Former priest pleads guilty to lying to investigators

A defrocked priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of making false statements to FBI agents investigating clergy abuse.

Former Philadelphia priest Robert Brennan, 83, changed his plea to guilty Wednesday in federal court, according to court documents. The charges stem from a federal investigation undertaken after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released an explosive 2018 grand jury report on abuse in the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses that detailed decades of abuse by more than 300 priests against nearly 1,000 victims across the state.

Then-U.S. Attorney William McSwain sent subpoenas to dioceses across the state asking the bishops to turn over files and submit to testimony in front of a grand jury if asked.

Court records showed FBI agents had interviewed at least six priests to determine whether federal charges could be filed.

Charges against Brennan stemmed from one of those interviews, in which investigators say the priest lied about knowing a man who alleged Brennan had sexually abused him while he was an altar boy at a North Philadelphia church. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for March, and prosecutors have asked for five years of probation with two years served under house arrest.

A message left with Brennan’s attorneys was not immediately returned Wednesday. His attorneys had previously argued that the charges should be thrown out because the FBI investigators spent more than an hour in Brennan’s Maryland home and searched his computer without contacting the former priest’s longtime lawyer.