DOJ Offers FBI Aid To Investigate Valley County Parents

A letter from the acting U.S. Attorney for Montana recently arrived on the desk of Valley County Sheriff Tom Boyer. It offers federal resources - including FBI agents - to investigate parents accused of threatening area school board members over issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The FBI has no business handling local jurisdictional matters, quite frankly," Boyer told The Courier. "Even the fact that letter was sent out, it was misguided. They have no business directing us, or including themselves in things we have traditionally handled and will continue to handle."

Similar letters were sent recently to county attorney's offices, law enforcement agencies and school boards across Montana. The letters cited several statutes which would necessitate federal aid, including conspiracy, depriving a person of their civil rights, stalking, cyberstalking, and relating false information or perpetrating hoaxes.

"In response to a nationwide rise in threats and acts of violence against our educational community, Attorney General Garland has directed the FBI and the United States attorneys to partner with federal, state, local and tribal leaders to address the problem," the letter reads.

On Oct. 4, the Department of Justice - at the behest of President Joe Biden - announced it was meeting with various federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders to "discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend" of parents vehemently opposing vaccine and mask mandates for school children.

"Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation's core values," wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland. "Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety."

U.S. Senator John Tester (D-MT), agreed.

"I served on a school board for nine years, and I can tell you civil school board meetings are absolutely critical," Tester told The Courier last week. "You are dealing with, literally, the parents most valuable possession - the community's most valuable possession - their kids. I will tell you whenever things got out of hand at a school board meeting, and they did rarely ... we would tell folks to settle down, professionally."

Tester said offering federal law enforcement clout will not hamper parents' abilities to address their school board members with grievances over district polices.

"I don't think this is going to chill peoples' ability to participate in school board meetings and I can tell you the communities around that I know of ... the parents were very professional. But, you can't have parents threatening people. You can't have me threatening people. We can't have you threatening people. These school board positions are important and they are very hard to do, and people need to remain professional and courteous and make sure their words are heard and hold people accountable. There are plenty of instances where things have gotten out of hand and folks have said things they should not have said and actually threatened school board members. That is inappropriate."

U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) said such federal policy could indeed prevent parents from voicing their opinions out of fear of federal reprisal.

"It is a chilling message you would never expect to see in the United States of America that parents would be silenced from voicing their input to school boards about their parents education," Daines told The Courier. "The school boards are elected by the citizens. They are to serve the parents, and serve the students, not the other way around. It is starting to sound like totalitarianism. And, even our local sheriff's across Montana, we are hearing reports they don't want to have this so called help from the FBI. They are pushing back. I stand with our local sheriffs and thank God for our sheriffs across our state and police officers who protect us. We shouldn't have the FBI watching parents going to school board meetings. That is chilling."

Daines accused the Biden Administration and Garland of "weaponizing the federal government to intimidate Montana parents."

"This is outrageous," Daines said. "Our children went through the public schools there in Bozeman. We should be empowering parents to defend their children and hold school boards accountable, hold public officials accountable, not silencing them."

On the state level, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told The Courier his office is monitoring the situation.

"I don't think there is anything for my office to do because, frankly, I don't think the U.S. Attorney's Office in Montana is going to do anything," Knudsen continued. "Candidly, I think this is [Acting U.S. Attorney General for Montana] Lief Johnson checking a box and doing what he was ordered to do by Merrick Garland. He was ordered to put out a letter. I think he did it. There is not much to it. Frankly, we don't need it in the state. We don't need the help. We've got local sheriff's and county attorneys who are entirely capable and willing to prosecute, if appropriate, these kind of threats. We don't need the feds sticking their nose into Montana local business, and that is exactly what this is."

Knudsen could not remember any time during his tenure when felony charges have been filed in Montana against parents for disrupting school board meetings.

"No. I think you would have to have a pretty egregious felonious intent here for that to happen in Montana," he said.

Boyer also said he cannot think of such instances arising in Valley County.

"Pertaining to this specific issue, generally no. It would be a super rare occurrence."

Knudsen said Montanans have historically been able to approach their school board with confidence their voices would be heard.

"They are used the school boards being accessible to them. We don't have these problems here, for the most part, and hopefully we never do. We are used to being able to walk down the street and talking to our local school board chairman. I think this is painting with way too broad of a brush and trying to address a problem that isn't in Montana."

In the Senate, Daines said he and many of his GOP colleagues have made their criticisms of this new Department of Justice policy heard.

"You have seen some of the fireworks in hearings with Attorney General Garland."

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) recently called on attorney Garland to resign after Garland "mobilized the FBI to intimidate parents without legal basis." Hawley said Garland's actions were a "dangerous abuse of authority."

Daines said he believes Sen. Hawley "is expressing the frustration that so many Montanans have at the moment with this administration. This administration is incompetent. They are on a power trip. They are overreaching. This is something you would expect to come out of China, not the United States."

Tester had a few choice words for Hawley following the incident.

"First of all, Hawley is running for president," Tester said. "Keep that in mind. Everything he does is focused on 2024 when he is going to run for president. He has to figure out how to get good press every time he gets a chance to do it. I just think Hawley is trying to blow this up. I think there are other people out there in [Montana] who are trying to do the same thing."