Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has revealed that the FBI’s targeting of “radical traditionalist Catholics” was far more extensive than previously disclosed by Biden administration officials. Contrary to former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s 2023 testimony that a controversial memo was an isolated incident from a single field office, new documents indicate a broader pattern of anti-Catholic bias within the bureau.
Grassley’s findings show that the FBI produced “at least 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology,” including a second memo from the Richmond Field Office that was never publicly released. The original memo, which linked traditional Catholic beliefs with potential extremism, was distributed to over 1,000 FBI personnel nationwide. This dissemination suggests that multiple field offices, including those in Louisville, Portland, and Milwaukee, were involved in the development of these materials.
The senator criticized the FBI’s reliance on biased sources, notably the Southern Poverty Law Center, in crafting these assessments. He expressed concern that such practices could lead to unwarranted suspicion of religious groups based on flawed reporting.
In a letter to current FBI Director Kash Patel, Grassley stated, “Director Wray’s testimony was inaccurate not only because it failed to reveal the scope of the memo’s production and dissemination, but also because it failed to reveal the existence of a second, draft product on the same topic intended for external distribution to the whole FBI.”
