Grassley Statement at a Hearing on Nominations

 

Yesterday we all learned about a very disturbing development at the FBI. A whistleblower there disclosed a directive from the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division and its Counterterrorism Division creating a whole new threat tag about school boards and school officials that effectively targets concerned parents. That directive came out on October 20. Just a week later Attorney General Garland testified to this committee that his recent instruction to the FBI to get involved in local school matters was not about targeting parents as domestic terrorists. But we now see the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division is focused on school board matters. So, Attorney General Garland needs to come back and explain to us and the American people whether he misled us or that he doesn’t know what’s going on at his own department.

 

We have four judicial nominees today: one for the Western District of Washington and three for the Northern District of Ohio. We have a long-time federal prosecutor, a long-time federal public defender, and two judges here today.

 

I hope that these nominees will be willing and able to answer questions from this Committee. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a number of nominees who can’t or won’t answer questions that would’ve been answered by nominees of other administrations. I hope today’s conversation can be more productive.

 

To the four nominees, welcome to the Committee. And welcome to your families.