The FBI is in hot water after the release of a memo that found the agency’s investigation into traditional Catholics may be broader than officials initially led on.
This week, during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO.) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray after the FBI struggled to define its “Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” and “the far-right white nationalist movement.”
Earlier this year, the agency’s Richmond office issued a memo warning about the rising domestic threat posed by “radical” Catholics, claiming it “certainly presents new mitigation opportunities.” The memo suggested “trip wire or source development” within parishes that offer the Traditional Latin Mass and within online communities.
The hearing followed a months-long investigation that led House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH.) to reveal that multiple agents were involved in the memo.
“Good heavens, director, this is one of the most outrageous targetings — you have mobilized your division, the most powerful law enforcement division in the world, against traditionalist Catholics … and you just told us you have not fired a single person,” Hawley said during the exchange.
Wray argued that the memo was only related to the Richmond office. However, the report found that “the FBI had plans for an external, FBI-wide product based on the Richmond memorandum.” A House Select Subcommittee report found that the memo would infiltrate several field offices nationwide, including in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Portland.
In addition, employees who were involved in the memo have been reprimanded, and their salaries may have been slashed.
“We do not and will not conduct investigations based on anybody’s exercise of their constitutionally protected religious [expression],” Wray claimed.
“You have done so, and your memo explicitly asks for it,” Hawley fired back.
Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with the Catholic Association and popular radio broadcaster, expressed disappointment in the FBI, telling the National Review that the “agency, designed to protect Americans and their rights, was spying on Catholics everywhere from their choir lofts to their rectories.”