The Oversight Project has formally referred former FBI Director Christopher Wray to the Department of Justice, alleging he knowingly provided false and misleading testimony to Congress about two controversial episodes: alleged Chinese election interference and internal FBI targeting of Catholic Americans.
The referral accuses Wray of violating federal statutes, including obstruction of congressional proceedings, false statements, and perjury — stemming from hearings held in September 2020, March 2021, July 2023, and December 2023. DOJ and FBI are being asked to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute.
Speaking on the developments, 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 about the now-infamous Richmond memo, which categorized certain Catholic groups as potential domestic threats.
The memo, leaked earlier that year, sparked bipartisan backlash and raised concerns about religious profiling within federal law enforcement. Wray said the document did not reflect the bureau’s broader approach and claimed it was quickly withdrawn once discovered by FBI leadership.
“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which is a single product by a single field office, which as soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems,” Wray said.
Howell alleges that Wray’s statement was misleading — or outright false.
Howell’s conservative watchdog group accuses Wray of downplaying the timeline and internal awareness surrounding the bureau’s memo, which recommended monitoring certain Catholic communities for signs of domestic extremism.
Wray has publicly insisted the memo was swiftly disavowed and removed. However, the Oversight Project claims internal FBI communications show the document remained active for several weeks and was circulated more broadly than the agency has admitted.
Fox News adds that prominent Republicans on Capitol Hill are growing increasingly suspicious of what they see as a pattern of behavior:
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.
“And more FBI field offices were involved than we’d been led to believe,” Grassley, R-Iowa, said.
A second Richmond memo similar to the first that went unreleased following the backlash was part of a partially redacted series of documents Grassley’s committee transmitted to FBI Director Kash Patel in June. It stated that the bureau “assesses RMVE (Racially Motivated Violent Extremism) interest in RTC (Radical Traditional Catholic) ideology is likely to increase … in the run-up to the [2024] general election cycle.”
On Sept. 24, 2020, Wray testified before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee that the bureau had “not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise.”
Wray reiterated this position in other hearings, including March 2, 2021: “We are not aware of any widespread evidence of voter fraud, much less that would have affected the outcome.”
However, in June 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel declassified an internal FBI Intelligence Information Report (IIR) dated August 2020, which alleged that the Chinese Communist Party had produced “tens of thousands” of counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses using data from sources like TikTok. Those licenses were allegedly intended to support fraudulent mail‑in voting in favor of Joe Biden.
Around the same time, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reportedly seized nearly 20,000 counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses, mostly from shipments arriving from China, at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport during early to mid‑2020. These IDs were allegedly intended for college‑aged individuals and often had duplicate photos with differing biographical data.
The August 2020 FBI report was labeled an IIR, meaning a preliminary intelligence note — not a fully vetted or confirmed assessment. It was promptly “recalled” by FBI headquarters before broader dissemination.
The intelligence alleged a scheme to facilitate fake mail‑in ballots, but no evidence was confirmed that ballots were actually cast or counted as part of this plan. The report was never corroborated or investigated further.
According to Sen. Grassley’s office, internal emails indicate the IIR was suppressed partly because it “would contradict Director Wray’s testimony” — not necessarily because the information was disproven — but due to concerns over credibility and source reliability.
Ultimately, the Justice Department’s decision on whether to pursue charges could mark a pivotal moment — either for institutional accountability or what critics would no doubt see as political posturing.
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Great! I hope he pays the full price for his lies. He was so smug during the questioning.
Wray, and other corrupt people in government will spend little or no time in presion.
PUT WRAY INTO THE SAME GROUP AS CLAPPER, COMEY, ETC.!!!!! THEY’VE BEEN LYING FOR YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!