Cohen’s remarks came during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on domestic terrorism in response to Rep. Elise Stefanik's (R-N.Y.), who asked about Garland’s decision last month to open an investigation into violence against educators. The probe comes as parent groups have increased pressure on school boards over critical race theory and the imposition of mask mandates.
Garland cited a “disturbing spike” in harassment and threats of violence as his reason for opening the probe. Cohen said at the hearing that his department had found no evidence of widespread violence.
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Cohen is quoted: “We did reach out to state and local law enforcement. There have been some sporadic instances of violence at school board meetings and in educational facilities. However, the information that we received is that state and local law enforcement were not seeing widespread action.”
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Responding to questions from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Cohen said the DHS had not seen any quantifiable evidence of a rise in death threats.
Cohen’s statements mark the latest development undermining Garland’s reason for launching an investigation—an action critics accuse of being politically motivated and chilling free speech.
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Last month, Garland admitted that a letter from the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent to the Biden Administration, characterizing protesting parents as domestic terrorism threats and calling for the FBI to use statutes such as the Patriot Act, was the evidence underpinning his claims of rising threats of violence.
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Since the NSBA has retracted and apologized for the letter. A group of 17 state Attorney Generals has called for Garland to rescind his memo, claiming it “chills lawful dissent.”
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The Federal probe advances. Garland defended his actions at an Oct. 27 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, saying that the NSBA’s follow-up apology letter “does not change the association’s concern about violence and threats of violence.”
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Republican lawmakers demanded answers in a Nov. 1 letter to the DOJ, requesting access to internal emails and other records related to the probe.
Lawmakers also questioned FBI Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Timothy Langan about the matter at the Nov. 3 hearing.
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When Stefanik raised questions about the status of meetings that Garland directed Federal law enforcers to hold across more than 94 state, local, and other jurisdictions, Langan maintained he didn’t know how many had taken place.
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The FBI official said the district U.S. Attorneys’ Offices were to coordinate those meetings, which is why he didn’t have much information.
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Later in the hearing, Stefanik pointed out that Garland’s memo directed the FBI to work “with” the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to hold the meetings. “So the FBI is directing this,” she said.
Langan insisted that the U.S. Attorneys are the ones handling the meetings.
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