A Washington-based government transparency group has formally referred former FBI Director Christopher Wray to the Department of Justice and the FBI, calling for a criminal investigation into allegations that he made false statements to Congress and obstructed proceedings in two major cases.
Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Fox News Digital that the referral specifically targets Wray’s congressional testimony regarding the controversial “Richmond memo”—a document from the FBI’s Virginia office that revealed anti-Catholic bias—and his statements about an alleged Chinese effort to distribute fraudulent driver’s licenses ahead of the 2020 election.
In July 2023, Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the Richmond memo, which had identified Catholics as potential domestic threats, sparking significant backlash. “Well, what I can tell you is you’re referring to the Richmond product, which is a single product by a single field office, which as soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems,” Wray said.
The Oversight Project contends that Wray’s statements were misleading or outright false. During the hearing, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) questioned Wray about the Richmond memo as well as a so-called “Trump questionnaire” reportedly circulated within the FBI.
The document allegedly asked agents about their support for then-President Trump and whether they had attended any protests or rallies linked to the January 6 Capitol breach. “We keep hearing about these ‘isolated examples’ whether it’s Richmond Catholics, this [questionnaire] — isn’t it a pattern?” Tiffany asked.
The Oversight Project also referenced Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley’s opening remarks from a June hearing on Biden-era “cover-ups,” in which Grassley said the Richmond memo “used the shoddy research of the radical Southern Poverty Law Center to accuse traditional Catholics of being violent extremists.”
“Based on records I released the other week, there wasn’t just one FBI document that used biased anti-Catholic sources, but over a dozen,” Grassley said. The referral also indicates that Grassley’s comment contradicts Wray’s testimony about it being a one-time incident. “And more FBI field offices were involved than we’d been led to believe,” Grassley, R-Iowa, said.
A second Richmond memo, similar to the first, was not released after the backlash. This memo was part of a partially redacted series of documents that Grassley’s committee sent to FBI Director Kash Patel in June. It stated that the bureau “assesses RMVE (Racially Motivated Violent Extremism) interest in RTC (Radical Traditional Catholic) ideology is likely to increase … in the run-up to the [2024] general election cycle.”
“Director Wray’s testimony was inaccurate not only because it failed to reveal the scope of the memo’s production and dissemination, but also because it failed to reveal the existence of a second, draft product on the same topic intended for external distribution to the whole FBI,” the Oversight Project said in a separate statement.
“That draft product was intended for distribution as a Strategic Perspective Executive Analytic Report (“SPEAR”). It was clearly a separate product,” the statement said, adding that the org specifically alleged violations of obstruction of proceedings before Congress, perjury, and false statements by Wray.
