WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Several FBI analysts tied to the creation of a 2023 memo warning of a potential threat from Catholic 鈥渧iolent extremists鈥� were fired Friday, according to their lawyer, the latest wave of terminations under the leadership of its director .
The fired employees included four intelligence analysts and a supervisory analyst. The FBI declined to comment.
鈥淭his action is manifestly unjust, completely unsupported by the facts, and subverts standard FBI policy and procedure,鈥� their lawyer, David Laufman, said in a statement. 鈥淭hese individuals deserved far better for the exceptional and faithful public service they rendered to protect our country.鈥�
The January 2023 intelligence product produced by analysts in the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office emerged as a political flashpoint after it was issued, with Republicans in Congress repeatedly citing it as part of their broader contention that the FBI during the Biden administration was targeting conservatives.
Then-director Chris Wray repeatedly denied that charge and the FBI has said the document was quickly retracted and an internal review was launched. Merrick Garland, the attorney general under President Joe Biden, has said he was 鈥渁ppalled鈥� by the memo.
Earlier Justice Department investigations into the memo challenged the analytical tradecraft but did not find intentional misconduct by the analysts involved.
The firings are part of a broader personnel purge under Patel, a Trump loyalist who over the last year, has who either contributed to investigations of the president or who were perceived as not in alignment with the administration鈥檚 agenda. The Justice Department has since Trump took office last year.
In February, for instance, the FBI fired a group of counterintelligence agents who participated in the investigation into President Donald Trump over his at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Richmond memo, which emerged from a domestic terrorism investigation, sought to examine a potential link between what it called 鈥淩adical Traditionalist Catholic鈥� ideology and racially and ethnically motivated extremists. It warned of the potential for violence and also highlighted what the authors described as 鈥渘ew avenues for tripwire and source development.鈥� FBI leadership quickly condemned those findings once the document became public.
An internal FBI review described in a 2023 letter to Congress and based on interviews with 26 people 鈥渇ound that all individuals involved in the creation, review and approval of the product failed to adhere to analytic tradecraft standards and failed to recognize that the product, as drafted, equated the subjects’ interest in their self-described form of religion with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (RMVE) ideology without sufficient evidence or articulable support.鈥�
The failure to adhere to standards, including on proper domestic terrorism terminology, 鈥渃reated the appearance that the FBI conducts investigative activity based on religious affiliation,鈥� the letter said. 鈥淥ne of the FBI’s most fundamental principles is that investigative activity may not be based solely on the exercise of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.鈥�
A Justice Department inspector general report in 2024 summarized the earlier FBI review by saying that though there were departures from proper analytic tradecraft, 鈥渘o evidence of a malicious intent or an improper purpose鈥� were found.
MS NOW earlier reported the firings.
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Tucker reported from Los Angeles.
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