The Justice Department on Thursday accused the Biden administration of pushing policies that were unfair to Christians, releasing a report that amounted to the latest rhetorical broadside by the Trump administration over what it calls the \u201cweaponization\u201d of government.<\/p>\n
The 197-page document, released by a task force led by the department, sought to portray what President Trump\u2019s advisers contend was anti-Christian bias among those who worked for President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is Roman Catholic. The report, which refers to decision-making at more than a dozen agencies, comes weeks after Mr. Trump publicly attacked the pope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Biden administration\u2019s policies regularly clashed with a Christian worldview and burdened traditional religious practices,\u201d the report said. \u201cThese conflicts frequently arose over abortion, gender ideology and sexual orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The document is the Justice Department\u2019s latest effort to argue that it is removing purported political bias from the work of prosecutors. But critics say that the department under Mr. Trump has abandoned its tradition of operating independently from the White House, including by pursuing the president\u2019s rivals, like James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, who was indicted this week for posting a photograph last year of seashells on a beach arranged to say \u201c86 47.\u201d The administration argues that the image was a coded threat to kill the president.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the Justice Department issued a report accusing Biden-era prosecutors of unfairly pursuing anti-abortion activists through the use of a law that makes it a crime to obstruct or intimidate a person seeking abortion services or participating in a religious service at a house of worship. The Trump administration, in turn, has charged dozens of protesters, as well as the former CNN anchor Don Lemon, with violating the same law during a demonstration inside a church in St. Paul, Minn<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a statement accompanying the release of Thursday\u2019s report, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, vowed that the department would \u201ccontinue to expose bad actors who targeted Christians, and work tirelessly to restore religious liberty for all Americans of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n The report sharply criticized a leaked internal memo from 2023 by the F.B.I.\u2019s field office in Richmond, Va., that said far-right extremists could be attracted to Catholic churches or groups.<\/p>\n For decades, the F.B.I. has worked to develop sources at churches, universities and mosques, but the Richmond memo quickly became a talking point on the right. Republicans argued that it showed the bureau was targeting Catholics.<\/p>\n