Attorney General Merrick Garland vehemently rejected claims during a hearing Wednesday that the Department of Justice has discriminated against certain Catholics, calling the notion "so absurd."

Garland's reaction came in response to questions from Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) about an internal FBI memo, circulated by the FBI's Richmond Field Office in January and later retracted, that took aim at "radical-traditionalist Catholics."

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"Do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists, yes or no?" Van Drew asked.

Van Drew had preceded his question with a laundry list of grievances about how he believed the DOJ was politically biased, and Garland attempted to respond to those before reverting to the question about Catholics.

Garland told Van Drew, "I have no idea what 'traditional' means here."

The controversial memo had contained a definition provided by an unspecified analyst for "radical-traditionalist Catholics." Those Catholics, the memo said, made up a "small minority of overall Roman Catholic adherents." They were characterized by "disdain" for popes elected after the Second Vatican Council and "frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology," the memo read.

Pressed by Van Drew on the matter, Garland lashed out, saying, "The idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous, so absurd, it's hard to even answer your question."

Garland had opened the hearing by saying his grandmother fled religious persecution in Europe in the early 20th century.

He said two of her siblings were killed in the Holocaust and that "there is little doubt that but for America, the same thing would have happened to my grandmother."

The attorney general added that "she was able to live [in the United States] without fear of persecution. ... That protection is what distinguishes this country from so many others."

Van Drew continued, pointing directly to the Richmond memo, which detailed how there existed opportunities for the FBI to mitigate threats of violent extremism from those who subscribe to the "radical-traditionalist Catholic" ideology, including by engaging with leaders of affiliated churches and attempting to enlist them as "tripwires" who would operate like unofficial informants.

Religious freedom advocates widely rebuked the memo as having a chilling effect on the First Amendment, and FBI Director Christopher Wray responded by retracting it and opening an investigation into its origins. The status of that investigation has not been made public at this stage.

Van Drew told Garland, "It was your FBI that did this. It was your FBI that was sending — and we have the memos and we have the emails — who were sending undercover agents into Catholic churches."

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Garland replied, "Both I and the director of the FBI have said that we were appalled by that memo."

The attorney general added in response to more questioning from Van Drew, "Catholics are not extremists."