Jim Jordan Slams FBI Director for Refusing to Tell Congress ‘Who Wrote’ and ‘Who Approved’ Anti-Catholic Memo

FBI director Christopher Wray appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning to address allegations from House Republicans that the federal agency has been politicized and is disproportionately targeting conservative Americans.

Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), chairman of the committee, grilled Wray in his opening remarks, focusing particularly on a leaked FBI memo drafted by an unidentified agent targeting so-called “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology” as a hotbed of potentially violent extremism.

CatholicVote, an organization advocating for religious freedoms and protections, revealed hours before Wray’s appearance that a freedom of information request submitted to the FBI led the agency to insist that “the public is ‘not entitled’ to the records” pertaining to the anti-Catholic memo.

The group went on to demand Republican committee members to “press @FBI Director Wray today on the targeting of Catholics.”

Jordan did just that, taking Wray to task for refusing to disclose the identity of the agent who drafted the memo and the identity of the supervisor who disclosed it

“Americans have seen the FBI Richmond Field Office put together a memorandum saying pro-life Catholics are extremists,” Jordan told Wray during the FBI director’s first appearance since Republicans retook control of the House.

Later on in Jordan’s opening remarks, he spoke about the story of Mark Houck, a pro-life advocate arrested outside a Philadelphia, Pa., abortion clinic in 2021 on charges that he assaulted a Planned Parenthood volunteer.

Americans have “seen 20 FBI agents, SWAT team members, show up at the home of Mark Houck and arrest him in front of his wife and seven children even though he’d indicated he’d be happy to turn himself in.”

“And what was he arrested for? Him and his twelve-year-old son were praying outside an abortion facility. Some guy started screaming in his son’s face  – and he did what, frankly, any dad would do – defended his child.”

“The FBI did rescind – thank goodness – the Richmond Catholic memorandum, but they refuse to tell Congress who wrote it and who approved it. And Mr. Houck, when he got his day in court, he was acquitted by a jury of his peers.”

“American speech is censored. Parents are called terrorists. Catholics are called radicals,” Jordan added.

In January, a former FBI agent published a memo created by the agency called, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”

“In making this assessment, FBI Richmond relied on the key assumption that [racially or ethnically motivated extremists] will continue to find [radical-traditionalist Catholic or RTC] ideology attractive and will continue to attempt to connect with RTC adherents, both virtually via social media and in-person at places of worship,” the document read.

“RTCs are typically categorized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II; and frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology. Radical-traditionalist Catholics compose a small minority of overall Roman Catholic adherents and are separate and distinct from ‘traditionalist Catholics’ who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings and traditions, without the more extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.”

The document relied on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a progressive-advocacy group, as a key resource in their assessment. The document noted that the SPLC identified nine “RTC hate groups” operating in America as of 2021.

The pressure group came under fire earlier for including conservative nonprofits like the Alliance Defending Freedom and the American College of Pediatricians on its list of “hate groups” alongside groups like the KKK and the Nation of Islam.

During his opening statement, Director Wray sought to highlight the agency’s bipartisan goal of keeping the United States safe.

“I want to talk about the sheer breadth and impact of the work the F.B.I.’s 38,000 employees are doing, each and every day,” the FBI director said, referencing ongoing missions to combat drug trafficking and Chinese intellectual espionage. “Because the work the men and women of the F.B.I. do to protect the American people goes way beyond the one or two investigations that seem to capture all the headlines.”