DOJ sought ‘federal hook’ for parents protesting at school board meetings, emails show

FIRST ON FOX: A conservative legal group revealed a tranche of correspondence on Friday from the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) shedding new light on the behind-the-scenes discussions about a controversial directive former Attorney General Merrick Garland gave about school boards.

The document dump included an email from a deputy attorney general aide that said the DOJ was searching for a “federal hook” to use to address a letter the National School Boards Association (NSBA) wrote to the White House raising alarm about parents who were, at the time, expressing outrage at school board meetings across the country over COVID-19 mandates, critical race theory, and transgender policies.

“We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” deputy attorney general aide Kevin Chambers wrote to a colleague on Oct. 1, 2021.

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Garland issued a directive on Oct. 4, 2021, mobilizing the FBI to assist local law enforcement partners with a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school administrators.

Garland said during a congressional hearing soon thereafter that he had issued the order just after the NSBA sent a letter to the White House, which the NSBA later retracted, that had asked the White House to investigate parents displaying threatening behavior at school board meetings as possible “domestic terrorists.”

The emails were uncovered by America First Legal, a conservative group aligned with President Donald Trump.

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Loudoun County School Board meeting protest in 2021.  (Reuters)

More of them show some DOJ lawyers raising concern among their colleagues about the department taking any action on the school board letter.

“I read the letter from NSBA, and looked at the links for a handful of footnotes, and it appears to me that the vast, vast majority of the behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law,” one DOJ attorney wrote to colleagues in an email on Oct. 3, 2021, adding that “almost all of the language being used is protected by the First Amendment.”

The NSBA’s letter, and Garland’s subsequent directive that came as a result of the letter, were criticized by Republicans for containing flimsy evidence suggesting some parents presented a threat that warranted federal action. Critics also said it chilled parents’ freedom to speak at school board meetings.

Garland repeatedly maintained when pressed by Republican lawmakers about controversial matters that the DOJ worked independently of the White House, but the new emails about the school board letter undermine that message.

The same DOJ lawyer who raised concerns about acting on the NSBA letter also noted that local law enforcement could address parents disturbing the peace or trespassing. “Nothing remotely federal,” the lawyer wrote.

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President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, May 13, 2022, during an event to highlight state and local leaders who are investing American Rescue Plan funding. Attorney General Merrick Garland, left, and Kansas City, Mo., Police Department Police Chief Joe Mabin listen. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

America First Legal’s president, Gene Hamilton, said in a statement that the emails revealed a “conspiracy that was ultimately aimed at depriving parents of two fundamental rights — the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing up their children.”

Former DOJ official Sparkle Sooknanan, who later became a Biden-appointed federal judge, was the one to set off internal conversation about whether the DOJ could do anything about the school board letter. Sooknanan sent out a rushed email during the weekend, on Oct. 2, 2021, making a “quick-turn request” about the NSBA letter just after it was sent to the White House.

“Are there any authorities [the Civil Rights Division] enforces that could help address this issue?” Soonanan wrote.

The revelation comes as the White House has changed its posture during the Trump administration to overtly coordinate with the DOJ, including to investigate the president’s political opponents. Trump signed executive orders in April directing the DOJ to investigate former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor and former cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs. Fox News Digital reported this week that the White House counsel’s office is coordinating with the DOJ to investigate Biden’s use of an autopen.

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One recently fired DOJ employee of nearly two decades alleged to CBS News that the Trump DOJ has shown no concerns about coordinating with the White House.

“There used to be a line, used to be a very distinct separation between the White House and the Department of Justice, because one should not interfere with the work of the other,” the ex-employee said. “That line is very definitely gone.”