Documents: Chris Wray Lied About the Memo Calling Catholics Terrorists Having Never Been Distributed to FBI Field Offices; It Was Distributed, and Then the FBI Deleted Records of It Being Distributed

The FBI loves prosecuting people for obstruction of justice -- lying to an investigator -- so I'm sure Chris Wray will enjoy the irony.

Newly released documents show the FBI shared a controversial memo targeting conservative Catholic groups with over 1,000 employees--contradicting prior claims by Director Wray that the effort was limited to one field office. Sen. Grassley is demanding accountability.

Key Details:

The memo, originally said to be isolated to Richmond, was shared across FBI field offices in multiple cities.

Internal emails show no objections to the memo labeling "Radical Traditionalist Catholics" as threats.

Grassley says the FBI tried to delete records tied to the memo's distribution once it became public.

Diving Deeper:

The FBI under the Biden Administration circulated an internal memo branding certain Catholic communities as domestic terrorism threats to over 1,000 employees nationwide--far more than the bureau previously admitted, according to internal documents obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

The memo, known as the "Richmond Domain Perspective," was originally portrayed by FBI Director Christopher Wray as a rogue product of a single field office. But newly surfaced records show it was disseminated broadly across the country, with FBI offices in Buffalo, Milwaukee, Portland, and Louisville among those receiving it. One of the offices even acknowledged that some of the Catholic groups mentioned in the memo were active in its jurisdiction.

"This raises serious concerns that FBI field offices may have relied on the Richmond memo, and placed groups in their areas of responsibility under suspicion based on reporting from the deeply biased sources used in the memo," Grassley wrote in a letter Monday.

The February 2023 memo, which was publicly released by a whistleblower, warned of supposed extremist elements within "Radical Traditionalist Catholic" communities--accusing them of promoting "anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology." That language mirrored reporting from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left organization known for labeling politically conservative and religious groups as hate groups.

Far from being withdrawn as Wray told Congress, the memo's claims were reportedly embedded in other FBI documents, including a Strategic Perspective Executive Analytic Report prepared for wider internal use. Though that version excluded SPLC references, it repeated the central allegation linking traditionalist Catholic ideology to violence.

Even more troubling, according to Grassley, is that internal FBI communications indicate a scramble to delete the memo and related files from bureau systems after its public release. A senior official allegedly ordered the deletion of an Excel spreadsheet listing employees who accessed the memo--potentially eliminating key evidence of its spread.

Obviously Wray did not disclose the efforts to delete the evidence, either.

posted by Ace at 01:11 PM

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