law enforcement agencies. One of the priests also served in the Diocese of Paterson. By 2020, the names of 86 accused clergy who served in Archdiocese of Newark were made public. Some of those listed were already convicted. In December 2019, a new law went into effect throughout the state of New Jersey which resulted in some of McCarrick's victims filing lawsuits against the former Cardinal and Archdiocese of Newark. As of December 9, 2019, a total of eight lawsuits were filed against the archdiocese, with one also being filed against the Vatican. On December 27, 2019, the Washington Post revealed that McCarrick gave $600,000 to high-ranking church officials, including two popes, multiple priests, cardinals and archbishops, when he was Archbishop of Washington between 2001 and 2006 amid a sexual abuse probe. The Post article stated that "Several of the more than 100 recipients were directly involved in assessing misconduct claims against McCarrick, documents and interviews show." However, some of these recipients, including both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, had little oversight over these transactions. Robert Hoatson, a former Newark cleric who was involved in the transactions, described these payments as "hush money." By February 9, 2020, the five Catholic dioceses in the state of New Jersey, including the Archdiocese of Newark, had paid a total of over $11 million to compensate 105 claims of sex abuse committed by Catholic clergy. Of these 105 claims, 98 were compensated through settlements. The payments also do not involve 459 other sex abuse cases in these dioceses which are still not resolved. The same month, it was reported that not only the Archdiocese of Newark, but of Diocese of Meutchen and Diocese of Trenton were secretly paying McCarrick's victims since 2005. On July 13, 2020, it was revealed that nine new sex abuse lawsuits were filed against the Archdiocese of Newark. The new lawsuits allege abuse by four archdiocese priests and three members of religious orders, including one cleric who had not been publicly accused of abuse before the lawsuit was made public. On July 23, 2020, it was revealed that a new lawsuit which had been filed against the Archdiocese of Newark, Diocese of Metuchen and Catholic schools an alleged victim attended claimed that a beach house which McCarrick owned served as common places priests and others under the control of McCarrick engaged in “open and obvious criminal sexual