A Portland attorney held a news conference on Thursday after which he made the files available. The documents date from 1959 to 1985. This is the first time the earliest documents - those from 1959 to 1971 - have been made public.
The documents show that in many instances the files succeeded in keeping pedophiles out of Scouting, but many times they did not.
The Associated Press obtained copies of the files weeks in advance and conducted an extensive review of them.
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