Weaponization Working Group Releases Report on 2023 FBI Richmond Field Office Memo That Targeted Non-Mainstream Catholics

Today, the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group issued a report detailing how, under the previous Administration, the FBI’s Richmond Field Office associated beliefs held by many Catholics with domestic extremism and investigated two priests as a result. The report focuses on the production and circulation of an internal assessment known as the “Richmond Domain Perspective. ” This assessment documented the purported rise of domestic extremism among those who hold conservative beliefs associated with a wide variety of Catholics. It also documented the investigation into two priests and the FBI’s surveillance of one of them.