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Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) efforts to protect religious freedom rights during a House hearing Monday and indicated to lawmakers that she was focused on a range of religions, from Judaism to Islam.
“It’s not only Catholics, it’s every religion, and even mosques that were slow-walked under the Biden administration and not allowed to open,” Bondi said. “We will protect every religion in this country.”
The attorney general’s remarks came in response to questions from Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., who asked what budget resources Bondi needed to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” in the department.
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Bondi also referenced recent high-profile incidents that appeared to be rooted in antisemitism, including the murder of two people who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. The pair were gunned down in May outside the Capitol Jewish Museum by a man who shouted “free Palestine!” as he was arrested.
Bondi’s nod to mosques was an apparent reference to a handful of blue-leaning states closing all religious buildings as part of their COVID-19 protocols in 2020 during the Trump administration.
The attorney general said she talks “almost daily” with the DOJ Civil Rights Division, which handles discrimination cases, and she commended division head Harmeet Dhillon, who has upended the division and shifted its focus, in part, to religious freedom.
“They are working to protect people of all religions,” Bondi said.
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Moore also broached a controversial internal memo that originated in the FBI Richmond Field Office under former FBI Director Christopher Wray. The memo, which Congress made public in 2023 after receiving it from an FBI whistleblower, offered a threat assessment of “radical-traditionalist Catholics.”
The internal document laid out what the FBI perceived as a pattern of extremism among a small group of Catholics, identifying them as those who opposed modern-day popes, held “extremist ideological beliefs,” and “engaged in violent rhetoric.”
The document pointed to three real-life examples of criminal suspects who identified with that sect of Catholicism to illustrate its point, and it used the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-leaning nonprofit, to bolster its assessment. In response to backlash, the FBI retracted the memo. Wray later said he admonished employees involved with making it but also said he did not uncover any “bad faith conduct” among them.
Bondi said during Monday’s hearing that under her tenure, the DOJ will not use the Southern Poverty Law Center as a resource.
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