By Kelly John Walker, FreedomTalk Magazine
Executive Summary
Despite clear federal culpability in the monitoring and prosecution of school parents during the Biden administration, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has advanced a jurisdictional narrative that contradicts President Trump’s Executive Orders on weaponization and relief for targeted families. This article outlines the documented federal role in the unconstitutional targeting of school parents, the emerging conflict between presidential directives and DOJ institutional interests, and the resulting call for congressional and civic oversigh
An extensive paper trail and multiple testimonies confirm that the federal government under Biden directly involved federal law enforcement and counterterrorism tools in monitoring and responding to concerned school parents. That fact is no longer meaningfully disputed in congressional reports and DOJ memoranda—though the distinction appears less clear inside the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was registered as a Democrat in the Southern District of New York before changing party registration in 2024.
The “Smoking Gun” of Federal Culpability
America First Legal’s FOIA releases—specifically “Major Victory: America First Legal Uncovers Documents Conclusively Proving the Infamous Garland Memo Was Politically Orchestrated and Coordinated with the Biden White House”—and FreedomTalk investigations—exposed coordination between the Biden White House and DOJ on the October 4, 2021 Garland Memo, which mobilized FBI threat tags, federal assessments, and U.S. Attorneys against parents in school board disputes. DOJ attorneys internally warned there was no statutory predicate, but political leadership pushed ahead anyway.
FreedomTalk and the Parents Demanding Justice Alliance (PDJA) have documented multiple testimonies in its Dossier of Targeted Parents exposing federal agents operating behind the scenes in state-level monitoring, prosecutions, and incarceration of parents—using jurisdictional loopholes to conceal federal involvement.
Congress validated these concerns in the March 21, 2023 House Judiciary Interim Report, documenting DOJ’s use of counterterrorism frameworks to monitor parents. The DOJ itself acknowledged federal involvement: the February 5, 2025 Attorney General memorandum launched an internal review of DOJ actions and admitted the use of federal guidance and investigative resources at local school board meetings.
The evidence is clear: The targeting of “parents of school children who expressed sincere, good-faith concerns at local government meetings” overwhelmingly points to federal culpability, federal jurisdiction, and federal responsibility. State and school district officials—including the National School Boards Association (NASB)—were co-opted to carry out what multiple states attorney generals called a “massive fraud perpetrated on the American People.”
A letter to Joe Biden and Merrick Garland, dated October 26, 2021, signed by 14 state attorneys general, asserted:
In a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) dated September 29, 2021, NSBA accused parents throughout the United States of “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” warranting the invocation of “the PATRIOT Act in regards to domestic terrorism.” Our letter objected to Attorney General Garland’s Memorandum of October 4, 2021, which attacked dissent by parents during local school board meetings in an effort “to intimidate parents into giving up their constitutional rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.” We surmised that the Attorney General’s Memorandum was based on the NSBA’s false accusations against parents. The Attorney General confirmed as much during his House Judiciary Committee Testimony on October 21, 2021.
The October 26 letter cites “collusion between the White House, the DOJ, and the NSBA in the actual creation of the September 29 letter—as a pretext for threats against parents,” saying it “raises serious concerns. Officials with the awesome power to initiate criminal actions using the USA PATRIOT ACT to abuse citizens when they solicit, as an excuse for mobilizing federal law enforcement, complaints against ordinary Americans who merely disagree with local school officials.”
DOJ emails obtained by America First Legal reveal communications between Tamarra Matthews-Johnson in the Attorney General’s Office and Kevin Chambers in the Deputy Attorney General’s Office seeking a “federal hook” to prosecute dissenting parents, even as multiple career DOJ attorneys objected on grounds ranging from “lack of statutory authority” to concerns about “constitutionally protected speech” and misrepresentations by the NSBA.
Despite these warnings, political leadership—including now-Judge Sparkle Sooknanan—pushed ahead and issued the Garland memo, which AFL notes blindsided components responsible for implementing it, confirming that the “normal clearance process…[was] bypassed or corrupted.”
AFL argues the memo mobilized federal power not to protect schools but to silence dissent: President Gene Hamilton called it a conspiracy to deprive parents of “the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing of their children,” while Senior Counsel Andrew Block added that officials admitted “there was no authority and this was First Amendment protected activity, but Garland’s weaponized Justice Department proceeded anyway.” Vice President Dan Epstein concluded the documents show “a clear connection between the Biden White House and the Garland Justice Department to prosecute parents,” and Senior Advisor Ian Prior called the Garland memo “one of the most scandalous attempts to deprive Americans of their rights in the history of our republic.”
That scandal has lingered through the transition to the Bondi–Blanche administration, despite President Trump’s stated concern for the families who contend they were stripped of fundamental rights.
Trump Opens the Door—Blanche Slams It Shut?
Against this backdrop, the DOJ Weaponization Working Group—established to expose and remedy federal abuses—took a key step. Its director, Ed Martin, issued a formal letter in September concerning a targeted parent confirming that parents were “investigated and targeted by the Biden DOJ.” Martin invoked Executive Order authority, requested parent documentation, invited meetings, requested case information from other parents, and committed to federal review of harms.
This aligned precisely with President Trump’s January 29, 2025 Executive Order recognizing K–12 abuses as a federal concern requiring federal action, and with his January 20 directive to “end the weaponization of the Federal Government,” which asserted that the previous administration deployed federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies against perceived political opponents through investigations, prosecutions, and other actions “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice,” including “activities directed at parents protesting at school board meetings” for engaging in constitutionally protected speech.
Instead of executing the President’s mandate, Todd Blanche’s office has pushed a state/local framing that directly contradicts the President’s instructions. By insisting the matter is not federal, Blanche’s position protects the Department of Justice from answering for its own conduct—subordinating the President’s stated policy goals to the institutional interests of DOJ itself.
The Canceled Hearing and the Convenient Senate Narrative
Viewed in hindsight after Blanche’s position on the cases brought to Martin, the signs were already there. In the fall of 2025, PDJA was promised an October hearing for parents with Pam Bondi or Todd Blanche to address federal targeting. That hearing was abruptly canceled. Just days later—on October 7, 2025—Bondi testified before the Senate that the parent-targeting issue had been “taken care of” and was no longer a problem.
For parents who lost assets, jobs, custody, reputations, and peace due to federal actions, that claim was not only false—it was a federal attempt to close the file and censor their grievances.
Capitol Hill Press Conference: Another Red Flag
Signs of Blanche’s position had already begun to surface even earlier. On July 15, 2025 PDJA held a Capitol Hill press conference sponsored by Reps. Andy Ogles and Andy Biggs to raise the alarm publicly. Ed Martin had affirmed both his intent and desire to attend in his official capacity as Weaponization Working Group Director—a role that includes interfacing with Members of Congress and impacted citizens—yet neither he nor any DOJ representative appeared.
Internal sources told PDJA leadership that Todd Blanche had prevented Martin from attending—blocking the director of the federal body tasked with investigating federal abuses from standing with victims, parenting group representatives, media representatives, and members of Congress on the Hill
If accurate, Blanche’s office wasn’t just slow-walking accountability—it was actively suppressing it and dodging accountability to the American People and their representatives.
To date, Blanche’s office has not acknowledged a single complaint or case from targeted parents, recently dismissing specific petitions under the banner of federalism and asserting that these are state or local issues outside federal concern.
Taken together, these actions signal that this is no longer an internal bureaucratic matter—it is a civic crisis requiring public and federal scrutiny.
This leads to an unavoidable question: Is Todd Blanche countermanding President Trump’s mandate by reclassifying a federal DOJ operation as a state matter to avoid federal accountability?
PDJA is calling on Congressional oversight committees to investigate, and for President Trump to provide immediate relief consistent with the Executive Order PDJA drafted and submitted to the White House and DOJ over the summer.
To that end, we ask national media outlets, Members of Congress, Senators, and watchdog groups to press Todd Blanche for answers to the following:
- Why was the promised October hearing for targeted parents canceled?
- Why did Bondi testify on October 7 that the issue was “taken care of?”
- Why is Blanche’s office contradicting federal findings and the President’s Executive Orders?
- Did Blanche prevent Director Ed Martin from attending the July 15 Capitol Hill press conference? Why was there no response to the presser from DOJ?
- Is DOJ victim relief being intentionally delayed or obstructed?
Parents deserve answers, Congress deserves answers, and the American public deserves to know whether the office assigned to clean up DOJ abuses is instead working to bury them. There will come a time when the record makes plain who fought for targeted families and who worked to insulate the DOJ from accountability.
FreedomTalk and PDJA are working to preserve the record by documenting evidence, testimony, and official decisions or failures to act. They aim to secure swift, overdue justice for the families involved and to hold the DOJ, state authorities, and school districts accountable for both past and ongoing persecution of school parents.
Kelly John Walker is an American statesman, senior writer, author, and entrepreneur. He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of FreedomTalk Magazine, and Co-Founder of Parents Demanding Justice Alliance. His work has appeared in The Washington Times, Gateway Pundit, The Epoch Times, Newsmax, Townhall, Law Enforcement Today, and more. He’s a frequent guest on national programs including Real America’s Voice, Bannon’s War Room, NTD Capitol Report, and more.
