WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — An FBI agent who oversaw a highly controversial memo targeting Traditional Catholics for surveillance testified on the subject before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Stanley Meador, the special agent in charge at the FBI’s Richmond Field Office in Virginia, spoke with the committee “for several hours in a behind-closed-doors interview,” according to two sources familiar with the matter, The Washington Examiner reported Thursday, although details about the interview have not been publicized.
In an April 28 letter to the committee, the FBI noted that Meador was involved in dealing with the “fallout” from the memo, which included “retracting it” and meeting with local Catholic leaders about it, according to one of the Examiner’s sources.
In February, FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin leaked to the public an eight-page document identifying “Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology” as a magnet for “violent extremists,” alleging that “white nationalists” are increasingly making common cause online with attendees of the Latin Mass.
The memo, written by an FBI analyst in Richmond, Virginia, asserts that “increasingly observed interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) in Radical Traditionalist Catholic (RTC) Ideology almost certainly presents new opportunities for threat mitigation” via “tripwire and source development.”
That is, the memo called for spying on and infiltrating traditional Roman Catholic groups, in particular, churches served by the Traditional Society of St. Pius X (SSPX).
The document prompted a widespread outcry from Catholics and even Protestants across the country, who lambasted the creation of the document 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.
“While our standard practice is not to comment on specific intelligence products, this particular field office product — disseminated only within the FBI — regarding racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI,” the statement reads.
Whistleblower Seraphin thereafter suggested the agency only backed off because it had been held to account. “The FBI doesn’t confirm information, but they confirmed this,” he wrote on Twitter. “Because they were called out. Not because they would NEVER approve it. They approved it, and are embarrassed. This is the only way.”
Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) released a letter addressed to Wray announcing that documents that he recently obtained from the FBI indicate that its field office in Richmond, Virginia, coordinated with two other offices across the country to spy on Traditional Catholics.
The finding appears to contradict Wray’s previous testimony that the FBI memo targeting Traditional Catholics was only utilized at the one location in Richmond.
Jordan called on Wray to “amend” his testimony and to more fully “explain the nature and scope of the FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.”
Prior to being named special agent in charge of the Richmond Field Office by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Meador served as the chief of staff to the deputy director at FBI Headquarters in Washington.