You probably remember way back in 2021 when a group known as the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to the Biden DOJ claiming that parents were becoming a potential threat at school board meetings.
A group that represents school boards is asking the Biden administration to review threats and violence against education administrators and schools to determine if they violate the Patriot Act and hate crime laws amid clashes between angry parents and educators over COVID-19 policies and critical race theory being taught in classrooms.
In a Wednesday letter to Biden, the National School Boards Association asked that the federal government examine whether actions can be taken to stop the vitriol and violence using the Gun-Free School Zones Act and the Patriot Act, the controversial statute enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Instead of laughing at the suggestion that concerned parents were akin to domestic terrorists, the Biden DOJ jumped on board. In a matter of days, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo saying he was directing the FBI to coordinate with local police to "facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff" and to "open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response." We later learned that the FBI has set up a special threat tag to track these complaints about angry parents.
The backlash to this decision was immense and it was immediate. The NSBA would issue an apology for the letter, which it had not spoken to state associations with before it was sent out. Most state associations distanced themselves from the letter and quite a few (at least 19) formally cut ties with the national organization. The top leadership of the NSBA was forced to resign.
Meanwhile, AG Garland refused to rescind his memo, saying the language about "domestic terrorism," which was in the NSBA letter, wasn't included in his memo, though he admitted in congressional testimony that his memo was based on the claims in the letter.
Last Friday America First Legal received documents through discovery which show that there was concern inside the FBI about it.
"On October 4, 2021 — the day the memo was released — FBI Deputy Assistant Director Jay Greenberg emailed the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, stating the FBI had 'some concern.' He requested “additional time to engage” before messaging about the infamous memo went out," AFL wrote on X, linking to the DOJ documents it obtained.
Greenberg also asked for help “to find common ground we can all support” on the situation.
Some inside DOJ also fretted the strategy would boomerang, and create a political headache for elections,
"I don't think it's possible to state how strongly I object to this. It will completely and totally nuke our election threats efforts, and will damage the reputation of the Public Integrity Section into the bargain," one top DOJ official wrote in an email. "It's like they've affirmatively trying to make this thing not work and look political."
"If they do this, they might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force," an official wrote.
AFL posted some of the documents on X:
On October 4, 2021 — the day the memo was released — FBI Deputy Assistant Director Jay Greenberg emailed the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, stating the FBI had “some concern.”
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) June 12, 2026
He requested “additional time to engage” before messaging about the infamous memo went out. pic.twitter.com/FcIfbB6pWH
The evening of October 4, 2021, Miriam Coakley, a top attorney in the FBI’s Office of General Counsel, emailed DOJ attorneys stating that she “hope[s] DOJ reconsiders.” pic.twitter.com/wPUxN6nJwE
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) June 12, 2026
The National Sheriffs Association also had a problem with the memo and the fact that they hadn't been consulted.
One of the largest law enforcement associations in the country was not consulted about or given prior notice of the Garland memo’s release.
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) June 12, 2026
Faced with siding with the National Sheriffs’ Association or the National School Boards Association, Biden’s DOJ chose the NSBA.
The fact that the Sheriffs' Association was not consulted is especially interesting because under questioning from Sen. Cruz, AG Garland claimed that his memo was merely an effort to determine if there was a problem with threats happening around the country. If that was all he wanted he could have just placed a call and learned that the Sheriff's Association hadn't heard about any such threats.
“Parents speaking at school board meetings were never a national security threat, and the Biden DOJ knew it,” said Will Scolinos, Counsel at America First Legal. “These documents confirm that DOJ ignored the law enforcement’s on-the-ground threat assessments and continued with its vindictive, politically-driven weaponization of parents.”
Finally, here's Sen. Cruz laying into AG Garland for about six straight minutes over this.
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