Sen. Hawley Presses AG Garland Over FBI Raid at Pro-Life Activist’s Home

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland over what he called “especially shocking” reports of the FBI’s raiding the Kintnersville, Pennsylvania home of Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck, according to a Sept. 26 open letter (pdf).

The Missouri senator wrote to Garland on Monday, accusing the attorney general of allegedly weaponizing federal agents against political opponents. It came after reports saying the FBI sent up to two dozen armed agents to arrest Houck in front of his family in the early morning last Friday, due to a local dispute a year prior. Houck’s wife Ryan-Marie told the online news portal LifeSite News that “the kids were all just screaming” as the agents arrested their father at gunpoint.

“Using this kind of force to make an arrest for a single charge of simple assault is unprecedented,” Hawley said in the letter. “Not only did your office turn a local dispute into a national case, but the FBI reportedly executed the search warrant in as extreme a manner as one can imagine.”

“The reports are especially shocking given that your office has so far turned a blind eye to the epidemic of violence across the country by pro-abortion extremists against pregnancy resource centers, houses of worship, and pro-life Americans—violent acts that are prohibited by the very same law under which you are charging Mark Houck,” the senator continued in his two-page letter.

The Justice Department alleges that Houck twice assaulted an abortion clinic escort in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, commonly known as the FACE Act. Houck said it was to protect his 12-year-old son against the man, who had verbally insulted the Houcks, both of whom were then praying outside the Philadelphia clinic. The incident took place in October of last year.

Attorneys for Houck

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