A coalition of 22 Republican lawmakers on Tuesday demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland explain why the Department of Justice deployed the FBI to raid in SWAT style the home of a Catholic pro-life activist.
“We request an explanation for the excessive level of force used by the FBI in this case, and why the power of federal law enforcement was once again used against an American citizen in what should be a state and local matter,” the members of Congress wrote in the letter. “Please issue a written letter in response by Friday, September 30th, 2022.”
Last Friday, a team of at least 20 armed FBI agents showed up at pro-life advocate Mark Houck’s house in Bucks County, Pa., and started yelling at the family to open the door, according to his wife.
“The agents allegedly stated that they were going to break into the home if the door was not opened while pointing approximately five weapons at the husband, wife, and potentially children,” the legislators wrote.
The father was accused of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, LifeSiteNews first reported, stemming from an incident outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood clinic in October 2021, when he pushed a pro-abortion activist who his wife said was harassing his young son. Houck’s wife said the pro-abortion activist, Bruce Love, repeatedly used profanity and invaded the boy’s personal space.
Love pressed charges after the skirmish, but they were later dismissed by local authorities, the members of Congress noted. The DOJ resurrected the case nearly a year later, Houck’s wife said, and went after her husband.
“The FBI of course did not pick up those same charges. They picked up different ones,” Thomas More Society senior counsel Matt Heffron, one of Houck’s attorneys, told National Review.
Earlier Tuesday, Houck pleaded not guilty to two counts of violating the FACE Act, appearing in court for the first time since FBI agents stormed his house and escorted him away while his “screaming” children allegedly watched.
Houck had been released Friday on $10,000 bond and forbidden from protesting or sidewalk counseling outside the Philadelphia abortion clinic while the case proceeds. The federal charge carries a prison sentence of up to 11 years.
“Surely, the FBI must have an extraordinary reason for showing up at the home of an American family, allegedly with roughly 25 heavily armed federal agents, and arresting a father in front of his seven children,” the lawmakers said. “At the moment, it appears to be an extraordinary overreach for political ends.”