The Biden DOJ Sought A ‘Federal Hook’ To Go After Parents

The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden actively sought a “federal hook” to justify sending federal law enforcement after parents it labeled “domestic terrorists” because they were concerned about their children’s education.

Documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) show that prior to the infamous Oct. 4, 2021, “domestic terrorist” memo from former Attorney General Merrick Garland, staff were looking for any possible way to go after parents concerned with coronavirus 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,” 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).

Career staff at the time were even concerned, saying there was no authority or legal basis for going after parents speaking out at school board meetings, particularly since they were protected by the First Amendment.

AFL said the new tranche of documents allows the organization to “complete the timeline” of how the NSBA and Biden DOJ and White House were colluding in order to go after 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 day after Chambers’ “federal hook” email, Oct. 2, Sparkle Sooknanan — who was then in the associate attorney general’s office and was later appointed by Biden as a judge on the federal district court for the District of Columbia — asked at 8:17 a.m. if anyone in the Civil Rights Division could assist in a response to the NSBA letter.

The Biden administration had already collaborated with the NSBA to produce the NSBA anti-parent letter, but Oct. 2 was a Saturday, and the timing implies that these Biden officials were looking to send their thugs after parents as soon as humanly possible.

By 7:05 p.m., the Civil Rights Division responded, saying there was not much to work from on the issue. The next day — the day before Garland issued the memo — a Civil Rights Division career attorney raised serious concerns about the effort directly to 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 y 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.”

While these concerns were raised at 1:32 p.m. on a Sunday, by 9:12 a.m. the next day, the DOJ had created a draft of Garland’s memo, and Myesha Braden of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General had distributed it internally.

By 9:16 a.m., Shaylyn Cochran of the Civil Rights Division distributed the draft memo to others, including Moossy. In a short time, the memo was published and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. attorneys, and other law enforcement across the United States, mobilizing federal forces to silence parents.

“The Garland Memo is one of the most scandalous attempts to deprive Americans of their rights in the history of our republic,” said Ian Prior, AFL senior advisor. “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.”

Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.