A former FBI special agent who led the Virginia field office responsible for investigating the Catholic community across the Commonwealth will lead the state’s safety office under new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger in January.
Gov.-elect Spanberger nominated Stanley Meador as the next Virginia secretary for public safety and homeland security, according to an announcement.
Ms. Spanberger said Mr. Meador possesses the “expertise necessary to protect our citizens” and said he will “make sure Virginia is a place where every Virginian can safely thrive.”
Mr. Meador, who previously served in FBI field offices in Seattle, Las Vegas and at bureau headquarters in Washington, found himself under scrutiny in 2023 when he was the special agent in charge at the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia field office. He served there until June, following a purge of numerous FBI personnel by bureau leadership.
His office was responsible for issuing what became known as the “Richmond memo,” which labeled “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” as potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.” The memo was leaked in January 2023.
It stated that “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development.”
Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray attempted to distance himself from the memo after its contents went public, and he was questioned by lawmakers about it.
The FBI retracted the memo in 2023 after it became public, but congressional investigations launched into why such a memo was created and how many churches were impacted.
Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee at the beginning of 2024 sought action and accountability after discovering details and discrepancies surrounding the anti-Catholic memo.
In a letter spearheaded by Sen. Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley to Mr. Wray, the Iowa Republican and his colleagues asked about revelations that top FBI officials ordered analysts to permanently delete files related to the memo, which identified “traditional Catholics” as potential domestic terrorists.
“Now we know that information related to the Richmond memo wasn’t provided to Congress because the FBI deleted the records as soon as the incident became public,” the letter stated. “According to a report released by the House Judiciary Committee on December 4, Deputy Director Paul Abbate ordered Richmond Special Agent in Charge Stanley Meador to ’take [the memo] down’ as soon as it became public.”
In September, FBI Director Kash Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee that bureau employees tied to the memo had either resigned or were terminated.
The House Judiciary Committee in July revealed that the Richmond FBI office investigated a priest because he would not discuss private conversations he had with a parishioner who was converting to Catholicism.
