DOJ Report Finds FBI Surveilled Catholic Priests and Continued Richmond Memo Work After Headquarters Ordered Deletion

The Justice Department's Weaponization Working Group released a report on August 28 detailing FBI conduct tied to the 2023 Richmond field office memo, formally titled the Richmond Domain Perspective, which linked "radical-traditionalist Catholics" to domestic extremism 1. The underlying investigation began in 2020 with a probe of a Virginia extremist and expanded to two priests: one investigated for attending church with a felon who had made violent online threats, and the other his uncle, ordained by Bishop Richard Williamson and linked to the SSPX Resistance. FBI personnel researched the uncle's flight and credit-card records, conducted airport surveillance in Boston, and had CBP interview him twice and search his phone, while a Richmond analyst separately obtained material on the group from a foreign law enforcement agency 23. Both assessments closed without finding a national security threat, but an FBI analyst kept revising the memo after headquarters ordered its deletion, writing on March 17, 2023, that he had spent the day "tinkering with the [Domain Perspective]" 24. Richmond leadership defended the staff and gave them positive evaluations despite an internal finding they had failed FBI standards. The personnel involved have since been terminated, and Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel said the department's weaponization review will continue 14.