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Posted on 08/28/2026 1:28:07 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A new Justice Department report reveals that FBI personnel opened investigations into two Catholic priests, conducted surveillance tied to the Richmond Catholic Memo, and continued revising the memo after headquarters ordered it deleted.
The report reveals how an investigation into a violent extremist led to the surveillance of clergy affiliated with traditional Catholicism, though the FBI ultimately concluded the priests posed no national security threat. The report also sheds new light on internal disputes on the reliability of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate a weaponized bureaucracy that chills First Amendment activity,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on the report, compiled by the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group. He noted that the individuals who developed the Richmond Domain Perspective are no longer at the FBI.
“The Richmond Perspective was a clear abuse of power, targeting conservative and religious beliefs disfavored by agents of government who lacked necessary oversight,” Assistant Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr., said.
The Jan. 23, 2023, memo, published by the Richmond FBI field office and leaked in February, became notorious for adopting the Southern Poverty Law Center’s framing of “radical traditional Catholics” as extremist.
Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in July 2023 that the memo came from “a single product in a single field office,” though subsequent investigations documented the involvement of multiple field offices.
While the House Judiciary Committee released a report in December 2023 and the Justice Department Inspector General released a report in April 2024, the Weaponization Working Group report reveals new details about the FBI investigation that produced the memo, staff’s decision to keep working on it after headquarters ordered it deleted, and the FBI’s internal criticism of the office for uncritically citing the SPLC.
Following Two Priests
The new report reveals that the FBI opened assessments on two Catholic priests, examined their travel and contacts, and conducted surveillance as part of the investigation that produced the Richmond Catholic Memo.
Priest one served at the church attended by a convicted felon who made violent threats online, and priest two, the first priest’s uncle, had been ordained by Bishop Richard Williamson, who led a group the FBI suspected of being Neo-Nazi.
A Richmond FBI intelligence analyst uncovered material from a foreign law enforcement agency about SSPX Resistance, which Williamson founded after his expulsion from the traditionalist Catholic Society of St. Pius X.
The Richmond office opened a Guardian investigation on priest one, and the FBI researched priest two’s flight and credit card details in January 2023. The Richmond office opened a separate investigation on priest two. The Boston field office conducted surveillance of priest two at the airport. Customs and Border Protection interviewed priest two twice, and searched his phone.
Days after the Richmond Catholic Memo leaked, the FBI closed the investigations into the priests, finding no “identified threat to national security” and no “allegation of federal violation.”
Internal Criticism of the Memo
One day after the memo leaked, the FBI told the Daily Signal that the memo “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI.” Previous reports have highlighted that FBI staff expressed surprise, saying they were “at the behest of the SPLC,” but the Weaponization Working Group report released a previously unpublished Feb. 21, 2023, Analytic Tradecraft Review.
The review concluded that the memo stated, but did not prove, a connection between racially motivated violent extremists and so-called “radical traditional Catholics.” It also faulted the memo for failing to analyze the SPLC’s credibility.
“The SPLC has a history of having to issue apologies and retract groups and individuals they have identified as being extremist or hate groups,” the review notes. “Since this was reporting on a religious branch of Catholicism that SPLC identified as a hate group, there should have been extra care to caveat the information, which was more subjective than statistical, and examine SPLC’s threshold for determining a hate group and explain how it aligns or differs from the FBI’s definition.”
The Memo’s Aftermath
The Weaponization Working Group report reveals that at least one FBI analyst kept working on the memo after headquarters had ordered its deletion.
The intelligence analyst “sent an email over a month later—on March 17, 2023—stating, ‘I spent time today tinkering with the [Domain Perspective],’ and included a list of ‘major changes’ and ‘a few areas where we could tinker further.’”
Although an FBI review found serious analytical failures and directed that the staff be “admonished,” Richmond field office leadership defended the employees involved, and later gave them positive performance evaluations, according to the Weaponization Working Group report.
The new report, however, gives the final word: “The FBI personnel involved in the creation of the Richmond Catholic Memo have been terminated from their positions.”
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Just what you would expect from godless communists.
The FBI and SPLC BFFs.
There was no need to do this. They could have just asked the Pope for some assistance. He has shown an ability to target both priests and bishops who cling to their kneelers and Latin.
Stopped (maybe) for now, to resume under the next Democrat administration. No doubt with the approval of the many bishops who are hostile to the Latin Mass.
At the time all the altar servers were boys who were mostly prepubescent. Those faux priests then took horrific advantage of the youth and innocence of those boys.
NOW there are girls who serve as altar servers.
The Catholic Church has JUST finished with all the civil suits against the Church...that's almost FIFTY years later.
Now priests in formation have to go through all sorts of pre-priest tests. With lie detectors, for example, their pedophilia will emerge.
Yes, I know. Some a*****e pedophile will always slip through and pass the lie detector test. But since then those a*****e pedophilia problems have all but disappeared.
About time.
The Feebs have been in bed with the “Southern” “Poverty” “Law” “Center” since at least some time in the early 1990s. That was early evidence that the Feebs were corrupt.
yes, there were pedo (mostly homosexual-pederast priests) who came out of seminaries in the 1960s-1980s. They certainly caused quite a lot of trouble, abuse, losses to the Church - and headlines
But in fact, even during the worst years - the sexual abuse rate of priests was still lower than organizations like public schools, Boy Scouts, youth sports leagues, and similar to other religious organizations (where investigations were done).
The Church certainly has been chastised for their faults. And our secular media certainly made sure the entire country knew all about it.
What about other organizations? Secularists have also destroyed the Boy Scouts - but what about other organizations, particularly public ones? Where do they stand today?
“Stopped (maybe) for now, to resume under the next Democrat administration. No doubt with the approval of the many bishops who are hostile to the Latin Mass.”
____________________________________________________________
I’ve never understood why some people think the only valid Mass must be in Latin. It’s illogical and destructive to the church.
It is way more than a language thing. The whole tone of the old mass and new mass is different.
More proof that the SPLC is a hate group.
Other organizations: you would think that those others would have complained LOUDLY and CONTINUOUSLY.
But, they didn't, did they?
WHY didn't they utter word one about it?
Your guess is as good as mine.
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