Attorney General Merrick Garland said he’s deployed the FBI to track down those responsible for attacking crisis pregnancy centers, but they’ve been stymied by “clever” criminals who do their work at night.

In heated testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. garland defended his department’s fulsome prosecutions of protesters at abortion clinics and insisted he would deliver the same treatment to those who have firebombed or vandalized Catholic churches and pro-life centers — if the FBI could find them.

“If you have any information specifically as to who those people are, we would be glad to have that,” Mr. Garland said during the hearing.

“That’s your job,” responded Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican.

Republican senators repeatedly pressed the attorney general on his department’s efforts, saying the disparity between prosecutions for pro-life versus pro-choice causes was striking.

And they were incredulous at his explanation that the FBI has come up empty.

Ms. Blackburn pointed to an attack on a pregnancy center in Tennessee where a pro-choice group, Jane’s Revenge, took credit.

Mr. Garland said they want to nab those in the group responsible, but they can’t find them.

“We intend, if we find them, to [prosecute],” he said. “We have put heavy resources into this.”

Attacks on the pro-life pregnancy centers have increased since the leak last year of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, returning the issue of abortion to the states.

Mr. Garland said the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which his department uses to bring prosecutions, applies equally to those that block clinics and pro-life centers. He acknowledged his department has made many more cases against those protesting abortion clinics but said it’s not intentional.

He said those protesting the abortion clinics are doing it “during the daylight” in view of cameras, and it’s easy to identify them.

Mr. Garland called the attacks on the pro-life centers “a horrid thing,” but said they happen “in the dark.”

These people who are doing this are clever, are doing this in secret, and I am convinced the FBI is trying to find them with urgency,” he said.

Republicans hammered Mr. Garland on abortion throughout the hearing. They expressed outrage that the Justice Department hadn’t prosecuted a single protester under a law that bars demonstrating outside a federal judge’s home to influence their rulings; the lack of security for Supreme Court Justices and the heavy-handed tactics used to arrest and charge a Pennsylvania anti-abortion demonstrator.

The leak of the Dobbs draft sparked protests outside the home of justices in Maryland and Virginia.

Some of the protests triggered vandalism and threats, including an assassination attempt in June against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“You sat on your hands and did nothing,” Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, told Mr. Garland. “Your failure to act to protect the safety of the justices and their families was an obvious product of political bias.”

He pointed to Mark Houck, a pro-life activist whom the Justice Department prosecuted for two violations of the FACE Act.

The charges stemmed from a 2021 encounter at an abortion clinic in Philadelphia, where the feds accused Mr. Houck of shoving a clinic escort to stop him from helping abortion seekers get into the clinic. Mr. Houck said he pushed the clinic escort to protect his 12-year-old son.

A jury sided with Mr. Houck in January, finding him not guilty on both counts of violating the FACE Act.

When the charges were brought last year, Mr. Houck offered to turn himself in to authorities, GOP senators said. Instead, the FBI made a high-profile morning raid, swarming his home with agents armed with long guns and ballistic shields.

Mr. Houck’s wife and seven children also were at home at the time, and his wife said agents pointed their weapons at her.

Mr. Garland said he was unaware of the raid ahead of time, saying that was the decision of FBI agents on the scene at the time. He also said the FBI disputes the senators’ accounts of the raid.

Mr. Cruz said Mr. Garland hasn’t brought any charges against pro-choice protesters under the federal law against protesting in front of judges’ homes.

While Mr. Garland acknowledged that the department hasn’t charged a single protester, he disputed that he ignored the safety of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Mr. Garland said he took the unusual step of directing the U.S. Marshals Service to protect them.

“You asked me whether I sat on my hands, and quite the opposite, I sent 70 U.S. Marshals to defend [the justices],” Mr. Garland said.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.