We’ve reported on the raids of pro-life activists by armed FBI showing up at their homes for extremely minor things.
First, there was author Mark Houck who was arrested by more than 20 armed agents in front of his screaming children at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. His alleged “federal offense”? He pushed a man who his wife said made offensive remarks to his son. He now faces 11 years in prison under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
But then the Biden FBI went after 11 pro-life activists who hadn’t even done that. We reported on the arrest of Chet Gallagher. All they did was non-violently peacefully protest outside an abortion clinic. So why did the FBI indict these people and send armed agents to their homes? Seven of the people indicted were charged with a “civil rights conspiracy,” alleging they had “engaged in a conspiracy to prevent the clinic from providing” and patients from receiving abortion services. All 11 were charged with violating the FACE Act by “using physical obstruction to intimidate and interfere with the clinic’s employees and a patient.”
Now the seven face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release with fines of up to $350,000. The other five face a year in prison, a year of supervised release, and $10,000 in fines. Can we say political witchhunt to takedown the pro-life movement? Because that’s surely what it looks like. The protesters sat outside the clinic singing and praying. That — under Joe Biden — is now illegal. It looks like the criminalizing of protests that the government doesn’t like.
Townhall exclusively acquired video of the armed FBI at the home of Paul Vaughn. Like Mark Houck, they raided his home at 7:00 a.m., banging on the door and terrifying the family, just before Vaughn was to take his kids to school.
You can see a couple of them holding what looks like AR-15s.
“I want to know why you were banging on my door with a gun,” Vaughn’s wife says to an FBI agent in the video. “You’re not going to tell me anything?” The FBI agent claims: “I tried, ma’am.” Vaughn’s wife objects, “No, you didn’t! You did not try!” She approaches the government vehicle carrying Vaughn in the back seat. “This is not acceptable,” she states. Moments later, she asks an FBI agent, who ignores her, for his name. “You’re not going to give me your name? You’re not going to give me any information?” she questions as they drive away.
They handcuffed Vaughn on his porch in front of his children. An FBI agent with an AR-15 confronted the children in the backyard. One ran to the mother crying that the FBI was “arresting Daddy.” “They traumatized me and my children intentionally. We will never forget this.”
His wife, shaking and fighting back tears, said she demanded to know what was happening. Still, the FBI agents refused to answer why they were there, did not identify themselves, did not show badges, provided no warrant proof, and did not say where they were taking her husband. Vaughn was placed in an SUV wearing his undershirt and jeans with no identification or means of communication when he got whisked away within a 10-minute timeframe. Their children were left “shaken, frightened, and very upset,” Vaughn said.
According to Vaughn, the family did not receive any official information about the cause of the raid or Vaughn’s whereabouts until six hours after the arrest. He said he was held in a federal holding facility, brought before a judge, charged, and then released without a wallet or a cell phone 60 miles from his Hickman County home.
“For over six hours, no one knew where I was and why I was kidnapped from my home at gunpoint. It took a good attorney six hours to be able to break through the bureaucracy and find the people who know what was going on,” Vaughn told Townhall. In the meantime, his searching wife had to console their crying children.
Check out Mia Cathell’s thread with a little bit about the other folks who were indicted, including an 87-year-old grandmother who escaped a Communist concentration camp only to face the Biden DOJ and FBI.
This is shameful. There’s no crime here and they could have arranged to have them surrender with their attorneys rather than put people at risk in such a raid. When they do things like this when their normal policy is to opt for the least dangerous option if they can, Mrs. Vaughn is right — this is purposeful.
When we see things like this, and then firebomb attacks on crisis pregnancy centers have no arrests, even when a group says they did it, we have to ask again about bias and what is truly going on here. If these people had protested and obstructed Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing or rioted outside the Portland federal courthouse or blocked highways with the BLM, they would likely have been released without charge. Because it is no longer about enforcing the law under the Constitution, but the new “law” according to the Biden Administration.