FBI Analysts Learn the Anti-Catholic Memo Crew Can’t Hide Behind ‘Just Following Orders’https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/06/06/fbi-analysts-learn-the-anti-catholic-memo-crew-cant-hide-behind-just-following-orders-n4953656FBI Director Kash Patel fired five FBI employees tied to the 2023 Richmond memo that treated “radical traditionalist Catholics” as a possible pipeline to violent extremism.
The fired group included four intelligence analysts and one supervisory analyst. David Laufman, lawyer for the employees, confirmed the termination and called it unjust.
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The Richmond Field Office product warned about a supposed link between racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and traditional Catholic belief. The memo leaned on weak sourcing and suggested agents develop sources inside Catholic churches and related groups.
Chris Wray, then FBI director, pulled the document after former FBI special agent Kyle Seraphin made it public. Merrick Garland, then U.S. attorney general, called the memo appalling. ...
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Documents released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday appear to contradict former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s claim that a controversial 2023 memo targeting “radical traditionalist Catholics” was a one-off and the work of a single bureau field office.
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However, the new FBI files obtained by Grassley show the bureau produced “at least 13 additional documents and five attachments that used anti-Catholic terminology,” as well as a second memo updating the FBI’s Richmond Field Office’s case against “radical” Catholics.
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The defense now sounds painfully familiar. The fired analysts say, through counsel and allies, that they were following instructions and working under supervisors. That may explain how the memo moved through the building, but it doesn't excuse the result.
“Just following orders” has a miserable history, because it tries to turn conscience into paperwork. Americans don't give federal employees badges, paychecks, and access to intelligence systems so they can shrug when constitutional lines get crossed.
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Patel's firings send a message every FBI employee should understand. Religious liberty doesn't sit below office politics. Supervisors don't get to launder bad analysis through a chain of command and call the final product “just work.”
The anti-Catholic crew helped build a document that painted faithful Americans with suspicion and then watched the bureau spend years explaining why everyone should stop noticing.
Accountability delayed, but delayed beats never. An FBI agent who can't/won't recognize that trampling the religious freedom of someone whose views differ from theirs needs to be an ex-FBI agent. Hopefully there will be more canned and others disciplined with remedial training in the meaning of Free Exercise.
