Border Patrol Agents Find 163 Illegal Aliens Wandering in Arizona Desert

By Townhall. The Associated Press reports that United States Border Patrol agents have once again rescued hundreds of illegal aliens found wandering the Arizona desert after crossing the Mexican border into the country and being abandoned by human traffickers.

While the number of large-scale caravans of migrant men, women, and children entering the southern border has decreased since President Trump was elected, Border Patrol agents occasionally apprehend illegal aliens in large numbers as they did last Saturday near the Lukeville Port in Ajo, AZ.

In a statement given to Breitbart Texas, Tuscon Sector Border Patrol agents blamed “transnational crime organizations” who “exploit the vulnerability of foreign nationals with false promises of legal status and encourage dangerous border crossings, which place lives at risk” for the incident. According to the AP report, 163 men, women, and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were taken in by authorities for medical evaluation. The youngest of these migrants was 4 months old. (Read more from “Border Patrol Agents Find 163 Illegal Aliens Wandering in Arizona Desert” HERE)

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‘Angel Families’, Trump Aides Rally Against Illegal Alien Crime

By Fox News. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway speaks on illegal immigrant crime Friday outside the Capitol with “Angel Families.” (Alex Pappas/Fox News)

In the continued fallout over the murder of an Iowa college student, allegedly at the hands of a Mexican man, advisers to President Trump joined “Angel Families” at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Friday to draw attention to crime committed by illegal immigrants.

“You will never be silenced, and your loved ones will never be forgotten,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told families. “Here’s the truth: open borders leads to massive crime. And massive crime that is totally avoidable.”

Others at the rally included former White House deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who recently lost his Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in Arizona.

“I also will never forget the names of these individuals, whether it’s Mollie Tibbetts or it’s Kate Steinle,” Gorka said. (Read more from “‘Angel Families’, Trump Aides Rally Against Illegal Alien Crime” HERE)

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GOP Senator Claims He ‘Regularly Considers’ Leaving Republican Party

In a Saturday Twitter exchange, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse revealed that he “regularly considers” leaving the Republican Party behind.

Sasse — a Republican who has disagreed with President Donald Trump on multiple occasions — was asked whether he would consider following the example of a woman who switched from being a registered Democrat to having no party at all, according to The Hill.

“(Y)ep — regularly consider it,” Sasse tweeted, “(except the ‘from Dem’ part).”

As in many discussions about the current and future state of the Republican Party, Trump was invoked as both a blessing and the bane of its existence.

“He is accelerating the trend, obviously. But it didn’t start two years ago. (Eg, you should check out the polling on the giant share of Democrats that believed George W. Bush knowingly concealed the 9/11 plot against America.),” Sasse tweeted.

The Twitter conversation had started when Sasse offered a pessimistic view of the midterm elections. “(W)e’re headed toward a place where hefty majorities of both sides of the electorate are going to regularly embrace unsupported and blatantly false assertions,” he wrote, according to Time.

Sasse this past week tried to stake the claim of being less focused on party issues than others in Washington.

“I’m not really sure why a lot of people around here make a lot of their decisions, but I think most people in both parties right now, their main long-term interest in Washington is their own incumbency. And, that’s not really what I’m that interested in,” Sasse told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” according to CBS.

“Most of the stuff I care about isn’t right vs. left. It’s past vs. future,” he said.

Saturday’s tweet was not the first time Sasse has put distance between himself and the GOP on social media.

“I’m sorta an independent conservative who caucuses with republicans,” he tweeted in March 2017.

In a February 2016 Facebook post that denounced Trump’s candidacy, along with that of Hillary Clinton, Sasse said he felt a political party came second to the reasons it was formed.

“Now, let’s talk about political parties: parties are just tools to enact the things that we believe. Political parties are not families; they are not religions; they are not nations – they are often not even on the level of sports loyalties. They are just tools. I was not born Republican. I chose this party, for as long as it is useful,” he wrote.

“If our Party is no longer working for the things we believe in – like defending the sanctity of life, stopping ObamaCare, protecting the Second Amendment, etc. – then people of good conscience should stop supporting that party until it is reformed.” (For more from the author of “GOP Senator Claims He ‘Regularly Considers’ Leaving Republican Party” please click HERE)

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Russian Threat Forces U.S. Military Action in Syria

As Russia and Syria attacked Syria’s last major region held by anti-government rebels, the United States sent a warning to Russia’s Syrian-based forces in the form of a contingent of Marines.

Hours before reports of bombing began to come in from Idlib province, located in the northwest of Syria, more than 100 Marines were sent to a coalition base in Al Tanf, which the U.S. protects with a 35-mile security zone around the town. Marines conducted live-fire exercises in the region.

Tanf is located in the south, near Syria’s border with Jordan. Twice this month, Russian leaders have threatened the U.S. with military exercises in the region, and twice the Russians have been told the U.S. will not permit that, Fox News reported.

“The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war,” said Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, the Los Angeles Times reported. “However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend U.S., coalition or partner forces.”

The U.S. uses the Tanf base to train Syrian fighters to oppose Islamic State militants. Officials said they sent the Marines in response to fears that Russia could use its upcoming offensive in Idlib province as a time to also attack Tanf.

Initial reports Saturday from Idlib province said Russian jets were bombing civilian targets. At least four people were reported killed, according to The Guardian.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported there were more than 30 air raids Saturday in southwestern Idlib and Hama province, Fox News reported.

Health official Munzer Al-Khalil said there was “great fear” in Idlib province, Sky News reported.

“I fear we are about to face the most catastrophic crisis in our war,” he said. “When they decide to take an area, they first attack hospitals. I am worried this has already started.”

Neighboring Turkey issued a warning against escalating the attacks.

“Idlib is a ticking bomb,” said Turkish government spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. “We can turn it off and start a new process in Syria if the international community gets serious about the Syrian war and shows that they do care about the Syrian people.”

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump warned Syria against attacking Idlib.

“President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!” Trump tweeted Monday.

With that in mind, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said conversations have begun to develop military response options for Trump, NBC reported.

Dunford said no decision has been made.

“But we are in a dialogue, a routine dialogue, with the president to make sure he knows where we are with regard to planning in the event that chemical weapons are used,” he said during a trip to India.

Trump “expects us to have military options and we have provided updates to him on the development of those military options,” Dunford said. (For more from the author of “Russian Threat Forces U.S. Military Action in Syria” please click HERE)

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Study: Gun Owners More Likely to Utilize Their Constitutional Rights Than Non-Gun Owners

. . .A new study by the University of Kansas has illuminated yet another connection between guns and politics. And this one may have people who lean right politically cheering.

According to the study, American gun owners are in the thick of it politically, being more active than their non-gun-owning counterparts across the board. This includes “not only in voting but in donating money to candidates and contacting elected officials.”

The Huffington Post reported other areas of increased engagement by gun owners. They included things such as registering to vote, voting in presidential elections, signing petitions, and posting on social media about guns. . .

NBC News reported in June 2015 that only about one-third of Americans actually owned one or more guns, according to study data published in Injury Prevention. Despite gun sales surges during the President Barack Obama years, a Pew Research Center Study from June 2017 reflects a similar gun ownership number — 30 percent of adults are gun owners.

But even though non-gun owners clearly outnumber gun owners, being more engaged politically matters. Political science graduate student Abbie Vegter explained, “Part of the reason majority opinions on gun control legislation aren’t turning into policy is that gun owners are a very strong political group who hold a lot of weight and hold a lot of influence despite being a minority in American politics.” (Read more from “Study: Gun Owners More Likely to Utilize Their Constitutional Rights Than Non-Gun Owners” HERE)

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Veronika Kyrylenko: Playing the Victim – Russian Hacking Is the Left’s Favorite Piece of Propaganda

The economy is booming, GDP is growing, the stock market is soaring, hitting historic high while unemployment rates hit historic lows. Job-stifling regulations are being eliminated. Homeland security is improved due to strict immigration policy and border protection. United States energy dominance and independence are boosted. Significant achievements are being made in the promotion of the international fair trade. The list of achievements of the Trump administration is long.

What should we do to this president, though? Impeach him, of course — according to Democrats. Because of Russia … or something.

Democrats say it was Russia who stole the elections in 2016 when they hacked the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails and exposed their shortcomings. Well, apparently it was not only Russia that was “responsible” for the Democrat candidate’s defeat — it was also the FBI, the DNC, white men, women, Bernie supporters, independents, political journalists, WikiLeaks, President Obama, TV coverage of the campaign…

Now, on the eve of the midterm election, the Democrats are summoning the Russian boogeyman back to the political discourse.

Conspiracy Theories as a Part of the Left’s Mythology

The logic of the Democrats is quite predictable, and the creation of an “enemy” image and its evil plots have become a favorite technique of their propaganda. As the left does not have any rational counterarguments to the effectiveness of Trump’s policies, they use deception and try to scare people.

How does this method work? The growth of the social and emotional discomfort caused by the spread of fear of real or fictitious threats, allows, firstly, to consolidate consumers on a myth around a political leader of the party who promises protection against those threats.

Secondly, it diverts people’s attention from the other issues, including, for example, shortcomings of the Democrat’s policies, sex scandals, violence of the left, etc. Also, the “conspiratorial” mythology aims to diminish the achievements of the rival party in the eyes of the voters — if the Trump administration serves Russia, then everything that it does can’t benefit America.

The Truth of the Myth

While the conspiracy theory that claims Russian President Vladimir Putin owns Donald Trump is false and made-up, the myth about Russian hackers is not a sheer lie.

Every myth, to look trustworthy and believable, contains a grain of truth, but is usually grossly distorted and twisted, misinterpreted and aimed to deceive rather than inform.

Indeed, cyber threats from Russia, as well as other countries such as China and Iran, and from extremist groups and international criminals, is real and imminent. Rapid technological and informational development has its downside: its vulnerability to the malware that may potentially disrupt the work of industries and governments while consuming close to none of the material resources. Cyberspace has become one of the main battlefields today, and the United States — the world’s largest superpower — is naturally becoming a primal target of the cyberattacks.

The 2016 presidential election was a way too important and significant event for foreign governments not to try to interfere in it. There were proven cases of Russian cyberattacks exposed by the U.S. Intelligence Community. As the result, in March 2018, the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on Russian government hackers, including 19 people and 5 organizations, as well as Russian spy government departments — Federal Security Bureau (successor of the Soviet KGB) and GRU, or Main Intelligence Directorate, Russian military intelligence.

One year earlier, on May 11, 2017, Trump issued an executive order “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure” to “improve the Nation’s cyber posture and capabilities in the face of intensifying cybersecurity threats.” This EO focused Federal efforts on modernizing federal information technology infrastructure, working with state and local government and private sector partners to more fully secure critical infrastructure, and collaborating with foreign allies.

The Trump administration is fully aware of the threat and acts vigilantly on this matter.

Thus, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Sept. 5 said that the cyberweapons and sophisticated hacking pose a greater threat to the United States than the risk of physical attacks, and urged state elected officials to add more safeguards to their voting systems.

The Lie of the Myth

But that is not how the Democrats present the issue. They aim to create an impression that it is only them who are under attack.

Thus, by late August, four Democrat candidates running for Congress were cyberattacked. Although only one cyberattack has been tied to Russians, mainstream media outlets like Reuters, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast and CNN, reported that the cyberattacks “pay resemblance” to the hacking done to Clinton’s campaign in 2016.

Anecdotally, at the same time, the DNC raved about the Russian cyberattack that aimed to steal millions of voter records. It eventually turned out to be a test attack conducted by the Michigan Democratic Party that it had failed to inform the DNC about.

What the Democrats usually do not mention is the attempted hacking of the U.S. political institutions and conservative think tanks such as The Hudson Institute that conducts in-depth research on Russian corruption, and the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit group that promotes democracy worldwide. Even when it is mentioned, it is always linked to the hackers’ attack on the DNC and Clinton’s campaign.

The repetitions of “Russian meddling” and “Russian interference” which are always connected to the specific case of hacking targeted against the Democrats in 2016 aims to create a stereotypical and subconscious belief that the Russian hackers play on the side of the Republicans and President Trump.

But the strength of the myth is that once it is rooted in one’s worldview, it is extremely hard to disprove, which is exactly why the Democrats appeal to emotions rather than intellect. Creating scarecrows in order to excuse own failures is so much easier than a self-reflection.

In the end, it is the Americans who cast their vote and thankfully most of them are not easily fooled. (For more from the author of “Veronika Kyrylenko: Playing the Victim – Russian Hacking Is the Left’s Favorite Piece of Propaganda” please click HERE)

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U.S. Mayor Refuses to Cooperate With ICE

By IJR. Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced on Thursday that her city would permanently end its cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) requests to detain people. . .

“We will not be complicit in an immigration policy that intentionally inflicts misery on vulnerable populations,” she said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bottoms said she would transfer the remaining ICE detainees from her city’s detention center as part of an executive order she signed that day. Only five ICE detainees remained after Bottoms signed an executive order months earlier that blocked new ones from entering her city’s jail.

(Read more from “U.S. Mayor Refuses to Cooperate With Ice” HERE)

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Assaults on ICE, Border Patrol Surge as Illegal Aliens Get More Violent

By Washington Times. Assaults on ICE agents reached a decade high in 2017, and assaults on Border Patrol agents have also surged in recent years, according to new government numbers that seem to back up agents’ claims that illegal immigrants are increasingly looking to fight rather than flee.

The new numbers, reported by Homeland Security’s inspector general, could even be underselling the problem, investigators said, because the government doesn’t do a good job of tracking incidents, and agents and officers don’t always report them properly.

But the report does signal renewed danger particularly on the southwest border, where agents say a surge in illegal immigration in recent years generally correlates with growing violence.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, often refuse to bring charges or win cases against the perpetrators, the audit found.

At the border, the most frequent method of attack was projectiles — usually large rocks — which accounted for half of assaults. But bombs, clubs, knives, guns and even laser pointers to blind agents have all been used. (Read more from “Assaults on ICE, Border Patrol Surge as Illegal Aliens Get More Violent” HERE)

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Apple Creating Portal to Give Law Enforcement Agencies Your Data

Apple, a company that gained fame for its well-publicized standoff against police who wanted the secrets held in the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino mass shooters, now says it wants to be a good partner with law enforcement.

The company said this week that by the end of the year, it will launch a portal for law enforcement officers who have what Apple terms “lawful requests for information,” according to the San Jose Mercury News.

“We believe that law enforcement agencies play a critical role in keeping our society safe and we’ve always maintained that if we have information we will make it available when presented with valid legal process,” Apple said in a new statement on its website.

Apple maintained on its site that it will strike the right balance.

“We’ll continue working for greater transparency and data security protections on behalf of our customers. Apple has never created a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services. We have also never allowed any government direct access to Apple servers. And we never will,” the site said.

However, Apple also touted its track record of working with police.

Apple said it has a “team of dedicated professionals within our legal department who manage and respond to all legal requests received from law enforcement agencies globally” and provides training to teach law enforcement how to request data in alignment with Apple’s rules.

Apple said it will do more.

“We are building a team of professionals dedicated to training law enforcement officers globally, which will significantly increase our ability to reach smaller police forces and agencies. This will include the development of an online training module for officers,” Apple wrote.

“This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company’s information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape,” it said.

Also this past week, Apple responded to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which discussed balancing privacy and security. One of its main questions was a basic one: In a changing landscape, who has what data?

“Increasingly, information that is critical is digital, and it’s in the hands of third-parties tech providers that control and manage so much information about their users and customers, and law enforcement with adequate privacy protections should be able to access that data,” said Jennifer Daskal, a co-author of the CSIS report, Business Insider reported.

She said the two sides have faced an inability to communicate.

“Law enforcement, generally, was incredibly frustrated with what they saw as a lack of clarity from service providers about what they needed to do to get information, such that some suggested that service providers were trying to thwart access in some cases,” Daskal said.

Whereas service providers from their perspective seemed to be concerned that law enforcement in their view was asking for information that they didn’t have or making requests that were overbroad or from the service providers perspective inappropriate or without sufficient limitations, with respect to time, for example,” she added.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island was told by Kate Adams, senior vice president and general counsel for Apple, that Apple’s new actions are in the spirit of the report.

“As the CSIS report finds, the rapidly changing nature of technology makes law enforcement’s job more complex,” she wrote.

During 2017, she said that Apple responded to more than 14,000 requests from various levels of law enforcement involving more than 62,000 devices, accounts or other identifiers. (For more from “Apple Creating Portal to Give Law Enforcement Agencies Your Data” please click HERE)

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North Korea Committed to Denuclearize by the End of Trump’s Term

North Korea will complete its journey along the rocky road to denuclearization by the end of President Donald Trump’s current term in office, according to a South Korean official.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Sept. 18-20 to discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said Thursday, according to Reuters.

Moon’s trip to Pyongyang will be the first visit of a South Korean leader to the capital of North Korea since 2007. It will also be the third meeting of the year between Moon and Kim.

Chung met with Kim on Wednesday and said the North Korean leader indicated his faith in Trump was “unchanged.”

“This trust, despite some difficulties surfaced during the negotiation process between the U.S. and the North, will continue,” Chung said, according to CNN.

North Korean state media said Kim “remains unchanged in his determination to strive hard to bring the fellow countrymen better results at an early date.”

“Noting that it is our fixed stand and his (Kim’s) will to completely remove the danger of armed conflict and horror of war from the Korean peninsula and turn it into the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat, he said that the north and the south should further their efforts to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” North Korea’s news agency said.

Kim also set the goal of achieving denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and overhauling U.S. relations by the time Trump’s current term ends, Chung said.

Chung said North Korea “was willing to take more active measures toward denuclearization if his advance steps could be met with matching measures (from the U.S.).”

“He particularly emphasized that he has never said anything negative about President Trump,” Chung said.

Trump responded to the comments with a tweet.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo conceded getting the concepts of an alliance down on paper remains daunting.

“The work of convincing Chairman Kim to make this strategic shift that we’ve talked about for a brighter future for the people of North Korea continues,” Pompeo said, according to The Daily Caller.

“It is the case that there is still an enormous amount of work to do,” he added. (For more from the author of “North Korea Committed to Denuclearize by the End of Trump’s Term” please click HERE)

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Mattis Makes Surprise Stop for Talks With New U.S. Commander, Afghan Officials

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in the Afghan capital on Friday in an unannounced visit, amid upheaval in the senior ranks of American and Afghan officials waging the 17-year war against the Taliban and other Islamist militants.

Mr. Mattis, accompanied by Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was to hold meetings with senior Afghan officials and with Army Gen. Austin Miller, the new commander of American-led international forces here, as well as hold a town-hall style forum with troops.

Peace talks with the Taliban, the country’s largest insurgency group, were expected to be high on the agenda of discussions between Mr. Mattis and Afghan officials.

In July, U.S. diplomats and Taliban representatives met in the Gulf state of Qatar to discuss a possible framework for talks aimed at ending the war. However, a series of devastating Taliban attacks last month and the insurgency’s refusal to reciprocate Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s call for a three-month cease-fire have slowed momentum for further discussions.

Still, while the war against the Taliban and Islamic State’s local branch has expanded since President Trump announced his rejuvenated Afghanistan strategy little more than a year ago, Mr. Mattis made clear this week that the prospect of talks with the Taliban hasn’t evaporated. (Read more from “Mattis Makes Surprise Stop for Talks With New U.S. Commander, Afghan Officials” HERE)

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Source: New York Subpoenas Every Catholic Diocese in the State

The New York attorney general’s office has issued civil subpoenas to all eight of the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses, a law enforcement source told Reuters, as investigations into sexual abuse allegations within the Catholic Church gain steam across the country.

The unidentified source revealed these subpoenas were part of an ongoing investigation into dioceses’ review processes and potential cover-ups of alleged sex crimes committed by Catholic priests, Reuters reported.

“The Attorney General’s Charities Bureau has launched a civil investigation into how the dioceses and other church entities — which are non-profit institutions — reviewed and potentially covered up allegations of extensive sexual abuse of minors,” the attorney general’s announcement read.

New York is among the growing number of states across the nation that have begun investigations into claims and cover-ups of sex crimes in the church.

More have also begun to consider pulling secret and/or decades-old files from the dioceses for review as well, according to The Washington Post.

The Associated Press reported that following the issuing of subpoenas in New York, New Jersey announced a criminal task force Thursday that will look into the handling of abuse allegations in its seven dioceses.

“We owe it to the people of New Jersey to find out whether the same thing happened here,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “If it did, we will take action against those responsible.”

The Post reported that New Mexico began its investigation this week, and Nebraska and Missouri may soon follow suit.

Last month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the results of a grand jury report on a two-year investigation that uncovered records stating that, over 70 years, nearly 1,000 people, mainly children, had been sexually abused by over 300 priests in six of the state’s dioceses.

The shocking announcement has caused many in the church to demand criminal investigations. According to the statement by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, it compelled officials to take action in New York.

“The Pennsylvania grand jury report shined a light on incredibly disturbing and depraved acts by Catholic clergy, assisted by a culture of secrecy and cover ups in the dioceses,” Underwood said Thursday in her announcement.

“Victims in New York deserve to be heard as well — and we are going to do everything in our power to bring them the justice they deserve.”

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New York, said it would be as cooperative as possible as the investigation moves forward.

“Not only do we provide any information they seek, they also notify us as well when they learn of an allegation of abuse, so that, even if they cannot bring criminal charges, we might investigate and remove from ministry any cleric who has a credible and substantiated allegation of abuse,” he said.

So far, the Diocese of Buffalo has agreed to cooperate with the investigation by the New York State attorney general or district attorney, Reuters reported.

Victim hotlines have been set up in New York and New Jersey to assist officials as the investigations begin. (For more from the author of “Source: New York Subpoenas Every Catholic Diocese in the State” please click HERE)

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