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Two prominent Republican House members wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland to demand that the Department of Justice preserve all documents related to its controversial school board memo.

Garland issued an Oct. 4, 2021, memo ordering the FBI to aid local officials with threats against school officials. That followed a National School Boards Association letter to President Joe Biden asking that he look into acts of "domestic terrorism" at school board meetings — a reference to angry parents complaining about issues such as mask mandates and critical race theory.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., ranking member on the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, wrote Garland in a letter obtained by The Epoch Times.

"Dear Attorney General Garland," the letter began, the outlet reported Thursday. "We are investigating the Biden Administration's misuse of federal criminal and counterterrorism resources to target concerned parents at school board meetings."

The letter indicates that Republicans plan to probe the issue if they regain a House majority in November's midterm elections.

Jordan and Johnson accused Garland of using the issue to "manufacture a pretext for the use of federal law-enforcement authorities against parents."

"The American people, however, deserve much more accountability and transparency," wrote the lawmakers, who added that previous letters and requests for information sent to Garland either have gone unanswered or resulted in inadequate replies.

"Parents voicing their concerns at school board meetings are not domestic terrorists," the lawmakers wrote. "Yet, your anti-parent directive remains in effect, and as a result, the threat of federal law enforcement continues to chill the First Amendment rights of American parents."

Jordan and Johnson asked for an answer by no later than Oct. 25.

They gave Garland notice "to preserve all existing and future records and materials in your possession relating to the topics addressed in this letter," and "to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that are or may be responsive to this congressional inquiry."

In December, Jordan called on the House Judiciary Committee to subpoena officials from the Biden administration and National School Boards Association.

"We are investigating the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to use the heavy hand of federal law enforcement — including federal counterterrorism tools — to target concerned parents at local school board meetings and chill their protected First Amendment activity," Jordan wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.