FBI ABILITY TO SILENCE PARENTS WILL STAND. Merrick Garland on Wednesday refused to retract his controversial Oct. 4 school board memo, despite pressure from Senate Judiciary Republicans who contend the attorney general’s true aim was shutting down the free speech rights of concerned parents.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, pointed to the memo as a “case in point” example that the attorney general is politicizing the department, saying he has moved it “as far left as it can go.”
“As a result of your memo, local school officials and parents may not speak up in these meetings out of fear that the federal government will do something to them. So that’s a poisonous, chilling effect,” Mr. Grassley said.