Last Updated on September 27, 2022
A United States Senator is speaking out against United States Attorney General Merrick Garland after the FBI arrested a pro-life activist with an excessive amount of heavily armed agents.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) authored a letter to Garland which demanded answers as to why the FBI sent dozens of agents to pro-life activist Mark Houck’s house last week.
Hawley’s letter noted how the case against Houck was already dismissed and the U.S. Senator questioned why “the FBI reportedly executed the search warrant in as extreme a manner as one can imagine” and “arrested Houck at gunpoint early in the morning in front of his seven children.”
Senator Hawley called the amount of force wielded by the FBI “unprecedented,” especially as Garland’s DOJ “has so far turned a blind eye to the epidemic of violence across the country by pro-abortion extremists against pregnancy resource centers, houses of worship, and pro-life Americans—violent acts that are prohibited by the very same law under which you are charging Mark Houck.”
“I believe you must testify, under oath, before the Senate Judiciary Committee about your selective use and apparent political weaponization of the FACE Act,” Hawley added, calling for Garland to testify in front of the Senate.
Within 10 days, Hawley asked Garland to answer these three questions:
- Why were 20-25 armed FBI agents sent to Mark Houck’s home to execute an arrest for alleged simple assault?
- Why did those agents have their guns drawn?
- Since May 3, 2022, how many charges has your department brought against pro-abortion extremists who have attacked pregnancy resource centers, churches, and pro-life Americans?
Senator Hawley Demands Answers From Garland Over Extraordinary Force Used by FBI to Arrest Pro-Life Activisthttps://t.co/XRz421qExQ pic.twitter.com/9eiUTi4D62
— Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) September 26, 2022
As National File previously reported:
A high-profile pro-life author and activist was arrested after dozens of FBI agents surrounded his house in the Department of Justice’s latest SWAT raid on right-wing Americans.
Mark Houck is a father of seven children, a pro-life author, and a sidewalk counselor.
Around 7:00 AM on Friday, according to Houck’s wife Ryan-Marie, who homeschools the children, as many as 30 FBI agents surrounded their home with rifles ready to shoot and “started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it.”
Ryan-Marie said her husband attempted unsuccessfully to de-escalate the threatening agents, saying, “‘please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house.’ But they just kept pounding and screaming.”
When Mark opened the door, “the kids were all just screaming. It was all just very scary and traumatic.”
After the FBI agents snatched up Mark “the kids were all screaming that he was their best friend, the [FBI agents on her porch] kind of softened a bit. I think they realized what was happening,” Ryan-Marie told Lifesite News.
Mark was arrested on a warrant which claimed he violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act). The warrant claims Mark attacked a patient escort.
Stay tuned to National File for any updates.