Josh Hawley Accuses Merrick Garland of Lying Under Oath About the FBI Putting Spies in Churches: They’re ‘Treating Christians Like Criminals!’

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is accusing Attorney General Merrick Garland of lying under oath when questioned about a report that the FBI is cultivating informants inside Catholic churches in order to “spy on Americans.”

On Hannity, Hawley accused the A.G. of providing false testimony before the Senate in March after being subpoenaed by Jim Jordan‘s (R-OH) subcommittee investigating the “weaponization of the federal government.”

Sean Hannity asked, “Senator, did the attorney general of the U.S. just lie to you in that exchange? Do we now know that?”

“Sure looks like it, Sean — sure looks like it,” Hawley replied. “Listen, he knew at the time that he couldn’t answer the question because it looks so bad. He knew that it looked beyond the pale, and it is beyond the pale, Sean, for the FBI to be going into any church in America and trying to spy on Americans, and now we know that’s exactly what they were doing. They are infiltrating churches. They are trying to spy on us.”

Hawley also sent a letter to Garland this week accusing the DOJ of promoting an “assault on American Catholics.”

Let’s be clear: your Department has decided to turn Catholic congregations into front organizations for the FBI, and when asked about it, you’ve decided to fudge the truth before Congress. This is an unconscionable assault on American Catholics’ First Amendment rights and an abdication of your duty to enforce the law without fear or favor.

During Garland’s testimony, he denied Hawley’s charge of “Catholic bias.”

“Our department protects all religions, all ideologies. It does not have any bias against any religion of any kind,” Garland said.

“They regard churches apparently as the enemy and church-going Americans as akin to terrorists,” Hawley told Sean Hannity. “And, yeah, the attorney general sat right there and told me, no, we don’t do that, and now we know they do, in fact, target churches, and they have been. There’s got to be accountability for this, Sean. He’s got to be called on the carpet. The House needs to call him. The Senate should call him, too. But the Democrats will never do it.”

Garland has yet to reply to Hawley’s letter.

Watch the Fox clip above.