Sen. Hawley: ‘How many people were fired for targeting Catholics at the FBI? Zero’

December 7, 2023

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray over a new report showing that the FBI was weaponized against Catholic Americans.

“So how many people were fired for targeting Catholics at the FBI? Zero,” Hawley posted on X following an U.S. Senate FBI Oversight Hearing in which he confronted Wray. “But don’t worry: Chris Wray says they were ‘admonished’ and got a ‘note in their file.’”

“I’m sure America’s 60 million Catholics feel much better,” posted Hawley.

Watch the interaction here:

Earlier this week, the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report titled, “The FBI’s Breach of Religious Freedom: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Catholic Americans.”

The report said that “the FBI singled out Americans who are pro-life, pro-family, and support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction as potential domestic terrorists.”

Commenting on that U.S. House report, Hawley admonished Wray:

“Now we know that in fact, FBI agents did approach a priest and a choir director to ask them to inform on parishioners […] Good heavens, Director, this is one of the most outrageous targetings – you have mobilized your division, the most powerful law enforcement division in the world, against traditionalist Catholics.”

Hawley was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018. He previously was the Attorney General of Missouri from 2017 to 2019. In 2013 he worked as a faculty member at the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, which is affiliated with Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization based in Phoenix, Ariz.

A native of Springdale, Ark., Hawley was raised in Lexington, Mo., and attended Stanford University and Yale Law School.