FBI cleared of malicious intent in anti-Catholic memo by Justice Department: report

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been cleared by the Department of Justice of malicious intent in an alleged anti-Catholic memo that was sent last year. 

Earlier this week, Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz sent a letter to members of Congress that stated investigators did not target traditional Catholics as potential "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists."

Last year, the Richmond Field Office put out a now-retracted January memo that characterized Catholics who attend traditional Latin Mass as potential violent extremists.

According to Fox News, the FBI was looking into a particular suspect who had expressed neo-Nazi rhetoric and was a self-described "Catholic clerical fascist." 

The suspect allegedly wrote a letter to a family member that stated he wanted to "build guns, explosives, and other forms of weaponry" in order to "make total war against the Satanic occultist government and the Zionist devil worshiping bankers who control it."

The inspector general's review said that the investigation into the suspect was necessary, but it criticized how the memo warned about potential extremism in certain Catholic churches.

"The [FBI Inspection Division] report found that although there was no evidence of malicious intent or an improper purpose, the [memo] failed to adhere to analytic tradecraft standards and evinced errors in professional judgment, including that it lacked sufficient evidence or articulable support for a relationship between RMVEs (Racially Motivated Violent Extremists) and so-called RTC (Radical Traditional Catholicism) ideology; incorrectly conflated the subjects’ religious views with their RMVE activities, creating the appearance that the FBI had inappropriately considered religious beliefs and affiliation as a basis for conducting investigative activity; and reflected a lack of training and awareness concerning proper domestic terrorism terminology," the inspector general stated.