“Traditional Catholics” seen as a threat by the Bureau
As The Ops Desk detailed in a story in October, the FBI was reportedly conducting a bizarre investigation on traditional Catholics within the United States.
Just reading that is pretty scary, isn’t it?
After the investigation into Catholics was revealed, both Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray were grilled by Congress on the behavior of the agents under their supervision. Garland stated that he was, “appalled by that memo.” After hours of obfuscation and dodging the two left the Capitol building, hoping the entire affair would go away.
Wrong again, fellas.
Just to recap: The FBI Richmond Field Office generated a memo that detailed an investigation into “traditional Catholics” within their jurisdiction, detailing ways to gather information from sources around these purported “extremists.” There was almost no justification for the investigation and the FBI had trouble even defining what a traditional Catholic was. Wray and Garland claimed that the investigation was limited to the Richmond Field Office and the investigation had not been authorized by headquarters.
But now there’s this: Garland and Wray were clearly being disingenuous. Or, in common parlance: Lying.
How do we know? To date, no one has been held accountable for the traditional Catholic memo (a sure sign that it was authorized). Further, the leaked memo that embarrassed the FBI by making their actions public was initially explained as being “confined to the Richmond Office.” The claim was that the higher-ups were not aware of its existence due to its “limited distribution.” We know now that this was an outright lie; the memo was widely distributed throughout the bureau and available to all offices and agents.
Additionally, an FBI Richmond investigation went beyond what was originally detailed. Reporting now indicates that the FBI approached a priest and a choir director and asked them to inform on their parishioners. Anyone familiar with the Catholic Church knows the obligation that priests have regarding confessions. To ask a priest to inform on a member of their church barring truly exceptional circumstances is chilling.
Once again, the FBI and DOJ prove themselves to be duplicitous and untrustworthy. There are details in law enforcement that must be treated with utmost secrecy. But that cannot apply to everything – a dodge the FBI uses regularly.
When the agency lies to their legislative overseers, it is an alarming and dangerous act. And on the issue of censorship, the Bidens, Donald Trump, and now “traditional Catholics,” this DOJ has done it repeatedly. And continues to.
FBI Saves the Day
As much as we malign the FBI on this forum, they do get it right more often than not. They have had several misses on the counterterrorism and mass shooting front in recent years, from the Parkland school shooting to last year’s New Year’s Eve Times Square attacker.
But in a joint investigation last month, the FBI and Pinellas Park (FL) Police Department conducted an investigation into one Robert Trout. Trout had been on social media, brandishing numerous firearms and threatening to shoot up a NYC subway car on Thanksgiving. Trout had ties to New York and planned on visiting family there.
Trout was arrested the day before Thanksgiving in Florida. In his car were molds to make ghost guns and other illegal firearm related material. This guy had the means and the mindset to do a lot of damage. He also had violent priors.
On December 7th Trout’s case was turned over to the US Attorney and he was charged federally with posting an online threat (the disposition of the gun charges is not clear).
This case didn’t receive much attention – likely because nothing bad ultimately happened. But this was a nice job by the FBI and Pinellas Park Police to get this guy in custody before a tragedy occurred. Kudos.
Suffolk County Class
Rodney Harrison left the NYPD to be the Commissioner of Suffolk County. He immediately initiated a re-investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders — with spectacular results. Within months the perp, Rex Andrew Heuermann, was in custody and facing numerous murder charges. Harrison certainly can and should take credit for leading the biggest investigation in Suffolk PD history to a successful conclusion.
And then he announced his resignation. We don’t want to feed the rumor mill or speculate as to the reason why. But then last week, the story broke of a Suffolk County District Attorney’s investigation into Harrison.
Going with the facts that are public: To say this investigation is not newsworthy is an understatement. In fact, this seems like a vindictive, political hack job. Harrison has been accused by County Legislator Robert Trotta, a former Suffolk County Police detective, of changing vacation days to sick days (there must be some benefit to using sick time rather than vacation time in Suffolk).
It seems the Commissioner was dimed out by a member of his own department to Trotta. Trotta immediately called DA Tierney, who opened a case. Now, Trotta and Harrison have clashed in the past, with Trotta secretly recording private conversations with Harrison.
You may also remember that DA Tierney was slighted by Harrison at a recent press conference regarding the ongoing investigation of the Gilgo Beach case. So there’s clearly bad blood there, too.
This allegation is about as significant as Commander Queeg’s frozen strawberries. If the change was improper, the time records should be corrected. To treat this as a criminal matter is an embarrassment.
What with the hijinks of former Commissioner Burke and the fact that the Gilgo case lay unsolved for so long, Suffolk PD has enough to be embarrassed about. Let Rodney Harrison move on.
Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!
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