The government’s own files now show who wanted federal agents looking at parents who spoke up at school board meetings. A new Justice Department report says people in the Biden White House and advisers to Merrick Garland, the attorney general under President Joe Biden, pushed to bring federal law enforcement and prosecutors into fights between parents and their local school boards.
Story Snapshot
- The Justice Department released the report on Monday, October 5
- The report says the FBI opened 25 “Guardian assessments” on parents after Garland’s 2021 memo
- More than a dozen Justice Department and FBI staff warned at the time that the memo looked political
- One staff member wrote that they “might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force”
What the memo was and what set it off
The memo at the center of the report is dated October 4, 2021. In it, Garland told the FBI and federal prosecutors to work with local police on what he called “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school board members and teachers. It came five days after the National School Boards Association, a group that speaks for local school boards, wrote to Biden asking for federal help. That letter said some acts at meetings “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” At the time, parents were packing meetings to argue over COVID-19 rules and what schools were teaching about race and gender.
Garland told Congress in 2021 that the memo was aimed at threats and violence, not at parents who complain, and that it asked federal and local officers to talk to each other. The law firm where he is now a partner did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, according to reports. The report says there was little evidence of real violence or violent threats when the memo went out.
What the report says happened inside the department
The report comes from the Weaponization Working Group, a Justice Department team set up to review whether the department was used for political ends. The group says it read internal emails and case records. According to the report, emails show Garland issued the memo under the influence of White House officials, and did so over objections from his own people.
More than a dozen Justice Department and FBI staff raised concerns, the report says. Their words, quoted in the report, include “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” “ridiculous,” “very messy and political,” and “potentially dangerous ground.” One called the plan “a partisan exercise aimed at those who do not support the Administration.” Another said it was “challenging from a First Amendment perspective,” meaning it ran up against the right to speak freely and to protest.
The 25 parents
The report says the FBI opened 25 “Guardian assessments” on parents. Guardian is the system the FBI uses to log tips and threats. An assessment is the lowest level of FBI inquiry, and agents can open one without evidence of a crime. No charges are listed in the Justice Department’s summary of the report. One FBI whistleblower said a mother was looked at because she “is a gun owner” and belonged to a “right-wing mom’s group,” according to the report.
For a parent, the point is plain. Standing up at a public meeting to question a mask rule or a reading list is protected speech. The report says the memo chilled that speech, because parents had reason to fear that speaking up could put their name in a federal file.
What the Justice Department says it will do
The department listed several steps. Parents who were the subject of a Guardian assessment under the memo will be able to review their files. A note about the constitutional concerns will be added to those files. The department says it will go through the files for violations of constitutional rights and issue formal apologies where it finds them.
The department also awarded $1.5 million to the National Association of School Resource Officers, the group for police officers who work in schools, for training on parental rights. It says more money will go first to training teachers and school staff on First Amendment rights.
Sources:
justice.gov, washingtonexaminer.com, washingtonstand.com, floridianpress.com
