A new report from the Department of Justice’s Weaponization Working Group found that the FBI committed a “grave failure” when one of its field offices produced a memo linking Catholic families with domestic terrorism.
The new report centers on the Biden-era Richmond Catholic Memo, which “did not meet FBI standards” and improperly suggested that “certain domestic terrorist and religious viewpoints aligned without supporting evidence and by creating the impression that the FBI conducts investigative activity based on religious affiliation.” Although the memo was pulled, the Richmond, Virginia, field office stood by its work, the report notes.
According to the Richmond memorandum, FBI Richmond assessed the “increasingly observed interest of racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.”
The new report traces the history of the memo, explaining that in 2020, a legitimate investigation was opened into an individual holding “violent, racial views.” After the man was released from state custody in connection with a separate incident, he began attending a Catholic church. In 2022, the FBI began probing the “increasing intersection of rad-trad (radical-traditional) Catholics and DVS [domestic violent extremists].” Some of the traits examined in this investigation were practices involving traditional Latin Mass and conservative family values, among others.
In 2023, the House GOP Weaponization of Government Committee found that the “FBI abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists.”
“Without the disclosure of the brave whistleblower, the Richmond memorandum would still be operative in FBI systems, violating the religious liberties of millions of Catholic Americans,” the Committee wrote.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is entrusted with the solemn responsibility of protecting the First Amendment rights of all Americans,” the new report concludes. “History will rightly judge the Richmond Catholic Memo as a grave failure of the FBI Richmond Field Office to uphold that responsibility.”
FBI agents involved in the memo have since been terminated, said Attorney General Todd Blanche.
