Early in the morning of September 23, 2022, pro-life activist Mark Houck was awakened by the nightmare of 25 armed FBI agents banging on his door. They held his family, including seven children, at gunpoint and took him into federal custody on charges he violated the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. On Monday, a jury in Pennsylvania found Houck not guilty of these charges.
Let me state at the outset that this arrest was an outrageous abuse of power by the DOJ. Its sole purpose was to intimidate Americans who stand up for the rights of the unborn, who believe in the sanctity of all life.
The issue stemmed from an incident in (2021) when an abortion activist, one Bruce Love, confronted Mr. Houck and his son while they were peacefully protesting outside an abortion clinic. Mr. Houck was having a conversation with a pregnant woman as they walked toward a pro-life center when Mr. Love began shouting at Houck and his son, aggressively in his face. When Mr. Love got in the face of Houck’s 12-year-old son and began calling him names, Houck shoved Mr. Love away.
Local police investigated the incident and decided that no legal action was necessary against Houck. In fact, under the federal statute, it is likely that Love not Houck was guilty of breaking the law.
The Merrick Garland DOJ decided to make an example of Houck. They filed what were clearly frivolous charges because Houck was standing up against the woke ideology of this administration. before they did this, the Thomas More Society attorneys contacted the DOJ.
In June 2022, Thomas More Society attorneys notified the Biden Department of Justice that the FACE Act does not cover one-on-one altercations like the one involving Houck, which was initiated by the abortion proponent who was harassing Houck’s son. The Department of Justice was also advised that if the decision was made to bring a charge against Houck despite lack of legal foundation, Houck would appear voluntarily.
“Rather than accepting Mark Houck’s offer to appear voluntarily, the Biden Department of Justice chose to make an unnecessary show of potentially deadly force, sending twenty heavily armed federal agents to the Houck residence at dawn this past Friday,” explained Breen. “In threatening form, after nearly breaking down the family’s front door, at least five agents pointed guns at Mark’s head and arrested him in front of his wife and seven young children, who were terrified that their husband and father would be shot dead before their eyes.”
Also from Houck’s attorney after his arrest:
Shortly after Houck’s arrest last fall, his attorney Peter Breen told Fox News Digital that his client’s arrest was an “outrageous abuse of power” from the Department of Justice that was intended to intimidate pro-life Americans.
“The message from the Biden Department of Justice is pure intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith,” said Breen, senior counsel of the Thomas More Society. “Why in the world would you send this phalanx of officers heavily armed to this family’s home, violate the sanctity of their home, frighten their children? Why would you do that, other than just to send a message?
This was a malicious prosecution from the get-go. Even the U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert himself raised the possibility that the case should never have been brought to trial. Pappert asked the prosecution Thursday whether the federal FACE Act didn’t “seem to be stretched a little thin here”.
The DOJ is no longer even pretending to be involved in an even-handed system of justice. They are gleefully indicting and attacking political defendants at will. The despicable case against Mark Houck is especially egregious and unjust because he was targeted due to his politics (anti-abortion) and his Christian faith. In general, Christianity is the feared enemy of the amoral leftists running our government.
One may burn pro-life counseling centers and defile Catholic Churches with impunity. No FBI agent will deign to even knock on your door. However, if you dare to oppose the murder of unborn children, the full weight of the federal government will be dropped on you. Just how immoral are these people?
In the never-ending battle of good vs evil, good won on Monday.
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