Tipsheet

Oh, So It Turns Out Multiple FBI Field Offices Coordinated on Anti-Catholic Memo

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 09, 2023 2:30 PM

Earlier this year, an FBI memo revealed that the weaponized Department of Justice (DOJ) was looking to target and infiltrate Catholic churches, something FBI Director Christopher Wray tried to downplay with reassurances that it was just limited to the Richmond field office. That's not quite the case it turns out, as was revealed in a Wednesday letter that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government Chairman Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent to Wray. 

The Committee has been in a back-and-forth with Wray for months about this troubling matter, going as far as issuing subpoenas and threatening to hold him in contempt, though ultimately stopping short after the documents were provided on July 25. That doesn't mean that Jordan is done getting to the bottom of the matter, as is made clear in the letter. If anything, the need for transparency is more important, considering that the letter detailed coordination that the FBI field offices in Portland and Los Angeles had with Richmond.

"This new information suggests that the FBI’s use of its law enforcement capabilities to intrude on American’s First Amendment rights is more widespread than initially suspected and reveals inconsistencies with your previous testimony before the Committee. Given this startling new information, we write to request additional information to advance our oversight," Jordan and Johnson pointed out. 

That testimony in question took place on July 12, when Wray appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing on oversight of the FBI, during which the bureau's targeting of Catholics and pro-lifers was a common theme, including when Jordan questioned the director. 

Wray hid behind waiting on an internal review, rather than offering any kind of motivation for the memo. What he was willing to speak to was his how the memo was supposedly limited to Richmond. "Well, what I can tell you is you are referring to the Richmond product, which is a single product by a single field office, which, as soon as I found out about, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems." he told Jordan. 

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"On July 25, 2023, the FBI produced a version of the Richmond document with fewer redactions than the two previous versions it had produced. This new version shows that the FBI’s actions were not just limited to 'a single field office,' as you testified to the Committee," the Wednesday letter revealed. "Most concerning of all the newly produced version of the document explicitly states that FBI Richmond '[c]oordinated with' FBI Portland in preparing the assessment. Thus, it appears that both FBI Portland and FBI Los Angeles field offices were involved in or contributed to the creation of FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists," it later said. 

Also in that exchange at the July 12 hearing mentioned above, Jordan expressed frustration with the redactions, wanting to know "when can we get a copy that doesn't have all these redactions on it, so we can actually see what the American taxpayers were paying for to their rights, their religious liberty rights attacked?"

The redactions once more became relevant in this recent letter. 

"This revelation raises the question of why you redacted this information in previous versions of the document you produced to the Committee, and it reinforces the Committee’s need for all FBI material responsive to the April 10 subpoena, including the production of FBI’s Richmond document without redactions," the Wednesday letter also noted. "We look forward to receiving a briefing on the FBI’s internal review of this matter and to interviewing the Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond Field Office. However, we again reiterate our outstanding requests, including our request to conduct a transcribed interview with the Chief Division Counsel who approved the Richmond document."

Wray must now also respond to Jordan and Johnson with answers to the following questions about communication between the field offices by August 22:

1. All documents and communications between the FBI’s Richmond Field Office and the FBI’s Portland Field Office referring or relating to the reporting cited in the January 23, 2023, Domain Prospective, entitled ‘Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities’;
 
2. All documents and communications between the FBI’s Richmond Field Office and the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office referring or relating to the reporting cited in the January 23, 2023, Domain Prospective, entitled ‘Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities’;
 
3. A list of FBI intelligence products that have also cited the reporting done by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office and the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, as well as any other investigations initiated based on the same; and
 
4. Confirm the placement and access of the FBI’s Portland Field Office liaison contact with indirect access and the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office Undercover Employee with direct access.

Just as they did not long after Wray testified before the Judiciary Committee in a hearing on FBI oversight, Jordan and Johnson are inviting the FBI director to clarify his testimony. 

Both Jordan and Johnson tweeted about the letter, including coverage from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. "What changed from March until July, other than a threat of contempt from the Judiciary Committee? It’s hard not to conclude that the bureau was trying to hide the breadth of its Catholics-as-radicals investigation," the editorial reads in part, with its closing aptly pointing out how "Mr. Wray understandably defends his bureau’s integrity, but he undermines that effort when he or his deputies aren’t candid about what really happened."

As Johnson raised in his tweet, it's worth wondering what else the FBI is hiding.