Grassley: FBI Distributed ‘Anti-Catholic’ Memo to 1,000 Staffers

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, brought forth additional records on Tuesday which indicate that an anti-Catholic memo from the FBI’s Richmond office had been circulated to over 1,000 bureau employees. This distribution was markedly more extensive than what was previously conveyed in the testimony of former Director Christopher Wray.

According to reliable sources, Grassley uncovered that the FBI had generated a minimum of 13 other documents and five attachments incorporating anti-Catholic language, connecting Catholicism to violent extremism. This was done with guidance from the Southern Poverty Law Center, recognized by some as holding radical anti-left views. This information was disclosed in a press release from the senator’s office.

Grassley also released a second undisclosed Richmond memo intended for bureau-wide distribution, but it was never disseminated due to the reaction to the first. Grassley argues that the existence of this second memo challenges Wray’s testimony of a “single product” being produced by the Richmond, Virginia, field office.

The memo first gained attention in February 2023 when whistleblower Kyle Seraphin revealed its existence. According to Seraphin, the memo was produced by the Richmond field office and outlined an investigation into traditional Catholics, sparking a congressional investigation.

Grassley is now urging the current FBI director, Kash Patel, to persist in producing documents related to the origins of the Richmond memo and what he describes as Wray’s “misleading and obstructive response” in his December 2023 testimony before the committee.

In a statement directed at Patel, Grassley said, “I’m determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo, and of the FBI’s contempt for oversight in the last administration. I look forward to continuing to work with you to restore the FBI to excellence and prove once again that justice can and must be fairly and evenly administered, blind to whether we are Democrats or Republicans, believers or nonbelievers.”

The facts, as we now know them, raise important questions about the actions of the FBI in relation to its handling of the Richmond memo and subsequent aftermath.