House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday over a leaked memo from the agency that detailed plans to investigate “radical traditionalist” Catholics. He argued the scheme was entirely motivated by “politics.”
The now-retracted memo, which originated from the Richmond, Virginia, FBI field office, was leaked in February and revealed a scheme to target devout Catholics. The office “had used information from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center to guide the crafting of the memo,” as Breitbart News reported.
Why did the FBI target traditional Catholics? https://t.co/gHfyzYAybY
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) July 12, 2023
When Jordan asked Wray to define “radical, traditional Catholics,” Wray said that he was “aghast” to learn of the memo “and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems.”
He claimed it “was a single product by a single field office.”
Jordan pressed Wray to allow the Oversight Committee to interview the FBI employees of the Richmond office who crafted the memo, but the director said the agency is “working on finishing an internal review” and that he would brief the committee later this summer. He did not commit to revealing the names of those responsible for the memo when Jordan asked.
FBI Director Christopher Wray listens as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, speaks during an oversight hearing, Wednesday, July 12, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Jordan read directly from the document, contending that it aims to plant “informants” in Catholic churches:
Let me just read from page four, “Provide new opportunities to mitigate extremist threat through outreach to traditional Catholic parishes and the development of sources with the placement and access to report on places of worship.” That’s pretty fancy language for they’re trying to put informants in the parish, in the church. That’s what this memorandum said, director, from one of your field offices, and you won’t let us talk to the people who did.
The chairman followed up, asking, “Do you think priests should be informants inside the church, director?”
“We do not recruit, open, or operate confidential human sources to infiltrate, target, report on religious organizations,” Wray responded.
When Jordan said, “It sounds like you were trying to do it in Richmond, Virginia,” Wray claimed, “No sir.”
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Jordan challenged Wray to “assure us this didn’t happen.”
“That product did not, to as best as we can tell, result in any investigative action as a result of it. None,” Wray responded.
Jordan continued to read from the document, pointing to politics as the motivation behind the scheme Wray has denounced:
It says right there on the same page, “Richmond assesses extremist interests in radical traditional Catholics is likely to increase over the next 12 to 24 months in the run up to the next general election.” Same paragraph, “Events in which extremists and radical traditional Catholics might have common cause include legislation, judicial decisions in such areas as abortion rights, immigration, affirmative action, and LGBTQ protections. It’s politics. That’s the motivation in the run-up to the next election and they talk about the border, affirmative action and abortion rights. It’s total politics. I mean, I think it’s interesting, that … we just got a decision from a bunch of Catholics who sit on the United States Supreme Court relative to affirmative action. Politics was the total motivation here and that’s what’s scary. That’s what I think is so frightening.
Jordan noted, “Five people signed off on it, including the chief division counsel at the Richmond field office.” He asked for an unredacted copy of the document before the FBI completed its internal investigation, but Wray did not commit to complying with Jordan’s request.
“I will find out if there’s more of the document that can be shared with you,” Wray said. “We’ve tried to be very careful in what we redact, and there’s always a basis for it.”
