President Trump's nominee for FBI director said during his confirmation hearing that he would ‘hold those accountable who violated the sacred trust placed in the FBI.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's nominee for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pledged to hold accountable the Department of Justice (DOJ) employees who planned on spying on and infiltrating Catholic churches under Joe Biden’s DOJ.
During Patel’s confirmation hearing on Thursday, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri referred to an infamous 2023 memo from the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, office that alleged so-called “Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” is a magnet for “violent extremists.”
“Will you also commit to me that you will conduct an investigation and find out who wrote this memo, who spread this memo, the field offices involved in this memo?” Hawley asked Patel.
He went on to say that former FBI director Christopher Wray had “lied” multiple times to Congress, first by claiming that such a memo targeting Catholics didn’t exist and then claiming that only one field office was involved in the memo, whereas it was later revealed by a whistleblower that multiple field offices were involved. Wray later falsely claimed the memo was “never posted on the internal system” of the FBI.
“Will you find out who was involved in this gross abuse of Americans’ First Amendment rights, and will you discipline them, and if you possibly can, will you fire them, Mr. Patel?” Hawley continued.
Patel pledged his “commitment to investigate any matters such as this one that are important to Congress.”
“I will fully utilize, if confirmed, the investigative powers of the FBI to give you the information you require and also to hold those accountable who violated the sacred trust placed in the FBI,” Patel vowed.
The memo in question had called for “tripwire and source development” – in other words, spying and infiltration – in traditional Roman Catholic churches, particularly those served by priests of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
The document sparked a widespread outcry from Catholics and even Protestants across the country who lambasted its creation for violating the First Amendment by targeting Americans as “threats” due to particular religious beliefs.
The FBI thereafter retracted the memo and said it would investigate why it was written. It was later found that documents from the FBI indicated its field office in Richmond coordinated with two other offices across the country in a conspiracy to spy on traditional Catholics.
During the Senate confirmation hearing, Patel also promised, when pressed by Hawley, to investigate those in the FBI involved in targeting parents of school children who objected to critical race theory and school masking policies. He vowed that such parents, along with worshipping Americans, would not be targeted as “domestic terrorists” under his leadership.
“Parents who have the courage to ensure that their children are taught what they feel is right and those who have the courage of their convictions to go to houses of worship, in my book, will never be treated as domestic terrorists,” Patel said.
During Trump’s first term, Patel served as Chief of Staff to the Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller and as a senior adviser to the Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
