Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday released newly obtained FBI documents that he says reveal a broader-than-acknowledged pattern of anti-Catholic bias within the agency. The 25-page release includes internal memos showing the FBI’s controversial 2023 “Richmond Memo,” which erroneously linked traditionalist Catholic groups to domestic extremism, was circulated to more than 1,000 employees before being exposed by a whistleblower. Grassley says the documents contradict former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony that the Richmond field office had produced only one report. Grassley’s findings also indicate the FBI relied heavily on information from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which one agent acknowledged via email as a problematic source. Grassley also released a second, unpublished draft memo repeating unsubstantiated claims tying traditional Catholicism to violent extremism. That document was never distributed due to public backlash. Grassley called on current FBI Director Kash Patel to release more records and criticized the Bureau’s responses to date. He writes, “I’m determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo, and of the FBI’s contempt for oversight in the last administration… 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.” A link to the Grassley-released documents is included below.
______