Overview

• Senate Judiciary Committee documents show the memo warning of “Radical Traditionalist Catholic” extremism was shared with more than 1,000 FBI employees across multiple field offices.
• The 2023 memo characterized certain traditional Catholic communities as potential domestic terrorism threats harboring anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist views.
• Senator Grassley’s investigation reveals the FBI relied on sources such as the Southern Poverty Law Center that he describes as deeply biased in drafting the memo.
• Internal emails indicate FBI leaders ordered the deletion of files related to the memo’s distribution, including records of who accessed it, raising concerns about obstruction of oversight.
• Grassley has demanded answers from Director Kash Patel on the memo’s origins, its nationwide spread and the motivation for deleting key files, and the FBI declined to comment.