Merrick Garland and his underlings are in hot water for hiding evidence again. According to Fox News, the DOJ and FBI just got hit with a FOIA lawsuit filed by a Catholic lobbying group. They’re refusing to hand over the paperwork “about a memo that originated from an FBI field office.” This particular memo labeled Catholics as “violent extremists.” Garland and Wray already have subpoenas demanding the same information. If they won’t give it to congress, the public doesn’t usually have a chance. That twists in a whole different direction when it’s the Vatican hiring the lawyers.
Hiding evidence again
It’s not like the Just Us Department doesn’t get accused of hiding evidence three times a week or anything but this time is different. They made the mistake of targeting conservative Catholics.
It didn’t take long for CatholicVote to team up with Judicial Watch, who’s an expert at FOIA requests, refusals, litigation, then eventual bombshell revelation reports.
After exhausting “all their options to remedy their FOIA requests with the agencies,” they have no choice but go to court. There was initially some back and forth correspondence between the groups, the DOJ and the FBI but that ground to a halt on April 6.
The reason people can't trust the @FBI and #DOJ is because they refuse to behave like trustworthy and auditable agencies under the FOIA. This information belongs to the American public, not this intel agency with arrest authority. @CatholicVote https://t.co/yw8NRlQTnH #FoxNews
— Kyle Seraphin (@KyleSeraphin) April 27, 2023
That’s right about the time Wray got his subpoena for the same evidence. The FOIA suit “follows the leak of an internal memo that was produced by the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office on Jan. 23, 2023.”
That memo identified “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” as terrorists. Specifically, potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”
Now they’re hiding evidence they targeted people for such extremist acts as praying the rosary. Attending a traditional Latin Mass indicated signs of an impending bloodbath, the bureau warned.
Text and emails
As described in the legal complaint, the watchdogs were trying to get their hands on publicly available records including “text and email communications between DOJ and FBI officials.”
The search terms they used for their evidence request were things like “Catholics, “Latin Mass,” “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics,” “Pope Francis” and “Rosary,” among others. The first set of requests went out on March 8.
On March 14, they got a timely response from the FBI advising that “unusual circumstances” prevented the agency “from complying with the 20-day deadline to respond to a FOIA request.” That’s not as terrible as it sounds and is actually routine. It simply buys an extra ten business days. Those two weeks came and went.
CatholicVote President @BrianBurchCV on @foxandfriends to discuss why we're suing the FBI 🎧 pic.twitter.com/9d4X1zOcsw
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) April 27, 2023
“Even though FOIA norms require agencies to respond within 20 business days, with an additional 10 for ‘unusual circumstances,‘ more than a month has passed and, to date, the FBI and DOJ have failed to produce the requested records or even communicate whether they plan to comply with the request.” They want their evidence and they want it now.
“Our weaponized and corrupt government agencies have demonstrated a pattern of contempt for justice and the rule of law by prioritizing partisan ideology and agendas over the protection of the American people,” proclaimed CatholicVote President Brian Burch.
“In particular those with whom they disagree politically.” They’re hoping the court will force the FBI to cough up the evidence. “We are demanding transparency from our government and are determined to uncover just how high up the anti-Catholic bigotry goes.” These days, they won’t even commit to definitions of words like “man” or “woman.“
