(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A new House report revealed on Tuesday that the FBI, under the Biden administration, lied about not spying on traditional Catholics. Worse still, the bureau fabricated the illusion of radicalism within Catholic groups to justify its surveillance.
The House Judiciary Committee disclosed that the FBI and former Director Christopher Wray devoted more law enforcement resources to surveil Catholics than previously known.
This information comes from over 1,300 pages of documents turned over to congressional investigators by FBI Director Kash Patel. It is detailed in the House report titled “How the Biden-Wray FBI Manufactured a False Narrative of Catholic Americans as Violent Extremists.”
According to the report, the FBI’s Richmond field office spied on a Catholic priest after he refused to disclose private conversations with a parishioner. The Richmond field office monitored his travel, credit card records, and background despite having no legitimate law‑enforcement justification
The House Judiciary Committee also revealed that the FBI field office coordinated with FBI Headquarters, as well as the bureau’s London Office, and used derisive labels such as “radical traditionalist Catholic” to describe Catholics seeking to preserve practices of the Church before the Second Vatican Council.
Worse still, the FBI relied on a single leftist source for its surveillance: the Southern Poverty Law Center, a controversial group known for lumping reputable conservative groups and individuals in with racist hate groups.
The SPLC claimed some Traditional Catholic groups were influenced by or affiliated with white supremacist movements, though its evidence was dubious at best.
The FBI’s probe into alleged ties between “radical traditionalist” Catholics and the “far‑right white nationalist movement” was first made public via a leaked memorandum from the Richmond field office in February 2023.
Wray and former Attorney General Merrick Garland subsequently downplayed the scope of the FBI’s targeting of Catholic groups, which began with the now-infamous 2023 memo.