FBI Director Christopher Wray received a subpoena from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Friday, requiring him to turn over any agency communications or documents related to the alleged use of federal resources to target parents protesting at their local school board meetings.

The move stems from an October 2021 memo by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland directing the FBI to coordinate with state and local law enforcement across the country to develop “strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”

In recent years, school board meetings have been sites for heated community debate and protest over issues like campus mask mandates, controversial library materials, transgender bathroom use, and Critical Race Theory.

In September 2021, the National School Board Association sent a letter to the Biden administration that likened the behavior of some parents and protesters to “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crime,” as previously reported in The Dallas Express.

A month later, The Dallas Express reported that a whistleblower subsequently claimed the FBI was designating certain investigations into parents and education activists with a “threat tag” created by the agency’s counterterrorism division, suggesting possible politicization at the bureau.

The current chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), previously accused the Biden administration of the “misuse of federal criminal and counterterrorism resources to target concerned parents at school board meetings.”

Jordan leveled the allegation in a letter requesting documents from the U.S. Justice Department in October 2022, in which he referenced a collection of similar outstanding document requests the department has yet to honor.

“Parents voicing their concerns at school board meetings are not domestic terrorists. Yet, your anti-parent directive remains in effect, and as a result, the threat of federal law enforcement continues to chill the First Amendment rights of American parents,” wrote Jordan.

A spokesperson for the FBI national press office issued a statement to The Dallas Express, reading:

“As Director Wray and other FBI officials have stated clearly on numerous occasions before Congress and elsewhere, the FBI has never been in the business of investigating speech or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else, and we never will be.

“Our focus is and always will be on protecting people from violence and threats of violence. We are fully committed to preserving and protecting First Amendment rights including the right to free speech. Attempts to further any political narrative will not change those facts.”

The statement further insisted that the FBI was complying with the subpoena and working to produce the requested documents.

The Dallas Express reached out to the FBI’s Dallas field office and asked about any possible FBI investigations into parents and activists in the North Texas area that may have taken place in recent years.

A spokesperson responded, ignoring the question about North Texas and referring The Dallas Express back to the national office’s statement:

“Since they provided you with a statement from Director Wray, we have no further comment.”