The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, declared at an audience in the US Senate that there have been layoffs and resignations of employees related to an anti -Catholic memorandum of 2023 prepared by the local office of Richmond, Virginia, and that the agency has made adjustments in its policies.
Patel made these statements on September 16 During a question session of Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who requested updated information about the administration’s investigation into the memorandum. The senator asked about FBI’s efforts to combat Anti -Christian and anti -Christian violence and hate crimes.
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Patel did not specify how many people were fired or what their role in the writing writing was.
“We are conducting our research simultaneously with Congress,” Patel said. “To put it in perspective, we provide 700 documents on the Richmond Catholic memorandum, specifically to this committee, while my predecessor provided 19 pages.”
The 2023 memorandum detailed an investigation into “traditional” radical “and alleged links with the” white -right white nationalist movement. ” He suggested “opportunities to mitigate threats” through a “trap cable or source development” within the parishes that celebrate the Mass in Latin and of the traditional “radical” Catholic communities “online.
Immediately after the document was leaked to the public in February 2023, the FBI retracted from the memorandum for not complying with the “rigorous standards” of the agency.
Although the FBI declared that the problem was limited to a single document from a local agency, an investigation of the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives revealed the coordination between several local offices and at least 13 documents containing derogatory language on traditionalist Catholicism.
Under Patel’s leadership, the current FBI director told Hawley: “We investigated how the sources recruitment structure was carried out in the FBI during this time and made permanent adjustments and corrections to ensure that the sources were not introduced into places of worship unless there was a criminal threat or real international terrorism.”
“We will not use sources in this FBI to investigate and select information just by filtering information in places of worship,” he said.
60 denunciations of anti -crime crimes under investigation
Senator Hawley also asked Patel about the threats of violence against Catholics and other Christians, particularly in the light of last month’s shooting in the Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis.
Patel said that the FBI is currently investigating 60 complaints of anti -swallowing hate crimes, including those that occurred in Kansas City, Missuri; Louisville, Kentucky; Houston; Nashville, Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia.
“Any ideological attack against any faith, as a man of faith that I am, will not be tolerated,” said Patel, who is Hindu.
“FBI’s resources are committed to all this.” He added that the FBI will also seek to guarantee that rewards for information on “all ideological attacks” are offered.
Regarding research on this violence, Patel said: “We follow the money trail.” Be it an attack against religious people or institutions, he said, “someone is paying for it.”
“We are tracking those steps in reverse; we will not stop at the perpetrator,” he added. “We are applying reverse engineering to hold those who, in our investigations, financed them, even knowing. We will take the relevant measures against them,” he said.
Hawley said that there have been hundreds of cases in which places of worship have faced direct violent actions or threats, including causes caused, pump threats and shootings. He asked Patel if the FBI would consider designating a senior official as a link with the places of worship.
“Speak in my language,” Patel said. “The collaboration between the public and private sectors on this specific issue, as in others that we have mentioned, is equally transformative to find those involved in these criminal activities. With their help, I would ask you that if you can identify someone expert in that area, we will work with it.”
Following the murder of Christian and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Senator Hawley also asked Patel if the FBI is investigating the attack as “part of a broader pattern of anti -religious and anti -Christian violence.”
“We are investigating the murder of Charlie thoroughly and looking for all the clues related to any accusation of broader violence. We are obtaining results that we will disseminate when appropriate,” Patel said.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Tyler Arnold
Tyler Arnold is a reporter of the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has published in various media, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.