After the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to the Biden administration on Sept. 29 accusing parents of acting like “domestic terrorists” for attending school board meetings, a lot of dominoes fell conveniently into place just days later. On Oct. 4, Attorney General Merrick Galand issued the now-infamous Justice Department memo directing federal resources to help with local and state law enforcement when it came to investigating parents. As a result, some Justice Department attorneys began compiling lists of crimes parents could be charged with for speaking out about their child’s education or organizing online with other parents in opposition to their local school board.
It’s now been revealed, as had long been suspected, that the NSBA letter was not sent in a vacuum, there were numerous instances of communication between the White House, the Justice Department, and the NSBA before the letter was sent:
Newly released internal emails reveal that the National School Boards Association coordinated with the White House and the Department of Justice before sending President Biden the notorious letter that compared concerned parents to domestic terrorists. Emails provided to Fox News show that NSBA had coordinated with the White House for weeks beforehand.
Viola Garcia, the NSBA president whom the Department of Education later named to a federal board, sent a memo to NSBA members on Oct. 11 (but dated Oct. 12), providing a timeline of the NSBA’s interaction with the White House ahead of the letter to Biden, which the NSBA sent on Sept. 29.
Five days later, on Oct. 4, the DOJ issued a memo directing law enforcement to investigate threats to school boards.
It appeared at the time, the letter citing parents as potential domestic terrorists could have been in response to the Virginia gubernatorial election where parents in the state, Loudoun County specifically, were locked in battles with corrupt school board members on a host of issues. The letter from the NSBA ended up adding fuel to parents and set exactly the wrong tone from the Biden administration in terms of threatening parents for daring to speak out.
More specifically, the NSBA letter cited the arrest of Scott Smith, a father from Loudoun County, Va., attending a board meeting in June to ask why the board hadn’t done more to investigate the now-confirmed sexual assault of his daughter in a school bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt. After being ignored, Smith grew angry and was arrested and carried out of the meeting. This specific incident, among others, was used as the basis for the “domestic terrorists” allegation being hurled against parents by the NSBA.
Stunningly, coordination on the letter wasn’t just limited to the Justice Department. As the emails reveal, numerous government agencies signed off on the NSBA latter before it was sent:
“Concern over the current climate for school board members is also a top priority as disruptions at school board meetings grow and members face growing threats,” Garcia wrote at the time, according to the memo obtained by Parents Defending Education through a Freedom of Information Act request. “NSBA has been actively engaged with the White House, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education, Surgeon General, and other federal agencies on pandemic related issues.”
Other federal agencies? Exactly how many federal agencies were involved here? With everything going on in the world, this much attention was being given to parents demanding answers from local school board members? Something is deeply rotten in this administration.
The evidence of coordination with the White House only came to light due to a freedom of information request by the group Parents Defending Education. Emails obtained show a clear timeline after meetings with White House staff of the formulated letter and speedy response from the Justice Department:
October 11, 2021: In a memo dated October 12 (but with a file date of 10/11/21) sent to NSBA state association officers and executive directors, Viola Garcia provided a timeline of the NSBA’s interaction with the White House on the September 29 letter.
This memo asserts that the NSBA’s Organization of State Association Executive Directors were notified on September 14 about a White House meeting, and that on September 17 that state association executive directors were notified that “a letter requesting federal assistance” would be sent.
Many questions were asked after the letter was sent, such as how and why this issue popped up overnight and was greeted with immediate concern and action from the Justice Department. The White House undoubtedly gets thousands of requests every year from various groups, why did the NSBA get the attention of the executive branch and the Attorney General almost immediately?
Now we know why. The entire matter was orchestrated to help the campaign of Terry McAuliffe in Virginia and attempt to shut down parents nationwide from asking questions about their local public schools or holding their school board members accountable.
The newly revealed emails also bring Marrick Garland’s subsequent testimony on the matter to light which casts more doubt on his candor:
“In response to the letter sent by NSBA, on October 4, 2021 the Attorney General announced in a memorandum widely shared throughout the U.S. Department of Justice that he was ordering all U.S. Attorney Offices and local FBI offices to reach out to local and state law enforcement officials to coordinate efforts on this problem within 30 days of the memorandum,” Garcia also noted.
This statement appears to contradict Attorney General Merrick Garland’s testimony to Congress on Oct. 27. When Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked Garland if he had “second thoughts” following NSBA’s apology for the letter, he said that the DOJ memorandum did not rely upon the letter.
Garland’s critics were quick to point out his mistruths and distortion of these facts during his congressional testimony:
Wait a minute … the NSBA was “actively engaged” with the Justice Dept BEFORE it sent its disgraceful letter calling parents terrorists? That’s not what Merrick Garland told Congress https://t.co/V5xTO84IhU
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 11, 2021
It became clear very early on that Merrick Garland is anything but the mild-mannered centrist he was sold to be when he won confirmation from the Senate to his current job. He is a tool of the radical left and willing to pick up the mantle and use the Justice Department as a tool to wield against the political enemies of the Biden administration and Democrats around the country.
The entire episode hearkens back to similar events under the Obama administration, such as when the IRS was used to target Tea Party groups for delay or deny their tax-exempt status for specious reasons.
The first question now is when will Garland will be back in a congressional hearing room to answer questions about the White House’s coordination. The next question is when will Garland resign for his role in this coordinated attack against parents?
