The House Judiciary Committee released a report condemning the Biden-era FBI for labeling Catholic Americans as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.” The claim, first made in the 2023 Richmond memorandum, was not a singular incident.
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.”
President Trump’s FBI, under the leadership of Kash Patel, has since “produced over 1,300 pages of additional documents related to the Richmond memorandum that the Biden-Wray FBI did not disclose,” the congressional committee said.
The new materials reveal that Christopher Wray’s FBI spied on a Catholic priest, relied heavily on left-wing information, and attempted to violate the priest-penitent privilege.
The interim report claims the Biden FBI developed a “manufactured narrative to insert federal law-enforcement agents into places of worship.” Discussing the FBI’s interactions with a priest, the report adds, “There appeared to be no legitimate law-enforcement purpose for investigating this priest,” explaining that the “new information suggests that the FBI’s religious liberty abuses were more widespread than the FBI initially admitted and led the public to believe.”
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.” The committee wrote at the time, “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 new report comes weeks after Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) similarly released information relating to the extensive targeting of Catholics.
President Trump has vowed to root out the anti-Christian bias within federal agencies. “My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians,” Trump’s February order read. “The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my Administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms. My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.”
