The Justice Department released a report Tuesday, finding that the Biden Administration turned a federal civil rights law into a tool of political persecution, selectively prosecuting pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act while shielding abortion-rights allies from comparable scrutiny.
The review drew on more than 700,000 internal records.
What investigators found was not mere bureaucratic overreach. It was coordination. DOJ prosecutors, the report alleges, worked hand-in-glove with Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation and the Feminist Majority Foundation, accepting information those groups compiled on pro-life activists and using it to build cases. They sought harsher sentences for pro-life defendants. They attempted to screen jurors based on religious belief. And in some cases, they withheld evidence that the defense had a right to see.
“This department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”
The findings came from the Department’s “Weaponization Working Group,” a review body created under the Trump administration to examine whether federal law had been deployed in a biased or politically motivated fashion.
Investigators reviewed internal communications, prosecutorial case files, and sentencing decisions connected to FACE Act enforcement — a law originally passed to protect access to both abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers.
The disparity in enforcement was stark. Pro-life defendants faced average sentencing requests of 26.8 months in prison. Defendants accused of violence against pro-life organizations faced requests averaging 12.3 months. Attacks on pregnancy resource centers and churches, the report found, were routinely deprioritized or ignored.
The report also documented instances of evidence suppression with a specificity that is difficult to dismiss. In one case, a DOJ official — asked to provide data supporting a selective prosecution defense — told opposing counsel he did not keep the relevant records and would not provide them. Investigators found he had the information readily available.
The treatment of pro-life activist Mark Houck became a symbol of the broader pattern. When prosecutors had the option of allowing Houck to self-surrender, they declined — and authorized an early-morning FBI arrest at his home instead.
“The Biden DOJ prosecutors knowingly withheld evidence that defense counsel requested to prepare an affirmative defense,” the report stated.
The Trump Administration has moved to undo the damage. Pardons have been issued for pro-life activists convicted under the prior administration. Several civil cases have been dismissed. And future FACE Act prosecutions have been limited to extraordinary circumstances involving significant aggravating factors.
Assistant Attorney General Daniel Burrows did not mince words.
“The behavior unearthed in this report is shameful,” he said. “Lawyers who should have known better withheld evidence, worked to keep committed religious people off juries and generally allowed the Department of Justice to be used as the enforcement arm of pro-abortion special interests.”
Biden DOJ weaponized FACE Act against pro-life Americans, 882-report allegeshttps://t.co/fMjm3Uqcqq
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) April 14, 2026
