One week ago today, early on a Friday morning, FBI agents raided the Pennsylvania home of Mark Houck, a pro-life activist and Catholic leader. The public has since learned Houck is accused of violating a federal law, which protects public access to abortion clinics, because the protester shoved an abortion supporter outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia nine months ago.
Bauer: Sure, let's have a talk about what fascism looks likeChad Groening, AFN.net Hillary Clinton compared Donald Trump and a recent political rally to Adolf Hitler, a comparison that is not an original idea from Trump-hating Democrats, but a longtime conservative says it takes nerves to say that with a straight face. Clinton was on stage at the Texas Tribune Festival when the woman famous for wielding power like a crazed queen claimed to be troubled by a Sept. 17 event in Ohio, where Trump was “ranting and raving” during an hour-long speech. “And you have these rows of young men with their arms raised,” she said, likening that gesture to the infamous Nazi salute. “I thought, 'What is going on?'” 
According to the left-wing Huffington Post, much of the crowd was giving a one-fingered salute that is actually part of the cooky Q-Anon movement, not literal Brownshirts standing shoulder to shoulder. Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, tells AFN fascism has indeed arrived in the United States. “The kind of authoritarian government that censors free speech,” he says. “That has people that go out in the streets and beat up their opponents. That tries to cancel people that have conservative views.” |
Houck’s sudden legal fight to stay out of federal prison hits home for Rep. Scott Perry, who represents Pennsylvania’s 10th District. Weeks before FBI agents banged on Houck’s door to arrest him, Perry himself witnessed FBI agents show up with a warrant to seize his personal cell phone. That’s because the congressman refused to cooperate with the House January 6 Committee, which alleges he colluded to overthrow the 2020 election by urging Donald Trump to sue and not concede. So the FBI agents showed up for the phone while the congressman was vacationing with his family in Florida.
In an interview with AFN this week, Perry says Houck’s arrest marks “one more time” the Department of Justice has demonstrated what he calls “un-evenhanded application of justice.”
FBI whistleblowers out dirty bosses
Those examples seem to grow larger, and more ominous, with each passing day. Two years into the Biden administration, Rep. Jim Jordan claimed in August that 14 FBI whistleblowers have come forward describing a powerful federal agency that has become “weaponized” against the American people and “politicized” by Democrats. Their anger and frustration ranges from the still-at-large D.C. pipe bomber to using the FBI’s counterterrorism unit to investigate school board meetings.
Some of the agents opposed the Mar-a-Largo raid on Donald Trump.
Other agents have alleged they were pressured to invent cases of “domestic terrorism” across the country. Those examples would then be sent to the top FBI bosses, who could then cite them as examples of “fascism” and “extremism” that must be dealt with to save "democracy."
Even though those whistleblowers are anonymous and protected by law, Rep. Jordan told Fox News this week those whistleblowers are being punished if it’s learned they hold “conservative views.” The lawmaker called that a “purge” in the FBI and he named a top human resources official as the culprit.
In a related incident, a longtime SWAT team veteran named Steve Friend came forward two weeks ago – and promptly got suspended – to criticize his employer for using heavily-armed SWAT teams to arrest January 6 defendants.
In another whistleblowing accusation, several FBI agents told The New York Post they were blowing the whistle on an FBI operation in which a Facebook employee was passing along private messages in which users questioned the 2020 election. Those users were investigated for domestic terrorism, the whistleblowers said.
FBI interested in St. Paul incident
Thomas More Society attorneys who are representing Houck, AFN has reported, have called his arrest a “political prosecution” that is meant to intimidate and bully the pro-life movement that is hated and despised by the Biden administration.
According to Thomas More attorney Peter Breen, the law firm assured federal prosecutors back in June that charging their client with violating the FACE Act would be foolhardy. That’s because Thomas More won a similar case for another pro-life activist in 2019. That case also occurred at an abortion clinic in Pennsylvania, and was also prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which watched its case get tossed out, but Houck was indicted anyway.
Breen has also said FBI agents raided Houck’s home even after Thomas More assured the U.S. Attorney’s Office their client would show up voluntarily in front of a federal judge if he was indicted.
Hence the law firm is alleging a “political prosecution” by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Reacting to Houck's arrest, Heritage Foundation attorney Hons Von Spakovsky tells AFN the charges are "ridiculous" and "outrageous," but they are also a warning.
"This is the way the Biden administration has of telling pro-life activists, who are protected by the First Amendment," he says, "that you had better not be expressing your opinion about this anywhere where we can go after you."
Just four days after that early-morning raid, pro-life activists in St. Paul, Minnesota reported FBI agents showed up outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic there over a May incident involving a pro-life activist and a clinic volunteer.
An eyewitness told The Daily Signal the two FBI agents “went straight” to the protester who had been involved in that altercation and talked briefly to the man. The pro-life activist had been charged with assault for that incident but the case was dismissed because the clinic volunteer was armed with a box cutter and cutting up a pro-life sign, pro-life leader Brian Gibson told the Signal.
Gibson, who leads Pro-Life Action Ministries, told AFN in a related story it “seemed very odd” for FBI agents to show up, when he was never seen them in years of protesting outside abortion clinics. Considering who they singled out and talked to, especially after the arrest of Houck, Gibson said, it’s likely pro-life activists are now a new target.
According to Rep. Perry, who angered Democrats by urging Donald Trump to sue and fight the election results, he suspects the Biden administration targeted Mark Houck because Election Day is coming.
“That’s what this is about unfortunately,” he says.
