Five FBI intelligence analysts were terminated Friday for their involvement in developing a controversial 2023 report that warned about potential violent threats from certain Catholic groups, according to three sources with knowledge of the dismissals.
The terminated employees included four intelligence analysts and one supervisory analyst, sources said. All sources requested anonymity since they were not permitted to publicly discuss personnel decisions. The FBI refused to provide comment on the matter.
The intelligence report was produced by staff at the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia office in January 2023 and quickly became a source of political controversy. Congressional Republicans frequently referenced the document as evidence supporting their claims that the FBI under the previous administration was unfairly targeting conservative Americans.
Former director Chris Wray consistently rejected those accusations, and the bureau stated the report was rapidly withdrawn while an internal investigation was initiated. The attorney general under President Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, stated he was “appalled” by the document.
These dismissals represent part of extensive staff changes implemented by Director Kash Patel, a Trump administration ally who has removed dozens of personnel over the past year. Those dismissed either participated in investigations involving the president or were viewed as incompatible with current administration priorities. The Justice Department has conducted similar widespread terminations of prosecutors since Trump assumed office last year.
In February, the FBI dismissed several counterintelligence agents who had worked on the investigation examining President Donald Trump’s possession of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Richmond document, which originated from a domestic terrorism inquiry, attempted to analyze potential connections between “Radical Traditionalist Catholic” beliefs and extremists motivated by racial and ethnic hatred. The report warned about possible violence and identified what authors characterized as “new avenues for tripwire and source development.” FBI leadership swiftly criticized these conclusions after the document became publicly known.
An internal FBI examination detailed in a 2023 congressional letter, based on interviews with 26 individuals, “found 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.”
The failure to follow proper standards, including correct domestic terrorism terminology, “created the appearance that the FBI conducts investigative activity based on religious affiliation,” the letter stated. “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.”
A Justice Department inspector general report from 2024 summarized the previous FBI examination by noting that while there were violations of proper analytical procedures, “no evidence of a malicious intent or an improper purpose” were discovered.
MS NOW previously reported on the terminations.
