FBI Lawyer Hoped Justice Department Would ‘Reconsider’ 2021 Memo on Alleged School Board Threats, Documents Reveal

According to late made public documents by the FBI, a representative of the organization voiced her concerns regarding the review of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo from October 4, 2021, which sparked the contentious federal investigation into alleged harassment at school board meetings across the nation.

FBI attorney Miriam Coakley expressed her hope that Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice ( DOJ) would reevaluate their actions in the documents, which the America First Legal Foundation ( AFL ) recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) request.

Coakley wrote to Corey Frazier Ellis on October 4, 2021,” I’m not sure if you’ve seen this / weighed in— it was just raised to my attention.” Before Garland appointed Ellis to be the Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina in December of that year, Ellis was the FBI Director Christopher Wray’s faculty of staff at the time.

Coakley added in her sms,” I hope DOJ reconsiders.”

Ellis brought up the subject with Norman Wong, the then-director of the DOJ’s Executive Office for United States Attorneys( EOUSA ), after Coakley had gotten in touch with him, writing,” we are asking that the memo be revised ,” to which he retorted that it was a little too late.

Garland’s letter was then published by the DOJ that day, along with a longer press release outlining how the FBI and the Criminal, National Security, and Civil Rights Divisions may be formed as part of the task force.

Garland Memo from 2021 sparked discussion

In their decision to establish the different DOJ task force at the time, Garland and the DOEJ cited” an increase in torment, harassment, and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and people.”

Parents had been protesting school boards across the nation over their COVID-19 policies and the inclusion of critical race theory( CRT ) principles in school curricula when the new task force was introduced. The National School Boards Association( NSBA ) sent a letter( pdf ) to President Joe Biden and the DOJ on September 29, 2021, just days before Garland’s memo, expressing concern over disruptions to school board meetings and claiming the harassment they were experiencing was comparable to domestic terrorism or hate crimes. The NSBA email urged the DOJ to look into these education board incidents using its National Security and Counter-Terrorism components and to use counter-terrorism laws, such as the PATRIOT Act, to pursue them.

Democratic officials reacted negatively to the NSBA email and Garland’s to choice to establish a new task force to look into disruptions at school and college board meetings. A letter( pdf ) was sent by a group of state attorneys general disputing the NSBA’s claims and arguing that the DOJ could use its subsequent actions as justification to restrict free speech.

There was no explanation for some of the words contained in the letter, the NSBA continued to rescind it. Garland persisted in his defense of his choice to establish the different DOJ job pressure despite the NSBA’s retractions.

In response to inquiries at the time from Sens. Chuck Grassley( R-Iowes ) and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Garland said,” 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.” Garland claimed in his memo that” we did not rely on some of the language in the[ NSBA ] letter.”

Garland insisted that the DOJ’s primary goal was to put an end to violent challenges.

Garland informed Grassley and Cornyn in 2021 that” we are not looking into peaceful protests or family interest in school board discussions.”

Regarding the documents AFL obtained, NTD News contacted the FBI and the DOJ. Both didn’t respond before this story was released.

GOP claims there is” no fair foundation.”

Garland and the DOJ had” no fair basis” for using federal law enforcement sources to look into tragedies involving local school board meetings, according to a report released this week by the Republican-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

According to the committee report( pdf ), the FBI had launched 25″ guardian assessments” of threats made by school boards, six of which were managed by the agency’s Counter-Terrorism Division. The Republican state also included journalist claims that some FBI investigations were started in response to complaints like, for instance, that a targeted child belonged to” just – extension sister’s group” and was” a gun owner ,” and that” rails against the government.” National arrests and charges have not been made as a result of any of the 25 education board-related investigations.

According to America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton, the timeframe in question— a letter to the President followed by an Attorney General document within days— indicates that the memo’s underlying premise was just as fictitious as the Biden Administration. Our claims regarding the Attorney General’s document are supported by the state that the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and House Judiciary Committee released this year. The information we are now disclosing further demonstrate how the memorandum misled the FBI.

originating from NTD News