As the Biden administration locked up elderly grandparents and devout Christians over peaceful pro-life protests, it partnered with a radical pro-abortion organization to prosecute pro-lifers, previously unreleased emails show.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department and FBI partnered with the National Abortion Federation for multiple investigations into pro-life protests and developed an “amazing relationship,” according to emails shared with The Daily Wire by the Functional Government Initiative. The watchdog group told The Daily Wire that the emails show a “disturbing picture of DOJ’s eagerness to meet with pro-abortion lobbyists and activists and punish pro-life Americans” in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The revelation of the apparent partnership came in a message sent by National Abortion Federation Security Manager Robert Ledogar on January 9, 2023, to the Justice Department requesting a meeting with Kristen Clarke, then the Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. The National Abortion Federation is the professional association for abortionists.
In the email, Ledogar wrote that both the Justice Department and the FBI had partnered with the DOJ on multiple Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) cases. Biden’s crackdown on peaceful pro-life protests landed elderly grandparents, devout Christians, and other pro-life activists in federal prison.
“Over the past two (2) years that I have been with NAF Security, I have witnessed an amazing relationship with the [National Abortion Federation] Security Director Michelle Davidson and members of the DOJ Civil Rights Division AUSA Sanjay Patel, AUSA Katelyn Smith, AUSA Laura Cowall, and Supervisor AUSA Paige Fitzgerald,” Ledogar wrote.
Patel headed up the Justice Department’s “Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Providers,” and Cowall is the current deputy chief of the Civil Rights Division.
Email from Ledogar to DOJ/ Functional Government Initiative.
“The past year, NAF Security has been part of several FACE Act investigations, working with [assistant U.S. attorneys] and the FBI in TN, FL, VA, CA, NY, MD, and NC. The guidance from the team in DC has been nothing short of superb,” he added.
It is unclear which specific FACE Act investigations the National Abortion Federation was involved in, but at least two of the states referenced by Ledogar had major FACE Act prosecutions.
In Tennessee, six pro-lifers faced over 10 years in prison after they were convicted of violating the FACE Act and conspiring against rights. Three of the two pro-lifers were sentenced to prison over that case, which involved a group of Christians singing and praying inside the hallway of an office building outside an abortion facility. In New York, pro-life mother Bevelyn Williams and Catholic priest Fidelis Moscinski were sentenced to prison over FACE Act violations.
“It sounds like NAF and other abortion activists were trying to remove Lady Justice’s blindfold, and Kristen Clarke and Sanjay Patel were allowing it. Action must be taken,” Functional Government Initiative spokesman Roderick Law told The Daily Wire.
Earlier in the email, Ledogar wrote that the National Abortion Federation attended events like the March for Life, the annual event in Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands gather to urge the nation to protect the unborn, to “identify and witness the extremists that find the need to prevent reproductive health care.”
In response to Ledogar’s email, Clarke asked if the Justice Department’s Criminal Section had “any concerns” with her meeting with Ledogar. Then-Deputy Chief of the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s criminal section Robert Moossy replied, “CrimeSec has no concerns.”
The full extent of the partnership between the FBI, DOJ, and National Abortion Federation is not clear from the email. But Law told The Daily Wire that the emails revealed a troubling partnership between pro-abortion activists and the federal government.
“These emails reveal undue influence of abortion activists on federal law enforcement investigations, and violations of DOJ norms,” he said. “The Biden DOJ Civil Rights Division actions undertaken with outside influence appear to violate the civil rights of the Americans convicted under the FACE Act. “
The Trump Justice Department told The Daily Wire that it had “no comment on the actions of the previous administration.”
“Under the leadership of President Trump and Attorney General Bondi, this Department of Justice no longer weaponizes the use of the FACE Act to unfairly target crisis pregnancy centers, pro-life organizations, and churches,” a department spokesman said.
Pro-lifers arrested under Biden’s crackdown included defendants like 89-year-old communist concentration camp survivor Eva Edl and 75-year-old Massachusetts grandmother Paula Paulette Harlow. It also featured armed FBI raids of the rural Tennessee home of Paul Vaughn, a father of 11, and Mark Houck, a father of seven.
During his first week in office, Trump pardoned nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life activists, including several who were serving lengthy prison sentences. Trump called the prosecutions ridiculous.
The National Abortion Federation responded to the pardons by saying the move was “disturbing and concerning for the safety of abortion providers and their patients.”
The Trump administration also issued new guidance to prosecute the FACE Act only in cases of extreme violence or property damage. Historically, the FACE Act has primarily been used to go after pro-life individuals, even though it is technically supposed to protect crisis pregnancy centers as well.
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