Whistleblowers offered substantial evidence to House Republicans revealing the FBI targeted parents who raised complaints about local education concerns through its counterterrorism system, according to a letter from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.
The FBI’s Counterterrorism Division opened “at least dozens of investigations” into concerned parents through an EDUOFFICIALS “threat tag,” according to a letter from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee according to Attorney General Merrick Garland that pointed out confidential whistleblowers. Examples presumably offered by the whistleblowers’ information include objections made by those who opposed parents’ perspectives on school curricula, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements.
In November, a Department of Justice whistleblower launched an FBI-wide e-mail that revealed the Counterterrorism Division had actually developed the danger tag to target worried moms and dads at school board conferences. The next day, Garland rejected that the Department of Justice was examining moms and dads through sworn testimony.
As part of one so-called ‘investigation’, the FBI talked to a mom who came from the group Moms for Liberty for apparently informing a school board“we are coming for you,” which she clarified was a cautioning to school authorities that they could be replaced in an approaching election, according to the letter. The grievance apparently stated she was a threat since she“is a gun owner” and a member of a “right wing mom’s group.”
A father was likewise harassed by the FBI since he apparently “rails against the government,” “believes all conspiracy theories,” and “has a lot of guns and threatens to use them,” which “fit the profile of an insurrectionist,”the letter stated. In an interview with authorities, the complainant apparently stated they had “no specific information or observations of … any specific crimes or threats.”
Another FBI field office launched a politically motivated ‘investigation’ of Republican state officials over claims from a Democratic Party members that they had “incited violence for public expression of discontent with vaccine mandates in public schools,” according to the letter.
🚨 SMOKING GUN: Whistleblowers reveal the FBI has labeled dozens of investigations into parents with a threat tag created by the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division pic.twitter.com/uDMd7x1no3
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 11, 2022
A now-deleted Sept. 29, 2021, letter from the National School Boards Association asked the Biden administration to utilize statutes such as the Patriot Act to stop threats and violence directed towards school board members over actions that it stated could be “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
Garland issued a memorandum just days later that called on the FBI to “use its authority” against parents who utilize or threaten violence versus public school authorities, pointing out a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence.”
The House Judiciary letter calls the FBI investigations a “direct result” of Garland’s memorandum, which the committee once again demanded the Department of Justice rescind.
“This information is evidence of how the Biden administration is using federal law enforcement, including counterterrorism resources, to investigate concerned parents for protected First Amendment activity,” the letter reads.
The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.
H/T The Daily Signal
