House Republican’s on the Judiciary Committee announced on Wednesday that they will begin investigating potential collusion between the Biden administration and the National School Boards Association. It is in response to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s evasive testimony before their committee, in which the AG attempted to justify his action in launching an FBI probe targeting concerned parents confronting school board members regarding inappropriate CRT curriculum being forced on their children, despite a serious conflict of interest by the AG, himself.
GOP lawmakers sent a scathing letter to the leadership within the NSBA forewarning them of their intent to investigate their apparent collusion with the White House and their combined effort to intimidate law abiding parents attending school board meetings from exercising their constitutional right to vigorously challenge those school board members on behalf of their children.
“We are investigating the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to use the heavy hand of federal law enforcement to target concerned parents at local school board meetings and chill their protected First Amendment activity,” the letter noted.
The GOP letter also referenced NSBA’s initial claim that was instrumental in setting off the Justice Department probe against concerned parents. “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.
BREAKING: NSBA apologizes for letter that served as basis for @TheJusticeDept AG #Garland’s directive for FBI to target parents as “domestic terrorists,” including #LoudounScandal outrageously labeling dad of rape victim as poster-boy of domestic terrorism. Will the AG reverse? pic.twitter.com/VkFJxKIfpK
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) October 23, 2021
The school boards association has since issued an apology for the reference to “domestic terrorism,” however, has yet to apologize to the parents.
The GOP letter continued; “The Biden Administration seemingly relied upon the NSBA letter, which it coordinated in advance with the NSBA, as justification to unleash the full weight of the federal law enforcement apparatus upon America’s parents,” the letter read.
“Parents have an undisputed right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, including expressing concerns about the inclusion of controversial curricula in their child’s education,” the House Republicans wrote, noting that the school boards association appears not to recognize that.
“Unsurprisingly, the NSBA’s September 29th letter to President Biden never once mentioned ‘parents’ or parents’ role in their children’s education although its subsequent apology memorandum purported to value the ‘voices of parents.’ Concerned parents are absolutely not domestic terrorists and, to the extent actual threats exist, local law enforcement, and not the FBI, are the appropriate authorities to address those situations,” the letter read.
“Parents cannot tolerate this collusion between the NSBA and the Biden Administration to construct a justification for invoking federal law enforcement to intimidate and silence parents using their Constitutional rights to advocate for their child’s future.”
At the conclusion of the letter, House Republicans demanded release of all pertinent documents from both the NSBA and the White House, along with urging Attorney General Garland to withdraw or rescind his October 4th memorandum, which is still in force.
The letter was signed by Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Steve Chabot of Ohio, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Darrell Issa of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Tom McClintock of California, Greg Steube of Florida, Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Chip Roy of Texas, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Scott L. Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, Cliff Bentz of Oregon and Burgess Owens of Utah.