A lawsuit has revealed the fact that the FBI has more than 1,200 pages of documents related to targeting “radical traditionalist” Catholics and Christians as potential domestic terrorists. Remember when FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the one memo that was leaked to Congress a few months ago was an isolated incident that was never put into practice? It looks like Wray lied under oath.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed a FOIA request with the FBI, asking for all documents and communications between upper management about the targeting of Christians and Catholics. The FBI refused to comply because that’s how the largely unaccountable bureau behaves when the public asks it for information. The ACLJ then sued the FBI, and a federal court compelled them to comply.
When the FBI finally responded to the court order, they admitted to the ACLJ that they had located 1,200 pages of documents so far. They’re not releasing the documents yet. The FBI is simply admitting that an astonishing number of pages exist.
Here is just a portion of what the ACLJ asked for in its Freedom of Information Act request:
“All records of communications… about pro-life people OR Catholicism (including adherents of Catholicism) OR Christianity (including adherents of Christianity) – all in the context of analysis, threat assessment, domestic terrorism, or the monitoring of such people.”
For the FBI to admit that it has 1,200 pages based on that description makes it clear that the Richmond memo about “radical traditionalist” Catholics was not an isolated incident. It wasn’t just one bad proposal at one field office that was never implemented, as Wray claimed to Congress under oath.
They’re not just targeting traditional Catholics; they’re targeting all flavors of Protestant denominations as well, in addition to offshoots like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. We’ve already seen how out-of-control the FBI and the Biden Department of Justice are in overreacting to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe V. Wade.
An FBI SWAT team visited pro-life activist Mark Houck’s home and terrorized his wife and children as they arrested him at gunpoint. Houck was accused of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. He was acquitted in federal court, but the damage was done. The family still faces huge legal bills just to defend Houck against the absurd charges.
The ACLJ also asserts that it knows with certainty that the FBI placed at least one informant inside a Catholic church to spy on the congregants. It kind of makes you wonder how many documents the FBI has that are targeting parents at school board meetings as domestic terrorists. If Christopher Wray lied about the FBI spying on churches—and it certainly looks like he did—then why should the American people believe him when he says his agents are not targeting parents?
We already know that the FBI has abandoned investigating child sex crimes in favor of viciously hunting down Trump supporters who wandered into the US Capitol for a few minutes on January 6th. What other serious crimes is the FBI ignoring as it focuses so much effort on spying on churches?
The ACLJ talked about its shocking findings that it forced the FBI to cough up under a court order on a recent podcast episode. Here’s what Jay Sekulow (President Trump’s first impeachment trial attorney) has to say about the FBI targeting churches in America:
