A new report from the Department of Justice accuses the Biden administration of unfairly targeting pro-life activists and lays out what it called a pattern of political bias inside the department.
The Law
As reported on Wednesday’s AM Update, the Trump DOJ released a new report outlining what it describes as the Biden DOJ’s weaponization of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against pro-life activists.
The FACE Act, passed in 1994, is designed to protect access to abortion clinics, pregnancy resource centers, and houses of worship – applying to both pro-choice and pro-life facilities. It may sound familiar because the DOJ recently charged Don Lemon and other protesters under the FACE Act after they stormed a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January.
Before its provision against disrupting a church service was in the news, it was chiefly known for its abortion clinic protections – a favorite of Democratic administrations wanting to target pro-life protesters. None more so than Joe Biden’s.
The Report
The DOJ report concluded that during the four years under President Biden, his DOJ charged more than 45 pro-life defendants in over 20 cases with violating the FACE Act in connection with pro-life demonstrations, a significant increase in FACE Act prosecutions compared to prior administrations.
The Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group, established by the former Attorney General Pam Bondi, compiled the report to examine whether law enforcement actions under the Biden administration were influenced by political bias.
The group reviewed more than 700,000 internal records, releasing a nearly 900-page document detailing several key findings, including that officials worked with pro-abortion groups to monitor pro-life activists’ First Amendment activity, prosecutors engaged in inappropriate conduct, and the department pursued harsher charges and sentences against pro-life defendants compared to pro-abortion ones.
According to the report, prosecutors sought an average sentence of 26.8 months for pro-life defendants, compared to 12.3 months for pro-abortion defendants. And the Biden DOJ relied on organizations including National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and Feminist Majority Foundation to “identify potential pro-life targets for investigation and build cases against them.”
The report found those groups not only flagged potential FACE Act violations, but also tracked the movements and activities of pro-life activists and shared updates with the DOJ and FBI. Many of those individuals later faced charges.
Then vs. Now
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche elaborated on the findings on Fox News Tuesday. “We saw internal emails, internal correspondence, which is now part of the report, where Department of Justice prosecutors are working hand in hand with NGOs and nonprofits to target and go after pro-life individuals who were not breaking the law,” he said.
Blanche said that is a marked difference from his own experience at the Justice Department. “And I’ll tell you what, there’s no emails… in my inbox from NGOs telling me what to do,” he added. “And it’s disappointing… Look, I hope the American people can see the work that we did over the past year, trying to understand what happened, but once they see it, I think folks will be frustrated.”
Shortly after taking office in January 2025, President Trump issued pardons to a number of pro-life activists prosecuted under the Biden Justice Department.
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