A Catholic advocacy group tore into the FBI on Wednesday over revelations that an effort from the bureau's Richmond, Virginia, office to target certain "traditionalist" Catholics may have been more widespread.
CatholicVote referenced a less redacted version of an FBI document released by the House Judiciary Committee that revealed involvement from the bureau's Portland and Los Angeles offices in an initiative that had initially appeared isolated to the Richmond office.
GOP HOPEFULS POISED TO ENCIRCLE DESANTIS AT OPENING DEBATE
"The FBI has finally acknowledged what we have long suspected, namely that FBI efforts to spy on Catholic churches went far beyond a single field office and a so-called rogue agent," CatholicVote President Brian Burch said in a statement.
Burch added, "Further, these new FBI admissions raise even more questions now about the intent, purpose, and scope of this illegal and unconstitutional effort to surveil Catholics inside of churches across America."
The document, which was first leaked soon after its internal issuance by the FBI's Richmond field office in January, functioned as a threat assessment of "radical-traditionalist Catholics." The FBI determined they made up a "small minority of overall Roman Catholic adherents" and that there existed an "increasingly observed interest" of violent extremists within that particular group of Catholics.
The FBI stated in the document that it based its conclusions on an undercover agent's work, calls to jails, local law enforcement reporting, and liaison and contact reporting, including, according to the new document with the removed redactions, from a "liaison contact" in Portland and information from an FBI Los Angeles investigation.
The FBI cited three specific instances of alleged criminal activity to back up its assessment.
The bureau also detailed opportunities for "threat mitigation," including engaging with Catholic leaders to persuade them to work within their churches as "tripwires" or sources for the FBI.
The FBI retracted the document after it drew substantial criticism from religious freedom advocates, and FBI Director Christopher Wray denounced it in a congressional hearing in July.
It was “a single product by a single field office, which as soon as I found out about it I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems,” Wray testified.
Now, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is demanding records from Wray to determine if the effort to target so-called radical-traditionalist Catholics was actually larger in scale.
Burch also referenced a lawsuit CatholicVote had filed against the FBI in April demanding the FBI fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request. The FBI responded, according to court filings, that CatholicVote was "not entitled" to make such demands because the records were "properly protected from disclosure by one or more FOIA exemptions or exclusions."
Burch said, "We also can't help but wonder if these admissions help explain why the FBI has done everything possible to withhold information requested by our Freedom of Information Act request, now lawsuit."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Justice Department responded to the Washington Examiner earlier on Wednesday when the less redacted version of the document surfaced, pointing to Wray's congressional testimony and a letter Wray had written to Jordan on July 25.
In the letter, Wray said an internal review of the document was "nearly complete" and offered to brief the committee on it on Aug. 22.