The Biden administration “weaponized” enforcement of the FACE Act to infringe the rights of pro-life activists by creating a dragnet with pro-abortion groups to squash protests and target prosecutions and doling out more harsh prison sentences to violators who opposed abortion than those who supported it, the Justice Department declared Tuesday after a sweeping review.”The Biden DOJ violated the rights of Americans through its biased enforcement of the FACE Act,” the Justice Department said. “Though the Act was supposed to protect both pro-choice and pro-life facilities, the Biden DOJ provided extensive support to abortion clinics, while ignoring and downplaying vandalism and attacks against pregnancy resource centers.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche ordered several corrective actions after reviewing the findings of the Weaponization Working Group.
“This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” Blanche said. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”
The report concluded that:
The Biden DOJ closely collaborated in with pro-abortion groups like the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and Feminist Majority Foundation to track pro-life activists’ First Amendment activity. Pro-abortion groups gained internal information and pushed targets for arrests and prosecution against their rivals, the report alleged.
Pro-choice groups “compiled evidence and dossiers that ultimately gave rise to search warrants and charges” and Biden era prosecutors “asked pro-abortion groups about pro-life individuals’ travel and constitutionally protected advocacy.”
Federal prosecutors engaged in “inappropriate conduct and comments” and knowingly withheld evidence that defense counsel requested
The Biden DOJ helped a pro-abortion group secure funding and there was no record of ethics approval permitting such advocacy.
The Biden DOJ pursued significantly harsher sentences for pro-life defendants than pro-abortion defendants: the average pro-life defendant got 26.8 months in prison compared to 12.3 months for pro-abortion defendants.
