One mother landed in an FBI file for two reasons. She "is a gun owner," and she belonged to a "right-wing mom's group."
She was one of 25. The Justice Department released a report on Monday confirming that the FBI opened 25 "Guardian assessments" on parents after they spoke up at school board meetings. Seventeen went through the Criminal Investigative Division. Six went through the Counterterrorism Division. Two went through the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate.
That's the FBI office built to stop anthrax attacks and dirty bombs, and it was handed files on parents who complained about what their kids were being taught.
The report comes from DOJ's Weaponization Working Group. It traces all 25 back to a single document: Attorney General Merrick Garland's memo of October 4, 2021.
Five days before that memo, on September 29, the National School Boards Association sent President Biden a letter asking the federal government to treat angry parents as possible cases of "domestic terrorism and hate crimes," and pointed to the Patriot Act as a tool. Garland answered by ordering the FBI and every U.S. Attorney's office in the country to get involved.
Inside the Justice Department, plenty of people knew how that would look. More than a dozen DOJ and FBI employees objected, and the report quotes them. One called the effort "stupid, stupid, stupid." Another said there was "nothing remotely federal" about the conduct being flagged. Others warned it was "challenging from a First Amendment perspective" and "a partisan exercise aimed at those who do not support the Administration."
One official summed it up in a single line: "They might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force."
That came from inside Garland's own building.
The objections went nowhere, and the files got opened anyway. Every one of them had to fit an FBI category. For eight of them, someone decided the right category was the one for terrorists or weapons of mass destruction.
Three weeks after its letter, the NSBA apologized for it. Garland left his memo in place. It stayed on the books for more than three years, until Attorney General Pam Bondi revoked it on February 5, 2025, her first full day on the job. She did it in a footnote: "For the avoidance of doubt, former Attorney General Garland's October 4, 2021, Memorandum is hereby rescinded."
The cleanup is now underway. Parents who became the subject of a Guardian assessment because of the Garland memo will be offered the chance to review their own FBI file. Every one of those files will carry a disclaimer saying the memo "raised serious constitutional concerns." The Department will review each file for constitutional violations and send formal apologies where it finds them. Most of the 25 assessments had already been closed or discontinued.
"Parents are children's natural providers and protectors," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division. She said the Biden-Harris Justice Department labeled concerned parents as threats for exercising their constitutional rights.
Dhillon's division is also on the other side of the issue now. It's going after the Los Angeles Unified School District over policies that kept students' gender identities hidden from their own parents, citing the federal laws that guarantee parents access to their children's school records and a say in what schools ask of them.
House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain put the report in a sentence: "The verdict is in: Biden's DOJ went after parents for speaking up at school board meetings."
Three years ago, the FBI was opening counterterrorism files on moms. Today the Justice Department is offering them their files back, along with an apology.