Under former President Joe Biden, the Department of Justice actively searched for a “federal hook” to justify deploying federal law enforcement against parents it labeled as “domestic terrorists” for voicing concerns about their children’s education.
Documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) reveal that, prior to the controversial Oct. 4, 2021, “domestic terrorist” memo issued by former Attorney General Merrick Garland, DOJ staff were actively searching for any justification to target parents who opposed COVID-19 mandates, critical race theory, and transgender policies in schools, The Federalist reported.
“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,” Kevin Chambers, then an associate deputy attorney general, wrote in an Oct. 1 email, trying to manufacture a way to respond to a teed-up letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA).
At the time, career staff expressed concern that there was no legal authority or basis for targeting parents who spoke out at school board meetings, especially since their actions were protected under the First Amendment, the outlet reported.
AFL stated that the new set of documents allows the organization to “complete the timeline” of how the NSBA, Biden DOJ, and White House colluded to target parents. The legal group’s president, Gene Hamilton, said the emails show a “conspiracy that was ultimately aimed at depriving parents of two fundamental rights — the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing of their children.”
“They did so with political intentions, most immediately by attempting to influence the Virginia gubernatorial election, and to more broadly chill dissent across the United States,” he added, The Federalist noted.
On October 2, just one day after Chambers’ “federal hook” email, Sparkle Sooknanan—then serving in the Associate Attorney General’s office and later appointed by President Biden as a federal judge in the District of Columbia—emailed at 8:17 a.m. asking if anyone in the Civil Rights Division could help craft a response to the National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter.
The Biden administration had already coordinated with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) on drafting the controversial letter targeting concerned parents, and the fact that internal emails continued on Saturday, October 2, suggests officials were moving quickly to act on it.
By 7:05 p.m. that evening, the Civil Rights Division responded, noting there was little legal foundation to proceed. The following day—just one day before Attorney General Merrick Garland issued his now-infamous memo—a career attorney in the Civil Rights Division raised serious concerns directly with then–Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Robert Moossy.
“It seems that we are ramping up an awful lot of federal manpower for what is currently a non-federal conduct,” a career attorney said. “It appears to me that the vast, vast majority of the behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law. I only saw three stories that involved what sounded like a possible ‘true threat’ and one of those (the Norfolk story) did not appear to be related to masks, etc.”
“Almost all of the language being used is protected by the First Amendment, the main issue seems to be disruption and obstruction of school board meetings, which could be reached by local trespassing laws or disturbance of the peace laws, but nothing remotely federal,” the lawyer continued.
The lawyer actually suggested using “something like the FACE Act” (the federal law that allowed the Biden DOJ to go after peaceful pro-life Americans) in order to “criminaliz[e] physical obstruction of schools and school board meetings.”
The following day, Shaylyn Cochran from the Civil Rights Division circulated the draft memo to several officials, including Robert Moossy. Shortly after, the memo was finalized and distributed to the FBI, U.S. attorneys, and law enforcement agencies nationwide—effectively mobilizing federal resources to target and intimidate concerned parents.
Ian Prior, AFL senior advisor, said:
The Garland Memo is one of the most scandalous attempts to deprive Americans of their rights in the history of our republic. When the great awakening of parents occurred in 2021, the Biden Administration was desperate to put a stop to it before it could impact the Virginia gubernatorial election. Instead, anyone with half a brain could see the unfathomable scandal unfolding, the course of history in Virginia was altered, and parents refused to surrender their rights; rights which are now being so forcefully defended and jealously guarded by the Trump Administration and vindicated by the United States Supreme Court.
