AG Garland Refuses To Retract Controversial School Board Memo

Attorney General Merrick Garland is refusing to withdraw his controversial memo that directed federal law enforcement to get involved in investigations having to do with parents protesting local school boards.

Garland’s memo was prompted by a letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) that suggested parents disrupting school board meetings were committing actions akin to domestic terrorism.

“Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula,” the NSBA’s letter said.

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the letter added.

The NSBA has since apologized for the letter, but Garland’s memo remains.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned Garland during hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that the memo used “fear” to silence local school officials and parents.

“So last week, the [NSBA] disavowed it, sent you and the White House, based your memo on this delegitimize letter. I assume you’re going to revoke your extremely divisive memo that you said was instigated because of that letter. That’s a question,” Grassley said to Garland.

“Senator, the memo — which I refer to as one page — that responds to concerns about violence, threats of violence, other criminal conduct,” Garland responded. “That’s all it’s about and all it asks is for federal law enforcement to consult with, meet with local law enforcement to assess the circumstances, strategize about what may or may not be necessary to provide federal assistance if it is necessary.”

Grassley pressed, “Presumably, you wrote the memo because of the letter. The letter is disavowed now, so you’re going to keep your memo going anyway, right? Is that what you’re telling me?”

Garland dodged Grassley’s question, saying, “The language in the letter that they disavow is language was never included in my memo and never would have been. I did not adopt every concern that they had in their letter. I thought that only the concern about violence and threats of violence that hasn’t changed.”