Justice Department report exposes FBI surveillance of Catholic priests linked to Richmond memo

A Justice Department Weaponization Working Group report reveals that FBI personnel launched investigations into two Catholic priests, scrutinizing their movements and associations while drafting the Richmond Catholic Memo. The first priest ministered to a congregation that included a convicted felon who had issued violent online threats; the second, his uncle, was ordained by Bishop Richard Williamson, whose group the FBI once suspected of neo-Nazi ties.

Surveillance efforts included airport monitoring by the Boston field office and phone searches by Customs and Border Protection. Following the memo’s leak, the FBI determined the priests did not constitute a national-security threat and terminated the inquiries. The report also highlights internal criticism of the memo’s uncritical use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s classifications and notes that an analyst kept revising the document after headquarters ordered its removal. All FBI staff involved in creating the memo have since been terminated.