Merrick Garland: Firebombers of pro-life centers mostly come out at night...mostly

Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP

The interesting things that come out of Senate hearings. Man.

Take today, for instance. Republicans were planning on quizzing the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, about a number of things while they had him in the hot seat. Including the really eye-popping disparity in prosecutions between pro-life advocates protesting at abortion centers and the ongoing domestic terrorist campaign against churches, pro-life counseling, and pregnancy organizations.

Advertisement

…Still, pro-life leaders discern a disparity in how federal prosecutors are handling property attacks in abortion-related cases.

Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice has issued press releases announcing four indictments of groups of pro-lifers charged with violating the FACE [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act] Act (against one person in Ohio, 11 people in Tennessee, 10 people in the District of Columbia, one in Pennsylvania) and a civil lawsuit against a pro-lifer in New Jersey.

…The Justice Department also announced a non-FACE Act federal prosecution for an attack on a Planned Parenthood abortion business in Illinois in January 2023.

Yet since early May 2022, when a draft version of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade leaked, several dozen pro-life pregnancy centers and churches have sustained property-damage attacks from abortion supporters. Most have consisted of graffiti and broken glass, but some have included arson. Many of the spray-painted messages have contained threats.

CNA has tracked and mapped more than 100 incidents of pro-abortion vandalism since the Dobbs leak, including at least 56 at pregnancy centers and 33 at churches of various denominations.

The most egregious example of the lopsided DoJ witchhunt was the case of Mark Houck, a pro-life “sidewalk counselor” in Philadelphia, who, after some vile words were allegedly directed at his 12-yr old son, shoved the patient escort who mouthed them. All this happened outside an abortion clinic in 2021.

Advertisement

The case had numerous problems from a prosecutorial aspect. To begin with, the clinic itself had had issues with this escort operating outside of their escort procedures.

…She noted that Mr. Love had a problem following the clinic’s “non-engagement” policy—even though he was spoken to “on numerous occasions.”

Local cops wouldn’t charge Houck and, even though Love filed a private criminal complaint, it appeared notoriously liberal Philly DA Larry Krasner declined to charge him as well.

…“The case was disposed of locally so the DOJ could assume and lead the investigation,” Jane Roh, a spokeswoman for Mr. Krasner, told the Bucks County Courier Times in September. “It is incorrect to say that we declined this case.”

Whatever the reason Mr. Krasner’s office didn’t prosecute, the FBI didn’t arrest this public enemy until Sept. 23, 2022—almost a full year after the altercation.

In spectacularly authoritarian fashion, not only did Garland’s DoJ come after Houck a FULL YEAR LATER, they did so with an FBI SWAT team of around 30 agents, as if he were John Dillinger incarnate.

Advertisement

Fast forward to a federal trial, a judge who told the feds they were on thin ice, and a Not Guilty verdict rendered in less than an hour.

Clown show. Houck went back to standing outside the same clinic on the 9th of February.

Today, the AG got a grilling from GOP senators about that case and more.

Attorney General Merrick Garland’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday grew heated when Republican lawmakers grilled him on the prosecution of protesters on both sides of the abortion fight.

The Republican ire was focused on two fronts: that the Department of Justice hadn’t charged a single protester under a statue that makes it a crime to protest outside a Supreme Court justice’s home and that separately a Pennsylvania anti-abortion demonstrator had been charged under federal law.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shouted that the DOJ “sat on its hands” by not charging a single protester outside the homes of justices in the wake of the Dobbs decision last year, which overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed the right to abortion access.

Garland’s opening remarks consisted of mouthing pablum about how mean everyone has been to his hard-working DoJ warriors, who aren’t biased at all, by the way.

…Garland started his remarks by praising the employees of the Department of Justice, a response to criticism that the sprawling agency has politicized its enforcement of the law.

Garland spoke to the DOJ’s accomplishments under his tenure to uphold the rule of law, keep the country safe and protect civil rights. These include combatting the rise of violent crime and hate crimes, working with Ukrainian partners in defense of democracy, and protecting reproductive freedom.

Advertisement

(Working with Ukrainian partners defending democracy and defending reproductive rights? WHUT?!)

Momentarily yanked out of his woke wheelhouse to answer real questions, Garland squirmed when Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) put him on the spot. He wanted answers about that huge gap in arrests and prosecutions for vandalism, destruction, and attacks on pro-life protestors, churches and resources vs the same for pro-life protesters who run afoul of pro-choice types. What gives, asked Sen Lee. What’s your explanation?

Oh. It’s one for the ages.

The Attorney General of the United States says they can’t catch those bad guys because…

Advertisement

… they mostly come at night…mostly.

We are ruled by malevolent clowns.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
John Stossel 12:30 PM | December 01, 2024
Advertisement
Stephen Moore 8:30 AM | December 01, 2024
Advertisement