AXED

Pennsylvania Solicitor Fired for Role in Church Sex-Abuse Report

Allentown City Council voted out Thomas Traud after report alleged he’d tried to “discredit” victims.

A Pennsylvania solicitor has become the first figure named in a grand-jury report on systemic clergy sexual abuse to be fired over his alleged role in helping to cover up the scandal. Just a day after the allegations were made public, the Allentown City Council voted unanimously to remove Thomas Traud as the city’s solicitor, with members saying they were disturbed by allegations that he’d sought to “undermine” and “discredit” victims of abuse, according to local newspaper The Morning Call. Traud, who has been Allentown’s solicitor since May, had served as outside counsel for the Allentown Diocese since the 1980s. He was accused in the report of seeking to portray one victim of alleged sexual abuse as a woman who “wants her 15 minutes of fame.” Traud has not been charged in connection with any allegations made in the grand-jury report. He has yet to comment on his dismissal.