Christopher Wray referred to DOJ over claims he misled lawmakers on Catholic memo, China probes

A Washington-based government transparency watchdog has referred former FBI Director Christopher Wray to the Department of Justice and the FBI, urging a criminal investigation into allegations that he had made false statements to Congress and obstructed proceedings in two high-profile cases.

Oversight Project President Mike Howell told Fox News Digital that the group is specifically asking officials to examine Wray’s congressional testimony on the so-called Richmond memo from the FBI office in Virginia that exposed an anti-Catholic bias there, and his testimony about a Chinese plot to disseminate illicit driver’s licenses before the 2020 election.

In July 2023, Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the FBI-Richmond memo that had labeled Catholics as potential domestic threats.

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“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which is a single product by a single field office, which as soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems,” Wray said.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 alleges that statement was ultimately misleading or false.

Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., pressed Wray on the Richmond memo and so-called “Trump questionnaire,” which was circulated at the FBI and asked about allegiance to the president and whether agents had attended any protests or rallies associated with the Jan. 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 pointed to 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 notes that this remark by Grassley belies Wray’s testimony suggesting a one-off incident.

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“And more FBI field offices were involved than we’d been led to believe,” Grassley, R-Iowa, said.

A second Richmond memo…