(Ken Silva, Headline USA) FBI Director Chris Wray said Wednesday that there was no justification for Attorney General Merrick Garland to issue a memo in October 2021, which directed the FBI to establish a “threat tag” to investigate parents who protested COVID-19 restrictions and other issues at school board meetings.
Wray admitted that in response to a series of questions from Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., during the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight hearing of the FBI.
Wray declined to say whether Garland consulted him about the memo, but said he provided the following message to his field agents upon receiving the document: “The FBI is not in the business of investigating or policing speech at school board meetings.”
Wray also said that his bureau found no evidence that there was an uptick in threats of violence against school officials—which was the ostensible reason for Garland devoting federal resources towards the issue.
When Kiley asked Wray whether he disputes a recent congressional report that said Garland had no legitimate basis for investigating protesting parents. Wray responded with a simple, “No.”
“So we had an investigation of parents—a sweeping mobilization of federal power against the most protected core activity: the right of citizens to petition their government and speak on the most important of issues: the education of their children—and you’re telling me that the entire basis of that, there’s no evidence to support it?” Kiley asked the FBI director.
“To be clear, we didn’t investigate speech,” Wray responded.
The FBI’s surveillance of protesting parents stems from the National School Boards Association’s September 2021 letter to President Biden, requesting federal law enforcement assistance to target parents voicing concerns at local school board meetings. That letter led to an Oct, 4, 2021, memorandum from Garland that directed the FBI to establish a “threat tag” to investigate Americans.
After the memo was issued, the FBI opened at least 25 “Guardian assessments”—a constitutionally dubious category that allows the bureau to conduct surveillance against a target without a factual predicate of criminal wrongdoing—but none resulted in federal charges.
The NSBA has since rescinded its letter to Garland and apologized for it, but Garland’s memo is still in effect. The Weaponization Subcommittee, which was formed this year to investigate the weaponization of federal government, has urged Garland to finally retract his memo.
“It is crystal clear that Attorney General Garland should rescind his unwise and unsupported directive to insert federal law enforcement into local school board matters,” the subcommittee has said.
Wray declined to comment Wednesday on whether Garland should rescind the memo.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
