WATCH: Josh Hawley demands AG Garland resign for ‘weaponizing’ the DOJ against parents

"I'll leave it at this: General Garland, you have weaponized the FBI and the Department of Justice. Your US Attorneys are now collecting and cataloging all the ways that they might prosecute parents like Mr. Smith, because they want to be involved in their children's education and they want to have a say [...] It's wrong," said Hawley at the Wednesday hearing.

"It is unprecedented to my knowledge in the history of this country. And I call on you to resign," Hawley continued.

Shortly before calling for Garland's resignation, Hawley talked about Scott Smith, a Loudoun County father who attended a school board meeting after learning his daughter had been sexually assaulted in a Loudoun County Public Schools bathroom. Smith was arrested at that June 22 meeting by police, and dragged out of the room.

Garland was grilled by a number of Republican senators during Wednesday's session for his prompt response to a letter written by the National School Board Association to President Joe Biden urging for an investigation into threats of violence against school board members.

In that letter, the country's largest school board association used language that referred to parents speaking up at school board meetings as domestic terrorists, a comment they have since apologized for.