WASHINGTON, D.C. June 2026—Parents Demanding Justice Alliance (PDJA) is raising serious concerns regarding the Department of Justice’s undisclosed June 11 hearing on the federal targeting of concerned parents, and the process by which parent testimony has been selected. According to affected parents, the hearing was not publicly announced and families most directly impacted by the government’s actions were not informed.
Following her resignation from PDJA, DOJ officials initiated closed-door discussions with actress Sam Sorbo regarding a June 11 hearing with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. According to affected parents, Sorbo, who was not targeted, unilaterally agreed to participate in the hearing and represent the parent movement without first consulting many of the families whose experiences formed the basis of the effort. DOJ officials reportedly conditioned the hearing on the exclusion of certain targeted parents while retaining control over witness selection. Several parents have expressed concern that the hearing will present a sanitized version of events designed to protect the institution rather than reveal the full truth of what occurred.
“Accountability requires hearing from those who experienced the most severe retaliation—not merely those whose stories are least inconvenient to the Department of Justice,” said Kelly John Walker, Founder of Parents Demanding Justice Alliance and one of the parents excluded from testifying.
“Under Merrick Garland, the DOJ coordinated what it described as a ‘partnership among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement’ to investigate and monitor concerned parents, creating a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech,” Walker elaborated. “Now, rather than ending that culture, Todd Blanche appears to be continuing to violate First Amendment rights by deciding which victims may speak, which testimonies are acceptable, and by suppressing testimonies too inconvenient to be heard.”
“Excluding some of the most heavily documented victims from the record does not restore trust,” Walker asserted, “it perpetuates the same suppression of dissent that targeted parents have been fighting for five years. The same agency that used intimidation and jurisdictional manipulation to violate our First Amendment rights should not be deciding which victims are permitted to tell their stories.”
For over five years, targeted parents across the nation have worked to document their experiences, preserve evidence, and seek accountability for what many view as one of the most troubling episodes of government overreach in recent American history. These efforts were undertaken with the understanding that affected families would eventually have an opportunity to tell their stories directly and without institutional interference. Their stories were compiled into a Dossier of Targeted Parents by PDJA and submitted to the White House and DOJ last year.
“Nobody speaks for me,” responded targeted Pennsylvania school mom, Leah Hoopes. “I will not be silenced, managed, filtered, or told how to tell my own story. Accountability comes from actual victims presenting actual evidence—not from gatekeepers, bureaucrats, or people speaking on our behalf. We have the right to speak freely, petition for redress, and hold our government accountable. Those rights belong to the people—not the institutions that violated them.”
Another Pennsylvania parent wrote, “My case has been pending with the federal government for almost 2 years, one of which has been during Donald Trump’s second term. No one will even give me the courtesy of speaking directly to me. Instead, I have to hear what they say about me and my case through others. This is not right. It isn’t just. It isn’t moral or ethical. It’s just a continuation of the weaponization against me and my family that started years ago.”
“It’s outrageous that ‘they’ continue to want to silence victims,” a Maryland mother wrote, “most especially the hardest hit ones. We don’t tell stories of abuse endured at the hands of anyone with the mindset that the stories must be ‘pretty.’ The stories are to be told by the victims, whenever and wherever possible, and be told word for word. Why would victims, the government, the police, or anyone in authority worry about the attractiveness of any victim’s story? It’s outrageous!”
“I didn’t even know there was a hearing and I thought I was keeping up with everything,” another parent shared. “Seems like they’re excluding a lot of us.”
“Kelly Walker is the best advocate for targeted parents,” a targeted parent posted on X. “First, because he is a targeted parent. If you haven’t endured lawfare that destroys every aspect of your life it’s difficult to begin to adequately convey the damage and desperate need for justice.”
“If the DOJ is going to exclude Kelly, we won’t participate,” wrote an Arizona parent, reportedly up for consideration to testify. “He’s done more than anyone to help all of us, and denying him a seat at the table because he demands transparency and accountability is just wrong.”
The controversy stems in part from a January 23 meeting in which Senior Counsel to Todd Blanche, Vance Day, was caught saying that the DOJ’s policy toward parents continues to be “we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” denying the existence of any federal remedy for affected families, and discussing control of the narrative surrounding parental weaponization allegations. Walker later released lawful recordings of that meeting, arguing that the public had a right to know the government’s position toward the very citizens seeking accountability.
Walker further notes that during that same DOJ meeting, he was informed that he and other parents would not be invited to participate because his case was not considered “squeaky clean.” That determination was made months before the recordings were released. After the recordings became public, however, DOJ officials cited their release as the reason for his exclusion. Walker contends that the shifting explanations strongly suggest retaliation for his protected speech and whistleblowing activities, while diverting attention from broader concerns regarding transparency, representation, and the exclusion of key witnesses from the official record.
“Attempting to hold a quietly curated hearing was a serious miscalculation,” said Walker. “It reinforces the perception that the Department of Justice continues to marginalize, demonize, and silence parents who have legitimate concerns about the government’s actions. If the DOJ’s objective is to restore public trust, excluding key witnesses and controlling who gets to speak accomplishes the exact opposite.”
A parent from Florida wrote, “Well, I’m ‘squeaky clean’ and I’m in the dossier [of targeted parents], but he [Blanche] hasn’t reached out to me. So I don’t know who he is even fake helping.”
PDJA maintains that the issue extends beyond any single parent or witness.
“The question is not who receives a microphone,” Walker said. “The question is whether the full scope of what happened to parents will be acknowledged honestly. The American people deserve a complete record—not one filtered through the preferences of the institution being examined.”
Many targeted parents fear that excluding some of the most heavily documented cases of retaliation undermines both the credibility and purpose of the hearing. They argue that any effort to rebuild public trust must begin with an honest acknowledgment of the full extent of the government’s actions, including surveillance, investigations, threat assessments, reputational harm, financial devastation, and other consequences experienced by families nationwide.
Walker further emphasizes that the PDJA movement was built by ordinary families who paid a tremendous personal price for exercising their constitutional rights. “Those families—not government officials, political operatives, or outside representatives—must remain at the center of any discussion concerning what occurred and how justice should be pursued,” he said.
“We did not come this far to have the voices of targeted parents managed, filtered, or excluded in order to protect institutional reputations,” Walker said. “The path forward requires transparency, accountability, and a complete and honest accounting of the facts.”
“Having been arrested, incarcerated, or having a warrant out for your arrest because your own federal government put its finger on the scales of justice to silence you is a badge of honor,” said Walker. “These people sacrificed the most to do the right thing for our nation’s children, and their voices need to be heard.”
Walker called for a bipartisan congressional investigation, the appointment of an independent special prosecutor to examine misconduct within the Department of Justice, and a rescheduling of a hearing where all affected parents are invited to testify.
“Our dossier includes parents of every political persuasion,” Walker said. “This was never a Republican issue or a Democrat issue—it was an American issue. Many of us hoped the Department of Justice would acknowledge what happened, hold wrongdoers accountable, and reform itself. Instead, our confidence that the DOJ is willing or able to police its own conduct, much less restore its victims, has been shattered.”
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