The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) is a nonpartisan government watchdog group that seeks transparency and to uphold shared American values and beliefs. In 2023, FGI filed a transparency lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleging the DOJ withheld records related to attorneys’ fees and other legal costs in its representation of Lois Lerner and Holly Paz during the IRS scandal where these officials blocked Tea Party groups from obtaining 501(c)(3) status in order to blunt their fundraising for the 2012 election. Now, FGI has another DOJ in its sights: the Biden administration and its targeting of Catholics and pro-life activists using the FACE Act.
In an exclusive with The Daily Wire, FGI shared emails that show coordination and collusion between the National Abortion Federation (NAF), an organization that claims its mission is "to unite, represent, serve, and support abortion providers in delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care." From the email exchanges, it appears the NAF's role went beyond support to demands that pregnancy centers, pro-life activists, and pro-life advocates get scrutiny from Biden's DOJ — demands that the DOJ was more than happy to oblige.
The full extent of the partnership between the FBI, DOJ, and National Abortion Federation is not clear from the email. But Law told The Daily Wire that the emails revealed a troubling partnership between pro-abortion activists and the federal government.
“These emails reveal undue influence of abortion activists on federal law enforcement investigations, and violations of DOJ norms,” he said. “The Biden DOJ Civil Rights Division actions undertaken with outside influence appear to violate the civil rights of the Americans convicted under the FACE Act. “
In 2022, through then-Attorney General Merrick Garland's influence, the DOJ established the Reproductive Rights Task Force from "an existing working group and efforts by the Department over the last several months to identify ways to protect access to reproductive health care in anticipation of the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey."
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will chair the Task Force, which will consist of representatives from the Department’s Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney community, Office of the Solicitor General, Office for Access to Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Policy, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of the Associate Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General and Office of the Attorney General and will be supported by dedicated staff.
“As Attorney General Garland has said, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States,” said Associate Attorney General Gupta. “The Court abandoned 50 years of precedent and took away the constitutional right to abortion, preventing women all over the country from being able to make critical decisions about our bodies, our health, and our futures. The Justice Department is committed to protecting access to reproductive services.”
As we know from the 23 pro-life activists whom President Donald Trump pardoned soon after his inauguration, the DOJ Civil Rights Division was very busy using the FACE Act to arrest fathers and grandmothers praying in front of abortion clinics.
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The pro-life advocacy organization Live Action exposed one of the major DOJ actors behind this: then-Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Rights Division, Sanjay Patel.
According to a recent HJC press release, Sanjay Patel is one of eight Department of Justice (DOJ) officials requested “to testify about the DOJ’s misconduct and weaponization during the Biden-Harris Administration.”
Under the Biden administration, the number of federal prosecutions against pro-life advocates skyrocketed, leading many to conclude that Biden’s DOJ disproportionately and unfairly targeted pro-life Americans.
Patel played a pivotal role in advancing these unprecedented prosecutorial efforts. He resurrected a law 150+ years old that was crafted to combat Ku Klux Klan crimes and used it to exponentially extend prison sentences for non-violent pro-life activists. That law originally sought to curtail civil rights violations against a vulnerable population; ironically, pro-life advocates attempting to achieve the same goal within a different context fell prey to Patel’s scheme to twist the law into a weapon against them.
The FGI emails shared with The Daily Wire show that NAF appeared to yank on the DOJ's chain.
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“The past year, NAF Security has been part of several FACE Act investigations, working with [assistant U.S. attorneys] and the FBI in TN, FL, VA, CA, NY, MD, and NC. The guidance from the team in DC has been nothing short of superb,” he added.
It is unclear which specific FACE Act investigations the National Abortion Federation was involved in, but at least two of the states referenced by Ledogar had major FACE Act prosecutions.
In Tennessee, six pro-lifers faced over 10 years in prison after they were convicted of violating the FACE Act and conspiring against rights. Three of the two pro-lifers were sentenced to prison over that case, which involved a group of Christians singing and praying inside the hallway of an office building outside an abortion facility. In New York, pro-life mother Bevelyn Williams and Catholic priest Fidelis Moscinski were sentenced to prison over FACE Act violations.
“It sounds like NAF and other abortion activists were trying to remove Lady Justice’s blindfold, and Kristen Clarke and Sanjay Patel were allowing it. Action must be taken,” Functional Government Initiative spokesman Roderick Law told The Daily Wire.
Earlier in the email, Ledogar wrote that the National Abortion Federation attended events like the March for Life, the annual event in Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands gather to urge the nation to protect the unborn, to “identify and witness the extremists that find the need to prevent reproductive health care.”
The Trump administration has taken a different tack. After his inauguration, President Trump declared that the weaponization of government against its citizens is over. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon is overhauling the department and realigning its focus back to constitutional principles, not ideological or partisan witch hunts of American citizens. New guidance was also issued in regard to the use of the FACE Act. The guidance instructs that the Act will only be used in cases of extreme violence or property damage. Therefore, the anti-life group Jane's Revenge, which has targeted pro-life centers with vandalism, and whoever is behind the 500 churches that have been vandalized or burned since 2020, and increased after the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade, should face as intense prosecution under the FACE Act as was given to the pro-life activists that illegitimately came under its scrutiny. As The Daily Wire surmised,
Historically, the FACE Act has primarily been used to go after pro-life individuals, even though it is technically supposed to protect crisis pregnancy centers as well.
That would be justice appropriately applied.
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