While former President Joe Biden may no longer occupy the Oval Office, his legacy continues to reverberate, particularly among the Catholic community.
They vividly recall a time when Biden's FBI sought to label them as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs) for their adherence to practices such as the Latin Mass, the sanctity of life, and certain traditions predating Vatican II.
In February 2023, when Biden, a self-proclaimed Catholic, was still in office, a disturbing revelation emerged. The FBI's field office in Richmond, Virginia, had produced a report, now known as the "Richmond Memo," that attempted to link traditional Catholics to political extremism. The author of the memo concluded that these so-called Radical-Traditionalist Catholics (RTCs) were likely to resort to violence in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, necessitating close monitoring and infiltration of their groups.
According to RedState, the FBI's report was largely based on findings from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a discredited, far-left, and hyper-partisan group. The SPLC had recently labeled Turning Point USA, an organization promoting pro-American ideals on college campuses, as a "hate group." The FBI's reliance on the SPLC's dubious conclusions raises serious concerns about the integrity of their investigations.
Fortunately, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has not forgotten this alarming assault on Catholics. On Tuesday, he released additional FBI documents that cast doubt on the extent of the anti-Catholic bias within the FBI and the role former FBI Director Christopher Wray played in concealing it.
In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Grassley underscored two troubling issues revealed by these new documents. Firstly, the FBI's over-reliance on the questionable findings of the SPLC, a concern even an FBI official flagged while reviewing the memo.
Secondly, Christopher Wray's role in obscuring the fact that this anti-Catholic sentiment was not limited to a single individual or office. Instead, it involved feedback from over 1,000 FBI employees nationwide and spanned multiple field offices. Wray's claim before Congress on July 12, 2023, that the Richmond Memo was a "single product by a single office," is demonstrably false, as Grassley's document release shows.
Grassley's records indicate that the Biden FBI's targeting of Catholics based on biased sources was more extensive than previously known. The FBI produced at least 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology and relied on information from the radical far-left SPLC. One FBI agent even admitted via email that their overreliance on the SPLC for hate designation of traditional Catholics was problematic.
Grassley also released a second FBI memo, drafted by the FBI Richmond field office for Bureau-wide distribution. This draft memo reiterated the unfounded link between traditional Catholicism and violent extremism but was never published due to backlash following the Richmond Memos public disclosure.
The existence of this second memo contradicts former-FBI Director Christopher Wrays testimony that the Richmond field office only produced a single product."
Grassley has requested Patel's assistance in uncovering the true extent of Christopher Wray and the Biden FBI's cover-up of their insidious attack on practicing Catholics using faulty and extremist "reporting" by the SPLC.
Patel has yet to respond publicly to Grassley's letter, but it would be comforting to know that any FBI investigative methodologies involving the Southern Poverty Law Center have been discontinued.
As for holding Wray accountable for his falsehoods, it seems he joins a growing list of Biden associates who are yet to face their reckoning.
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