House Republicans are demanding answers from all 93 U.S. attorneys about what steps they’ve taken since Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo ordering them to help police parents angry at their local school boards.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters signed by 18 fellow Republicans to each U.S. attorney in all 50 states and territories. They asked for details on what actions the federal prosecutors had taken at the Biden attorney general’s direction.
“We are continuing to investigate the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to use the heavy hand of federal law enforcement to target concerned parents at local school board meetings and chill their protected First Amendment activity,” read the letter, sent out on Monday.
Garland’s memo was sent after the National School Boards Association complained to the White House about alleged threats against local school board members from parents upset over mask mandates, transgender policies, and curricula that included critical race theory. Garland revealed to the House last month that the DOJ and the White House communicated about the letter, which likened parents to domestic terrorists.
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Internal emails showed that several NSBA board members objected to sending the letter to Biden, and the school boards group withdrew and apologized for the letter the day after Garland’s House testimony last month. In addition, several state chapters under the NSBA quit in outrage about the letter, which they said demonized concerned parents. Garland stood by his memo during Senate testimony last week, though Republicans have called upon him to withdraw it.
Garland’s memo stated that he was “directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, working with each United States Attorney, to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days of the issuance of this memorandum.”
The Republicans said that during Garland’s testimony before the House last month, “he appeared to have no idea whether the U.S. Attorney meetings he ordered were actually taking place.”
The House GOP asked the U.S. attorneys for a host of details, including “all documents and communications referring or relating to convening meetings in your judicial district” in response to Garland’s memo. The Republicans asked for those details to be turned over by Friday.
House Republicans have also demanded the NSBA to hand over its communications with the White House, charging the parties with “collusion” to prompt the Department of Justice to involve itself in local education controversies in an effort to “chill” activity protected by the First Amendment.
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The attorney general’s memo last month alleged there had been a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school employees and school board members. While Garland’s memo did not mention the National Security Division, which deals with terrorism and other threats, the accompanying DOJ press release did, naming it as part of the new task force, along with the FBI and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
Garland stood by his memo during Senate Judiciary Committee testimony last week, arguing that the NSBA’s follow-up apology “does not change the association’s concern about violence and threats of violence.”
The Republicans’ letter said any violence or threats against school board members was a matter for state and local law enforcement. It also said the federal involvement was likely to chill constructive parental input into what their children are taught.
“Concerned parents voicing their strong opposition to controversial curricula at local schools are not domestic terrorists,” Jordan and the Republicans wrote.
