EXCLUSIVE: Conservative groups urging Trump admin to expose anti-Christian ‘pattern’ in Biden FBI
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A coalition of conservative groups and folk is urging U.S. Criminal professional Odd Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to beginning paperwork regarding the “pattern of dishonesty and religious discrimination at the FBI” after they suppose their look for answers used to be “stymied at every turn” by the Biden administration.
The groups, led by Advancing American Freedom (AAF), issued a Freedom of Records Salvage admission to Act (FOIA) demand to the Department of Justice and the FBI to beginning paperwork regarding to the surveillance and infiltration of Catholic groups in America and the distribution of the “Richmond Memo” that labeled traditionalist Catholic groups as ability “violent extremists.”
In an emailed statement sent to Fox News Digital, AAF acknowledged that despite its outdated FOIA requests to Biden U.S. Criminal professional Odd Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, they had been “stymied at every turn.”
Now, below the Trump administration, the community is renewing its quest for answers and broadening its requests to additionally include any communications directing the destruction of paperwork connected to their earlier requests.
Left: Worn President Joe Biden. Exact: FBI agents.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana and Getty Photos)
This comes after a highly controversial FBI memo uncovered the company for expending taxpayer greenbacks to infiltrate and display screen what it known as “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” who it acknowledged presented conceivable “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism.”
The memo said that traditionalist Catholic groups “almost certainly” presented “opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.”
Though the memo caused important controversy after going public, Wray downplayed it in congressional testimony in 2023, pronouncing, “It was a product by one field office, which, of course, we have scores and scores of these products, and when we found out about it, we took action.”
Despite Wray’s claims that the memo used to be a single product, Republican management on the Condo Judiciary Committee published in 2023 that a say they subpoenaed from the company important functions how “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.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies throughout a Senate Place of beginning Security and Authorities Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on October 31, 2023. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP by means of Getty Photos)((Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP by means of Getty Photos))
This led Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and then-committee co-chair Gain. Mike Johnson, R-La., to halt that “the FBI’s use of its law enforcement capabilities to intrude on Americans’ First Amendment rights is more widespread than initially suspected.”
This June, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, alleged that a minimal of 13 extra FBI paperwork and five FBI attachments additionally ancient the terminology “radical traditionalist Catholic.”
In its FOIA demand to Bondi and Patel, AAF acknowledged that “while this pattern of dishonesty and religious discrimination at the FBI is disturbing, AAF hopes to work alongside the current administration that … [seeks] ‘to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.’”
“The very existence of these reports directly contradicts former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony to Congress that the Richmond memo was a ‘single product by a single field office,’” wrote AAF.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on judicial nominations on Capitol Hill September 6, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Photos)
“Thanks to new evidence uncovered by Senator Grassley, we know more ‘Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology’ documents exist than previously admitted and that the FBI took action to delete documents relevant to AAF’s requests,” the demand went on. “While these developments merit significant concern on their own, they demonstrate a deliberate and untruthful pattern from the Biden Administration of avoiding requests to release documents regarding the surveillance and infiltration of Catholic groups in America.”
Of their demand, AAF and the diversified signers acknowledged they’re “encouraged” by President Donald Trump’s institution of a Bondi-led Job Drive to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias and by the FBI and DOJ “working to protect Americans from religious discrimination.”
In a statement emailed to Fox News Digital, Marc Wheat, total counsel for AAF, acknowledged “we urge the Trump administration to provide us with these documents so that the American people can hold the FBI accountable for its treatment of religious groups.”
The demand acknowledged that the FBI’s actions below damaged-down President Joe Biden “demonstrate a deliberate and untruthful pattern from the Biden Administration of avoiding requests to release documents regarding the surveillance and infiltration of Catholic groups in America.”(Susan Walsh/AP)
“The Biden Administration, in response to our initial request, said that it had no responsive documents, likely because, as we found out later, the FBI thought it had destroyed the relevant documents. Further evidence suggests they failed to destroy the paper trail,” he acknowledged, adding, “the DOJ has a legal responsibility to comply with and enforce the FOIA law.”
Diversified groups and folk signing onto the demand include damaged-down Republican senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum and Young America’s Foundation.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ and FBI for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this say.
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
