GOPers blast AG Garland, say DOJ ‘targeting people of faith’
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 ignore 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 are violently firebombing crisis pregnancy centers?” asked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “If you’re a violent criminal and you attack a crisis pregnancy center, that is not a priority in 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 up to 11 years in prison after he shoved a Planned Parenthood employee who verbally harassed his son to the ground 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 not to bring a local case. In February, a jury acquitted Houck of all charges.
In response to Cruz, Garland said he “did not know” about the operation that led to Houck’s arrest and added: “The way you are 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” in 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 other than politicization of what’s happening?” Lee asked.
In response, Garland lamely tried to explain the discrepancy by claiming that pro-life activists commit violations “during the daylight [and] seeing the person doing it is quite easy.
“Those who are attacking the pregnancy resource centers, which is a horrid thing to do, are doing this at night, in the dark,” the AG added. “… These people who are doing it are clever and are doing it in secret. I am convinced that the FBI is trying to find 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 simultaneously turning a blind eye while people are executed gang-style in 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 in the back of the head.
“That is 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 point by asking how the memo had come to be.
“I’ll tell you how it happened,” he said. “This memorandum, which is supposed to be intelligence, cites extensively the Southern Poverty Law Center, which goes on to identify all of these different Catholics as being part of hate groups. Is this how the FBI, under your direction and leadership, is this how they do their intelligence work? They look at left-wing advocacy groups to target Catholics? Is this what’s going on? I mean, clearly it is. How is this happening?”
“The FBI is not targeting Catholics, and as I’ve said, this is an inappropriate memorandum and it doesn’t reflect the methods that the FBI is supposed to be using. It should not be relying on any single organization without doing its own work.”
After Garland told Hawley he didn’t have an answer to a question of how many 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, on your watch, this Justice Department is targeting Catholics, targeting people of faith specifically for their faith views. Mr. Attorney General, I’ll just say to you, it’s a disgrace.”
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