I love “Community Notes,” Twitter’s crowdsourced fact-checking and context-adding feature that has repeatedly busted politicians in their false or misleading claims. On Thursday, they were at it again, nailing FBI Director Chris Wray, whose agency tweeted Thursday that “The FBI is not and has never been in the business of policing or investigating speech by parents at school board meetings…”
Community Notes begs to differ, and they added a little “context” to Wray’s claim: “The FBI’s statement is misleading. On May 18, 2023, former FBI agent Steve Friend testified before the House Judiciary Committee that he and others were directed to surveil and document parents attending school board meetings.”
But Notes isn’t just making wild claims–they helpfully provide a link to a C-SPAN video showing suspended FBI agent Steve Friend testifying in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in May. During his testimony, he testified that the bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force did indeed conduct surveillance of school boards. On Thursday, he flat-out called Wray a liar:
Friend believes he was suspended by the FBI in a retaliatory move because he was a whistleblower. My colleague Nick Arama reported on it in May:
Among the people alleging retaliation are Steve Friend, a former special agent who said he was suspended after making disclosures about how they were manipulating Domestic Violence Extremism cases and how they were handling related to Jan. 6. He also had his security clearance revoked this month. He said they didn’t adhere to FBI practice and created a “false impression” of the danger from such extremism.
That false impression is completely in line with what Joe Biden is always pushing about domestic extremism and trying to hype up the “evil MAGA extremists.”
Wray’s claim that the FBI never investigated or surveilled school boards also flies in the face of the evidence, namely, Attorney General Merrick Garland’s infamous school board memo, which was written in cahoots with the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Garland said:
“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” Garland wrote in a memo to federal prosecutors as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values.
“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,” the AG added.
The DOJ didn’t like that parents across the county were upset about such things as overly sexual material being taught in schools, mask mandates, and Critical Race Theory (CRT)–and let their local school boards know it. Despite the NSBA and DOJ’s insistence that terrifying violence was occurring regularly at school board meetings, I can find few, if any, serious episodes that involved more than a punch or two being thrown (which should have been the purview of local law enforcement). Most incidents involved parents trying to speak to boards and getting shut down.
Arguably the most serious violent incident occurred when Antifa showed up to confront parents in Glendale, California, who were sick of all the Pride month propaganda being thrown at their children. And that didn’t even happen inside the board room; the fighting broke out outside. Is the FBI investigating Antifa? It certainly doesn’t seem to be one of their priorities.
Meanwhile, as RedState‘s Jennifer Oliver O’Connell reported Thursday afternoon, Wray spent his Wednesday getting interrogated over his targeting of parents by California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley:
(Read: Congressman Kiley Holds Christopher Wray’s Feet to the Fire on the DOJ Targeting of Parents)
The various House committees are slowly, in drip-drip fashion, revealing just how politicized this DOJ is, and it’s nice to see them get a little assist from Community Notes.
See also–>
Twitter’s Community Notes Wrecks Teachers Union Boss Randi Weingarten–Again