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FBI Director Admits He Hasn’t Fired Anyone Over Anti-Catholic Memo


By: Tyler O’Neil @Tyler2ONeil / December 05, 2023

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/05/fbi-director-admits-he-hasnt-fired-anyone-anti-catholic-memo/

Christopher Wray in a blue suit speaks in front of a microphone
FBI Director Chris Wray admitted Tuesday that he has not fired anyone over the anti-Catholic memo. Pictured: Wray testifies during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Nov. 17, 2022. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)

FBI Director Chris Wray admitted to Sen. Josh Hawley that he has not fired anyone at the FBI’s Richmond office over the memo urging the FBI to investigate “radical traditional Catholics.”

“You haven’t fired anybody,” Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said to Wray in a Senate hearing Tuesday.

He pressed Wray on the FBI Richmond office’s Jan. 23 memo citing the Southern Poverty Law Center in urging an investigation of “radical, traditional Catholic hate groups.” After a whistleblower published it in February, the FBI rescinded that memo, saying it did not reach the bureau’s standards. Hawley cited a report that the House Judiciary Committee and the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released on the Catholic memo Monday.

“In fact, what the House found is what is it, you admonished them,” Hawley said. Mockingly, he added, “Oh I feel much better. They’ve been sent to bed without food.”

“Good heavens, director! This is one of the most outrageous targetings,” the senator added. “You have mobilized your division, the most powerful law enforcement division in the world, against traditionalist Catholics—whatever the heck that means—and you have just told us you have not fired a single person.”

He went on to cite the House report, which found that key staff at the Richmond office did not see a problem with the report.

“What are you going to do about this? Are you going to fire these people or not?” the senator pressed.

“Those individuals have all been admonished and it is all going into their… annual performance reviews, which has direct impact on their compensation, among other things,” Wray responded.

“Do you have a problem with systemic bigotry against Catholics at the FBI?” Hawley also asked.

Wray flatly responded, “No.”

The FBI memo urged agents to probe the supposed nexus between “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” and “radical-traditional Catholics,” citing the Southern Poverty Law Center and including a list of SPLC-designated “hate groups” for agents to target.

The FBI told The Daily Signal that it was rescinding the memo after FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin published it on UncoverDC.com on Feb. 8. The national FBI office claimed that the memo “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI” and promised to remove the document from its systems and “conduct a review of the basis for the document,” but it refused to answer further questions about the move.

As I explain in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC took the program it has used to bankrupt organizations associated with the Ku Klux Klan and weaponized it against conservative groups, partially to scare donors into ponying up cash and partially to silence ideological opponents. The SPLC places conservative groups on a “hate map” with KKK chapters.

After the SPLC fired its co-founder amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal in 2019, a former staffer claimed that the SPLC’s accusations of “hate” are a “cynical fundraising scam” aimed at “bilking northern liberals.” Critics across the political spectrum have voiced opposition and alarm at the organization’s hate group smears. A terrorist even targeted an SPLC-designated “hate group” in Washington, D.C., in 2012, and he told the FBI he used the “hate map” to find his target. The SPLC condemned that act of terror, but kept the target on the list and the map.

The SPLC has also suggested that the Catholic Church itself holds a position on human sexuality that would qualify it as a “hate group.”

2023-12-04-The-FBIs-Breach-of-Religious-Freedom-The-Weaponization-of-Law-Enforcement-Against-Catholic-Americans14Download

AG Garland Fumes During Grilling on Anti-Catholic Memo


By Michael Katz    |   Wednesday, 20 September 2023 02:53 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/attorney-general-merrick-garland-lost-his-temper-in-a-heated-exchange-about-an-anti-catholic-memo-during-a-house-judiciary-committee-hearing-wednesday/2023/09/20/id/1135253/

Attorney General Merrick Garland lost his temper in a heated exchange with Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

Van Drew made an opening statement before questioning Garland about an anti-Catholic memo circulated within the Department of Justice. Garland was brought before the committee for a hearing on the weaponization of the federal government against political opponents of President Joe Biden.

“The two-tiered system of justice is clear and it’s clear to the American public,” Van Drew said. “The buck stops with a man in charge. That man is you. The actions of the DOJ are on you. The decline of American’s trust in our federal law enforcement is on you. The political weaponization of the DOJ is on you. Attorney general, I need a simple yes or no to the following. Just yes or no because we don’t have much time. Do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists, yes or no?”

Garland tried to frame an answer from Van Drew’s statement, but Van Drew kept pressing for a direct answer.

“Attorney General, through the chair I ask you, do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists? Answer the question,” Van Drew said.

Garland said he didn’t know what “traditional” meant but Van Drew cut him off.

“Catholics! Catholics that go to church,” Van Drew said.

Garland said, “May I answer the question,” and again was cut off.

“Yes or no,” Van Drew said.

“The idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous, so absurd, that’s it’s hard for me to answer your question,” said a fuming Garland, who is Jewish.

Van Drew wouldn’t let up: “Mr. Attorney General, it was your FBI that did this. It was your FBI that was sending — and we have the memos, we have the emails – were sending undercover agents into Catholic churches.”

“Both I and the director of the FBI have said that we were appalled by that memo,” Garland said.

Michael Katz 

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and poltics.

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