Threatening Memos, Lawsuits and Stonewalling - Merrick Garland's Grand Entrance Into The DOJ

Merrick Garland has made quite the entrance into the DOJ. After only 8 months in office, he seems to have caused quite the stir among the media and the American public. The US Attorney General's position is supposed to be one of neutrality in politics as the head of the Department of Justice, however, Merrick Garland's DOJ is anything but neutral. After issuing threatening memos, facing multiple lawsuits, being questioned on conflicts of interest, and Stonewalling Congress in a judiciary hearing, it is pretty obvious how politicized our DOJ has become.

On October 4, 2021, US Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to work with local and state law enforcement agencies to address the growing violent threats against school officials and teachers. This comes after the Biden Administration received correspondence from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) pleading with the administration to protect schools from "imminent threat" from parents whose activities they compare to "domestic terrorism".

The correspondence received by the Biden Administration was a result of a growing number of parents finally standing up for their rights and the rights of their children. More parents are starting to fight back against the draconian Covid mitigation measures that have been implemented by local school boards. The other concern parents are becoming increasingly alarmed over is the extremely progressive Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculum being taught throughout many of the nation's schools. Parents are standing up and speaking out against the radicalization of our children's education by calling for the recall of many of the school board members.

The other avenue parents are taking is in suing the DOJ. On Tuesday, October 19th in Washington D.C. a federal lawsuit was filed by the American Freedom Law Center on behalf of several parents against the DOJ, seeking

"to protect their fundamental rights to freedom of speech, to direct the education of their children and to be free from unlawful discrimination..."

They are also seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction against the use of law enforcement to silence parents who publicly disagree with the

"divisive harmful, immoral and racist policies of the 'progressive Left that are being implemented by school boards and school officials in public school districts throughout the United States..."

On Thursday, October 21st Attorney General Garland appeared in front of the House Judiciary Committee to testify on the "Oversight of the United States Department of Justice" where he was asked not only about his threatening memo, but also the conflict of interest that exists with his son-in-law's business. Garland's son-in-law, Xan Tanner is the co-founder of a company called Panorama Education which partners with school districts nationwide to sell Critical Race Theory and other alleged anti-racist educational materials.

According to an article written by Fox News, The company partly owned by Garland's son-in-law, received at least $27 million from as many as 1500 different school districts across the nation. As Congressman Johnson said to Garland

"The question is the thing that is concerned many of those parents that are showing up at the school board meetings, the very basis of their objection and their vigorous debate, as you mentioned earlier, is the curricula, the very curricula that your son-in-law is selling."

This brings up serious questions as to how much money AG Garland and his family stand to profit from law enforcement's crackdown of parents protesting at school board meetings.

Despite the intense questioning, Garland Stonewalled many of the questions that were asked of him by Republican committee members, instead, commenting that he didn't have enough information, or continually repeating the same thing about how the DOJ is only looking into "threats of violence". On the question of whether Garland thought to seek advice from the ethics counsel before issuing his memo to the FBI, Garland stated that

“This memorandum does not relate to the financial interests of anyone,”

It seems that AG Garland is keeping in step with the rest of the Biden Administration when it comes to accountability to the American people. In true dictatorship fashion, The DOJ along with the rest of the Federal government believes that they can intimidate and threaten the rights and lives of Americans without recourse. AG Garland is certainly not the first member of the Biden Administration to demonstrate how politicized our Justice system has become, and I don't believe that he will be the last. As Congressman Johnson stated

"you are not respecting our rules, our constitutional norms and the federal law that directly applies to your activities. This is a great concern. This is why people are losing faith in our institutions. They're losing faith in this Department of Justice."

Resources Cited:

1. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/parents-michigan-virginia-sue-doj-over-response-school-board-threats-n1281996

2. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/garland-ethics-guidance-son-in-laws-crt-promoting-company

3. https://wiredailynews.com/2021/10/21/attorney-general-merrick-garland-slammed-for-family-financial-interest-in-attempt-to-target-domestic-terrorist-parents-at-school-board-meetings/

4. https://nypost.com/2021/10/21/ag-merrick-garland-to-testify-before-house-judiciary-committee/

5. https://reason.com/2021/10/06/ag-merrick-garland-fbi-critical-race-theory-parents-schools-domestic-terrorists/

6. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-addresses-violent-threats-against-school-officials-and-teachers

7. https://www.panoramaed.com/