33The Biden administration’s Justice Department looked for a “federal hook” so they could criminally charge parents protesting school policies related to COVID, transgenderism, critical race theory, and other issues.
The conservative America First Legal released a tranche of documents it obtained dating back to the fall of 2021, when the National School Boards Association had written a letter to the White House, which it has since retracted, asking if the administration could investigate parents engaging in supposed threatening behavior at board meetings as “domestic terrorists,” Fox News reported.
Deputy attorney general aide Kevin Chambers emailed a colleague on Oct. 1, 2021, writing, “We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But [White House] has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion.”
🚨SMOKING GUN🚨
AFL has obtained new documents CONCLUSIVELY PROVING that AG Merrick Garland’s infamous Oct. 4 memo labeling concerned parents at school board meetings “domestic terrorists” was POLITICALLY ORCHESTRATED and DRIVEN by the Biden White House.
“WH has been in touch.” pic.twitter.com/0jPHuH6iKd
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) July 18, 2025
A Civil Rights Division attorney wrote concerning the issue on Oct. 3, 2021, “I read the letter from NSBA, and looked at the links for a handful of the footnotes, and it appears to me that the vast, vast majority of the behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law,” adding that “almost all of the language being used is protected by the First Amendment.”
On Oct. 4, 2021, now-former Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to assist local law enforcement in responding to the “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school officials.
“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under the Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” the AG added.
“The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage those threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.”
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Garland then directed the FBI to work with U.S. attorneys around the country to convene meetings with state and local officials within 30 days in order to coordinate their response.
On September 29, 2021, the NSBA sent their infamous letter to President Biden asking for law enforcement to be deployed against parents who were speaking out at their local school board meetings.
Five days later on October 4 – lightning speed in Washington DC – the US… pic.twitter.com/UDgTybHGlZ
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) October 4, 2024
Then-House Judiciary Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio pressed Garland during an Oct. 21, 2021, hearing.
Jordan noted that the AG had earlier testified that the DOJ was not going to treat parents as domestic terrorists, but then pointed out that an Oct. 4, 2021, DOJ news release said the National Security Division of the FBI would be involved in the federal response to the alleged increasing violence at board meetings.
Garland responded that his memo itself did not mention the National Security Division.
The lawmaker also mentioned the timing of the memo. “Mr. Attorney General, was it just a coincidence that your memo came five days after the National School Boards Association’s letter went to the president?” he asked.
“Obviously, the letter, which was public,” Garland answered, “was brought to our attention.”
“You said there’s no way you’re going to be treating parents as domestic terrorists but you got the National Security Division in a press release regarding your memo…”@Jim_Jordan rips Attorney General Merrick Garland at Thursday’s committee hearing. pic.twitter.com/mOTH8nSN5i
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 21, 2021
Jordan observed that in the very first sentence of his memo, the attorney general referenced a “spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence.”
“When did you review the data showing this so-called disturbing uptick?” Jordan asked.
“When the National School Boards Association, which represents thousands of school boards and school board members, says there are these kinds of threats, when we read in the newspapers reports of threats of violence…” that was enough for him, Garland responded.
In November 2021, the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee issued a news release indicating that an FBI whistleblower had come forward to disclose that the agency created a “threat tag” to track parents protesting at school board meetings.
🚨🚨🚨#BREAKING: Whistleblower Discloses Explosive Documents Showing FBI Using Counterterrorism Tools to Investigate Parents pic.twitter.com/HpbdtinJQo
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) November 16, 2021
Nicole Neily with Parents Defending Education said at the time that the whistleblower’s disclosures “prove that the FBI was, in fact, using counterterrorism tools to investigate concerned parents who have attended school board meetings — which directly contradicts Attorney General Merrick Garland’s sworn congressional testimony.”
Gene Hamilton, president of America First Legal, said in response to the emails his organization published on Friday, “The Biden Administration appears to have engaged in a conspiracy that was ultimately aimed at depriving parents of two fundamental rights — the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing of their children.”
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