Mark Houck, the pro-life activist and father of seven who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/acquitted-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-tells-congress-fbi-raided-his-home-to-instill-fear-in-pro-life-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prosecuted by the Biden administration</a> over an alleged confrontation outside of an abortion clinic, announced this week that he is running for Congress. 
Houck, who was acquitted earlier this year after facing 11 years in prison for allegedly violating the FACE Act, a federal crime making it illegal to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone due to their status as an abortion provider, is challenging incumbent Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the Republican primary for Pennsylvania&#8217;s 1st Congressional District. 
“I have seen first-hand what an out of control government can do to its citizens. I will fight to protect all people and their rights under God &amp; our Constitution. My platform is based on common sense,” Houck <a href="https://houckforcongress.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> on his campaign website. 
Houck, who leads a nonprofit group that provides sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics in Philadelphia, was prosecuted over an incident involving his then-12-year-old son at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
“I am running for Congress to further protect my family, those in the 1st district &amp; the Republic. I will focus on restoring traditional values &amp; principles that are central to the American identity, such as faith, family, &amp; freedom of speech, religion, &amp; the right to bear arms,” Houck says. 
Issues highlighted on Houck’s website include support of limited government and a strong military that is not “a social experimentation program.” 
Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor, has been the district&#8217;s representative since 2019 and heads up the House subcommittee on national intelligence. The district covers an area just north of Philadelphia, including Bucks County. 
“I’ve known the Fitzpatrick family for a long time. I have the highest respect for the Fitzpatrick family. I honor his service to our country, but the time has come, I think, for a change in our district,” Houck <a href="https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/mark-houck-announces-run-for-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Church Militant website. 
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During and after his prosecution, Republican lawmakers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/acquitted-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-tells-congress-fbi-raided-his-home-to-instill-fear-in-pro-life-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised concerns</a> over the aggressive approach federal authorities took in Houck’s case. In September 2022, FBI agents in 15 vehicles raided Houck&#8217;s residence, quickly surrounded the house, and began pounding on the door, demanding his family open up, his wife Ryan-Marie Houck <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253366/pro-life-advocate-mark-houck-who-was-arrested-in-fbi-raid-to-stand-trial-next-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the Catholic News Agency</a>. 

He told House lawmakers in May that he believes the FBI raided his home to “humiliate me, to scare my children, and to instill fear in pro-life America.”
“My children were downrange of many guns, and they screamed through the whole process,” Houck said. “The committee should know that they were traumatized.”

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Pro-Life Activist Prosecuted By Biden Administration Running For Congress

Abortion

Congress

Mark Houck

Pennsylvania

Pro-Life Movement

See if this story sounds familiar. A charismatic populist runs for president. He promises to end corruption, close tax loopholes for the rich, and prioritize his own people over foreign interests. Contrary to all expectations, this insurgent candidate performs well in the election. That terrifies the establishment, so they pursue a series of criminal charges against him. First, they accuse him of rape. Then, when he&#8217;s acquitted, they charge him again — this time, with the crime of &#8220;fomenting an insurrection.&#8221; They say he led an illegal &#8220;freedom caravan&#8221; to a protest in the capital. Mass demonstrations break out because people recognize what&#8217;s happening: The government prosecutors who are claiming to fight &#8220;election interference&#8221; are in fact the ones engaging in it. It&#8217;s what banana republics do. They jail their opponents when they can&#8217;t beat them.
The situation I just described is unfolding right now in the West African nation of Senegal. The government in that country is eager to throw an opposition leader, someone named Ousmane Sonko, in prison. He <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/30/protests-erupt-after-allegations-of-senegalese-leaders-detention" target="_blank" rel="noopener">organized</a> a mass protest in Senegal&#8217;s capital of Dakar, but it was quickly shut down, and now the government is seeking to disqualify him from office by bombarding him with criminal charges. If you read press reports, you&#8217;ll find that most of the Western media claims to be disturbed by all this. &#8220;Senegal authorities arrest opposition frontrunner,&#8221; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/01/senegal-authorities-arrest-opposition-frontrunner-ban-his-party-and-cut-internet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> the Guardian. Human Rights Watch <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/01/senegalese-government-dissolves-opposition-party-cuts-internet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the developments an &#8220;assault on democracy ahead of elections.&#8221; NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/26/1166114329/in-senegal-the-government-is-cracking-down-on-human-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complained</a>, &#8220;In Senegal, the government is cracking down on human rights.&#8221; They&#8217;re doing that, NPR explained, by criminalizing political dissent, which NPR insists is a very bad thing to do.
Do they really believe that? Does anyone in the media or any of these NGO&#8217;s really believe that? 
Let&#8217;s see. As you&#8217;ve heard by now, yesterday, the DOJ again indicted the leading political opponent of the conspicuously wealthy career politician who runs the DOJ, Joe Biden. This is the third indictment that&#8217;s been brought against Donald Trump this year, and the second that&#8217;s been brought by Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ. And yet, curiously enough, of the human rights defenders in the media — none of those reporters who wept for Senegal — were concerned by this latest development. In fact, they celebrated it. &#8220;Trump charged with 4 felony counts for attempt to overturn the 2020 election,&#8221; wrote NPR. You can imagine the gloating on at MSNBC. We&#8217;ll spare you.
So, Senegal can&#8217;t arrest its opposition leaders, but Joe Biden can. Why is that? That&#8217;s an important question. In fact, it may be the only question that matters. The media&#8217;s justification for these indictments is that Donald Trump is just a really bad guy. He&#8217;s so evil, so dangerous, and so orange that he must be kept out of office at all costs — even if it means the total destruction of those &#8220;democratic norms&#8221; that the Left once pretended to care about. 
If all those claims about Trump were true, you&#8217;d think the indictment against Donald Trump would be convincing, thorough, and unimpeachable. You&#8217;d expect that the indictment would be premised on a reasonable application of a law, with airtight precedent backing it up. But that&#8217;s not what we have here. What we have is somehow even flimsier than the indictment out of New York — the one that accused Trump of committing multiple felonies because his accountants made a bookkeeping error seven years ago. 
Essentially, the latest indictment from Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ accuses Donald Trump of lying about election fraud — which isn&#8217;t illegal, as the indictment itself admits. The document goes on to say that Donald Trump didn&#8217;t really believe the election was stolen, because other officials told him it wasn&#8217;t stolen, so therefore he must be lying. 
The indictment then suggests that Trump somehow broke the law by using various levers of government power to contest the election results, on the advice of his attorneys. This &#8220;legal theory&#8221; — if you can call it that — criminalizes political speech. There&#8217;s no way around that. It justifies locking up Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi for lying about Russian collusion for four years, and pursuing investigations and impeachments based on their fraud. It justifies imprisoning every Democratic Party lawmaker — and there have been a lot of them — who ever objected to the certification of election results. It justifies throwing all those Democrats in jail who tried to seat alternative slates of electors both times George W. Bush took office. It justifies imprisoning Stacey Abrams, who still pretends to the rightful governor of Georgia. 
But the really incredible thing about this indictment is that it justifies jailing Trump — even if you concede he was right about election fraud in the 2020 election. The premise of all of the charges against Trump is that it&#8217;s illegal for the president to reject the electors that are submitted to Congress, under any circumstances. So the DOJ isn&#8217;t just objecting to Donald Trump&#8217;s claims about the voting machines. They&#8217;re not just denying his argument that, with COVID as a pretense, Democrats perverted the entire system of elections in this country, to such a degree that Joe Biden — a senile old man who campaigned from his basement — somehow received 10 million more votes than Barack Obama. The DOJ is saying that, even if Donald Trump was right about everything, and the 2020 election was rigged, then he still has no right, as president, to do anything about it. Which is pretty shocking, or at least it would be if we weren’t already so used to this level of corruption.
That might be why, in announcing the charges, the special counsel, Jack Smith, didn&#8217;t talk about the specifics of his indictment at all. Instead he talked about all the brave officers at the Capitol on January 6th, even though Trump isn&#8217;t accused, in any way, of causing those officers harm, or of inciting violence against them:
<a href="https://twitter.com/JoinTheUnionCA/status/1686517476472078337?s=20">https://twitter.com/JoinTheUnionCA/status/1686517476472078337?s=20</a>
What are we watching here? Three things. First, we have once again the grotesque charade of Democrats pretending to care about the well being of police officers. These are the same people who cheered as rabid mobs bashed cops over the head with bricks and set police stations on fire. For another thing, this is an awfully convenient political distraction for the government. Just a day before Trump was indicted, a business partner of Hunter Biden testified that Joe Biden was on the phone with Hunter while his son was peddling his father&#8217;s influence, while he was vice president. And the defense from the Biden team and the Democratic Party is that Joe Biden was just on the calls to talk about the weather. Which, as we discussed yesterday, wouldn’t absolve Joe Biden of the influence-peddling accusation even if it were true that he only talked about the weather. This is how influence-peddling works. It doesn’t matter what Joe Biden says to Hunter Biden’s business associates. The point is to make the connection.
The major networks and newspapers barely covered that story. And they didn&#8217;t need to, because the very next day, it was all out of the news cycle entirely because of this new indictment. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1196-our-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues-member-exclusive">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a>
We&#8217;ve seen this pattern play out before. Earlier this summer, Congress received whistleblower documents from the FBI alleging that the Bidens took a multi-million-dollar bribe from that Ukrainian oil company that was paying Hunter Biden. Shortly afterwards, Jack Smith indicted Trump for storing &#8220;classified documents&#8221; in his home — the same thing that Mike Pence and Joe Biden have admitted to doing.
Then, on July 26th, Hunter Biden&#8217;s plea deal blew up in court, after the judge noticed that no plea deal of its kind had ever been agreed to in the history of the United States. That was embarrassing to the DOJ and to the Bidens. The very next day, on July 27th, Jack Smith charged Donald Trump with more crimes. He even charged Trump&#8217;s maintenance guy at Mar-a-Lago.
You can choose to believe these are all coincidences. What you can&#8217;t deny is that what we&#8217;re seeing has implications that will long outlive Donald Trump and his political career. We are witnessing the criminalization of all political dissent, for all Americans, no matter how powerful or well-off they may be — or may not be.
Consider that one of the federal statutes that the DOJ now accuses Donald Trump of violating, 18 U.S.C. 241, is the very same law that was used to throw Douglass Mackey in prison. 18 U.S.C. 241 is the law that prohibits people from engaging in a conspiracy against the rights of Americans. Specifically, the statute makes it illegal for, &#8220;two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person&#8221; so that they can&#8217;t exercise their constitutional rights. The point of that law, when it was originally passed in the 19th century, was to prevent the KKK (and state officials) from interfering with the right of black Americans to vote.
What did Douglass Mackey do to violate 18 U.S.C. 241, all these years later? He posted some memes on social media that made fun of Hillary Clinton voters. One of his memes told his followers to text a fake number to vote, instead of showing up to the polls. It was an obvious joke. At least one major Left-wing account, run by a woman named Kristina Wong, created a similar meme mocking Trump supporters. &#8220;Hey, Trump supporters,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Skip poll lines and text in your vote.&#8221;
Kristina Wong was never charged because she has the right politics. Douglass Mackey was charged, though and unlike Donald Trump, Douglass Mackey is not wealthy. He wasn&#8217;t famous. He had just 58,000 Twitter followers when the FBI decided to arrest him. He&#8217;s facing 10 years in prison, after a scam prosecution. The prosecution <a href="https://www.karlstack.com/p/twitter-poster-railroaded-for-free" target="_blank" rel="noopener">withheld</a> evidence to make sure the jury convicted Mackey, including information about the key witness in the case. In the end they got what they wanted, which was a conviction that sent a message to every conservative in this country. And that message is simple: Cause enough of a problem for us, and you go to prison, whether you&#8217;re Donald Trump or a guy with 58,000 Twitter followers.
That&#8217;s also why Mark Houck faced a decade in jail, after Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ raided his home with a 25-member SWAT team. What was Mark Houck&#8217;s crime? Why did he deserve to have rifles pointed in his face, in front of his kids? He pushed a worker outside an abortion clinic who was harassing and endangering his 12-year-old son. No state or local prosecutor would take the case. But Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ pursued it, as though Mark Houck had personally set the abortion clinic on fire. Meanwhile, some pro-life pregnancy centers actually did get firebombed. But Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ did nothing about that. In one case, last summer, the CompassCare Pregnancy Services Center in Buffalo was torched. The FBI responded to that blaze by seizing surveillance footage from the center, and <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/compasscare-lawsuit-surveillance-footage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refusing to return it</a> for six months.
This was all happening, right out in the open, a long time before Donald Trump&#8217;s third indictment yesterday. And there were many more examples. Republicans watched as Joe Biden purged the military of wrong-think. They did nothing as he sent grandmothers with cancer to prison for the crime of walking around the Capitol building. They went on TV for meaningless 3-minute hits as the FBI rounded up Donald Trump&#8217;s aides, one by one, in parking lots and fast food drive-thrus.
Try asking someone from Senegal when, precisely, their democracy failed. Ask them when exactly their system of &#8220;representative government&#8221; became a global laughingstock. You could pose the same question to someone from say, Venezuela, or any number of countries that have devolved into tinpot dictatorships in just a few years. Odds are you&#8217;ll never get a precise answer. There will be no singular prosecution that they&#8217;ll point to. Instead they&#8217;ll point to systemic failures like complacency, corruption, and incompetence from people who were supposed to keep their system of government intact.
Where have we seen that lately? Just a few days ago, the 81-year-old leader of the Republican Party in the Senate was incapable of finishing a press conference. He just began staring blankly ahead, for reasons that remain unexplained. That&#8217;s the state of the opposition that Joe Biden faces right now. Biden, who is practically catatonic. His opposition, somehow, is even more useless. He and his handlers know it. And they&#8217;re taking full advantage of the opportunity. If all they get in return are more harshly worded letters from Republican lawmakers, then pretty soon, we won&#8217;t have to ask Venezuelans, or people from Senegal, how it&#8217;s possible for a democracy to fail so quickly. We&#8217;ll know the answer firsthand.

Matt Walsh 1

Our Descent Into A Banana Republic Continues

Donald Trump

Indictment

Joe Biden

Matt Walsh

Readers Pass

This article is adapted from today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Illegal Aliens In New York Spark School Protests
Across the country, states and cities are dealing with an influx of thousands of illegal immigrants who have entered the country in recent weeks. On Tuesday morning, in Williamsburg, a neighborhood of New York City, students and parents protested both in favor of and against the use of a local school’s gymnasium to house the migrants. Children could be seen holding signs saying, “We need recess!” and chanting.
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Outside PS 17 in Williamsburg, kids chant, “we support asylum seekers but not on school grounds.” <a href="https://t.co/35iFNRuxIw">pic.twitter.com/35iFNRuxIw</a>
&mdash; Gwynne Hogan (@GwynneFitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/GwynneFitz/status/1658443721535307778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2023</a></blockquote>
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There are roughly 150 temporary shelters being used across the Big Apple for the more than 40,000 illegal aliens who have come to the city under Biden. Many parents feel it poses a safety risk.
https://twitter.com/GwynneFitz/status/1658460535246012417?s=20
In the last week alone, 4,000 individuals have <a href="https://www.fox5ny.com/news/nyc-migrant-crisis-williamsburg-rally-public-school-gyms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrived</a> from the southern border, and the city says it has simply nowhere else to place them.
Mark Houck Testifies Before Congress
Mark Houck, the Catholic father of 7 — whose house was raided by the FBI back in September — spoke before the House Judiciary Committee today on Capitol Hill. Houck recounted what’s happened to him over the past several months, including the charges he faced from the Department of Justice for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, and the FBI raid on his house.
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🚨🚨 Mark Houck, the Catholic father of 7 targeted by the DOJ, speaks to members of the House Judiciary Committee here on Capitol Hill. 
&quot;On September 23, my home was raided&#8230; I had 5 federal agents on my doorstep at 6:30 in the morning with long guns pointed at me and my seven… <a href="https://t.co/HOALiQMpgx">pic.twitter.com/HOALiQMpgx</a>
&mdash; Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1658487775182868486?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2023</a></blockquote>
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This all stems from a 2021 incident outside a Pennsylvania abortion clinic in which Houck shoved a planned parenthood escort who was allegedly harassing both Houck and his son.
IRS Whistleblower’s Team Getting Kicked From Hunter Biden Probe, Lawyers Say
The IRS <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irs-whistleblowers-team-getting-kicked-from-hunter-biden-probe-lawyers-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agent</a> who alleges the criminal investigation into <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hunter-biden">Hunter Biden</a> has been corrupted by lies and politics is being pulled from the inquiry in a possible act of retaliation. 
The attorneys informed Congress on Monday that their whistleblower client was told that “he and his entire investigative team” were pulled from the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances. They said that this change allegedly came at the request of the Department of Justice. Attorneys Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt called the move “clearly retaliatory and may also constitute obstruction of a congressional inquiry.”
ChatGPT CEO Warns About AI
The CEO of OpenAI, the parent company of popular online artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, testified before the Senate today that heavy regulation of AI is needed in order to ensure safety. Sam Altman is just the latest tech guru calling for government intervention before it’s too late.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (<a href="https://twitter.com/sama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sama</a>) on A.I.: “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
 <a href="https://t.co/AzyeMXHspz">pic.twitter.com/AzyeMXHspz</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1658496315192487936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Netflix Series Helps Locate Abducted Girl?
A young girl from Illinois whose abduction was featured on the Netflix true-crime series &#8220;Unsolved Mysteries&#8221; has been found alive and safe in North Carolina. Kayla Unbehaun was just nine years old when her mother — who did not have custody of her — <a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/abducted-kayla-unbehaun-heather-mother-arrested-netflix-unsolved-mysteries-found-safe-asheville-north-carolina" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allegedly took her</a> and went on the run back in July 2017. Neither Kayla nor her mother, Heather Unbehaun, had been seen until this past Saturday when an employee at an Ashville clothing store recognized the two from “well-publicized media.”
76th Cannes Film Festival
The 76th Cannes film festival <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/cannes_film_festival/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began</a> today in the south of France, with stars like Brie Larson, Uma Thurman, Elle Fanning, and Helen Mirren walking the red carpet. The festival also marks Johnny Depp&#8217;s return to the Hollywood fold after his much-publicized court battle with ex-wife Amber Heard.
To listen to the audio version of this podcast, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morning-wire/id1576594336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a>. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

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Tuesday Afternoon Update: Illegal Aliens In New York Spark School Protests, ChatGPT CEO Warns About AI, IRS Makes Odd Move In Hunter Biden Case

Artificial Intelligence

Enterainment

General

Hunter Biden

Illegal Immigration

Morning Wire

Netflix

New York

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Acquitted Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck, in front of House Judiciary members on Tuesday, revisited the moment when federal and state law enforcement authorities raided his home with guns last year on accusations he blocked others from entering an abortion clinic.
&#8220;My home was raided by ten unmarked units, state troopers, federal law enforcement personnel,&#8221; Houck told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-PrwnZaz24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hearing</a>. &#8220;I had five federal agents on my doorstep at 6:30 in the morning, with long guns pointed at me and my seven children.&#8221;
Houck, who leads a nonprofit group that counsels women outside of abortion clinics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, testified in front of the subcommittee members during a hearing to revisit the implications of the FACE Act — a federal law prohibiting people from blocking others from entering an abortion clinic — and examine recent attacks on pregnancy centers, pro-life facilities, and the Biden Administration&#8217;s use of the federal statute.
Houck was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mark-houck-catholic-pro-life-activist-facing-11-years-in-prison-acquitted-at-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted</a> in January after federal authorities threatened him with 11 years in prison for allegedly violating the FACE Act, a federal crime making it illegal to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone due to their status as a reproductive health care provider. Months before a jury acquitted the pro-life activist, FBI agents in 15 vehicles raided his residence, quickly surrounded the house, and began pounding on the door, demanding they open up.
He told subcommittee members that he believes the FBI raided his home to &#8220;humiliate me, to scare my children, and to instill fear in pro-life America.&#8221;
&#8220;My children were downrange of many guns, and they screamed through the whole process,&#8221; Houck said. &#8220;The committee should know that they were traumatized.&#8221;
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) echoed Houck&#8217;s remarks, saying he believes federal law enforcement authorities targeted him for his pro-life position and threatened to limit funding for the FBI.
&#8220;So if you&#8217;re pro-family, pro-life, and you want a border, you&#8217;re a target — and your family fit all of them,&#8221; Jordan told Houck. &#8220;You&#8217;re a pro-life, pro-family Catholic, for goodness&#8217; sake — they&#8217;re going to come after you. You&#8217;ve got seven kids. You&#8217;re not allowed to have seven kids today, you know, we&#8217;re trying to save the planet. You can&#8217;t do that in America today.&#8221;
&#8220;You were the example,&#8221; Jordan added. &#8220;That is how pervasive this political attitude is at the highest levels of our agencies.&#8221;
A spokesperson with the Philadelphia office of the FBI previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-details-in-the-biden-doj-targeting-of-pro-life-activist-father-of-seven-mark-houck" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> SWAT was not involved with the arrest of Houck.
&#8220;There are inaccurate claims being made regarding the arrest of Mark Houck, a spokesperson told Fox News. &#8220;No SWAT Team or SWAT operators were involved. FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck&#8217;s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents, and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an indictment.&#8221;
Notably, a senior FBI source told Fox News that 15-20 agents at the scene might have come to the family&#8217;s door with guns out. However, the source claimed authorities never pointed the guns at Houck or his family.
Chairman Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he believes that the Biden administration has displayed &#8220;a clear double standard&#8221; of enforcing the FACE Act in a way that protects pro-abortion activists and facilities while substantially ignoring attacks on pro-life advocates, facilities, and churches.
&#8220;It is a disgrace the Justice Department would rather cater to the pro-abortion political movement than protect places that assist pregnant women in need,&#8221; Johnson said.
Talcott Camp, the chief legal and strategy officer of the National Abortion Federation, <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/camp-testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the subcommittee, the number of death threats or threats of harm rose from 182 to 218; stalkings rose 229% from 28 to 92; burglaries rose 231%; and four clinics suffered arsons since draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in early May 2022 and the subsequent proliferation of state abortion bans.
Since the historic ruling first made headlines last summer, CatholicVote <a href="https://catholicvote.org/pregnancy-center-attack-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> at least 87 pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups have been attacked and vandalized.
Arielle Del Turco, director for the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/del_turco_testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Congress</a> that 420 incidents occurred in 45 states and Washington, D.C. between January 2018 and September 2022, including 342 occurrences of vandalism, 58 arson attacks or attempts, 12 gun-related incidents, 11 bomb threats, and 19 other incidences involving assault, threats, interruption of worship services.
In April, the center reported an additional 54 incidents in the final months of 2022 and 69 in the first quarter of 2023.

Acquitted Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck Tells Congress FBI Raided His Home ‘To Instill Fear In Pro-Life America’

Acquitted Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck Tells Congress FBI Raided His Home 'To Instill Fear In Pro-Life America'

Biden Administration

Pro-Abortion

The Biden Justice Department will recommend zero jail time as part of a plea agreement for a trans-identifying male who allegedly vandalized a Catholic church and assaulted a church worker.
Maeve Nota, 31, a biological man who identifies as a woman, admitted to spraying-painting profane graffiti on the walls of St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue, Washington, state last June, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-doj-recommends-no-jail-time-for-trans-vandal-of-catholic-church-f-catholics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Nota also admitted to assaulting a church worker, destroying a statue of Mary, and resisting arrest. As part of the plea deal, Nota will receive three years of probation at the June 2 sentencing, the outlet noted.
The Justice Department had charged Nota with destruction of religious property, a misdemeanor punishable by one year in prison and $100,000 in fines.
Nota was allegedly <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10970171/Man-31-smashes-door-Catholic-church-sprays-graffiti-walls-Roe-v-Wade.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recorded</a> by security cameras smashing a door with a rock and throwing broken glass into the building. A woman who was praying inside attempted to talk to the suspect, but she eventually became fearful and locked herself inside the building.
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CHURCH RAMPAGE UPDATE: Prosecutor&#39;s officially charged 31 year old Maeve Jacqueline Nota with a hate crime and assault in 4th degree, after she allegedly trashed St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue. Prosecutors asked for $25K bail. Nota will be back in court later this month. <a href="https://t.co/yVGtAxO4bF">pic.twitter.com/yVGtAxO4bF</a>
&mdash; Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/choeshow/status/1543031709507039232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;F*** Catholics,&#8221; &#8220;religion of hate,&#8221; &#8220;go to your fake hell,&#8221; &#8220;groomers,&#8221; &#8220;rapists,&#8221; &#8220;woman haters,&#8221; and &#8220;liars&#8221; were some of the messages graffitied on the church, according to pictures posted on social media.
Nota also spray-painted a church employee&#8217;s face, according to authorities. Police said that when they arrived Nota appeared intoxicated and smashed a backpack full of spray paint cans into the police car before the arrest.
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Investigators said Nota was angry that the Supreme had overturned the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade, which occurred less than a week before the incident.
Critics argued that Nota was receiving lenient treatment compared to pro-life Christians who have been prosecuted for altercations outside of abortion clinics.
Mark Houck, a Catholic pro-life activist and father of seven, was arrested by heavily armed FBI agents in September on charges of assaulting an abortion clinic escort who Houck said got in his 12-year-old son&#8217;s personal space and yelled at the child.
Houck was charged with violating the FACE Act, which prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”
Houck faced 11 years in prison after the DOJ went after him, but a jury <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mark-houck-catholic-pro-life-activist-facing-11-years-in-prison-acquitted-at-trial">acquitted</a> him in January. Houck was offered a plea deal as well, but he chose to plead not guilty. Houck <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253523/acquitted-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-reveals-details-of-fbi-raid-will-press-charges">said</a> he would have received a &#8220;slap on the wrist&#8221; if he had pleaded guilty.
&#8220;It is very clear that the Biden Justice Department has politicized and weaponized the FACE Act to go after pro-life Christians praying outside of abortion clinics like Mark Houck while turning a blind eye to violent felons terrorizing and badly damaging Catholic churches like Maeve Nota,&#8221; Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, told Fox News.
&#8220;The Biden Justice Department tried to put Houck in prison for 11 years for defending his son while recommending no jail time for Nota after this deranged trans terrorist badly damaged a Catholic church, fought with the police, assaulted a church employee, and scared the hell out of a little old lady praying,&#8221; Davis said.

US-JUSTICE-POLITICS-COMPUTERS

‘F*** Catholics’: Biden DOJ To Recommend Zero Jail Time For Trans Suspect Who Allegedly Vandalized Catholic Church

Biden DOJ Recommends Zero Jail Time For Trans Perp Who Vandalized Catholic Church

Biden

Crime

Department of Justice

Executive

Gender

Transgender

Missouri GOP Senator Josh Hawley grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland about the September 2022 arrest of pro-life activist Mark Houck by roughly 20 armed FBI agents at his Pennsylvania home in front of his children and wife.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/doj">Department of Justice</a> is targeting Houck, who leads a nonprofit group that provides sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics in Philadelphia, over a 2021 incident involving his then-12-year-old son at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. The family says Houck, who is now facing 11 years behind bars and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/pennsylvania-pro-life-activist-arrested-fbi-charged-assaulting-clinic-escort">fines</a> up to $350,000, was defending his son from a harassing pro-abortion activist.
“What in the world would possess the Department of Justice to send 20 or so heavily armed agents to this family’s home, violate the sanctity of that home, frighten the children and then drag their father away instead of allowing us to present him peacefully, which we had offered to do?” <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/pro-life-activist-mark-houck-pleads-not-guilty-federal-charges-fbi-arrest">said</a> one of Houck&#8217;s attorneys, Peter Breen.
“Why did the Justice Department do this?&#8221; Hawley fired at Garland. “Why did you send 20 to 30 SWAT-style agents and a SWAT-style team to this guy’s house when everybody else had declined to prosecute and he had offered to turn himself in?”
“Let’s take a look at these hardened criminals that your Justice Department sent these armed agents to go terrorize on that morning,” Hawley continued later, showing a picture of the Houck family. “Here they are; here they are at Mass. Here’s the seven children with Mr. Houck and his wife in this early morning. They were all at home. Mrs. Houck has said repeatedly the children were screaming; they feared for their lives.”
“What’s really interesting to me is this seems to directly contradict your own memorandum about the use of force at the Justice Department,” Hawley charged. “You say, ‘Officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively control an incident.’ Are you telling me that in your opinion as attorney general, it was objectively necessary to use 20 or 30 SWAT-style agents with long guns and ballistic shields for these people?”
“What I’m saying is that decisions about how to go about this were made on the ground by FBI agents,” Garland deflected.
“So you’re saying you don’t know?” Hawley snapped.
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“I’m saying what I just said —” Garland replied, as Hawley interjected, “Which is that you’re abdicating responsibility?”
“I’m not abdicating responsibility,” Garland declared.
“Then give me the answer,” Hawley demanded. “Do you think, in your opinion — you’re the Attorney General of the United States — you are in charge of the Justice Department, and yes, sir, you are responsible. So give me an answer.”
“The FBI does not agree with your description,&#8221; Garland deflected again.
“I’m not asking about the FBI,” Haley said heatedly. “You are the attorney general. Give me your answer. Do you think it was objectively reasonable, and they followed your guidelines, in sending 20 to 30 armed agents to terrorize these people: yes or no?”
“The facts I have, which are those presented by the FBI, are not consistent with your description,” Garland retorted.
“So you think it was reasonable,” Hawley concluded.
“I’m saying the facts are not as you describe,” Garland said.
“What, that the children weren’t there? That there weren’t long guns there? That there weren’t agents? What do you dispute? What’s the factual premise that you dispute?” Hawley pressed.
“The FBI said they don’t agree with your description of —” Garland stated.
“Be specific,” Hawley demanded. “They don’t agree with what?”
“Of how many agents &#8230; were there and what their roles were. They don’t agree,” Garland claimed.
“Apparently on your watch, this Justice Department is targeting Catholics, targeting people of faith specifically for their faith views. And Mr. Attorney General, I’ll just say to you: It’s a disgrace,” Hawley declared.
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Senator Josh Hawley takes AG Garland to task on the FBI arrest of pro-life advocate Mark Houck at his home in front of his family.
&quot;Are you telling me that in your opinion as Attorney General, it was objectively necessary to use 20 or 30 SWAT-style agents with long guns and… <a href="https://t.co/WfNFyu1bAb">pic.twitter.com/WfNFyu1bAb</a>
&mdash; Live Action News (@LiveActionNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/LiveActionNews/status/1631005345190674433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Amanda Prestigiacomo contributed to this article.
Related: <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/political-prosecution-pro-life-activist-mark-houck-fights-back-pleads-not-guilty-to-federal-charges-after-controversial-arrest/">‘Political Prosecution’: Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck Fights Back, Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Charges After Controversial Arrest</a>

Collage Maker-01-Mar-2023-03.50-PM

WATCH: Hawley Fiercely Grills Garland Over Arrest Of Mark Houck In Front Of His Children

WATCH: Hawley Grills Garland Over Arrest Of Mark Houck In Front Of His Children

Josh Hawley

Merrick Garland

Politics