You don't say? Five years after Merrick Garland signed that memo, the Justice Department finally puts it on paper with hundreds of exhibits and emails, and it confirms exactly what every parent who stood up at a school board meeting already knew… the Biden White House and the National School Boards Association pushed, Garland caved, and the weight of the federal government got pointed at moms and dads for the crime of speaking.
Let me explain what they found. It started with a September 29, 2021 letter from the NSBA to Joe Biden saying these "heinous actions" "could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes," and five days later Garland had his memo out the door claiming a "disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence" with very little evidence of actual violence to back it up. They set up a task force to hunt for a federal "hook" to prosecute parents, and the FBI opened 25 Guardian assessments on them. One mother got investigated because she "is a gun owner" and belonged to a "right-wing mom's group." A gun owner in a moms group… and the FBI opened a file. How do you not see it?
And here is the part that should keep you up at night. More than a dozen of their own DOJ and FBI people raised the alarm while it was happening. They called it "stupid, stupid, stupid," "ridiculous," "horrible," and "a partisan exercise aimed at those who do not support the Administration," and one of them said they "might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force." Their own people saw it for what it was… and Garland issued it anyway because the White House wanted it.
So what is the remedy? Parents get to review their Guardian file, a disclaimer gets attached to the assessments, the Department goes back through the files, and if your constitutional rights were violated you get a formal apology, plus some training money for school resource officers. I appreciate Todd Blanche putting the receipts out, I really do, but how is an apology letter the finish line for a federal agency that put a mother on its radar because she owns a gun? Who wrote it, who pushed it, who at the White House leaned on Garland, and why is not one of them answering for it?
You were treated like a domestic terrorist for showing up and asking what they were doing to your kids, and the people who did it to you have not paid a price. A report is a start. Accountability is the job.
@AGToddBlanche name every official who pushed this and send it to a grand jury, not a filing cabinet. End stop.