FBI Director Christopher A. Wray declined to inform Congress who authored and accepted a memo encouraging brokers to develop sources inside Catholic parishes throughout the nation as a part of its efforts to crack down on home terrorism.
In testimony earlier than the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Wray stated he couldn’t open up to Congress the identities of who drafted and OK’d the memo due to an “ongoing internal review.”
The response was met with deep skepticism from Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican.
“We, the Congress, and the American people have to wait until you do an internal review — it’s not even a criminal review — before we can talk to the people who wrote this?” Mr. Jordan stated.
Mr. Wray pledged to provide lawmakers a briefing on the overview’s findings, which he stated must be accomplished this summer season. However, he declined to say if he would determine the people who drafted and accepted the memo.
In January, a former FBI agent revealed a memo created by the company’s Richmond, Virginia, workplace saying that “radical-traditionalist Catholics” adhere to an “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology,” including that they’re susceptible to “extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.”
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Mr. Wray sought to distance himself from the memo, saying he was “aghast” when he discovered concerning the memo and ordered it instantly withdrawn.
“This is not a product I will defend and excuse,” Mr. Wray stated, including that the memo “did not result in any investigative action.”
Mr. Jordan stated the memo is an instance of a “weaponized” FBI concentrating on conservatives whereas defending the left.
“Politics was the motivation here,” Mr. Jordan stated. “That is what is scary. That is what is so frightening. I don’t know. Five people signed off on this. Five people.”
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