CV NEWS FEED // The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly used force to remove a traditionalist Catholic family from their home and place them in a locked van after their 15-year-old child posted “offensive memes” online.
The
boy’s father alleged that his minor son had fallen into a trap set by the FBI
as part of their exposed targeting of so-called “radical traditional Catholics.”
Debra
Heine of American Greatness reported Tuesday that the Rufini family “was allegedly
‘dragged out of their home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van’ earlier
this year.”
Heine
also indicated that “the FBI’s aggressive ‘investigation’ only resulted in a
misdemeanor conviction against the boy for breach of peace, but financially
devastated the family with substantial legal expenses.”
The
father of the family, Jeremiah Rufini, initiated a request on the Christian
crowdfunding service GiveSendGo. There, he explained that his son, like his
other children, was not “raised with cell phones or unrestricted internet
access.”
“It
became necessary for him to have a phone so we could communicate while he was
alone at my father’s house caring for my grandmother, and so we reluctantly
allowed him to have a cell phone,” Rufini explained.
“He
spent a lot of time alone with nothing to do but wait and think and the cell
phone became a welcome distraction,” the father added. He said that the boy’s
“interests in history and theology led him down a rabbit hole where he was
recruited into group chats targeting teenage traditionalist Catholics with
extreme political content.”
“We
later learned that these chats were being closely monitored, and possibly
operated by, FBI agents as part of an effort to investigate Traditional
Catholics that was downstream of a broader domestic investigation spurred by
the events of January 6th,” Rufini revealed.
The
story is likely to generate speculation that the Bureau’s targeting of the boy
is connected to the anti-Catholic Richmond memo, which was leaked by an FBI
whistleblower earlier this year.
“My son is very stoic so we had no
idea any of this was occurring,” Rufini wrote. He explained that homeschooled minor was an altar boy
and volunteer firefighter:
He
dutifully assisted my father during the day and went home in the evening while
I took over at my father’s house.
Unbeknownst
to us, he was being drawn deeper and deeper into these chat groups and goaded
into doing things like take pictures of himself in public wearing ski masks and
to print out memes and leave them on picnic tables.
They
would ask him if he had access to guns (he would go target shooting under the
supervision of my brother, who lived in an in-law apartment at our home and
owned firearms) and encourage him to sneak photographs of the guns and post
them.
Ironically,
our legal troubles began when he had an attack of conscience and abruptly
deleted all of his chat apps. He later told us that he felt using social media
was a coping mechanism and it had been affecting his mood and ability to sleep.
Rufini
stated he was “not happy” with his son’s online conduct. He said that while he
agrees the boy “showed a severe lack of judgment,” the FBI’s aggressive
“response seemed very disproportionate.”
CatholicVote
Vice President Joshua Mercer pointed out that it is not clear what exactly the
FBI accused the boy of doing. “But unless he was engaging in real terroristic
activities, there would seem to be no justification for sending FBI agents to
SWAT-team the kid’s house,” Mercer said.
According
to Heine, the FBI eventually “lost interest in the case.” However, Rufini said
the ensuing legal action cost his family “over $20,000 we don’t have so far.”
The boy was “hospitalized on mental health pretenses.”
The
father set $22,000 as his fundraising goal on GiveSendGo. As of Thursday
afternoon, combined donations to the family have exceeded $31,000.
“We
have reached our goal!” Rufini wrote in
an update on the site:
We
are overwhelmed by anyone’s generosity. The campaign has to run for five days
on this platform but our losses were covered almost in the first day. Please do
not feel obligated to continue donating, but anything we receive at this point
will be reserved for the possibility of additional legal expenses. God bless
all of you!
“I
am incredibly humbled and speechless,” Rufini added Tuesday. “A day ago I was
trying to figure out how to sell a 2001 Jetta parked in my lawn to catch up on
my mortgage. We are incredibly blessed and moved and will pray for all of you.”
This
is not the first instance of the FBI being suspected of “grooming” a teenage
boy into radical activity only to later arrest him.
In
June, 18-year-old Mateo Ventura was arrested “on charges he allegedly ran a
gift-card reselling scheme aimed at raising money for the foreign terrorist
organization ISIS,” Boston 25 News (a FOX affiliate) reported.
However,
one week later, the left-wing news source The Intercept revealed that “according to the government’s own criminal
complaint,” the Massachusetts teen “had never actually funded any terrorist
group.”
The
only “terrorist” he is accused of ever being in contact with was an undercover
FBI agent who befriended him online as a 16-year-old, solicited small cash
donations in the form of gift cards, and directed him not to tell anyone else
about their intimate online relationship, including his family.
+++
Read more about the FBI’s targeting of Catholics:
Attorney General Garland Pleads Ignorance on Anti-Catholic Memo Fallout
Rubio and 7 Senate Colleagues Press Wray for Answers on FBI’s
Anti-Catholic Memo
Wall Street Journal Slams FBI for ‘Trying to Hide the Breadth’ of
Anti-Catholic Operations
New Evidence: ‘Anti-Catholic’ FBI Memo NOT From Just One Field Office
20 States Confront Garland Over FBI Memo On ‘Radical’ Catholics
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