Thread by @reveal

1/ “The Witnesses,” a new series on @oxygen based on our reporting, premiers Feb. 8 at 7/6c.

It’s a culmination of years of @treybundy’s reporting on a child sexual abuse cover-up among Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Here’s the work that led us to this moment … oxygen.com/the-witnesses

2/ May 1, 2014: A manila envelope arrives at @Reveal HQ.

It contains a small batch of confidential memos from Jehovah’s Witnesses’ headquarters, known as the Watchtower.

3/ The memos instruct elders across the U.S. that child abuse is a confidential matter, not to be discussed outside the organization – even with police – unless directed by the Watchtower.

4/ Trey spends nine months collecting more documents and talking with sources across the globe about the Watchtower’s child sexual abuse policies for his first story.

5/ He learns the organization maintains a database of alleged child sexual abusers.

But it refuses to hand the info over to courts: revealnews.org/article/jehova…

6/ March 2015: A top Jehovah’s Witnesses leader, apparently responding to the story, posts a video dismissing Trey’s findings as “apostate-driven lies,” and says no one does more to protect kids than “Jehovah’s organization.” revealnews.org/article/jehova…

7/ Survivors tell @TreyBundy that elders kept them quiet by threatening to “disfellowship” them if they told police or other members of their congregations about their abuse.

Disfellowshipping is Jehovah’s Witnesses’ version of excommunication.

8/ When someone is disfellowshipped, they’re shunned by everyone in their congregation. Their friends and family won’t speak to them, or even acknowledge them if they see them at the grocery store.

9/ In 2015, Trey went to Oklahoma to meet a woman who was sexually abused as a little girl for five years by the top elder in her congregation.

When she grew up, he disfellowshipped her. Most of her family shuns her to this day.

revealnews.org/article/jehova…

10/ More and more abuse survivors file lawsuits against the Watchtower.

During one case, a senior Watchtower official admits the organization has collected child abuse reports from around the country since at least 1997, and scanned them into an electronic database.

11/ Judges order the Watchtower to hand over its child abuse database.

The Watchtower refuses.

A battle for the documents goes on for years. Cases keep settling before the files shake loose in court.

revealnews.org/article/how-je…

12/ Trey calls the FBI, attorneys general in multiple states and members of congress to find out if they’re investigating the Watchtower, but no one seems interested in the org’s child abuse files.

13/ Meanwhile, in Australia, a Royal Commission has obtained the Watchtower’s child abuse files in that country.

More than 1,000 alleged abusers are discovered.

NONE had been reported to police. revealnews.org/blog/australia…

14/ Trey eventually headed to New York, looking for answers from Watchtower leaders. revealnews.org/episodes/secre…

15/ Five years of reporting. Dozens of interviews. Thousands of documents. It all culminates in “The Witnesses,” a documentary series that premiers on @Oxygen this Saturday at 7/6c.

Don’t miss it.