Declassified memo reveals how Biden admin set stage for feds to hound Americans over 'non-criminal behavior'

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced last month the formation of the Director's Initiatives Group, a new task force dedicated to ending the weaponization of the federal government.

In addition to declassifying and releasing the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files, Gabbard indicated that the DIG had set about reviewing other documents for potential declassification, including information related to "the Biden administration's domestic surveillance and censorship actions against Americans."

One of the documents declassified under this initiative has provided critical insights into how the stage was set in 2021 for the Biden administration's subsequent treatment of traditional Catholics and concerned parents who spoke out at school board meetings as potential terrorists.

A memo titled "Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism" assigned the FBI, the Department of Justice, and other agencies various tasks with the overarching aim of countering perceived domestic terrorism and violent extremism. The memo was reportedly developed by the FBI, the DOJ, and Biden's National Security Council.

The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center were directed, for example, to provide state and local law enforcement agencies with resources "that cover relevant iconography, symbology, and phraseology used by many domestic terrorists, as well as data-driven guidance on how to recognize potential indicators of DT-related mobilization."

One such "resource" appears to have been the FBI's "Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide," which associated the Betsy Ross flag, the Gadsden flag, the Gonzales cannon with accompanying "Come and Take It" caption, Revolutionary War imagery, and Second Amendment-related imagery with "Militia Violent Extremism."

'A broad brush to start spying on Americans.'

The declassified memo also tasked the Domestic Policy Council with driving "executive and legislative action, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines"; reining in the "proliferation of 'ghost guns'"; mitigating "xenophobia and bias" in COVID-19 responses; and supporting "interventions to foster resiliency to disinformation."

Lawmakers and legal experts suggested to Just the News that the more concerning element of the memo was its apparent loosening of the requirements for opening criminal and national security investigations — a drop in standards that may have helped pave the way for fishing expeditions into groups disfavored and/or critical of the Biden administration.

Whereas for decades FBI agents needed "an articulable factual basis" that "reasonably indicates" a crime or a threat has or will occur in order to launch an investigation, experts told Just the News that the memo substantially lowered that standard such that behavior deemed "concerning" was sufficient to begin probing.

The memo tasked the DOJ and the FBI with DHS to "enhance public understanding of the role of federal law enforcement in responding to incidents of concerning non-criminal behavior."

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told Just the News that the memo amounted to "merely a broad brush to start spying on Americans."

'The types of tools and responses that they have been making for people who are engaged in some type of violence actually applied to non-violent individuals.'

"It doesn't have to be criminal, for sure. But it doesn't have to be heterodox," said Biggs. "It just has to be something that some agent, or some local agent, says, 'Oh, we got a beef about this. We're going to check it out.'"

"It's spying on Americans," added Biggs, "violating the Fourth Amendment."

John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, told "John Solomon Reports" that "back in June 2021, the Biden administration put out its plan for dealing with domestic terrorists. The one that they put out at that time talked about how they were going after criminal activity. And of course, everybody, anybody who's espousing violence or trying to or committing violence, one wants the government to get a handle on that."

"What Tulsi Gabbard declassified was the rest of the document that was there," continued Lott. "What was shocking to me is that the types of tools and responses that they have been making for people who are engaged in some type of violence actually applied to non-violent individuals, non-criminal activity."

The FBI's scrutiny of conservative Catholics appears to have been prompted not by past or anticipated crimes but by "concerns" regarding "non-criminal behavior."

The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government revealed in a 2023 report titled "The FBI's Breach of Religious Freedom: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Catholic Americans" that the FBI field office circulated an internal memo in January 2023 warning that violent extremists are attracted to "radical traditionalist Catholic ideology."

The committee report stated, "Under the guise of tackling the threat of domestic terrorism, the memorandum painted certain 'radical-traditionalist Catholics' (RTCs) as violent extremists and proposed opportunities for the FBI to infiltrate Catholic churches as a form of 'threat mitigation.'"

"There was no legitimate basis for the memorandum to insert federal law enforcement into Catholic houses of worship," said the committee's report. Nevertheless, "this single investigation became the basis for an FBI-wide memorandum warning about the dangers of 'radical' Catholics."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!