WASHINGTON, D.C. — FBI Director Christopher Wray has seemingly been caught lying to Congress about the extent of his agency’s surveillance of Traditional Catholics in the United States, particularly the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) released a letter addressed to Wray earlier today announcing that documents he obtained from the FBI last month indicate that its field office in Richmond, Virginia, coordinated with two other offices across the country to spy on Traditional Catholics.
The finding stands in contrast to Wray’s previous testimony that an FBI memo describing Traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists was only utilized at the one location in Richmond.
“On July 25, 2023, the FBI produced a version of the Richmond document with fewer redactions than the two previous versions it had produced,” Jordan’s letter begins. “This new version shows that the FBI’s actions were not just limited to ‘a single field office,’ as you testified to the Committee. The document cited reporting from an ‘FBI Portland liaison contact with indirect access’ who informed on a ‘deceased [Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist (RMVE)] subject’ who had ‘sought out a mainline Roman Catholic community’ and then ‘gravitated to [Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)].’”
Jordan continued by noting that the newly obtained document also states that “an FBI undercover employee with ‘direct access’ reported on a subject who ‘attended the SSPX-affiliated [redacted] Church in [redacted] California, for over a year prior to his relocation.’”
It is “most concerning,” Jordan exclaimed, that “it appears that 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.”
The original eight-page document Jordan is referencing was first leaked to the public by FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin in February. The document prompted a near-universal outcry among Catholics across the country when it was released. On July 17, Jordan requested that the FBI hand over a “less redacted” version of the memo for the committee before 12 p.m. on July 25 or else Wray would be held in contempt of Congress. The details of that memo are what Jordan has presented today.
