Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice turned a minor sidewalk argument that local police and prosecutors laughed off into a FACE Act felony and an armed raid on Mark Houck. Federal prosecutors sought an 11-year sentence for Houck for defending his son from a counterprotester in front of an abortion clinic. They were only thwarted by a jury that had managed better than Garland and his team to keep their heads from going up their own collective ass.

What about a violent attack on a Catholic church as a response to the Dobbs decision on abortion? One that included assaults on people as well as police responding to the attack? Merrick Garland’s get-tough attitude evaporates in those instances of actual domestic terrorism, according to a plea deal revealed by Fox News this morning:

President Biden’s Justice Department offered what critics are calling a sweetheart plea deal to a vandal who admitted to defacing a Catholic church with profane graffiti, destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary, assaulting a church worker, and resisting arrest.

A plea agreement reviewed by Fox News Digital shows that the DOJ recommends zero jail time for the perp, Maeve Nota, a 31-year-old transgender individual who vandalized the St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue, Washington, following Roe v. Wade’s overturning last June.

Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t as serious as all that. Right? Er …

Nota smashed two glass doors with rocks and spray-painted the church’s outside walls with messages that read, “rot in your fake hell,” “kid groomers,” and “woman haters,” among several other messages.

A church staff member was spray-painted across their face while attempting to chase Nota away.

When officers located Nota, police said he used a backpack full of spray paint cans to smash the police vehicle before turning himself in.

Remind me again what prompted the FBI to send dozens of armed agents to Houck’s residence to terrify his family? What was it that prompted a felony prosecution with the threat of an eleven-year prison sentence? A sidewalk argument. In fact, it was a sidewalk argument that local police and prosecutors had already concluded wasn’t even a crime.

That gets turned into a federal crime and a house raid appropriate for an al-Qaeda sleeper cell. Meanwhile, the same DoJ turns an actual political attack on a house of worship, which in any other circumstance would get escalated into a hate-crime prosecution. They also shrug off aggravated assault on an employee and attacks on police as a “boys will be boys” incident — or perhaps more accurately, a “boys will be girls” incident.

Maybe Houck should have changed his name to Marsha.

This plea deal, assuming it’s accurate and stays in place, sends a very clear signal from the Biden administration: It’s open season on Catholics and pro-life organizations. The DoJ is not applying the rule of law — they are abusing the law to apply the rule of whim. Houck is just one of its victims; we can expect to see more such attacks on churches and worshipers in the months ahead with Garland setting these incentives. For that matter, we can also expect more attacks on demonstrators in order to provoke them into a response that will give Garland even more opportunities to launch armed raids on families for the crime of opposing the administration’s preferences on abortion.