The Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group released a bombshell report detailing how the Biden-era FBI expanded an investigation of one dangerous criminal suspect into a disturbing intelligence operation targeting Catholic priests, traditional Catholic churches and constitutionally protected religious beliefs.
The 231-page Richmond Domain Perspective Report concludes that personnel responsible for the disgraceful intelligence product have now been removed.
“The FBI personnel involved in the creation of the Richmond Catholic Memo have been terminated from their positions,” the report states.
The Justice Department did not publicly identify the terminated personnel.
The DOJ announced Thursday that investigators reviewed more than 1,800 pages of internal emails, intelligence assessments and investigative records concerning the FBI Richmond Field Office’s infamous January 2023 memorandum.
The report reveals that FBI personnel:
Opened investigative “Guardian” assessments on two Catholic priests.
Examined the priests’ travel and communications.
Pulled airline and credit-card information.
Searched one priest’s phone at Boston Logan International Airport.
Followed that priest from the airport to a private residence.
Conducted surveillance outside another residence associated with him.
Proposed cultivating Catholic clergy and church leaders as “tripwires” and sources.
Considered elevating the Richmond memo into a national intelligence product for senior FBI leadership.
Continued revising the project even after FBI headquarters ordered the original memo removed from bureau systems.
The FBI eventually closed both assessments after finding no national-security threat or evidence linking the priests to violent extremism.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate a weaponized bureaucracy that chills First Amendment activity,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
“The individuals who developed the Richmond Domain Perspective are no longer with the Department, and our Working Group’s efforts to investigate weaponization under the previous Administration will continue.”
It Started With One Legitimate Criminal Investigation
The FBI’s original investigation involved an individual identified only as “Target 1.”
Unlike the Catholic priests who were later swept into the investigation, Target 1 presented legitimate and serious warning signs.
According to the report, Target 1 vandalized vehicles, assaulted police officers, threatened minorities and law enforcement, promoted mass violence online and attempted to acquire or construct weapons despite being a convicted felon.
Agents searching his home recovered ammunition, firearm components, a 3D printer, lock-picking equipment and more than six fully assembled Molotov cocktails.
Target 1 was ultimately sentenced in 2025 to more than eight years in federal prison for possessing destructive devices.
But the FBI’s focus began to shift after agents learned that Target 1 had briefly attended Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, a traditional Catholic church affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X.
The chapel’s priest told agents that Target 1 was not a church member, was not Catholic and had attended only three or four catechism classes.
The priest reportedly described Target 1 as a white supremacist with “crazy views about race” whose positions would have to change before he could join the church.
In other words, the church was not radicalizing the suspect. The priest was rejecting his extremist beliefs.
That did not stop the FBI.
FBI Opened Assessments on Two Priests
The Richmond Field Office interviewed the first priest twice in November 2022.
During the second conversation, the priest told agents, “I don’t want to be involved,” and raised concerns about violating his relationships with people at the church.
On January 5, 2023, the FBI opened a Guardian assessment on the priest to determine whether he was recruiting or radicalizing Target 1.
The FBI cited the priest’s position at the chapel and the religious activities of his uncle—another traditional Catholic priest—as grounds for further scrutiny.
Agents examined the first priest’s travel history and compared it with the travel of his uncle. The FBI found no evidence that the priests had traveled together or had been in the same foreign location simultaneously.
The bureau then opened a second Guardian assessment on the uncle on January 20, 2023.
The FBI claimed the second priest’s publicly available sermons and speeches reflected views comparable to Target 1’s—specifically citing alleged anti-establishment, anti-Semitic and anti-abortion positions.
Yes, the FBI included opposition to abortion in an assessment purportedly concerning violent extremism.
Agents also pulled the second priest’s flight and credit-card information after learning he planned to travel overseas.
When the priest returned through Boston Logan International Airport on January 31, 2023, Customs and Border Protection subjected him and a companion to secondary screening. His phone was searched to determine the extent of his contact with his nephew.
FBI personnel watched the priest leave the airport, followed his vehicle to a private residence and later conducted surveillance outside another residence associated with him.
The report specifically describes this as “surveillance not requiring a court order.”
But after the Richmond memo leaked, both Guardian assessments collapsed.
The FBI closed the assessment on the second priest on February 10, 2023. The first priest’s assessment was closed five days later because agents had identified no federal violation or national-security threat.
FBI Analysts Started With a Theory—Then Searched for Evidence
The report reveals that an FBI Richmond analyst first proposed a document examining the supposed “increasing intersection” between “rad-trad Catholics” and domestic violent extremists in September 2022.
The analyst admitted at the time that the proposal depended on “finding sufficient additional evidence beyond” Target 1.
Rather than evidence producing the theory, the theory came first.
Analysts then searched FBI databases for cases that could support it.
They located only two additional individuals—one in Portland and another in Milwaukee—whom they believed fit their proposed narrative.
The Portland individual was already dead. Information concerning him came partly from a dossier produced by the Anti-Defamation League.
The Milwaukee case involved another violent individual who reportedly attended a church associated with the Society of St. Pius X.
The new DOJ report concludes that investigators never found evidence connecting traditional Catholic organizations themselves to domestic extremism.
The analysts also used material obtained from a foreign law-enforcement agency concerning the SSPX Resistance. According to the Justice Department, the FBI relied on foreign intelligence and activist organizations without adequately assessing their credibility or possible bias.
Still, analysts pushed forward.
Before they had even located the Portland and Milwaukee cases, one analyst proposed transforming the document into a Strategic Perspective: Executive Analytic Report, or SPEAR, that could reach senior FBI executives because the subject allegedly had “national application.”
A draft SPEAR was eventually sent to a domestic-terrorism analyst at FBI headquarters.
The national project was abandoned only after the Richmond memo was leaked publicly on February 8, 2023.
Memo Suggested Turning Churches Into FBI “Tripwires”
The Richmond memo claimed with “high confidence” that racially motivated violent extremists displayed an increasing interest in “radical-traditionalist Catholic” beliefs.
However, the new report says its authors never established a baseline demonstrating that any such increase had occurred.
The memo identified supposed “catalyzing events” that could unite violent extremists and traditional Catholics, including political disputes over abortion, immigration, affirmative action and LGBT policies.
These are mainstream political and religious issues debated by millions of Americans.
The memo also listed the names, addresses and telephone numbers of Catholic chapels and a seminary near Richmond.
It recommended that agents engage church leaders and recruit congregations to act as “suspicious activity tripwires.”
Agents also proposed approaching the Diocese of Richmond to help “sensitize” parishes to alleged warning signs of radicalization.
The document relied on the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of nine Catholic organizations as supposed “hate groups.” It did not independently explain why those groups qualified or adequately address the SPLC’s long record of controversial and retracted designations.
The FBI’s own Directorate of Intelligence later concluded that the memo treated the supposed connection between traditional Catholicism and violent extremism as fact “without substantiation.”
An internal tradecraft review determined the document virtually labeled the religious ideology itself violent and extremist without offering supporting evidence.
The Counterterrorism Division separately said its threat assessment did not align with the Richmond Field Office’s conclusion and that it saw no significant connection justifying additional FBI intelligence collection.
FBI Created Chilling Slide Deck Profiling Latin Mass Catholics and “Conservative Family Values”
The FBI did not stop at reviewing criminal evidence.
According to the Weaponization Working Group report, personnel in the Richmond Field Office devoted government resources to studying Catholic theology and constructing an internal presentation titled “Traditionalist Catholicism Overview.”
The slide deck was attached to a January 20, 2023, email from a Richmond intelligence analyst—just three days before the infamous Catholic memo was published.
The presentation provides a stunning look inside the ideological framework the FBI used while developing its theory about traditional Catholics.
One slide titled “Core Ideology and Beliefs” listed the following supposed “core concepts” of traditionalist Catholicism:
Traditional Latin Mass.
Conservative family values and roles.
Rejection of modernity.
“Discontinuity and Disruption.”
A “tendency toward isolationism.”
That’s right. The Biden FBI included attending the Traditional Latin Mass and believing in conservative family values in an intelligence presentation developed while the bureau was exploring connections between Catholics and violent extremism.
Credit: DOJ Weaponization Working Group
Another slide, titled “On Earth as it is in Heaven,” examined Catholic integralism and claimed it involved creating a “totalitarian, anti-pluralist Catholic nation,” rejecting religious neutrality and subordinating government to Catholic principles.
The FBI presentation then outrageously declared the ideology “comparable to Islamist ideology.”
Credit: DOJ Weaponization Working Group
A third slide labeled “A Step Further” described what the FBI called “Radical-Traditionalist Catholicism.”
Among the identifying characteristics listed by the bureau were:
Belief that mainstream Catholicism is “illegitimate.”
“Hardline positions” on abortion and LGBT issues.
Opposition concerning interreligious dialogue.
Apocalyptic or eschatological language.
“Rigid fundamentalism” or integralism.
An alleged “undertone of anti-Semitism.”
Once again, the FBI placed constitutionally protected religious and political positions, including opposition to abortion and radical LGBT ideology, inside an intelligence presentation associated with domestic-extremism analysis.
Credit: DOJ Weaponization Working Group
The FBI even constructed its own taxonomy of non-mainstream Catholic movements.
A slide titled “Schools of Thought” divided Catholics into five categories: “Canonically Regular,” “Irregular Status,” “Sedeprivationist,” “Sedevacantists” and “Conclavists.”
The bureau named organizations including the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of the Good Shepherd, the Society of St. Pius X, the Priestly Society of St. Josaphat, the Society of St. Pius V and the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen.
Credit: DOJ Weaponization Working Group
The slide deck contained a boilerplate disclaimer claiming the FBI did not investigate or collect information on Americans solely for engaging in First Amendment-protected activity.
But the report states that none of the reviewers flagged substantive constitutional concerns.
The draft memo was even sent to an FBI employee described as a “former seminarian” for a review of “all things Catholic.”
Rather than objecting to the government scrutinizing Catholic doctrine, a supervisory analyst suggested adding Virginia’s proposed 15-week abortion restriction as a potential “catalyzing event” where traditional Catholics and violent extremists might supposedly find “common cause.”
These slides expose how far the Richmond Field Office had strayed from investigating criminal conduct.
Federal agents were no longer concentrating solely on threats, weapons or violence. They were constructing charts about the Latin Mass, conservative families, Vatican II, abortion and Catholic theology, and feeding those religious distinctions into a domestic-extremism intelligence project. This was religious profiling dressed up as national-security analysis.
FBI Headquarters Scrambled After the Leak
Following the public leak, FBI headquarters ordered the Richmond memo removed from internal systems.
Internal emails show how urgently senior leadership wanted it erased.
“The 7th Floor is breathing down my neck on this one,” one FBI lawyer wrote while pressing for its removal.
During the 15 days the memo remained accessible, it was opened by 19 intelligence analysts from 13 field offices, four agents and two task-force officers from two offices, three senior intelligence analysts from three offices and a chief division counsel from another field office.
But even after headquarters ordered the memo deleted, one of its original authors continued working on the project.
On March 17, 2023—more than a month after the leak—the analyst wrote, “I spent today tinkering with the DP,” and circulated suggested changes.
So much for shutting down the operation.
Minimal Discipline—Then Positive Performance Reviews
An April 2023 internal review concluded that the memo improperly equated traditional Catholic beliefs with violent-extremist ideology, failed to account for biased sources and created the appearance that the FBI investigated Americans based on religious affiliation.
The review found no evidence of malicious intent or an improper purpose, but concluded that the personnel involved showed poor professional judgment and failed to follow FBI standards.
The punishment was little more than a slap on the wrist.
Employees involved in drafting, reviewing and approving the memo were admonished, ordered to undergo additional training and told the matter would be reflected in their performance evaluations.
But the new report shows Richmond leadership continued defending them.
During a July 2023 staff meeting, the Richmond special agent in charge reportedly apologized to personnel involved in the memo.
When one analyst apologized for what others had endured because of the document, the special agent in charge responded that the scandal would make “a great chapter in your memoirs some day!”
The Richmond office later arranged access to employee-assistance counselors for staff members and their families following congressional hearings on the scandal.
At the end of the fiscal year, employees deeply involved in producing the memo received performance ratings ranging from “Consistent” to “Exemplary.”
Gateway Pundit Reported on the Scandal From the Beginning
The Gateway Pundit reported on the leaked Richmond memorandum in February 2023 after former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin exposed it.
The Gateway Pundit later reported that the scandal extended beyond the Richmond Field Office and that bureau personnel had coordinated with employees in Portland, Milwaukee and at FBI headquarters while developing the intelligence product.
In December 2023, The Gateway Pundit reported that the FBI had interrogated a priest and a church choir director during the investigation.
The Gateway Pundit also reported in April 2025 that Richmond Special Agent in Charge Stanley Meador remained employed despite overseeing the field office during the memo’s approval.
The newly released report does not name the employees who have since been terminated.
A limited DOJ Inspector General review released in 2024 found no evidence that analysts were ordered to connect a specific religion with violent extremism or that they made discriminatory comments. That review, however, expressly acknowledged its limited scope.
The new Weaponization Working Group report examined a much larger record and concluded that the FBI conducted improper and unjustified intelligence and law-enforcement activity.
“History will rightly judge the Richmond Catholic Memo as a grave failure of the FBI Richmond Field Office” to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights, the report concludes.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau would not tolerate weaponization and that publicly releasing the underlying information was a necessary part of holding those responsible accountable.
What began as a legitimate investigation of one genuinely dangerous individual became a sprawling intelligence exercise that scrutinized priests, churches, religious doctrine and conservative political beliefs.
Under the Biden administration, the FBI did not merely investigate a violent suspect.
It treated his brief contact with a Catholic chapel as an excuse to place faithful Americans and their priests under the federal microscope.
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.
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