Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News that a Justice Department culture under the Biden administration reached “beyond the Department of Justice” to target Christians and other religious Americans, and a newly released report details systemic practices that prompted scrutiny and swift change under the current leadership.

Acting AG Blanche: Plotting to Target Christians by Biden Went ‘Beyond Dept. of Justice’

The interview with Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany dug into a 565-page report from the DOJ’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force that lays out how investigators and prosecutors treated faith-based groups. The report shows actions that go well beyond isolated mistakes, portraying patterns that implicated multiple offices and policies during the prior administration. That finding set off questions about directives, internal messages, and whether higher-ups were aware or involved.

The coverage highlighted several concrete examples from the report that point to troubling decisions made about religious organizations and individuals. Prosecutors reportedly considered charging religious leaders tied to congregations that contained a “criminal target” of investigations, suggesting proximity alone drove prosecutorial thinking. In at least one field office, a special agent allegedly encouraged colleagues to ignore testimony from FBI leadership rescinding a directive about investigations tied to religious affiliation.

The report also includes allegations of bureaucratic bias that affected groups’ status and operations. One matter referenced the IRS denying tax-exempt status to a Christian organization because officials concluded that “Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party….” That sort of rationale, according to critics, collapses religious teaching into partisan affiliation and opens civil liberties questions. Meanwhile, the task force found patterns of data gathering and dossier-sharing that targeted pro-life activists and even documented activity involving minors connected to those activists.

• Prosecutors considered charging religious leaders of a congregation containing a “criminal target” of their investigation
• Special agent in charge of one field office encouraged a colleague to ignore FBI Dir. Christopher Wray testimony rescinding a department directive on “investigations based of religious affiliation”
• IRS denied tax-exempt status for a Christian group because “[B]ible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party….”

During the broadcast, McEnany framed the inquiry bluntly: was this a case of rogue agents, or did the direction come from senior leadership? Acting AG Blanche responded by describing a system that was more pervasive than a few bad actors. He used the metaphor of a massive spiderweb to explain how the pattern extended into other agencies and networks tied to the prior administration’s priorities.

Blanche bluntly stated the culture was a “systematic culture within the Department of Justice…to target God-fearing Americans,” and he emphasized that the report’s depth showed coordinated behavior at multiple levels. He said the conduct “was much more than just a rogue agent, it was much more than just a field office or a prosecutor.” Those words underscore the task force’s conclusion that institutional reform was necessary to stop those practices.

The report also highlighted internal communications that, in some cases, expressed eagerness to investigate faith communities. Senate Oversight texts quoted in the coverage revealed prosecutors discussing Catholic nuns who attended a January 6 rally, prompting questions about the criteria used to pursue probes and whether mere attendance at public events became a trigger for legal scrutiny.

Biden-era federal prosecutors privately discussed targeting Catholic nuns for prosecution simply because they attended a January 6 rally, according to internal Justice Department messages released through a Senate oversight investigation.

Alongside the task force’s release, Justice Department activity has included prosecutions in unrelated matters, such as charges linked to obstruction around investigations into COVID-19 origins. Those actions show the department remains active across a broad set of national concerns even as it addresses internal accountability issues. Acting AG Blanche told the program these particular problematic practices ended when the new leadership took office and moved immediately to halt what the task force documented.

The interview emphasized that protecting First Amendment rights and religious liberty is a core responsibility of the Justice Department, and Blanche characterized the prior behavior as “deeply disappointing” where it implicated those constitutional protections. He stressed that eliminating institutional bias and restoring trust requires examining policies, communications, and the decision patterns that let such targeting occur. The goal, he made clear, is restoring a culture of equal treatment under the law.

Moving forward, the acting attorney general said the department has taken steps to ensure investigations respect constitutional protections and do not single out communities for their faith. He framed the changes as immediate and necessary to close the channels that allowed cross-agency coordination on investigations tied to religious belief. The report’s findings, and the leadership response, set a precedent for how similar allegations should be handled going forward.