Sen. Chuck Grassley on Wednesday called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to withdraw his controversial memo asking the FBI to investigate threats of violence at school board meetings.
“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,” Grassley said on the Senate floor.
As previously reported by Human Events News, the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to the White House claiming that school boards face “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” from critics of mask mandates and promoters of “propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory.”
In response, Merrick Garland said the FBI and U.S. attorneys would have meetings with federal, state and local leaders to form “strategies for addressing threats.”
The Justice Department said in a press release that it would create “specialized training” for school boards and administrators to identify threats, report it to law enforcement and “capture and preserve evidence” to aid in prosecutions.
In response to Garland’s memo, the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division created a “threat tag” to track “instances of related threats” to local school faculty board members.
Republicans on Grassley’s committee wrote two letters to Garland pushing back against the memo. The Justice Department responded to Grassley, but did not say why the FBI’s counterterrorism division was involved in local school board issues, and that the department had no intention of withdrawing its original memo, per Just the News.
“The Department of Justice owes the American people a better answer than just a one-page letter,” Grassley said.
“So, the Feds may be keeping track of school board meetings - even if it creates a horrible chilling effect. And, of course the FBI looking over your shoulder would have a chilling effect,” Grassley said. “Next week the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on domestic terrorism. I hope we’re going to be focusing on the serious threats facing our country - and I hope no one thinks the focus is on our nation’s parents.”
“Attorney General Garland should withdraw his memo. And he should take Congress’ oversight, and concern for the rights of parents, more seriously,” Grassley concluded.
