Marsha Blackburn, Ben Sasse, Senate Judiciary Republicans Call For Attorney General To Testify On School Board Memo

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, requesting that he return to the committee to provide additional testimony regarding his school board memo.

Blackburn and Sasse were joined by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

In their letter to Attorney General Garland, the Senators wrote: 

“During your testimony on October 27th, you told the Senate Judiciary Committee that your Memorandum was merely about ‘setting up meetings.’  You stated that the ‘purpose of this Memorandum is to get our law enforcement to assess the extent of the problem’ and that the Memo ‘comes before investigations.’  When asked why the DOJ was treating parents at school boards as domestic terrorists, you said: ‘[m]y Memo says nothing about domestic terrorism, says nothing about parents committing any such things.’”

“Your statements appear to be deeply misleading.  They are inconsistent with the letter sent by Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana to local officials to provide a roadmap for prosecution and to offer the FBI’s assistance.  Acting U.S. Attorney Johnson listed 12 federal statutes under which parents could potentially be charged—including ‘repeated telephone calls’ or ‘anonymous telecommunications harassment’— and offered to ‘collaborate’ with local entities to bring ‘federal investigation[s] and prosecution[s].’” 

“Additionally, an FBI whistleblower has recently revealed that the heads of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division and Counterterrorism Division have instructed their agents and analysts to use a designated threat tag whenever they encounter potential threats, harassment, and intimidation of school officials.  This suggests that the Bureau is looking for opportunities to pursue investigations, including using counterterrorism authorities and tools, under the Memorandum.”

The full text of the letter can be found here.