A Tennessee pro-life activist told House lawmakers Wednesday that FBI agents wrongfully raided his home in what Republicans call a pattern of weaponization in President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ).
Paul Vaughn testified alongside his attorney Steve Crampton before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government about the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Erin Hawley also testified at the hearing focused on the 1994 law that prohibits “threats of force, obstruction and property damage” to block access to abortion clinics, according to the DOJ. The law also applies to pro-life pregnancy resource centers.
Vaughn, a Christian father of 11, faces charges stemming from a protest at a Tennessee abortion clinic in March 2021. Prosecutors charged him under both FACE and the Conspiracy Against Rights statute, a Reconstruction-era law originally aimed at protecting black Americans’ voting rights. (RELATED: Pro-Life Activist Targeted By Biden Admin Escapes Prison Time)
The Biden-Harris administration abused the FACE act to target pro-lifers.
Watch Chairman @RepChipRoy’s opening statement detailing these injustices. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/HXv8PJxveC
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) December 18, 2024
Although Vaughn protested peacefully, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release and six months of home confinement, the Thomas More Society noted.
“On October 5th, 2022, at approximately 7:15 in the morning, my house was assaulted, my wife and children were terrorized, and I was kidnapped at gun point by four armed men,” Vaughn stated in a testimony obtained by the Daily Caller.
Vaughn eventually learned that three of his children were detained in the side yard by a fourth agent, his testimony read. When he asked for identification, an agent reportedly pointed to his “FBI” badge and yelled it was “the only identification” Vaughn would receive.
“At the moment of being placed in handcuffs, I became a slave to ideological tyrants, either the ones holding the weapons or the ones they obeyed,” he told the committee.
Despite attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers, the DOJ primarily cracked down on pro-life activists in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization 2022 decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
The Caller previously exposed how the Biden administration disproportionately targeted pro-life protesters. (RELATED: Kash Patel Wants The FBI Out Of The Spying Game — Here’s Where He Could Start)
“The Biden DOJ has weaponized the Act to target pro-life advocates.” – ADF’s Erin Hawley, testifying minutes ago at a House subcommittee hearing on the FACE Act pic.twitter.com/TIidThAjSg
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) December 18, 2024
Throughout the FACE Act’s 30-year history, roughly 97% of the 211 cases were against pro-life activists, according to DOJ data.
“We are pleased to see that Congress is taking seriously the abuses of the FACE Act and allowing the American people to hear the outrageous nature of the arrest and prosecution of Paul Vaughn,” Crampton, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, said in a statement to the Caller. “There is much work yet to be done to rein in this out of control Administration, but today was a big step forward.”
The Conspiracy Against Rights charge is used to heighten the sentences of people who allegedly violated the FACE Act.
Sanjay Patel, a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, pushed for the charge’s use in tandem with the FACE Act. In an article published in the DOJ’s Journal of Federal Law and Practice, Patel attempted to justify the conspiracy charge, arguing there were multiple “advantages.”
Patel said that under the statute the “government is not required to prove an overt act or substantial step in furtherance of the agreement.”
Vaughn and Crampton implored Congress to review the conspiracy charge along with the FACE Act. Vaughn’s testimony also detailed how he has been subject to federal parole monitoring for over two years and was faced with the looming prospect of potentially spending a decade in prison.
“[The] process is the punishment,” Vaughn said, noting that he escaped jail time.
Good thing @DailyCaller has the receipts:
In less than four years, Biden’s DOJ has accounted for over a quarter of all FACE prosecutions and approximately 24% of cases targeting pro-life activists. https://t.co/rPEZ1SxrJ9
— Eireann (Erin) Van Natta🇺🇸 (@evannatta1776) November 19, 2024
However, other pro-life activists were less fortunate.
Paula Harlow, who prayed peacefully in an abortion clinic, was sentenced in May to 24 months in prison at 75 years old for “her role in a conspiracy” to block access to the clinic. Pro-life activist Lauren Handy was sentenced to 57 months in prison and an additional three years of supervision.
“The government has been weaponized against we the people,” Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said during the hearing.