The Justice Department (DOJ) has failed to meet the deadline for handing over information that Attorney General Merrick Garland used as a basis for issuing his controversial memo requesting that the DOJ intervene in matters related to threats from parents directed toward school board officials, Fox News reported on Tuesday.
Garland had told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week during his testimony to them on the issue that the DOJ would do so.
Following the attorney general’s testimony, eight Republican committee members sent a letter addressed to Garland that same day requesting any information that led to the memo other than the letter sent to the Biden administration by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) calling for federal action, which has since be rescinded.
Garland had said that the NSBA letter influenced his decision-making, but he told the senators that it was not the only basis for the memo he sent out to the DOJ.
The attorney general told the Senate committee that other evidence, including "public reports of violence and threats of violence," also contributed to his decision to send out the memo, but he did not specify which ones, according to Fox News.
The Republican senators said they specifically chose Nov. 1 as the deadline for their request, because it was exactly five days after the hearing.
"Because you were able to distill your evidence and craft a memo that fixed the gaze of the FBI directly on concerned parents across this country in just four days, you should be able to share that evidence with us in the same period of time," the letter from the Republican senators said.
The DOJ did not immediately respond when Fox News asked it for an explanation as to why the deadline was missed.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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