EXCLUSIVE: Republicans threaten MORE subpoenas for Biden officials who have refused to reveal whether there was a coordinated attempt to put the FBI’s counter-terrorism unit on parents during school board meetings
- Jim Jordan is stepping up the investigation that began in February with a series of subpoenas to DOJ, FBI and the Department of Education
- The committee is investigating the White House’s alleged “misuse of criminal and counterterrorism resources” against concerned parents
- Jordan is concerned about the FBI’s use of “threat tags” to mark a mother who belongs to a “right-wing mother group” and a father who allegedly “fits the profile of an insurgent.”
Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary, is warning President Joe Biden’s chief of staff to hand over documents he says reveal a White House pressure campaign to pin the FBI on parents at school board meetings — or they may be subpoenaed.
The commission is investigating the alleged “executive abuse of criminal and counter-terrorism resources against concerned parents at local school board meetings,” including the impact on their First Amendment rights.
In a letter that DailyMail.com first received from Jordan, R-Ohio, to Jeff Zients — who took over Biden’s role as top aide from Ron Klain in February — the top Republican says he is following through on his request for documents and transcribed interviews in January. with involved employees have been ignored by the White House.
Republicans have long believed that a letter from the National School Board Association (NSBA) in late September 2021 to Biden prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to issue a memo to direct law enforcement to address “threats” against school officials across the country to help fight.
Garland instructed local law enforcement to work with DOJ to address “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff participating in the essential work of running our nation’s public schools.” to deal with.
The DOJ memo came out Oct. 4, less than a week after the NSBA issued its letter calling parents “domestic terrorists” for speaking out against COVID-19 mask mandates, racial issues and critical race theory, among other things.
Garland instructed local law enforcement to work with DOJ to address “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff participating in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.” to deal with.
Jordan writes that he is concerned about the FBI’s use of “threat tags” to flag a mother belonging to a “right-wing mother group” and a father who allegedly “fitted the profile of an insurgent.”
The FBI’s acting deputy director Christopher Dunham reportedly confirmed in a March letter to Jordan that the agency has opened “at least 35” cases as a result of a September 2021 letter from the NSBA to Biden.
The NSBA has since retracted its letter after massive opposition, and Garland has maintained the Justice Department’s impartiality.
But now Jordan is stepping up the investigation, which he first launched in February with a series of subpoenas to other executive agencies, including DOJ, the Department of Education and the FBI.
The chairman writes to Zients that he has “obtained some documents” from those agencies, but they are all “deficient in one critical respect” — that they withhold any communication with White House officials in the Executive Office of the President (EOP). to leave.
“The committee has reason to believe that communications exist between the EOP and the relevant agencies of the executive branch and that these records play an important role in fully understanding the actions of the executive branch on this matter,” he said. .
The Republicans specifically want to speak to Mary Wall, a senior adviser to Biden, because they believe she was the “conduit” between the White House and the NSBA.
Jordan concludes by threatening Zients with using subpoena power to enforce Wall’s documents and testimony by June 20
None of the agencies produced the full communications between Wall and the NSBA or any of the agencies involved, Jordan says.
The Department of Education provided the committee with highly redacted correspondence with Wall, he added.
“This editorial impedes the committee’s ability to understand the nature of communications between executive branch agencies.”
Jordan concludes by threatening Zients with using subpoena power to enforce Wall’s documents and testimony by June 20.
It is unlikely that the House Judiciary Committee will get all of the requested items because the White House can exercise executive privileges to protect the documents.
The committee “may consider using a mandatory process” if the White House does not provide the documents, the letter concludes.
DailyMail.com reached out to the White House for a statement in response to the letter.