A new House report has confirmed that the Biden-era FBI spied on traditional Catholics and fabricated claims of extremism to justify surveillance. The agency coordinated with headquarters and relied on the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center, igniting fresh concern over religious liberty and federal overreach.
WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — The House Judiciary Committee released a report Tuesday revealing that the FBI, under President Biden’s leadership, engaged in an unfounded surveillance campaign against traditional Catholic Americans. The report accuses the bureau of manufacturing threats and leaning on biased sources to justify monitoring faithful members of the Church.
The findings are compiled in a 1,300-page document dump submitted by FBI Director Kash Patel and titled: “How the Biden-Wray FBI Manufactured a False Narrative of Catholic Americans as Violent Extremists.”
At the center of the report is the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, which allegedly spied on a Catholic priest who refused to betray confessional privacy with a parishioner. Agents surveilled his travel, credit card history, and personal background—without any legitimate law enforcement predicate.
“This was not rogue behavior; it was institutional,” said a Republican staffer familiar with the investigation.
Coordinated Targeting and Questionable Sources
The report reveals that the FBI coordinated its Catholic surveillance efforts with FBI Headquarters and even the bureau’s London office, using internal jargon like “radical traditionalist Catholic” to describe those who simply sought to uphold pre-Vatican II Church practices.
Shockingly, the entire effort appears to have been based on material from a single leftist source: the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)—a controversial organization known for mislabeling conservative groups as hate organizations.
The SPLC’s assertions of ties between traditional Catholics and white supremacists were deemed “dubious at best” by the Committee.
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The Memo That Sparked Outrage
The FBI’s internal probe became public in February 2023, after a leaked Richmond memo exposed the agency’s attempt to link “radical traditionalist Catholics” with white nationalist ideology.
“This is a grotesque abuse of federal power,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have since downplayed the scope of the program.
Can a government that spies on its faithful citizens still claim to defend religious liberty?
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