(LifeSiteNews) — A recently released, 98-page document of internal FBI communications seems to confirm the agency is attempting to obfuscate the breadth and scope of its surveillance of Traditional Catholics in the United States.
.@TomFitton: Did FBI Lie About Spying on Church? READ: https://t.co/u8Y3q35w0c pic.twitter.com/NKkytNMCN2
— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) December 25, 2023
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, in conjunction with CatholicVote Civic Action, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in April of 2023 to learn about the agency’s efforts. One batch of records was released in November 2023 while another was made public in December..
“From what we could read, the FBI was much more concerned about their public image than uncovering the truth about what they were doing to Catholics,” Josh Mercer, Vice President of CatholicVote, told LifeSiteNews via text message yesterday about the documents.
“It really looks like they’re trying to bog this process down and take their time and bury us in these heavily redacted documents,” he added.
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, FBI whistleblower Kyle Serpahin released in February 2023 an internal memo that revealed the FBI was spying on “Radical Traditionalist Catholics” who attend the Latin Mass, in particular, chapels run by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
The FBI, which enlists the pro-Jewish Anti-Defamation League to help train its staff, was purportedly concerned with Catholics holding “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, and white supremacy” beliefs.
Following intense backlash, the FBI announced it was retracting and investigating why the memo was published.
In August 2023, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray announcing that documents he obtained from the agency indicate its field office in Richmond, Virginia coordinated with two other offices across the US — Los Angeles and Portland — and that the memo was not, as the FBI had claimed, the product of its Richmond office alone.
#BREAKING: Subpoenaed document reveals that the FBI Richmond Field Office coordinated with MULTIPLE field offices across the country to produce a memo targeting traditional Catholics as domestic terrorists
Wray previously said the actions were limited to “a single field office.” pic.twitter.com/5vyS2EXpml
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 9, 2023
“Wray had told congressmen that the memo was ‘a single product by a single field office,’ but the records uncovered by Judicial Watch show that it was ‘Reviewed by: OGC/CDC [Office of General Counsel/Chief Deputy Counsel],’” Judicial Watch stated in a press release last month.
The group also reported that the FBI’s Milwaukee office was involved.
“These documents should trigger a criminal inquiry into this Biden FBI scandal,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton recently said.
As reported by LifeSite in December 2023, a House Committee finding discovered that the FBI interviewed a priest and a choir director at an SSPX church in Richmond in November and December of 2022.
“This information, which the FBI has refused to disclose, confirms that the FBI directly communicated with Catholic clergy and staff about parishioners practicing their faith,” the House’s report stated at the time.
Mercer told LifeSite that while the 98-page FOIA document does not contain bombshell-level developments, CatholicVote is “not deterred” in its efforts to uncover the truth and that they are “playing the long game on this because our constitutional rights are worth fighting for.”
To read the heavily redacted, 98-page document released in December click here.