The FBI And The Catholic Investigation

By Deacon Mike Manno

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee released its interim report on the FBI investigation into “radical-traditionalist Catholics” for being possible domestic terrorists. When a copy of the FBI memo, which outlined the agency’s concerns about certain “right wing” Catholics, was leaked to the press last February the public and political reaction was a fiery backlash against the FBI

While not intended for public dissemination, the original FBI memorandum, authored by the Richmond field office, was leaked almost immediately by a former agent and whistleblower, Kyle Seraphin, who, for the sake of full-disclosure, was a guest on our radio program, Faith On Trial, where he discussed the contents of the leaked memo. That broadcast was aired the weekend of February 18 on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network.

The 30-page heavily footnoted committee report went into detail about how the original memorandum came to be, how it was edited and distributed to other FBI offices. It also revealed how the FBI brass was uncooperative with House investigators, redacting much of the subpoenaed documents, and only dribbled out information grudgingly. It also clearly points out that the intended use of the leaked memo could be considered a violation of the First Amendment rights of religious communities and that it “shows that the FBI abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists.”

It also debunked the FBI’s assertion that the leaked memo was only intended for the Richmond office and had been immediately withdrawn.
The committee report added, “Most concerning of all, without the disclosure of the brave whistleblower, the Richmond memorandum would still be operative in FBI systems, violating the religious liberties of millions of Catholic Americans.”

According to the report, the genesis of the Richmond memo was from an investigation of an individual who described himself as a “radical-traditionalist Catholic,” although no one from the FBI could identify or define that term. Yet this single inquiry became the basis for the Richmond agency-wide memo warning about the dangers of “radical Catholics.”
House investigators found that with the self-identification of that one suspect, FBI agents used several suspicious and biased sources to supplement their memorandum with additional “open source” information from the likes of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Salon, and The Atlantic. Because of their political and social biases, these sources were not to be relied upon by the agency. The FBI memo’s authors admitted that these sources were not approved for legitimate open source use, but decided to use them anyway.

The House report also indicated that at least one priest and one parish choir director had been questioned by the FBI, as well as an unnamed cardinal. It also confirmed that “in addition to the investigation in Virginia, FBI Richmond relied on reporting from other field offices across the country, including FBI Los Angeles, FBI Milwaukee, and FBI Portland in making its assessment.”

Among some of the top findings of the committee to date were:
There was no legitimate basis for the memorandum as a predicate for infiltration of the Catholic community.

Documents reviewed by the House committee showed the FBI was signaling out Americans who were pro-life, pro-family, and supported the biological basis for sex and gender policies.

Unlike the representations otherwise made by FBI Director Christopher Wray, the memo was not confined to the Richmond field office but was shared with at least three other FBI field offices.

The thrust of the original 11-page memo from the Richmond office, was that “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” were linked to individuals who held “radical-traditionalist Catholic” views who were then characterized as anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and who followed a white supremacist ideology.

The committee wrote: “In response to these revelations, the Committee and Select Subcommittee began oversight into how the FBI could allow such a memorandum to be prepared, reviewed, approved, and disseminated. Although the FBI claims that it ‘will never conduct investigative activities or open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity,’ this memorandum itself is proof that the FBI has done just that, using taxpayer dollars. The FBI’s intrusion on Americans’ First Amendment rights demands that the Committee and Select Subcommittee conduct oversight into the circumstances of the memorandum’s creation and distribution, and to consider potential legislative reforms to ensure the FBI upholds the First Amendment.”

And it further reported: “Although the FBI claimed in its response to [the Committee] to have ‘numerous’ and ‘rigorous’ policies to protect First Amendment rights, the memorandum was reviewed and approved by two senior intelligence analysts and…the FBI’s top lawyer in the Richmond field office. There are no indications that any FBI employees in Richmond had any concern with the content of the memorandum until after it was disclosed publicly.”

After the leak of the Richmond memo local FBI officials reached out to the Diocese of Richmond and the special agent in charge did have a later meeting with Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout. The agent in charge indicated he tried to use the opportunity to reach out to the Catholic community. He also said that had the memorandum not been leaked to the public he would have used it as an opportunity to reach out anyway. When the agency contacted the diocese about any follow-up meetings it was directed to address all contact to the diocese’s attorneys.

In concluding, the committee noted that religious liberty is enshrined in the First Amendment and the FBI’s own policy was to “never conduct investigative activities or open an investigation based solely on protected religious activity.”

“The Richmond memorandum, however, paints a different picture. It is a stark reminder that sincerely held religious beliefs must be vigorously protected or be subjugated to an overzealous federal law enforcement focused on the ends, with little regard for the means,” the report, in its conclusion, said.

“Under the guise of domestic terrorism, the Richmond memorandum cast swaths of Catholic Americans as ‘radical-traditionalist Catholics’ and those practicing it as ripe opportunities for FBI ‘threat mitigation’…Perhaps most concerning is that without the whistleblower, this document would still be actionable in FBI systems, potentially endangering the religious liberties of countless Americans who might be investigated simply for espousing certain sincerely held views. That is unacceptable and antithetical to the protections of the First Amendment.”

At the top of its conclusion, the Committee quoted Justice Samuel Alito from July 2022: “Religious Liberty is under attack in many places because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power.”

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every weekend on Faith On Trial or podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)