NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A coalition of conservative groups and individuals is urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to release documents about the “pattern of dishonesty and religious discrimination at the FBI” after they say their search for answers was “stymied at every turn” by the Biden administration.
The groups, led by Advancing American Freedom (AAF), issued a Freedom of Information Access Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Justice and the FBI to release documents relating to the surveillance and infiltration of Catholic groups in America and the distribution of the “Richmond Memo” that labeled traditionalist Catholic groups as potential “violent extremists.”
In an emailed statement sent to Fox News Digital, AAF said that despite its previous FOIA requests to Biden U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, they were “stymied at every turn.”
Now, under the Trump administration, the group is renewing its quest for answers and broadening its requests to also include any communications directing the destruction of documents relevant to their earlier requests.
GRASSLEY ALLEGES FBI USED BIASED SOURCES IN ANTI-TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC MEMOS UNDER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
This comes after a highly controversial FBI memo exposed the agency for expending taxpayer dollars to infiltrate and monitor what it called “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” who it said presented possible “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism.”
The memo stated that traditionalist Catholic groups “almost certainly” presented “opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.”
Though the memo caused significant controversy after going public, Wray downplayed it in congressional testimony in 2023, saying, “It was a product by one field office, which, of course, we have scores and scores of these products, and when we found out about it, we took action.”
Despite Wray’s claims that the memo was a single product, Republican leadership on the House Judiciary Committee revealed in 2023 that a document they subpoenaed from the agency details how “both FBI Portland and FBI Los Angeles field offices were involved in or contributed to the creation of FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.”
HEAVILY REDACTED RECORDS SHOW FBI’S TARGETING OF CATHOLICS WENT BEYOND WHAT IT CLAIMED: WATCHDOG
This led Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and then-committee co-chair Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., to conclude that “the FBI’s use of its law enforcement capabilities to intrude on Americans’ First Amendment rights is more widespread than initially suspected.”
This June, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, alleged that at least 13 additional FBI documents and five FBI attachments also used the terminology “radical traditionalist Catholic.”
In its FOIA request to Bondi and Patel, AAF said that “while this pattern of dishonesty and religious discrimination at the FBI is disturbing, AAF hopes to work alongside the current administration that … [seeks] ‘to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.’”
“The very existence of these reports directly contradicts former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony to Congress that the Richmond memo was a ‘single product by a single field office,’” wrote AAF.
FBI INTERVIEWED PRIEST, CHURCH CHOIR DIRECTOR AHEAD OF ANTI-CATHOLIC MEMO, HOUSE GOP FINDS
“Thanks to new evidence uncovered by Senator Grassley, we know more ‘Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology’ documents exist than previously admitted and that the FBI took action to delete documents relevant to AAF’s requests,” the request went on. “While these developments merit significant concern on their own, they demonstrate a deliberate and untruthful pattern from the Biden Administration of avoiding requests to release documents regarding the surveillance and infiltration of Catholic groups in America.”
In their request, AAF and the other signers said they are “encouraged” by President Donald Trump’s establishment of a Bondi-led Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias and by the FBI and DOJ “working to protect Americans from religious discrimination.”
In a statement emailed to Fox News Digital, Marc Wheat, general counsel for AAF, said “we urge the Trump administration to provide us with these documents so that the American people can hold the FBI accountable for its treatment of religious groups.”
GOP SENATORS DEMAND THE FBI ‘REPAIR THE DAMAGE’ TO ITS CREDIBILITY OVER ANTI-CATHOLIC MEMO DEBACLE
“The Biden Administration, in response to our initial request, said that it had no responsive documents, likely because, as we found out later, the FBI thought it had destroyed the relevant documents. Further evidence suggests they failed to destroy the paper trail,” he said, adding, “the DOJ has a legal responsibility to comply with and enforce the FOIA law.”
Other groups and individuals signing onto the request include former Republican senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum and Young America’s Foundation.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ and FBI for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
Read the full article here
