In response to findings that the FBI decided to open investigations into parents who were organizing protests at their local school boards, conservative education activists harshly criticized the administration of President Joe Biden.
They claimed the president was attempting to silence parents.
The Memo
The criticisms arose after Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee revealed in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that the FBI and DOJ were openly investigating parents for expressing disdain for school district policies.
The information was based on reports from whistleblowers. Parental rights activists reacted negatively to the report, labeling the acts of the administration as “dystopian.”
BREAKING: It appears that the Biden Administration did in fact mobilize FBI counterterrorism resources to investigate parents for expressing protected political speech at school board meetings.
This directly contradicts AG Merrick Garland's sworn testimony. pic.twitter.com/h5EMeyu61L
— Parents Defending Education (@DefendingEd) May 12, 2022
Ian Prior, the executive head of Fight for Schools, and a top aide at America First Legal, said Attorney General Merrick Garland permitted the FBI to investigate parents who exerted their First Amendment rights at school board meetings.
The FBI did precisely that, and all predicated on tips from revengeful leftists who believe “speech is violence.”
Similarly, Nicole Neily, the president of the parents’ activist group, Parents Defending Education, slammed the administration’s actions.
She said the administration is “mock[ing] parents’ concerns about their children’s schooling” and “gaslighting them over what is genuinely happening throughout America’s schools.”
BREAKING: The Biden Administration has mobilized FBI counterterrorism resources to investigate parents, including at least one member of @Moms4Liberty, for expressing protected political speech at local school board meetings.
This is a grave abuse of power. pic.twitter.com/MdK0vm51VN
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 12, 2022
Neily says, “We know the FBI has been looking into American citizens who use their basic rights to complain to their government.”
“It is well past the time for the government to be forthright about how—and why—federal enforcement was weaponized against the families of Americans and for those bureaucrats to be held accountable.”
The Requests
The disclosures made by the whistleblower are the most recent chapter in a story that began in September 2021.
At that time, the National School Boards Association, reportedly at the behest of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urged Biden and the Justice Department to investigate parents who protested at school board meetings as domestic terrorists, in accordance with the Patriot Act.
A memo forming a joint FBI and Department of Justice task force, with the responsibility of investigating intimidation against school board members, was released by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
This happened one week after the letter, at the beginning of October 2021.
After a prolonged outcry from the public, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) issued an apology and retracted the letter.
However, this was not before a number of state school board associations declared they were severing their links with the national organization.
In witness statements he gave in October 2021 before the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Garland tried to defend his memo and the creation of the task force in witness statements he gave.
In this testimony, he kept insisting the authorities would not be targeting parent protesters, but rather only threats of violence. This was despite the fact the NSBA apologized for its actions.
