The FBI said its interviews of a Catholic priest and choir director were conducted during an investigation of \u2018an individual threatening violence who has since been arrested,\u2019 and not a broader probe into Catholics.<\/p>\n
The FBI\u2019s comment comes after the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report suggesting the bureau has been investigating Catholic\u00a0Americans as potential domestic terrorists after an FBI Richmond internal memo, titled \u2018Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The committee stated that the FBI \u2018relied on at least one undercover agent to develop its assessment and the FBI even proposed developing sources among the Catholic clergy and church leadership.\u2019 It also said the FBI \u2018interviewed a priest and choir director affiliated with a Catholic church in Richmond, Virginia for the memorandum.\u2019<\/p>\n
The committee said whistleblower disclosures reveal that the FBI interview of a priest and choir director affiliated with a Catholic church in Richmond, Virginia, was used to \u2018inform on the parishioner under investigation.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the FBI told Fox News Digital that \u2018any characterization that the FBI is targeting Catholics is false.\u2019<\/p>\n
The FBI explained that \u2018the\u00a0interviews of the priest and choir director highlighted by the committee\u2019s report were conducted by FBI Richmond during an investigation of an individual threatening violence who has since been arrested.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The interviews were not conducted for the domain perspective as characterized by the report,\u2019 the FBI said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The FBI has maintained that \u2018the intelligence product prepared by one FBI field office did not meet the exacting standards of the FBI and was quickly removed from FBI systems.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018An internal review conducted by the FBI found no malicious intent to target Catholics or members of any other religious faith, and did not identify any investigative steps taken as a result of the product,\u2019 the FBI said. \u2018The FBI is committed to upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and we do not conduct investigations based solely on First Amendment protected activity, including religious practices.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The FBI said it \u2018investigates violence, threats of violence, and violations of federal law.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018We have provided hundreds of pages of documents and briefings to the Committee to address our findings and the numerous actions we are taking to address identified shortcomings,\u2019 the FBI said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But House Judiciary Committee spokesman Russell Dye pushed back at the FBI\u2019s denial, maintaining the committee\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
\u2018The facts speak for themselves,\u2019 Dye told Fox News Digital. \u2018Contrary to the FBI\u2019s assertions, the Committee has presented evidence that the FBI\u2019s infamous Catholic memo relied on information from multiple field offices, not just the Richmond Field Office.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The evidence shows that the Richmond Field Office conducted the interviews of a priest and choir director as part of an investigation that served as a basis for the creation of the Catholic memo,\u2019 Dye continued. \u2018Whistleblowers have told us that the memo was distributed around the country.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dye also said the evidence shows that \u2018FBI employees at all levels in the Richmond Field Office, including the office\u2019s top lawyer, saw no concerns with the contents of the memo or its portrayal of faithful Americans.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Worse, the evidence shows that the FBI considered formalizing the memo into an external product,\u2019 Dye said. \u2018The FBI\u2019s actions here are inexcusable, period.\u2019<\/p>\n
The committee report also states\u00a0that the basis of the original Richmond memo \u2018relied on a single investigation in the Richmond Field Office\u2019s area of responsibility in which the subject \u2018self-described\u2019 as a \u2018radical-traditionalist Catholic.\u201d But the committee found that FBI employees \u2018could not define the meaning of an RTC when preparing, editing, or reviewing the memorandum.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Even so, this single investigation became the basis for an FBI-wide memorandum warning about the dangers of \u2018radical\u2019 Catholics,\u2019 the report states.<\/p>\n
\u2018While the FBI claims it \u2018does not categorize investigations as domestic terrorism based on the religious beliefs \u2013 to include Catholicism \u2013 of the subject involved,\u2019 an FBI-wide memorandum originating from the FBI\u2019s Richmond Field Office did just that,\u2019 the report states. \u2018Under the guise of tackling the threat of domestic terrorism, the memorandum painted certain \u2018radical-traditionalist Catholics\u2019 (RTCs) as violent extremists and proposed opportunities for the FBI to infiltrate Catholic churches as a form of \u2018threat mitigation.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
During a hearing in the Senate Tuesday, FBI Director Wray was pressed on the matter by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wray maintained that the interview of the priest and choir director was part of \u2018an investigation of a specific individual who was amassing Molotov cocktails and posting about killing people. And it does not surprise me that there were people who knew that subject in that investigation.\u2019<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the committee\u2019s report states that the FBI produced a version of the Richmond memo with fewer redactions than the two previous versions it provided. That version revealed that investigations into Catholic organizations in Los Angeles and Portland fed into the Richmond office memo. The report states that FBI Milwaukee was also involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Wray, during the Senate hearing, said the \u2018notion that other field offices were involved is a garble.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018And let me explain why,\u2019 Wray said. \u2018I mean, why I say that the only involvement of the two other field offices was the Richmond authors of the product, which included two sentences or something or thereabouts, referencing each of these other offices\u2019 cases. And they sent those sentences about the other office cases to them, not the whole product, and asked them, \u2018Hey, did we describe your case right?\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wray added: \u2018That\u2019s all the other offices had. So it was a single field office product, and I stand by that.\u2019<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the report said the documents obtained by the committee\u2019s subpoena show that \u2018the FBI singled out Americans who are pro-life, pro-family, and support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction as potential domestic terrorists.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
The FBI said its interviews of a Catholic priest and choir director were conducted during an investigation of \u2018an individual threatening violence who has since been arrested,\u2019 and not a broader probe into Catholics. The FBI\u2019s comment comes after the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}