Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 5, 2024 / 15:10 pm

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley this week warned the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to not destroy federal records including documents related to the investigation of traditionalist Catholics or the convictions of numerous pro-life activists.

In a Dec. 3 letter directed to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Hawley — a senator from Missouri who serves on the Judiciary Committee — claimed that he has received reports of employees “destroying records and other documents in an effort to conceal widespread misconduct that took place under the [Joe] Biden administration.”

The senator accused the federal agencies of engaging in “unprecedented abuses of the justice system” and specifically referenced “attempts to recruit undercover informants in Catholic parishes” and “bad-faith prosecutions of pro-life Americans for peacefully protesting abortion,” along with prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump.

“You must immediately stop this attempt to evade accountability and should terminate any employees involved,” Hawley wrote. “Further, you must preserve all department and bureau documents in anticipation of congressional investigations to come.”

When asked where the senator had learned about the alleged destruction of records, a spokesperson for Hawley’s office referred CNA back to the original letter.

In January 2023, the Richmond office of the FBI issued a memo that detailed an investigation into what it called “radical traditionalist” Catholics and potential ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.”

The memo referenced an opportunity for “trip wire or source development” within parishes that offer the Latin Mass and within online communities that the FBI considered to be “radical-traditionalist” Catholic.

The FBI immediately retracted the memo after it was leaked to the public and the DOJ issued a report in April 2024 that claimed there was no “malicious intent” behind the memo.

In August 2023, the House Judiciary Committee claimed it had evidence that multiple field offices were coordinating the investigation. The committee also found evidence that the FBI had approached a priest and a choir director to ask them to inform on parishioners.

During Garland’s leadership of the DOJ, meanwhile, the department has also overseen the prosecution of more than 30 pro-life activists for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. More than a dozen are either in prison or awaiting sentencing, but Trump has vowed to get them “back to their families.”

In his letter, Hawley said: “This is a sordid track record, and the American people deserve the truth about how it happened and who was involved.”

“With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration,” Hawley wrote.

“But those efforts will fail. … I intend to investigate your respective agencies’ illicit actions over the past several years. If your staff are presently destroying relevant documents, then the American people will learn about that too and will learn who gave the orders to do so.”

Hawley wrote that the DOJ and FBI “must immediately take all necessary steps to preserve all documents, records, and other materials generated by your agencies during your respective tenures in office” and “must cease any bad-faith document destruction.”

“You should prepare for the real justice to come,” Hawley told Wray and Garland.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment specifically on the letter but told CNA that FBI records “are retained in accordance with records retention schedules, which are approved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).”

“FBI records may not be destroyed without a NARA approved records schedule,” the statement said. “In instances of anticipated or pending litigation or other inquiry, normal disposition practices (to include destruction or transfer to NARA) are halted until resolution of the litigation or inquiry.”

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.