WASHINGTON DC—On Friday, February 10, the Virginia Attorney General, Jason Miyares sent a letter to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice regarding recent findings of an internal government letter targeting Catholics.
AG Miyare’s letter was addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray. Miyares exposed the DOJ and FBI in his letter over, “leaked internal documents labeled, ‘Catholics Violent Extremist,’ and targeted Catholics because of their religious beliefs.”
It was written on January 23, by the FBI’s Richmond Division to “protect Virginians from white supremacy,” which they believed could be found in Catholics that preferred Latin Mass. The writers referred to “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) and their interests in “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” or RTCs. The document assesses with “high confidence” the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church.
AG Miyares “requests a full explanation of documents origins, documents related to its implementation, information on how this document may have already affected Virginia’s Catholic population, and information on whether the FBI has begun infiltrating houses of worship in conflict with the FBI’s internal guidelines.”
Miyares informed Director Wray and AG Garland he knew after the letter was released to the public that “apparently the bureau emailed reporters to inform them that the FBI headquarters quickly began taking action to remove the document from the FBI systems and conduct a review of the basis of the document.”
The following state Attorney Generals signed the letter: Steve Marshall (R-AL), Treg Taylor (R-AK), Tim Griffin (R-AR), Christopher Carr (R-GA), Raul Labrador (R-ID), Todd Rokita (R-IN), Brenna Bird (R-IA), Kris Kobach (R-KS), Jeff Landry (R-LA), Daniel Cameron (R-KY), Andrew Bailey (R-MO), Austin Knudsen (R-MT), Mike Hilgers (R-NE), Dave Yost (R-OH), Alan Wilson (R-SC), Jonathan Skrmetti (R-TN), Ken Paxton (R-TX), Sean Reyes (R-UT), and Patrick Morrisey (R-WV).
“I cannot believe the FBI had an internal memo calling Catholic Virginians, ‘Violent Extremist,’ because of their religious views. This rhetoric from the government is wrong and anti-American, and I demand answers,” Miyares stated on his Facebook page.
According to the Religious Composition of the 118th Congress listed on the Pew Research website, 409 out of the 534 members of the 188th Congress are Christians. A total of 148 of those Christians are Catholic.
