FBI used undercover agent to investigate Catholics, says Congressman

A new document revealed that an FBI office used at least one undercover agent to obtain information about traditionalist Catholics, said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

In response to its inquiry, the committee announced it received from the FBI a heavily redacted 18-page document that uncovered limited information about the agency’s efforts to investigate a supposed link between traditionalist Catholics and “the far-right white nationalist movement.”

The committee had requested information following the leak of an internal memo dated Jan. 23 that originated from the FBI’s Richmond division. The memo, which the FBI later retracted, called for such investigations within traditionalist Catholic communities.

Titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” the memo singles out Catholics who are interested in the Traditional Latin Mass as potentially linked to violent extremist groups.