A trio of GOP senators tore into Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department Wednesday for throwing the book at a Catholic pro-life activist while seeming to disregard attacks on crisis pregnancy centers.
“Why do you send two dozen agents in body armor to arrest a sidewalk counselor who happens to be pro-life, but you don’t devote resources to prosecute people who find themselves violently firebombing crisis pregnancy centers?” asked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “If you happen to’re a violent criminal and also you attack a crisis pregnancy center, that just isn’t a priority within the Biden Department of Justice.”
Cruz was referencing the case of Mark Houck — a Pennsylvania father of seven who was arrested at his home in September by a team of FBI agents and charged with two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Houck, 48, faced as much as 11 years in prison after he shoved a Planned Parenthood worker who verbally harassed his son to the bottom in October 2021.
The Catholic activist was apprehended by agents carrying long guns and slapped with the federal offenses — despite authorities like far-left Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner opting to not bring a neighborhood case. In February, a jury acquitted Houck of all charges.
In response to Cruz, Garland said he “didn’t know” in regards to the operation that led to Houck’s arrest and added: “The best way you’re describing it, my understanding is the FBI disagrees with that description.”
Lee told the attorney general the DOJ’s “use of force” against Houck didn’t appear “justifiable” before drawing attention to what he called a “disparity” within the department’s approach to abortion-related prosecutions.
“DOJ has announced charges against 34 individuals for blocking access to or vandalizing abortion clinics,” he said, while noting “there have been over 81 reported attacks on pregnancy centers and only two individuals have been charged.”
“How do you explain this disparity by reference to anything aside from politicization of what’s happening?” Lee asked.
In response, Garland lamely tried to clarify the discrepancy by claiming that pro-life activists commit violations “in the course of the daylight [and] seeing the person doing it is kind of easy.
“Those that are attacking the pregnancy resource centers, which is a horrid thing to do, are doing this at night, at midnight,” the AG added. “… These people who find themselves doing it are clever and are doing it in secret. I’m convinced that the FBI is trying to search out them with urgency.”
Hawley cited an internal FBI memo from the agency’s Richmond field office that urged investigations of “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology” before zeroing in on Garland’s neglect of violent crime.
“You’re targeting Catholics while concurrently turning a blind eye while individuals are executed gang-style within the streets,” said Hawley, apparently referring to a viral video on Tuesday that showed a St. Louis man nonchalantly pulling out a gun in broad daylight and shooting a homeless man at the back of the pinnacle.
“That may be a disgraceful performance by the Justice Department and a disgraceful use of resources,” Hawley added.
Garland described the Richmond FBI memo as “appalling” in response to the Missouri senator, but Hawley pressed the purpose by asking how the memo had come to be.
“I’ll let you know the way it happened,” he said. “This memorandum, which is purported to be intelligence, cites extensively the Southern Poverty Law Center, which fits on to discover all of those different Catholics as being a part of hate groups. Is that this how the FBI, under your direction and leadership, is that this how they do their intelligence work? They appear at left-wing advocacy groups to focus on Catholics? Is that this what’s occurring? I mean, clearly it’s. How is that this happening?”
“The FBI just isn’t targeting Catholics, and as I’ve said, that is an inappropriate memorandum and it doesn’t reflect the methods that the FBI is purported to be using. It shouldn’t be counting on any single organization without doing its own work.”
After Garland told Hawley he didn’t have a solution to a matter of what number of informants had been placed in Catholic churches, Hawley lashed out.
“You don’t know the specifics of anything, it seems,” the senator said. “But apparently, in your watch, this Justice Department is targeting Catholics, targeting people of religion specifically for his or her faith views. Mr. Attorney General, I’ll just say to you, it’s a disgrace.”