FBI Director Christopher A. Wray may have testified under oath to Congress that a memo calling out Catholics as “potential terrorists” was an isolated incident, a “single product by a single field office” — namely, Richmond.
But turns out the good director lied. Or, in deep state lingo, that he erroneously stated facts in a manner that was unintentionally false.
Let’s go with lied.
In January, a memo with the condemning title, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” was leaked from the Richmond Virginia, FBI’s office. That’s quite a mouthful. And as if the title wasn’t contemptible enough, here comes the content.
It pointed to “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” as possible “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” or as RMVEs, as they were then dubbed, and then called out the “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” — or RTC, as it was then dubbed — as an “almost certain” opportunity “for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.”
‘Cause spying on church-goers has always been a core function of America’s intel. Not.
So Republicans in Congress stepped in and said, hey, FBI, what gives; what’s up, Chris Wray, with all this targeting of Catholics as possible terrorists? And Wray, to put it succinctly said, hey guys, that was just a memo from a rogue Richmond office; it’s certainly not a core FBI function; it’s definitely not an organization-wide operation; it’s those rogue Richmond guys, not us; we don’t even like those Richmond guys; they’re hacks.
And then the FBI’s fawners and friends in the media went, see? Nothing to see.
But Republicans in Congress weren’t completely comforted by Wray’s raised-hands plea of innocence, and so continued to request more information about the memo.
Well, on July 25, Republicans in Congress received some more information — and surprise, surprise, turns out Wray wasn’t exactly right. In fact, he was wrong. In fact, he lied.
“Most concerning of the newly produced version of the document [we just received] explicitly states that FBI Richmond ‘[c]oordinated with’ FBI Portland in preparing the [Get Catholics] assessment,” the Republican Judiciary Committee members just wrote in a letter to Wray.
Side note: Get Catholics mine, not theirs.
But that’s not all. Turns out, Los Angeles officials fed into the Richmond assessment, as well.
Alarming, meet more alarming.
Curious grows, in the words of Lewis Carroll, “curiouser.”
Anyway, the skinny is this, as Republican Judiciary Committee members wrote to Wray: “Thus, it appears that both FBI Portland and FBI Los Angeles field offices were involved in or contributed to the creation of FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists. This revelation raises the question of why you redacted this information in previous versions of the document you produced to the Committee, and it reinforces the Committee’s need for all FBI material responsive to the April 10 subpoena, including the production of FBI’s Richmond document without redaction.”
Yeah, Wray. What about those redactions?
Deep state to the rescue.
In response to Republicans’ queries, the FBI put out this statement, Fox News reported: “Director Wray’s testimony on this matter has been accurate and consistent. While the document referred to information from other field office investigations of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremis (RMVE) subjects, that does not change the fact the product was produced by a single office.”
Fine. Dandy. But that does not also change the fact that FBI director Christopher Wray actually Lied and now his minions are panicking and implementing operation Cover-Your-A—. (CWLCYA).
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has a few questions for Wray and the FBI as well.
In a letter to Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Catholic League President William Donohue wrote, “On what basis did the FBI conclude that these Catholics [Radical-Traditionalist Catholics] warranted a probe? Do they have a history of violence? If so, where is the evidence? If not, why were they singled out? On what basis did the FBI decide it was necessary to enlist ‘mainline Catholics’ to spy on their fellow parishioners? Where is the evidence that ordinary practicing Catholics pose a security threat …? How common is it for FBI agents to infiltrate houses or worship — of any religion — employing ‘tripwire sources’?”
That last is probably the most important.
America’s religious liberty is the core freedom upon which all other freedoms rest. After all, this is a nation of individualism, where rights come from God and government, in the role of servant, exists to protect those God-given liberties.
If government thugs are scoping out the churches for enemies of the state, we don’t have an America any longer. We have a China.
And as Wray’s failures to acknowledge truths (FATs) show, the alarming government targeting of Christians is probably much more prevalent than suspected.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
