In response to the FBI raid on a pro-life activist’s house, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) criticized Attorney General Merrick Garland and questioned whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) had a “anti-Catholic bias.”
“Our department defends all ideas and religions. At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Garland stated that it was not prejudiced towards any one faith.
Hawley then accused the DOJ of being a department that targets Catholics while ignoring violence in American communities.
Pennsylvania author and pro-life crusader Mark Houck was detained in front of his wife and seven children in September 2020 when a large number of FBI officers appeared on his lawn with long rifles and shields.
Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie, discussed the incident on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in 2020. “My entire front yard, you could barely see it, it was covered with at least 15 big trucks and cars. There were 20, 25, 30, men, women, completely in jackets with shields and helmets, and guns. They were behind cars. It was something I would never expect to see on my front lawn,” she remarked.
Merrick Garland has turned the DOJ into a political hit team for Joe Biden. There is no more impartial DOJ – the White House is using law enforcement to do its bidding pic.twitter.com/yCN7io4uM5
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 2, 2023
For allegedly shoving a 72-year-old man outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia in 2021, Houck was searched and detained. Houck said that the man had been intimidating his 12-year-old son.
Neither Houck nor the Philadelphia Police Department were charged. Yet, the DOJ was interested in Houck’s case.
According to the DOJ, Houck used force with the “intent to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone because that person provides reproductive health care,” in violation of the Freedom of Access Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act.
Garland avoided answering Hawley’s inquiries about whether he felt the FBI raid was “reasonable,” implying that Hawley had “exaggerated” the events. Hawley persisted pressing Garland for a response.
Garland eventually acknowledged that the FBI did not concur with Hawley’s account of how the arrest occurred.
Houck was cleared by a Pennsylvania jury in January 2023 of two different federal allegations that he had broken the FACE Act.
