Congress has placed FBI Director Christopher Wray in the spotlight over a memo that revealed the FBI targeted traditionalist Catholics, asking church leaders to help monitor members and report them to the government.
The memo, along with other internal documents, was released by the House Judiciary Committee recently. Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has subpoenaed Wray to testify on the issue.
“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,” Jordan wrote in a letter to FBI Director Wray.
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In the letter, Jordan also lashed out at the agency’s director for not complying with the committee’s original request for other documents.
“This information is outrageous and only reinforces the Committee’s need for all FBI material responsive to our request,” Jordan wrote. “The documents produced to date show how the FBI sought to enlist Catholic houses of worship as potential sources to monitor and report on their parishioners.”
“Americans attend church to worship and congregate for their spiritual and personal betterment,” Jordan’s letter continued. “They must be free to exercise their fundamental First Amendment rights without worrying that the FBI may have planted so-called ‘tripwire’ sources or other informants in their houses of worship.
As CBN News reported in February, the internal memo from the FBI’s Richmond office was rescinded by the agency after whistleblower Kyle Seraphin published it on UncoverDC.com on Feb. 8. The bureau’s national office said at the time the memo “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI” and vowed to “conduct a review of the basis for the document.”
Jordan at the time, said the memo relies on “biased and partisan sources, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Salon, and The Atlantic, to support its assessment,” noting the SPLC “identifies the broad term ‘Christian identity’ as a hate group — a term that could arguably encompass millions of Americans with sincerely held religious beliefs.”
“The fact that the FBI would blindly accept and regurgitate the SPLC’s spin is highly concerning and undercuts the FBI’s assertion that it is unbiased and politically neutral,” he said.