Representative James Thibault (Left), Biden's FBI Director Chris Wray / Federal Bureau of Investigation (Right)
New Hampshire state Rep. James Thibault, a Republican, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI July 14, seeking records related to a Biden-era memorandum that targeted traditional Catholic communities.
The request focuses on a 2023 memo from the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office that flagged “radical traditionalist” Catholics as potentially linked to violent extremist groups. The memo implied that the FBI had infiltrated and spied on Catholic groups.
In a July 14 press release emailed to CatholicVote, Thibault called the memo “a systemic pattern of religious discrimination that must be exposed and stopped.”
“The First Amendment of the US Constitution and Part I, Article 5 of our state constitution protect every citizen’s right to worship God unimpeded by the government,” Thibault said, “so to think that federal intelligence may be infiltrating our churches and targeting our citizens for their worship is especially concerning to me.”
Thibault is requesting detailed records on the memo’s creation and approval, the number and locations of Catholic communities infiltrated, and any FBI operations conducted in New Hampshire.
His request follows sweeping revelations last month that the memo had been distributed nationwide — contradicting then-Director Christopher Wray’s claim that it was limited to the Richmond office.
As CatholicVote reported June 3, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, revealed that the memo was distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees across at least four field offices. Grassley also said the FBI generated at least 13 additional documents and five attachments using anti-Catholic rhetoric.
In the June 3 report, CatholicVote Vice President Joshua Mercer called it “a nationally coordinated effort to monitor traditional Catholics as ‘potential domestic terrorists’ because his administration perceived them as political enemies.”
“Our own government authorized the use of undercover agents to infiltrate our Catholic churches, parish schools,” Mercer added, “and even diocesan offices around the country.”
Thibault asked the FBI to provide any responsive documents in digital format and to cite the legal basis for any denials.
“My constituents deserve to know if the federal government has been spying on them just for practicing their faith,” he said in the release. “This request gets to the heart of the issue and will help shine a light on this violation to prevent further encroachment in the future.”
