under fire for failing to prosecute church sex predators during her time as a DA.
Kamala Harris is being blasted by survivors of sexual abuse by warped Catholic priests for doing “absolutely nothing” to prosecute their cases when she was San Francisco’s district attorney – in a wave of fury that could derail her race to the White House.
The victims say compared to Terence Hallinan – who was DA before Harris, 59, defeated him in the 2003 election – the US president wannabe actively covered up and totally buried their claims.
Joey Piscitelli, a 69-year-old clergy sex abuse victim and advocate for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, recently raged Harris’ portrayal of her record as being tough on sex offenders was “bulls---”.
He fumed: “She was handed a room full of cases and boxes of names of sex offenders, and all that in the church right there under her nose.”
Piscitelli’s latest comments come after he told investigative author Peter Schweizer in 2020 Harris’ camp was lying when they insisted she was on a mission as DA to prosecute sexual abuse cases.
He was quoted raging in Schweizer’s book Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite: “They’re full of s---. You can quote me on that. They’re not protecting the victims.”
Schweizer added in his book about Harris’ journey to the corridors of power from her time in the legal world: “The reality of her rise to prominence is far more complicated and how she has leveraged her power along the way is troubling.
“Harris’ elevation to national politics is closely tied to one of California’s most allegedly corrupt political machines and investigations into her tenure as a prosecutor raise disturbing questions about her use of criminal statutes in a highly selective manner, presumably to protect her friends, financial partners, and supporters.
“Most disturbing, she has covered up information concerning major allegations of criminal conduct, including some involving child molestation.”
Peter Schweizer’s book lays bare his theories Harris buried church abuse cases – and details how she refused to release key files on abusers.
Schweizer states the most glaring proof of how Harris “covered-up” and “deep-sixed” probes into pedophile priests is that as a chief prosecutor, Harris failed to prosecute a single case of priest abuse.
He declared: “Her office would strangely hide vital records on abuses that had occurred despite the protests of victims groups.”
Schweizer has said since the release of his book that when Harris took office in 2004, her Democrat predecessor Terence Hallinan left her “hundreds of pages” of internal Catholic Church documents – which included names of 40 accused clergy.
It was two years after the Pulitzer Prize-winning series of stories on sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area was printed by the Boston Globe – with the journalists’ battle to bring the truth to light told in the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight.
Piscitelli has blasted: “It went from Terence Hallinan going hundred miles an hour, full speed ahead, after the Catholic Church to Kamala Harris doing absolutely nothing and taking it backwards hundred miles an hour.”
He added: “The priest that molested me in ministry with children under her nose in the city. I wrote her a letter and said, ‘Hey, what about this guy? He’s a rapist. He’s with kids right now at the oldest Cathedral in San Francisco, right under your nose. What are you going to do?’
“She did nothing.”
Clergy sex abuse survivor Joey Piscitelli has spent years leading the fight for fellow victims’ justice – and has also blasted Harris for doing ‘absolutely nothing’ about their cases.
Piscitelli was molested by a sex predator priest more than 50 years ago at Salesian High School in Richmond, California, when he was a freshman.
A jury awarded him $600,000 in damages in 2006 – but the payout had nothing to do with Harris.
The vice president, who was San Francisco DA for seven years, has also been slammed for refusing to turn over personnel files of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse within the San Francisco Archdiocese.
Other victims have said Harris’ office refused to meet with them and declined to release files on clergy abuse.
Dominic De Lucca, a California resident who said he was raped by a local priest when he was aged 12, insisted Harris wouldn’t talk with him – or release key files.
He seethed: “I remember Kamala Harris. She didn’t want to have any meetings.
“She wanted the public to think this is an issue that happened years ago, that it doesn’t happen anymore. Let’s just move on.”
Despite the victims’ outrage, Harris insisted during a July rally: “As a prosecutor, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse.”
Harris’ camp has said files on the widespread abuse within the Catholic church weren’t released because it would create a “chilling effect” on cases being reported and threaten the privacy of victims.
Harris has regularly talked up her performance as a prosecutor and said it gives her the clout to be named US president over her republican rival Donald Trump.
She stated at a Milwaukee rally in July: “As a prosecutor, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse… I took on perpetrators of all kinds – predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.
“So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Harris’ campaign has said in the past: “Senior attorneys in the DA’s office, who were central to the prosecution of Catholic priests advised that records should not be released because it would create a chilling effect on other victims of sexual assault and to protect the privacy of victims involved.
“That same protocol was followed by the previous office and the decision was affirmed by an independent board that reviews sunshine requests.”
RadarOnline.com has reached out to Harris and her campaign for comment, but have not yet had any response.
Piscitelli, front, was molested by a sex predator priest more than 50 years ago at Salesian High School.
Abuse survivor Piscitelli now helps lead the California office of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.
The group says 211 clergy are being sued for sex abuse offenses in the San Francisco Diocese – which includes San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties – and the amount of church figures there who have been accused or hit with lawsuits has now reached 499.
In 2020, the Harris campaign stressed her record of supporting child sex abuse victims – but did not address her silence regarding victims abused by Catholic clerics.
It said: “Kamala Harris has been a staunch advocate on behalf of sexual assault victims, especially child sexual assault victims.
“(She) used her position as District Attorney to create the first unit focused on child sexual assault cases in the office’s history.” Investigative journalist Schweizer also stated in his book Harris has received “high-dollar donations” from “those connected to the Catholic Church institutional hierarchy”.
He added: “Harris had no particular ties to the Catholic Church or Catholic organizations, but the money still came in large, unprecedented sums.”
Schweizer names a series of lawyers and board members working with legal firms that represented the Catholic Church who donated to Harris’ political coffers.
He adds Harris “also had ties to those who were working to prevent the Catholic Church documents from coming to light” – including an attorney he said “negotiated the agreement” to bury the hidden church records from public view.
Schweizer admits in his investigation it is “unclear” what became of the records.
Victims of priests’ abuse protesting in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
He said: “In April 2010, a journalist with the San Francisco Weekly asked for the records through California’s Public Records Act. Harris’ office denied the request, offering conflicting explanations as to why they could not provide them.”
Schweizer concludes: “Harris somehow served as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011, and then as California attorney general from 2011 to 2017, and never brought a single documented case forward against an abusive priest.
“It is an astonishing display of inaction, given the number of cases brought in other parts of the country.
“To put this lack of action in perspective, at least 50 other cities charged priests in sexual abuse cases during her tenure as San Francisco district attorney.
“San Francisco is conspicuous by its absence. The blind eye to priest sexual abuse was just part of a pattern of favoritism that has permeated Harris’ career as a prosecutor.
“Though not as dramatic as the sexual crimes, there were numerous instances where she was apparently prepared to look the other way to protect politically connected insiders.
“Her actions represent the ultimate form of leveraging power in the criminal justice realm-deciding not to pursue criminal charges.”
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