House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) on Wednesday batted down an attempt by ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to subpoena officials involved in the FBI investigating concerned parents as “domestic terrorists” at the behest of the National School Boards Association (NSBA).
As Breitbart News previously reported, the NSBA sent a letter to the Biden administration asking it to investigate parents as “domestic terrorists.” Shortly thereafter, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI to look into parents — but maintained that parents would not be treated as “domestic terrorists.” Despite that, a whistleblower revealed the FBI was, in fact, using “counterterrorism tools” to look into parents concerned about their children’s educations.
Jordan used his opening statement during a Judiciary Committee hearing to submit a resolution to the committee that would subpoena Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, and NSBA President Dr. Viola Garcia for questioning, as well as all relevant documents pertaining to the incident.
Merrick Garland “either misled us, or he was clueless, and either one is bad,” Jordan told Breitbart News. “Because he said on the 21st, ‘I cannot imagine any circumstances where parents are treated as domestic terrorists.’ Problem was, 24 hours before that, the head of counterterrorism at the FBI, Tim Langan, had sent out an email to FBI agents around the country saying ‘use counterterrorism measures on parents, put this label, this designation, this, quote, threat tag on parents’ who are simply moms or dads who are simply speaking up at school board meetings, saying, ‘We don’t want this crazy [critical race theory] stuff taught to our kids.'”
With a sign behind him that read “48 Days Since Chairman Nadler Failed to Hold Garland Accountable for School Boards Memo,” Jordan asked that his resolution to subpoena the officials “be brought up so that we could subpoena these individuals and more importantly the documents that we need to have so we can do our job and figure out just how much the Attorney General misled this committee and the American people.”
After Jordan’s motion, a Democrat on the committee objected, which Nadler recognized.
But the congressman explained to Breitbart News that the goal of the Democrats both in the House and in the Biden administration is to never be held accountable for their actions, as they have essentially been caught fabricating pretext to “chill speech” from parents advocating on behalf of their children’s education. He also said that the NSBA letter did not initiate the forthcoming counterterrorism tactics, but rather the Biden administration initiated those talks.
In five days, the Justice Department went from receiving the NSBA letter to Garland issuing a memo telling the FBI to look into parents, Jordan said, adding, “I’ve been in Congress for 15 years … I’ve never seen government operate that fast.”
“Three days after the letter, Tim Langan, the head of the counterterrorism division at the FBI, is already talking with the Justice Department on how to implement what’s been asked for in the letter,” he noted, explaining the timeline of events. “So, in other words, they were already talking about what to do before Garland sends the memo on the fourth of October.”
The decision to go after parents, then, was not the design of the NSBA, Jordan explained, but rather the Biden administration used the NSBA as a means to achieve its own end of targeting parents.
“I don’t think the school board letter was the catalyst,” he told Breitbart News. “I think the Biden administration and the Garland Justice Department set out — their goal was to go after parents and chill any speech that was critical of what they wanted to do. And they were just looking for a pretext, a catalyst, an excuse to do what they wanted to do. And they go, ‘Oh, let’s work with the school board association to get them to send us the letter, then we’ll go do what we want to do.'”
Continuing, Jordan explained that the NSBA letter was the only piece of evidence the Attorney General had before directing the FBI to look into parents.
“[The] very first sentence says that there’s been an uptick in violence,” he said, questioning the premise of Garland’s action. “And remember, during the hearing, I asked him, ‘What do you base that on? What evidence what, you know, what study? What information did you have to make you write that statement?’ And he was basically, ‘Oh, the school board letter.’ So the only evidence he had was what the school board sent to him.”
Furthermore, the congressman explained, this sort of premise fabrication to initiate federal investigations is not an isolated incident.
“But I think you got to view the letter from the School Board Association, in the same context as the dossier and the Trump-Russia investigation,” Jordan told Breitbart News. “Jim Comey wanted, and the Obama FBI and Justice Department, wanted to go after President Trump, they wanted to spy on President Trump. But they needed an excuse, and the excuse became, ‘Oh, there’s a dossier.’ Jim Comey sees this, knows it’s garbage, but he goes and flies up to Trump Tower in January, early January of 2017, before President Trump’s even been sworn in, and gives him a briefing on the dossier because they want to use that.”
“So they needed a catalyst to do what they wanted to do,” Jordan concluded. “It’s a template that we see being used, and it’s exactly the template that was used here.”
Jordan also said that the Biden administration miscalculated and did not expect parents to be as strong-willed in the face of threats from the federal government.
“They didn’t count on it backfiring,” he said. “They thought they were gonna chill speech, they thought they were gonna be able to slow down parents speaking out against all their left-wing ideas. … And moms and dads were saying, ‘Like, heck, you will. We’re gonna do what’s best for our kids.’ And so much so that Glenn Youngkin is now the governor of Virginia, so they didn’t count on that.”
But the Ohio Republican said there is still a lot of information to uncover with regard to how far this counterterrorism effort went and is going.
“One of the key questions is, what’s the number?” Jordan asked. “How many parents have this designation now associated with their names simply because they show up at school board meeting, or send an email to the school board, or whatever? How many parents have that tag on their name right now? What federal statutes are you planning on using when you decide to go after someone?”
When asked if this issue will be a focus in a new Congress if Republicans take back the House in the 2022 midterms, Jordan replied “Yes, of course! I mean, there’s a whole bunch of political activity that we’re concerned about at the Justice Department, and this is front and center.”
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
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