Matt Bush, FISM News

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Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called out Attorney General Merrick Garland on the Senate floor Wednesday for not revoking his Oct. 4 memo asking the FBI to investigate threats and violence at school board meetings across the country.

In his speech to the Senate, Grassley stated, “Now, just to be crystal clear, there’s no excuse for real threats or acts of violence at school board meetings, but if there are such threats, these should be handled at the local level and the Attorney General should withdraw his memo that started this whole thing.” 

He further stated that it is a parent’s “God-given right” to be their child’s advocate, and that “the Justice Department ought to be doing everything it can to protect that Constitutional right, not scare these parents out of exercising their Constitutional rights.”

Now more than ever, parents should be their kids’ strongest & best advocates pic.twitter.com/lHIMaC6u33

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) January 5, 2022

Grassley and the rest of the Republicans serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee had sent two letters to the Attorney General’s Office asking “why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was getting involved in parents expressing their concerns at school board meetings.” 

In the December letter drafted to the Attorney General the group voiced outrage over the fact that a parent expressing one’s opinion at a school board meeting could lead to them being labeled a domestic terrorist:

Parents and other citizens who get impassioned at school-board meetings are not domestic terrorists. You may believe that, but too many people involved in this issue seem to think harsh words can be criminalized. Getting the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division involved in the matter only makes this worse—dramatically worse. Therefore, we call on you to work with us in coming to a resolution on this matter. We need you to make clear in very simple terms that violence and true threats of violence are well-defined, discreet ideas in the law and do not include harsh tones and strong criticisms that might make local school-board officials feel disrespected or uncomfortable.”

A response from the Attorney General, dated Dec. 22, consisted of less than one page and only three paragraphs. The letter did not state why the FBI’s counterterrorism division was involved in local school board issues and it did not answer the overarching question of whether or not parents could be targeted by the FBI for exercising their First Amendment rights. The only thing that the letter makes clear is that the Oct. 4 memo would not be withdrawn, stating “The Justice Department’s efforts are aimed at identifying, and where appropriate, prosecuting violence and threats of violence that violate federal law.”

In October, a whistleblower from the FBI revealed that the Oct. 4 memo, led to the creation of a “threat tag” to aid the FBI in tracking threats against school board officials, teachers, and staff, as was revealed in a memo from Congressman Jim Jordan to AG Garland:

🚨🚨🚨#BREAKING: Whistleblower Discloses Explosive Documents Showing FBI Using Counterterrorism Tools to Investigate Parents pic.twitter.com/HpbdtinJQo

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) November 16, 2021

The threat tag “EDUOFFICIALS” was created so that the FBI could keep track of people who allegedly made threats to officials so that it could be decided whether or not Federal crimes had taken place. 

Garland maintains that parents will not be “targeted” for speaking out at school board meetings, but the creation of an FBI threat tag seems to say otherwise.