Tag Archives: organized crime

We’re not holding our breath, but fingers crossed: Just two days ago, attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted that Donald Trump Jr. will be indicted, in a response to a tweet that Trump Jr. made mocking the idea that Avenatti could run for President. This garnered a lot of attention from the public, as Avenatti has consistently been a thorn in President …

Pope Francis today acknowledged that sexual abuse scandals all over the world are driving people away from the Catholic Church. Francis referred directly to the crisis convulsing his papacy on the fourth and final day of his Baltic pilgrimage, which coincided with the release of a devastating new report into decades of sex abuse and cover-up in Germany. Francis told …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Investigators “have evidence that the Vatican had knowledge of the cover-up,” involving priests accused of sexually abusing thousands of Pennsylvania children over decades, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Tuesday morning on NBC’s Today show. “I can’t speak specifically to Pope Francis, but I think the broader issues here with the Vatican knowing about this, with …

Agence France-Presse reports: Pope Francis has recommended parents seek psychiatric help for children who show homosexual tendencies, during a press conference on his plane taking him back to Rome from Ireland. A journalist asked the pontiff on Sunday what he would say to parents who observe homosexual traits in their children. “I would say first of all pray, not to …

Just in from Catholic League president Bill Donohue: While some Catholics are spinning out of control over cases of sexual abuse committed by the dead and the laicized, MTV will present the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award to Jennifer Lopez on August 21. No one from the media, and certainly no finger-pointing Catholic, will question why there is an award …

Catholic League president Bill Donohue today posted a lengthy “debunking” of media reports about the still-unfolding and massive molestation scandal wracking the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. Donohue’s missive includes his usual charges of anti-Catholic bigotry and personal attacks on “salacious” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. There’s also this: Shapiro said that “Church officials routinely and purposely described the abuse as …

Via press release from blowhard Bill Donohue: Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro needs to explain why he never convened a grand jury to investigate the sexual abuse of minors in the public schools. That’s where the action is — his state has one of the worst records on this score of any state in the nation — so why is …

Flint’s ABC affiliate reports: Police were serving search warrants Thursday in connection with the investigation of Saginaw area priests. A contingent of law enforcement officials from multiple agencies raided Bishop Joseph Cistone’s residence, the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw offices and St. Mary’s Cathedral in Saginaw. Police obtained the three search warrants that were being executed as part of the investigation …

CNN reports: Before Donald Trump and Steve Bannon were enemies, they were allies. And not long before that, Bannon was part of an effort to sink Trump’s presidential hopes — even if Trump didn’t know it. A conservative watchdog group led by Bannon tried to discredit Trump in the early stages of the 2016 Republican presidential primary by shopping a …

The Hill reports: Investors and customers of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City carried deep ties to organized crime and drug trafficking, according to an NBC News and Reuters joint investigation. A Brazillian real estate salesman who partnered with the Trumps to attract condo buyers for the tower told NBC that the Trumps and others …

ABC News reports: There, indeed, was an FBI wiretap involving Russians at Trump Tower. But it was not placed at the behest of Barack Obama and the target was not the Trump campaign of 2016. For two years ending in 2013, the FBI had a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a sophisticated Russian organized crime money laundering network that operated …

The New York Daily News reports: President-elect Donald Trump rang in the new year together with Joseph “Joey No Socks” Cinque — a convicted felon with ties to notorious Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, a recently released video has revealed. Cinque can be seen in a video obtained by the Palm Beach Daily News, cheering loudly as a tuxedo-clad …

Yahoo News reports: A newly uncovered video appears to contradict Donald Trump’s claim that he never knew a high-stakes gambler who was banned from New Jersey casinos for alleged ties to organized crime. The reputed mob figure, Robert LiButti, can be seen standing alongside Trump in the front row of a 1988 “WrestleMania” match in Atlantic City, N.J. LiButti wasn’t …

The ad below plays in part on the news reported today by USA Today: Hillary Clinton’s campaign is seizing on new reports about Donald Trump’s business ties to Russia, saying they may explain positions he’s taken friendly to Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Thursday, ABC News reported that prospective U.S. sanctions against Russia could be in direct conflict with Trump’s …

Dry your tears, Maggie. Via CNN: Under furious assault from conservative Catholics, the Vatican backtracked Tuesday on its surprisingly positive assessment of gays and same-sex relationships. In a report Monday, the Vatican had said that gays and lesbians have “gifts to offer” the Christian community and acknowledged that same-sex couples can give “precious support” to one other. The statement, an …

Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been the target of withering criticism from Catholics after saying that he’ll stay on as the grand marshal of next year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade even though the entire celebration is totally going to be ruined by the inclusion of one LGBT group. Dolan responded to his naysayers this week in a lengthy letter published to …

Via the Guardian: Pope Francis has issued the strongest condemnation of organised crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practising “the adoration of evil” and saying that mafiosi were excommunicated. It was the first time a pope had used the word excommunication – a total cutoff from the church – in direct reference to members of …

St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson has testified that he’s not sure that he has always known that child molestation is a crime. Carlson was deposed regarding abuses that took place while he was a bishop in Minnesota. During the deposition taken last month, attorney Jeff Anderson asked Carlson whether he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage …

“Many of these cases of (sexual) molestation could be avoided given a healthy relationship between parents. We often hear that this inappropriate attitude (pedophilia), or abuse, manifests itself when a child is looking for love. It (the child) clings, it searches. It gets lost itself and then draws another person into this. How many wounds are their in children’s hearts, …

Today the Vatican released an 82-page document co-written by Pope Francis and former Pope Benedict in which the pair says that marriage is only blah blah blah. Francis paid tribute to pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the encyclical, saying that the ex-pontiff had “almost completed” the text before stepping down in a historic resignation this year and that he himself …