Kash Patel fires FBI analysts tied to disputed Catholic extremism memo

WASHINGTON, DC: Under FBI Director Kash Patel, agency has fired several analysts tied to the bureau’s controversial 2023 Catholic extremism memo, even though earlier reviews found no evidence they acted with malicious intent.

The move drew an immediate rebuke from the employees’ attorney. It also renewed scrutiny over why personnel action was taken after previous investigations criticized the memo’s quality but stopped short of finding misconduct.

Reviews found flaws, not misconduct

The employees fired included four intelligence analysts and one supervisory analyst, according to attorney David Laufman.

Laufman called the decision “manifestly unjust, completely unsupported by the facts, and subverts standard FBI policy and procedure”.

“These individuals deserved far better for the exceptional and faithful public service they rendered to protect our country,” he added.

The firings center on a January 2023 intelligence product created by analysts in the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office. The document examined a potential link between what it called ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholic’ ideology and racially or ethnically motivated extremists.

The memo quickly became a political flashpoint after Republicans repeatedly cited it as evidence that the FBI under former President Joe Biden was targeting conservatives.

FBI review criticized memo’s analysis

The FBI withdrew the document soon after it became public and launched an internal review. Former FBI Director Chris Wray repeatedly rejected claims that the bureau was targeting conservatives, while former Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was “appalled” by the memo.

An internal FBI review later found that those involved in creating, reviewing and approving the document “failed to adhere to analytic tradecraft standards.”

According to a 2023 letter to Congress, officials also “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 ideology without sufficient evidence or articulable support”.

The review said those failures “created the appearance that the FBI conducts investigative activity based on religious affiliation.”

It added that “one 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”.

Patel expands FBI personnel purge

The latest dismissals come amid a broader personnel shakeup under Patel, a close Trump ally who has removed employees linked to investigations involving President Donald Trump or those viewed as out of step with the administration’s priorities.

In February, the FBI also fired counterintelligence agents who had participated in the classified documents investigation involving Trump’s retention of records at Mar-a-Lago. 

Yet earlier reviews of the Richmond memo stopped short of accusing the analysts of intentional wrongdoing.

A 2024 Justice Department inspector general report summarized the FBI’s findings by stating that while there were departures from proper analytical standards, investigators found “no evidence of a malicious intent or an improper purpose”.

That gap between the review findings and the latest firings is likely to keep attention on Patel’s handling of FBI personnel decisions as questions linger over whether additional actions could follow.