Today, the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group issued a report detailing how Biden Administration officials at the Department of Justice explored avenues to prosecute parents and protestors who spoke to school boards and school officials during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Today’s report focuses on the production and circulation of an October 4, 2021 memorandum sent from Attorney General Merrick Garland to the Director of the FBI, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, the Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, and United States Attorneys.
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14147 to eliminate the political weaponization of federal agencies. To many Americans, Attorney General Garland’s memo embodied the misuse and weaponization of government power. This report fulfills the February 2, 2025 directive from Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the Memo and the report ordered by the President in EO 14147.
The report details how, despite being presented with very little evidence of actual violence or violent threats against school administrators and at school board meetings, Garland arrived at a memo which claimed, “in recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence.”
The Working Group’s report makes clear that the ideological inspiration for the October 4, 2021 memo was a September 29, 2021 letter from the National School Boards Association to President Joe Biden in which the organization urged the federal government to consider that “these heinous actions” “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
The Working Group officially acknowledges what many Americans already assumed: that as Biden Administration actions chilled the exercise of parental and free speech rights, parents who lawfully exercised their parental rights and freedom of speech were often targeted by members of the educational establishment.
Among the most egregious findings, exhibits show that individuals in the Biden White House and Attorney General Garland’s advisors wanted to involve federal law enforcement and prosecutors in matters involving parents and school boards. Further, the Memo established a task force to find federal enforcement options for investigating and prosecuting parents and the FBI opened 25 “Guardian assessments” on parents. One FBI whistleblower disclosed that a mother was investigated because she “is a gun owner” and belonged to a “right-wing mom’s group.”
After thoroughly reviewing internal communications and investigative records, the Working Group found that more than a dozen DOJ and FBI personnel raised concerns with the Memo and its directive, including:
- “Stupid, stupid, stupid”
- “they might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force”
- “ridiculous,”
- “challenging from a First Amendment perspective”
- “potentially dangerous ground”
- “horrible”
- “confusing”
- “look[s] political”
- “a partisan exercise aimed at those who do not support the Administration”
- Would “tarnish reputation as an apolitical law enforcer”
- “very messy and political”
- “nothing remotely federal”
Despite internal pushback, emails show Attorney General Garland issued the Memo, influenced by White House officials. The Working Group confirms the Memo was the product of pressure exerted by the White House and wrongly weaponized the Department of Justice against parents.
The Trump Administration and Attorney General Todd Blanche have made securing parental and First Amendment rights a top priority. In addition to the investigative Report, the Department of Justice is taking the following steps:
- Parents and other participants at school board meetings who became the subject or target of an FBI Guardian assessment as a result of the Garland Memorandum will be offered the opportunity to review the Guardian.
- A disclaimer will be added to Guardian assessments associated with the Garland Memorandum. The majority of these Guardian assessments have been closed or discontinued, but this disclaimer will note that the Garland Memorandum raised serious constitutional concerns, and so any Guardian assessment resulting from it should be read with caution.
- The Department will review the files of anyone who was investigated under the Garland Memorandum to determine if their constitutional rights were violated. To the extent such a violation is found, the Department will issue a formal apology and institute internal controls as necessary to prevent repeating the violation.
- Through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the Department is partnering with the National Association of School Resource Officers and awarding them $1.5 million to develop and deliver a series of training and technical assistance directly to our nation’s school resource officers. The goal of this grant is to increase the organization’s capacity to inform school employees regarding the rights of parents in our primary and secondary educational system.
- Through the Office of Justice Programs, the Department is prioritizing additional funding to provide resources and training to schoolteachers and staff about the First Amendment rights of parents and the rights of parents to direct and guide the upbringing and education of their children.
This report follows letters sent earlier today by Department of Justice and Department of Education leadership to all 50 state attorneys general on parental rights. You can view those letters here.
The Justice Department remains committed to defending Constitutionally protected civil liberties, especially the First Amendment rights of all Americans. Individuals with concerns about unconstitutional conduct are encouraged to come forward; the Department will evaluate such matters without fear or favor.
Read the full report here .