A stunning set of documents released by Senator Chuck Grassley this week shows the Biden FBI’s campaign against conservative Catholics was far more expansive than previously admitted. What the agency once claimed was an isolated “field office product” turns out to have been disseminated across the country — to over 1,000 FBI personnel.

At the center of the controversy is a now-infamous memo from the Richmond, Virginia field office, which labeled “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” as potential violent extremists. That memo, first revealed by a whistleblower in 2023, warned that certain Catholic beliefs — like preferring the Latin Mass or opposing Vatican II — could be linked to white supremacy and racial violence. But according to Grassley’s new findings, the memo wasn’t confined to Richmond. Field offices in Portland, Milwaukee, and Louisville helped develop it — and it was circulated widely across the bureau.

Grassley called out former FBI Director Christopher Wray for misleading Congress in 2023 when he claimed the memo was the product of a single office. “The facts now contradict that claim,” Grassley’s office said in a statement.

And the documents reveal even more disturbing developments: the FBI was already drafting a follow-up memo before public backlash forced it to retract the first. That second memo allegedly warned that Catholic communities could become targets for extremist recruitment in the lead-up to the next election and questioned whether priests or parishioners were involved in radicalization.

One analyst in Richmond even compared “conservative family values” to Islamist ideology — a shocking parallel that underscores how deeply ideological bias had permeated the bureau’s internal thinking.

The FBI leaned on research from the Southern Poverty Law Center to justify its memo — a group notorious for branding mainstream conservative groups as “hate organizations.” The memo also advised the FBI to develop “sources” within Catholic churches to report on congregants, a move that critics argue amounts to unconstitutional religious surveillance.

The FBI has refused to comment on the revelations. But that silence isn’t slowing down the pushback.

The White House, under mounting pressure, established a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” earlier this year, citing the Richmond memo as one of the most egregious examples. But critics say that effort is just window dressing while the administration continues to weaponize federal agencies against ideological opponents.

Grassley is now demanding full transparency. In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, he called for a deeper investigation into the bureau’s records and plans related to targeting Christians. “I look forward to continuing to work with you to restore the FBI to excellence and prove once again that justice can and must be fairly and evenly administered,” he wrote.

The new revelations also come at a time when faith-based voters are increasingly wary of federal overreach. For years, conservatives have warned that religious Americans — especially traditional Catholics and evangelical Christians — were being placed in the crosshairs of the progressive state. Now, those warnings look more justified than ever.

Grassley’s documents confirm what whistleblowers and conservative watchdogs have been saying all along: under the Biden administration, federal agencies are being repurposed to police wrongthink — especially when it’s grounded in religious conviction.

And with 2026 looming, these revelations are sure to reignite calls to rein in the national security bureaucracy and hold those responsible for targeting peaceful Americans accountable. Whether through congressional hearings, legal action, or the ballot box, the backlash is building — and the church pews may become one of the most powerful battlegrounds in American politics.