Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, and seven other senators wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him about the “underlying processes” behind the bureau’s controversial anti-Catholic memo from earlier this year.
“We write with deep concern regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) targeting of Catholics under the pretext of investigating racially or ethnically motivated extremists and have many questions about the underlying processes that FBI employed to develop such errant analysis,” the senators stated.
The senators referred to the fact that Wray may have lied under oath about the memo having originated from only one FBI field office. Later evidence showed that it came from at least three.
They continued:
Not only did this memorandum make outrageous and sweeping generalizations about the Catholic faith and millions of Americans. but the memorandum also relies on wholly unsubstantiated news sources. a left-wing organization and biased and partisan definitions of hate groups in the United States.
Given new revelations regarding inter-FBI coordination of this assessment, we request that you provide a written explanation of the steps that FBI has taken to effectively preclude such unconstitutional products going forward, as well as a briefing to this Committee on that written product no later than September 29, 2023.
The leftist organization to which the senators referred is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
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According to The Washington Stand and The Daily Signal, the SPLC “classifies ‘radical traditionalist Catholics’ as a hate group, placing them on its ‘hate list’ alongside the likes of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and ‘racist skinheads.’”
Rubio and his colleagues concluded:
The mission of the FBI is ‘to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.’ This memorandum, and its underlying processes, neither protect the American people, nor uphold the Constitution. The FBI does not exist to harass law-abiding Americans, nor will Congress permit the FBI to do so. Instances like this only serve to weaken the public’s faith in institutions critical to our nation’s security and safety.
The other signatories of the September 12 letter were Sen. Jim Risch, R-ID, Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AR, Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, Sen. James Lankford, R-OK, and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-SD.
Arielle Del Turco, who is the director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council (FRC), said she is “glad members of Congress are holding Director Wray accountable.”
“This is exactly the congressional oversight that is needed as the Biden administration continues to weaponize U.S. agencies to serve its political agenda,” Del Turco added:
It presents a serious challenge to religious freedom when the FBI operates on ill-informed and biased sources, which lead to unwarranted scrutiny of Catholic churches. It reeks of a larger misunderstanding of and intolerance for Christianity.
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
