Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released more records Tuesday showing that the FBI distributed its anti-Catholic Richmond memo to more than 1,000 bureau employees, far more widespread than what was testified to by former Director Christopher Wray.
Grassley found that the FBI produced at least 13 other documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology linking Catholicism to violent extremism, incorporating guidance from the "radical anti-left" Southern Poverty Law Center, according to a news release from the senator's office.
Grassley also released a second Richmond memo that was drafted for bureau-wide distribution but never sent due to backlash from the first. Grassley asserted that the existence of the second memo contradicts Wray's testimony of a "single product" produced by the Richmond, Virginia, field office.
Attention surfaced about the memo in February 2023 when whistleblower Kyle Seraphin disclosed its existence. The memo, he said, was produced by the Richmond field office revealing an investigation of traditional Catholics. That prompted a congressional investigation.
Grassley is urging the current FBI director, Kash Patel, to continue producing documents related to the origins of the Richmond memo as well as Wray's "misleading and obstructive response" in testimony before the committee in December 2023.
"I'm determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo, and of the FBI's contempt for oversight in the last administration," Grassley said in a statement directed to Patel.
"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."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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