Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland over the FBI’s arrest of a Catholic pro-life father during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.. The raid against mark Houck was corrupt to begin with since he was being charged with the obstruction of an abortion clinic since he was down the street from the clinic and a pro-abortion fanatic went down the street and began harassing Houck’s young son and Houck just pushed him away.
The raid was overkill with FBI agents carrying automatic weapons, frightened Houck’s young children, especially since neither Houck nor his wife resisted. To tell you how ridiculous the charges were, the jury spent less time deliberating than most people spend eating dinner, before returning with a verdict of not guilty. I only hope that whomever Trump selects to head the FBI will send 30 heavily armed agents when they raid Joe Biden’s house, looking for bundles of Chinese currency.
Hawley said during the hearing:
“You used an unbelievable show of force, with guns I might note that liberals usually decry. We’re supposed to hate long guns and assault-style weapons, you’re happy to deploy them against Catholics and innocent children. Happy to. And then you haul him into court and a jury acquits him in one hour.”
“I just suggest to you that that is a disgraceful performance by your Justice Department and a disgraceful use of resources.”
The raid was to provide intimidation against conservatives who oppose the Biden administration even when they committed no crime. We really dodged a bullet when Merrick Garland was denied a seat on the Supreme Court. The constitution means nothing to him and since interpreting the constitution is what SCOTUS is supposed to be about, he would have been an utter train wreck.
Houck’s case highlighted what some see as an unfair bias against pro-life protesters in the FBI’s dealings. Houck’s lawyer claimed the Department of Justice’s actions were intended to “intimidate people of faith.” A former attorney at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division under George W. Bush and Barack Obama previously told the Daily Caller that the Biden administration was “weaponizing” the DOJ through the FACE Act.
Hawley also brought up a leaked memo from the Richmond FBI field office that advised the Bureau to infiltrate groups of traditionalist Roman Catholics who they claimed were at risk of committing acts of extremist violence. The FBI confirmed to the Daily Caller that they were retracting the memo and conducting an internal review.
“Attorney General, are you cultivating sources and spies in Latin mass parishes and other Catholic parishes around the country?”
“The Justice Department does not do that, it does not do investigations based on religion,” Garland responded. “I saw the document you have, it’s appalling, I’m in complete agreement with you. I understand that the FBI has withdrawn it and is now looking into how this could ever have happened.”
“I’ll tell you how it happened. This memorandum, which is supposed to be intelligence, cites extensively the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) which goes on to identify all these different Catholics as being part of hate groups.”
The memorandum in question included a list from the SPLC of “Radical Traditional Catholicism Hate Groups.”
“Attorney General Merrick Garland owes every American a truthful answer to the growing evidence that he is not committed to equally enforcing our nation’s laws,” Brian Burch, president of the conservative advocacy group Catholic Vote said in a statement provided to the Caller.
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“I understand that the FBI has withdrawn it and is now looking into how this could ever have happened.”
Notice Garland’s language. He speaks here as if he is some outside bystander, not the head of the FBI and DOJ. He takes no responsibility either for what happened or for dealing with this injustice.
Garland needs to be in prison.