Attorney General Pam Bondi used a little-noticed footnote to rescind a controversial school board memo that had directed the Biden-era Justice Department and FBI to investigate alleged threats posed by outspoken parents.

The move by President Donald Trump’s top law enforcement official reverses then-Attorney General Merrick Garland’s October 2021 memo, which set off a massive firestorm and which was vociferously opposed by Republicans. 

Bondi announced the creation of a “Weaponization Working Group” which is slated to examine, among other things, the Biden DOJ’s “investigation of parents of school children who expressed sincere, good-faith concerns at local government meetings.” In a largely-overlooked footnote, she also wrote that “for the avoidance of doubt, former Attorney General Garland's October 4, 2021, Memorandum is hereby rescinded.” Garland's directive was revoked with little fanfare in Bondi's Feb. 5 memo the day after her confirmation by the Senate.

Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, revealed whistleblower evidence in November 2021 that indicated that FBI counterterrorism assets were involved in the investigation of parents protesting school policies. Jordan has spent years investigating the Biden DOJ’s controversial actions. “Attorney General Bondi’s repeal of Merrick Garland’s weaponized school boards memo is a huge win for parents and the rule of law,” Jordan told Just The News.

"Form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes"

Garland’s October 2021 memo had alleged there had been a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.” It said the DOJ will “discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.”

The Biden DOJ memo was prompted in part by a National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter from late September 2021 which had argued to then-President Joe Biden that “the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes” and called upon the DOJ to review whether the Patriot Act could be deployed.

Internal emails from NSBA itself that were released by the Parents Defending Education activist group show top members of the NSBA had been consulting with the Biden White House about the letter. NSBA President Viola Garcia and Interim Director and CEO Chip Slaven cosigned the letter to Biden.

Opponents of "terrorist" label relieved

"We're immensely grateful that on Attorney General Bondi's first day in office, she did what Merrick Garland refused to do: rescinding DOJ's reprehensible 2021 memo directing federal law enforcement to devote its finite resources in pursuit of American parents,” Nicki Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Just The News. “For four years, families were chilled from participating in politics because of the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, so it's a tremendous relief that this sorry chapter is finally closed."

While Garland’s memo did not mention the National Security Division, which deals with terrorism and other threats, the Biden DOJ’s press release at the time did, naming it as part of a new DOJ “task force” along with representatives from DOJ’s Criminal Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and the FBI.

The Biden DOJ also issued a follow-up directive later in October 2021 which pressured all U.S. Attorneys Offices to convene meetings with local law enforcement and FBI representatives to address the alleged threat.

After a widespread national outcry and amid internal pushback within the organization, the NSBA disavowed its own letter in late October 2021, saying that “we regret and apologize for the letter” and that “there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter.”

Garland: "I did not adopt every concern"

Garland initially testified to Congress later that month that the NSBA’s follow-up apology letter did not sway him: “The language in the letter which they disavow is language which was never included in my memo and never would’ve been. I did not adopt every concern that they had in their letter. I adopted only the concern about violence and threats of violence, and that hasn’t changed.”

Garland later said that “I can’t imagine any circumstance in which the Patriot Act would be used in the circumstances of parents complaining about their children.”

Garland further insisted to Congress in September 2023 that “there's nothing to rescind” with respect to his school boards memo, adding, "The memo was intended to have meetings within 30 days… The 30 days have finished. Nothing has happened in more than a year and a half with respect to that."

But Bondi’s new directive has ensured that the Garland memo was revoked, and the Biden DOJ’s actions are now under review by the Trump administration's attorney general.