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Here’s how law enforcement works.  Police officers develop cases in two primary ways: (1) through citizen reports of crime, and (2) through information officers develop through intelligence efforts or while investigating citizen reports of crime.  Simply, officers do not say: “I don’t like the look of that guy.  I’m going to dig into him and see if he’s committing crimes.  Hell, if I don’t find anything, I’ll make something up!”

They don’t do that for very simple reasons: (1) They don’t have the time or resources to investigate people they have no reason to believe, no predicate to think, are committing crimes. (2) That’s personal and/or political persecution. (3) It’s unprofessional, just plainly morally wrong, and contrary to our system of justice.  That’s also why professional police officers go out of their way to avoid even the appearance of political influence.  It’s wrong and destroys public confidence in the police and our system of justice.

Any police supervisor noticing that kind of misbehavior in one of his subordinates has a legal and moral obligation to immediately demand answers.  If they can’t provide a legitimate predicate for their interest in pursuing someone, they must be shut down and appropriately disciplined.  Misbehavior by the police creates enormous bad will among the public, and bad will is cumulative and deadly.

And then we have the FBI under the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration.  Mary Chastain at Legal Insurrection explains:

The House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government discovered that the FBI’s Richmond Office memo targeting Catholics was not an isolated incident.

You’ll recall, gentle readers, FBI Director Wray told Congress when he heard about what the Richmond office was doing, he was shocked, shocked! he told them.  The Richmond boys were the only FBI office engaged in such things, and he made sure it would never happen again.  That, you see, is not what the FBI does, no sir!

‘The Committee and Select Subcommittee’s oversight shows that the FBI abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists,’ declared the committee.

The memo from the Richmond office warned that ‘radical-traditionalist Catholics’ could become ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists’ and said that ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.’

Oh yeah, there’s nothing worse, no great danger to “our democracy,” than Catholics who like the Latin mass and who are serious about practicing Christianity.

If you’re a Radical Traditionalist Catholic (RTC), then WHITE SUPREMACIST. Do you prefer the Latin Mass? White supremacist. Do you prefer to partake in other Catholic traditions pre-Vatican II? You’re a racist extremist.

The findings make me believe the FBI wanted to infiltrate the Catholic Church. The FBI had at least one undercover agent to help compile the memo. The agency even ‘proposed developing sources among the Catholic clergy and church leadership.’

The agents interviewed at least one priest and choir director before publishing the memo.

But the committee also ‘learned that there were errors at every step of the drafting, review, approval, and removal process of the memorandum.’

What a surprise.

To the shock of no one, the FBI had ‘no legitimate basis for the memorandum to insert federal law enforcement into Catholic houses of worship.’

Yes, the FBI wanted to place ‘federal law enforcement into places of worship and support outreach efforts to the Diocese of Richmond and other Catholic parishes.’

But wait, didn’t Wray say no such thing happened and never would again? 

One rogue FBI office? Nope. The FBI offices in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Portland gave Richmond reports, which helped form the memo.

Keep in mind those are the only FBI offices we know about, and not because the FBI admitted it.

The two agents who wrote the memo relied on pure leftist sources, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Salon, and The Atlantic. The agents knew the sources had a political bias.

And that would concern or stop the FBI because…?

The FBI picked out ‘Americans who are pro-life, pro-family, and support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction as potential domestic terrorists.’

Hmmm.  I’m having trouble finding those crimes in the US code…

The FBI withdrew the memo after it leaked in January. But at that time, the FBI wanted to place the memo ‘into an external, public-facing document highlighting the threats of ‘radical’ Catholics.’

An interview with Special Agent in Charge Stanley Meador revealed that the Richmond office ‘still desires to convey this information to other field offices’ about RTCs.

Even though the FBI withdrew the memo, no one at the agency can tell how many offices and agents accessed it before it happened.

Perhaps all of them?  Fox News reports the FBI tells us they’ve investigated the FBI and found the FBI blameless:

The FBI said its interviews of a Catholic priest and choir director were conducted during an investigation of ‘an individual threatening violence who has since been arrested,’ and not a broader probe into Catholics. [skip]

But the FBI told Fox News Digital that ‘any characterization that the FBI is targeting Catholics is false.’

Well sure.  Other than specifically targeting Catholics, the FBI is absolutely not targeting Catholics.

The FBI explained that ‘the interviews of the priest and choir director highlighted by the committee’s report were conducted by FBI Richmond during an investigation of an individual threatening violence who has since been arrested.’

‘The interviews were not conducted for the domain perspective as characterized by the report,’ the FBI said.

Which means what, exactly?

The FBI has maintained that ‘the intelligence product prepared by one FBI field office did not meet the exacting standards of the FBI and was quickly removed from FBI systems.’

‘An internal review conducted by the FBI found no malicious intent to target Catholics or members of any other religious faith, and did not identify any investigative steps taken as a result of the product,’ the FBI said. ‘The FBI is committed to upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and we do not conduct investigations based solely on First Amendment protected activity, including religious practices.’

See, the FBI says it’s entirely honorable, professional and ethical, and they know that because they checked themselves out and everyone said so. The FBI does not account for itself, ever, usually claiming “ongoing investigations.”  In the case of the person supposedly “threatening violence who has since been arrested,” the only legitimate reason for the FBI to have interviewed a priest and choir director was if they were somehow witnesses to a crime.  Pretty much any Christian American has far more frequent and in-depth relationships with friends, coworkers and family than they do their local priest or pastor, which means the FBI should be far more interested in speaking with them.  So unless the priest and choir director were somehow directly involved in this case—and here we assume the FBI is telling the truth—there would be no reason to contact them, and considering the FBI’s claims they’re not targeting Catholics, every reason to avoid it.

Is the FBI telling the truth?  Are they scrupulous about avoiding targeting Catholics?  This story at American Greatness suggests they are not:

A traditional Catholic family was allegedly ‘dragged out of their home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van’ earlier this year after the FBI ‘goaded’ their 15-year-old son to post ‘offensive memes’ online. The teen, a volunteer firefighter and altar boy, was then hospitalized on mental health pretenses, according to his father, Jeremiah Rufini.

The FBI’s aggressive ‘investigation’ only resulted in a misdemeanor conviction against the boy for breach of peace, but financially devastated the family with substantial legal expenses.

The FBI generally does not investigate misdemeanors, like a breach of peace charge.  That’s for local jurisdictions, many of which no longer have the manpower to deal with such minor infractions.  That charge could have been the result of a face-saving–for the FBI–plea bargain, but we don’t know that.

The FBI targeted the boy as part of a sting operation catfishing traditionalist Catholic teenagers with ‘extreme political content,’ Rufini explained in the family’s GiveSendGo crowdfunding site.

How did the teenager get caught up in this FBI operation?

The family’s difficulties began early in 2023 when Rufini’s father became too ill from chemotherapy to work at the family business or care for his 93 year-old grandmother who lives in an in-law apartment at his home.

The home-schooled 15 year-old took on the responsibility of caring for his great grandmother until his father got home from work each day.

‘It was a very stressful time, compounded by several unrelated deaths in the family that happened in the same time period,’ Rufini explained. The long hours alone with his grandmother led the boy, equipped with a brand new cell phone, to become ensnared in an FBI scheme targeting trad Catholics.

None of our children, including my son, had been raised with cell phones or unrestricted internet access. It became necessary for him to have a phone so we could communicate while he was alone at my father’s house caring for my grandmother, and so we reluctantly allowed him to have a cell phone. He spent a lot of time alone with nothing to do but wait and think and the cell phone became a welcome distraction. His interests in history and theology led him down a rabbit hole where he was recruited into group chats targeting teenage traditionalist Catholics with extreme political content. We later learned that these chats were being closely monitored, and possibly operated by, FBI agents as part of an effort to investigate Traditional Catholics that was downstream of a broader domestic investigation spurred by the events of January 6th.

Indeed, since the early days of the Biden regime, the DOJ has executed a policy of treating traditional Catholics and pro-lifers like violent domestic extremists.

Sure.  Why not, when Biden’s handlers have repeatedly had him declare about half of Americans domestic terrorists and insurrectionists, people bent on destroying “our democracy?”  The article goes into more detail about AG Merrick Garland misleading, perhaps outright lying to, Congress:

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked: ‘Attorney General, are you cultivating sources and spies in Latin mass parishes and other Catholic parishes around the country?’

‘The Justice Department does not do that, it does not do investigations based on religion,’ Garland responded. ‘I saw the document you have, it’s appalling, I’m in complete agreement with you. I understand that the FBI has withdrawn it and is now looking into how this could ever have happened.’

Notice Garland didn’t directly answer the question. 

‘I’ll tell you how it happened. This memorandum, which is supposed to be intelligence, cites extensively the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) which goes on to identify all these different Catholics as being part of hate groups,’ Hawley said. ‘Is this how the FBI under your direction and leadership does their intelligence work? They look at left-wing advocacy groups to target Catholics?!’

Hawley added, ‘Is this what’s going on? Clearly it is. This is happening!’

‘The FBI is not targeting Catholics, and as I’ve said, this is an inappropriate memorandum and it doesn’t reflect the methods the FBI is supposed to be using,’ Garland insisted.

Note the evasion: “supposed to be using.”  Garland is leaving himself perjury wiggle room so he can later say, “I told you they weren’t supposed to be doing that, and I’m shocked, shocked! to learn they are.”  Rufini continues to explain what happened:

Unbeknownst to us, he was being drawn deeper and deeper into these chat groups and goaded into doing things like take pictures of himself in public wearing ski masks and to print out memes and leave them on picnic tables. They would ask him if he had access to guns (he would go target shooting under the supervision of my brother, who lived in an in-law apartment at our home and owned firearms) and encourage him to sneak photographs of the guns and post them. Ironically, our legal troubles began when he had an attack of conscience and abruptly deleted all of his chat apps. He later told us that he felt using social media was a coping mechanism and it had been affecting his mood and ability to sleep.

After the boy deleted the apps, the Bureau, according to Rufini, assumed that ‘he must have connected to a terror cell in real life and ‘gone dark’ ahead of some potential violent act.’

Why or how the FBI could have made such an assumption remains unknown.

There was no such plan and they had no evidence of one, but it didn’t stop them from spending two weeks fabricating a legal pretense for a search warrant of our home. At 10:00pm on a Sunday evening we were dragged out of our home at gunpoint, handcuffed and locked in a van while they searched our home for evidence of this imagined plot. Having found no such evidence, they seized my brother’s firearms and had my son hospitalized on mental health pretenses.

Unsurprisingly, the FBI’s case against the boy fell apart, but not before causing enormous damage:

There was a Department of Children and Families investigation that went nowhere but required us to go to daily appointments for months. The state brought criminal charges against my son that were eventually disposed of but required a legal battle that lasted months. When his charges were disposed of, my brother and I were charged for allowing my son to target shoot based on the assumption that we must have somehow known that he was involved in political extremism online. It seems unlikely to amount to much but has cost us over $20,000 we don’t have so far.

‘We are a working class family that lives paycheck-to-paycheck and bankruptcy is a near certainty,’ Rufini wrote. ‘It will be a struggle to keep our home without help.’

How parents could be charged for taking their child target shooting is a mystery, but the DOJ has a habit of making things up and using federal statutes for purposes for which they were never intended.  What is clear for most Americans, and certainly for the Rufinis, is the process is the punishment.  The federal government has unlimited resources to pursue anyone it pleases.  Take the link to read the entire article.

Final Thoughts:  One might wonder why, with thousands, even tens of thousands, of potential terrorists from enemy countries streaming over our borders, the FBI has the manpower to try to entrap a 15-year-old altar boy?  The FBI has admitted, thus far, they’re looking into some 300 illegals on the terrorist watch list.  Why any illegal, let alone illegals on the watch list, are allowed into the country or allowed to remain, as always, goes unanswered.

One might also note I’m presenting only one side of the story, but the FBI doesn’t explain itself, ever, so I’ve little choice.  They’re certainly not going to answer any request I make for comment.  As always, I’m working from media sources, so it’s possible I’m getting some things wrong and should I discover I am, will, as always, make necessary corrections.  My law enforcement experience suggests it’s likely the information I’ve presented revealing FBI malfeasance is accurate.  Tragically, these days, the FBI has so damaged its reputation, one can reasonably believe they don’t deserve the benefit of any doubt.

As I’ve often said, I have to believe many, perhaps most, FBI agents are honorable people, defending the Constitution and playing it straight.  Unfortunately, so many are clearly not it’s impossible to know, when two FBI agents—they work in pairs—show up at your door, whether they’re among the honest.  Rational people must assume they’re not and refuse to cooperate in any way.  Oh, and did you know police officers can, and do, lie to people?  Even the vaunted FBI does.

It’s going to take a herculean effort to return our vital institutions to a modicum of public trust, and that effort absolutely will not begin while the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration is in power.  Even should Republicans take the White House and Congress in 2024, the Deep State, of which the DOJ and FBI are the enforcement arm, will fight any such effort tooth and nail.  They know they’ll be fighting for their, not America’s, survival.

In the meantime, we’re on our own.  We always were.