On Friday, the Department of Justice's Weaponization Working Group released its report on how the FBI Field Office in Richmond, VA targeted Orthodox Catholics, and it's as bad as one might expect.
The 231-page report was commissioned after a whistleblower exposed the infamous "2023 Catholic Weaponization memo," which was unofficially disseminated throughout the office, but not released bureau-wide. As RedState reported, the analysts who gathered the intelligence, which depended heavily on information garnered through the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), were dismissed in June.
The full working group report provides a detailed timeline and the documents that corroborate just how much time, resources, and manpower this office devoted to what was essentially a witch hunt on Catholics who chose to practice their faith through observance of the Latin Mass, who believed that abortion is murder, and who used their First Amendment right to criticize the government's actions.
As Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in a press release:
This Department of Justice will not tolerate a weaponized bureaucracy that chills First Amendment activity. The individuals who developed the Richmond Domain Perspective are no longer with the Department, and our Working Group’s efforts to investigate weaponization under the previous Administration will continue.
🚨Weaponization Working Group Releases Report on 2023 FBI Richmond Field Office Memo That Targeted Non-Mainstream Catholics
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) August 28, 2026
This report sheds further light on the targeting and investigation of non-mainstream Catholics under the previous administration.
“This Department of…
From the report:
After reviewing a substantial volume of internal emails, assessments, and investigative records, the Working Group concludes that the Biden FBI engaged in improper and unjustified law enforcement and intelligence activity, including:
- Agents made extensive inquiries into two priests and monitored their travel and communications. The FBI ultimately found no link to criminal activity or violent extremism.
- The FBI relied on biased and unverified materials, including Southern Poverty Law Center publications and foreign intelligence materials, without assessing their credibility. Internal reviews later concluded that the product improperly conflated religious doctrine with violent extremism and ignored First Amendment concerns.
The FBI’s leadership took minimal corrective action after the Richmond Domain Perspective. Despite headquarters acknowledging the Perspective’s flaws, employees involved received positive performance reviews, and Richmond leadership openly defended their work. Staff continued refining the Perspective even after it was removed from FBI systems.
The FBI’s actions in 2023 were wrong. The Trump Administration, Attorney General Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel are committed to addressing these abuses and preventing their recurrence.
The targeting began with the investigation of a particular priest, then developed further when the Richmond analysts made tenuous connections between the priest and a foreign group called the "SSPX Resistance."
Around early January 2023, an Intelligence Analyst in the Richmond office uncovered and forwarded material about the SSPX Resistance that a foreign law enforcement agency had developed. That material described SSPX Resistance as “an Orthodox Catholic group which blends traditional Catholicism with National Socialist ideals. Intelligence purportedly indicated “the group has a wide European-American network and is attempting to radicalize individuals through the Catholic religion towards Neo-Nazi extremism."
This launched a deep dive into the priest's life and the church he oversaw, as well as an investigation into a second priest. This dig was the full FBI Monty, including where the priests traveled and the people with whom they interacted. Much of the focus of the targeting surrounded the beliefs of the church rather than anything actionable, and using SPLC research and Leftist media to make its point.
The Memo defined “radical-traditionalist Catholics”—and thus the ideology that attracted potential extremists—by their doctrinal views (“RTCs are typically characterized by the rejection of” Vatican II and post-Vatican II popes) and their political views (“adherence to anti-Semitic,anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology”).120 It attempted to distinguish “traditionalist Catholics” on the basis that they lack “the more extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.”121 The Memo did not provide concrete examples of the differences between “radical-traditionalist Catholics” and traditionalist Catholics, indicating that the key metric was simply how “traditionalist” a particular Catholic group was. For instance, in discussing SSPX, SSPX Resistance, and SSPX-MC, the Memo focused solely on their doctrinal views vis-à-vis what the FBI viewed as the mainstream Catholic church and never attempted to categorize those groups as “radical-traditionalist Catholics,” “traditionalist Catholics,” or something else.
The Memo also claimed the FBI could “mitigate the RMVE threat through outreach to traditionalist Catholic parishes,” even though the Memo’s thesis was that RMVEs were attracted to a meaningfully distinct “radical-traditionalist” Catholic viewpoint. And while the Memo listed nine groups as “[SPLC]-Defined RTC Hate Groups in the United States,” it did not explain what made those groups “hate groups” besides their Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”) listing or how listing these groups was consistent with FBI practice.
The Richmond Catholic Memo suggested that certain groups taking a position on political issues with religious relevance could attract violent extremists. For example, citing Salon articles, it pointed to “increasing collaboration” between a “far-right Catholic media outlet” and the political “‘groyper’ movement,” and, citing an Atlantic article, referenced “increase[d] hostility toward abortion-rights advocates on social media sites in the run-up to and aftermath of” the overruling of Roe v. Wade.
What is chilling is that the analysts who participated in this madness received favorable performance reviews, while those who questioned its veracity did not.
Let that sink in.
FBI Director Kash Patel assured that this is a new FBI and this searching for a crime to attach to a particular person or organization would no longer be tolerated.
Weaponization will never be tolerated at this FBI. Even while those who developed the unacceptable Richmond Catholic memo under the previous administration have been held accountable, releasing information to the public about what occurred under the prior regime is an important part of the process. I want to thank the Weaponization Working Group for their partnership as well as Attorney General Todd Blanche for his leadership addressing these abuses and making sure they never happen again.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. once again spoke to the original Richmond memo, which, had it been disseminated throughout all offices, could have caused tremendous damage.
The weaponization of our Government undermines our Democracy and reduces the People’s trust in our Nation’s institutions that are designed to serve and protect them. The Richmond Memo was a clear abuse of power, targeting conservative and religious beliefs disfavored by agents of Government who lacked necessary oversight. No more. Under Attorney General Blanche’s leadership this Department will have zero tolerance for weaponization.
The Trump Department of Justice continues to kick butt and take names. While this report may not necessarily result in arrests or perp walks, it is of great importance that the evidence of the Biden Administration's flagrant weaponization of the American people be exposed and addressed so that it never has a chance to occur again.
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