A woke FBI poses a threat to our democracy

On April 10, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a subpoena to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding documents relating to an internal FBI proposal targeting traditional Catholics. Although the controversy over that memo is already somewhat old, the FBI has not yet fully complied with that subpoena. 

Still, some documents have been disclosed online, which show not only an FBI that has drifted away from its law enforcement moorings, but the pernicious influence of woke ideology on its agenda. 

The principal document in question is a paper by an intelligence analyst dated Jan. 23, 2023, on “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists” and their interest in “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics,” who actually get a new acronym in the publication, RTC. The analyst assessed with “high confidence” that the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church. 

The new acronym RTC is explained as “typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council.” The fact that our FBI even has such an acronym is itself very scary. The analyst makes an illogical leap to claim that a preference for the Mass in Latin instead of the vernacular and other traditionalist views amount to an “adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.”

No evidence is presented of any violent rhetoric, much less violent acts, by Catholics who might be considered “RTC.” 

The Southern Poverty Law Center is cited as a source for the analyst’s claims. The organization asserts that RTCs “embrace extremely conservative social ideals with respect to women,” something that is in the eye of the beholder. And nothing reported by that group indicates instances of violence by these traditional Catholics.  

The analyst’s obvious woke bias is manifest in his fixation on abortion. The biased phrase “abortion rights” is repeatedly used in this analysis, as when it claims that these traditional Catholics are a concern because of an “hostility towards abortion-rights advocates.” 

The analyst speculates about an increase in white supremacist interactions with these traditional Catholics, which leads to the suggestion of mitigation strategies, including recruiting confidential human sources (“source development”), tripwire and liaison contacts. In another potential intrusion upon First Amendment protections, the document implies a strategy of monitoring social media for RTC ideology in online posts.

We already know from the Twitter files that today’s FBI has come dangerously close to violating the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech; now it is that amendment’s protection of religion that is being endangered. This is likely the principal concern of Rep. Jim Jordan’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.   

Speaking at the National Review Institute’s Ideas Summit on March 31, former Attorney General William Barr pointed out that fear of the woke mob is widespread in today’s FBI. He knows of what he speaks. Any solution to the FBI problem, he tells us, needs to be addressed “on a cultural level.” Barr suggests structural change as a catalyst for “reclaiming some of the culture.” Barr’s recognition of the woke influence on the Bureau and its other cultural problems differs markedly from the position taken by the current Bureau and its director, Christopher Wray, who see only a series of individual errors and mistakes. 

In past times, when shenanigans were discovered at the Bureau, malefactors were shown the door. Wray’s theme has been essentially that the “bad apples are no longer with us.” In this instance he asserts that the work of the analyst who wrote this memo on Catholics “does not reflect FBI standards.”  

The Bureau management’s reluctance to look beyond these transgressors to the underlying cultural issues is troubling. It is now made worse by the pernicious influence of the woke agenda.  

The Bureau’s problem began with a cultural shift by former Director Robert Mueller in the immediate post 9/11 era, which was exacerbated by the poor leadership of his hand-picked successor, James Comey. As Barr put it, “Mueller and Comey threw the baby out with the bath water.” Removing agent executives, they brought in outside professionals to take over key headquarters positions, losing long-term commitment and an invaluable knowledge of the institution and its culture. The professionals didn’t have the institutional knowledge of career agents, nor the grounding in the Constitution.  

Another part of the cultural change begun under Mueller was the elevation of the position of intelligence analyst. Current agents complain that the analysts are driving the Bureau’s agenda.

The analysis targeting traditionalist Catholics as possible domestic terrorists noted that the document had been approved by a supervisory analyst and the division’s principal legal advisor. That was initially disappointing, as in the past the principal legal advisor was always an agent. But most field divisions’ principal legal advisors are now non-agents. 

Traditionalist Catholics might not be the only target of this woke thinking. The door is now open to targeting other religious practices, which are based on widespread Christian positions on social issues. It could lead to the same analysis for any traditional Christian group or even orthodox Jews.  

The cultural change at the Bureau, combined with weaponized wokeness, is very dangerous. If Americans are to enjoy the protections of the Bill of Rights, our FBI must first turn away from freewheeling woke intelligence speculations and return to its roots in fact-based law enforcement. 

Thomas Baker is a former FBI special agent and author of “The Fall of the FBI.“