Documents the FBI recently released show that a lawyer for the agency expressed her reservations about a draft version of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's Oct. 4, 2021 memo that initiated a controversial federal effort to investigate alleged harassment at school board meetings around the country.
The documents, which the America First Legal Foundation recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, showed FBI attorney Miriam Coakley expressed her hope that Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice would reconsider their actions.
At the time, Garland and the DOJ cited "An increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers" in their decision to launch the new DOJ task force.
On Sept. 29, 2021-just days before Garland's memo-the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden and the DOJ, raising concerns about disruptions to school board meetings and claiming the harassment they were experiencing was akin to domestic terrorism or hate crimes.
The NSBA letter and Garland's subsequent decision to form a new task force to investigate disruptions at schools and school board meetings received pushback from Republican officials.
"We are not investigating peaceful protests or parent involvement in school board meetings," Garland told Grassley and Cornyn in 2021.
The committee report revealed the FBI had initiated 25 "Guardian assessments" of school board threats, of which six were run by the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Division.
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