AG Garland Tells Chuck Grassley That He Stands By His Memo and Will Not Dissolve School Board Task Force

At today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, ranking member of the committee Chuck Grassley (R-IA) confronted Attorney General Merrick Garland over a memo that he issued and a school board task force he formed to investigate apparent threats leveled by parents against school-board members.

Garland responded by telling Grassley that despite the National School Board Association apologizing for the letter which Garland has said served as the predicate for the task force’s formation, he stood by his memo and wouldn’t dissolve the task force.

Fox News’ Chad Pegram reported in a tweet, “Garland to Grassley on school board memo: I have the letter from MSBA that you’re referring to. It apologizes for language in the letter. But it continues its concern about the safety of school officials and school staff.”

“Garland: The language in the letter that they disavow is language was never included in my memo and never would have been. I did not adopt every concern that they had in their letter adopted only the concern about violence and threats of violence. And that hasn’t changed,” Pegram added in a subsequent tweet.

B) Garland: The language in the letter that they disavow is language was never included in my memo and never would have been. I did not adopt every concern that they had in their letter adopted only the concern about violence and threats of violence. And that hasn't changed.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 27, 2021

Grassley later appeared on Fox Business to discuss the hearing and spoke with host Larry Kudlow.

In a tweet, Grassley shared a clip of his interview and said, “Today I asked Attorney General Garland about the memo that would have federal law enforcement police local school board meetings.”

In the clip, Grassley told Kudlow, “The bottom line of it is that he’s shown that he’s really not running the (Justice) Department.”

“You know when these Republican and Democrat cabinet people come to my office, I give them this advice, ‘Either you run your department or its running you’,” the seven term senator explained as Kudlow nodded.

“It looks to me like right now, the (Justice) Department is running our Attorney General,” Grassley concluded.

Today I asked Attorney General Garland about the memo that would have federal law enforcement police local school board meetings.

"The bottom line of it is .. It looks to me like right now, the [Justice] Department is running our Attorney General." On @larry_kudlow @FoxBusiness pic.twitter.com/cU1hvww60Z

— Grassley Works (@GrassleyWorks) October 27, 2021