House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced that his committee has decided to subpoena FBI Director Christopher Wray over information about the Bureaus apparent attempt to investigate extremists within the Catholic Church.
In particular, the New York Post reports that the FBI wanted to examine so-called extremist parishioners within the Catholic churches.
This investigation surrounds a January 23rd memo from the FBIs Richmond, Va., Field Office that has since been withdrawn. The message was titled:
Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.
Jordan has described the memo as disturbing. He says that the message discussed meeting with church leaders to review the warning signs of radicalization and enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires. Jordan described the memo as chilling in a tweet that he put out about the situation.
Jordan wrote a letter to Wray about all of this, saying:
The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the [FBIs] handling of domestic violent extremism investigations against Catholic Americans and its effect on protected First Amendment activity.
He added the following comment:
Based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the Committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith.
Finally, Jordan wrote: This shocking information reinforces our need for all responsive documents, and the Committee is issuing a subpoena to you to compel your full cooperation.
The New York Post reports that the GOP has accused the FBI of anti-Catholic bias after the landmark Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court overturned the protections of Roe v. Wade.
Wray has already condemned the Richmond Field Office memo, but many are disturbed that it made it out to the public in any way.
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