Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,
A pro-life father of seven whose Pennsylvania home was raided at gunpoint by the FBI under the Biden administration has been awarded a seven-figure settlement from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Fox News reports that Mark Houck, a devout Catholic and pro-life activist, was arrested in 2021 by the FBI and prosecuted for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act.
The charges stemmed from an October 2021 incident that took place outside a Philadelphia, PA abortion clinic where Houck and his young son were accosted by a pro-abortion volunteer who harassed and yelled at the boy until Houck pushed the volunteer away.
A jury acquitted Houck in 2023; he and his wife then filed a lawsuit later that year alleging that the Biden DOJ had engaged in malicious and retaliatory prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest, and assault.
Houck’s lawsuit specifically accused the DOJ of what he called “a faulty investigation” and “excessive force” and the heavy-handed FBI raid on Houck’s home sparked widespread criticism of the Biden administration over accusations of targeting pro-life activists.
In 2023, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) had sharp questions for then-Attorney General Merrick Garland over the FBI’s “unbelievable show of force” in the raid.
According to Fox News Digital, the legal battle against the DOJ had dragged on for three years due to what Houck last year described as an “activist judge” who had blocked negotiations between Houck and the Trump-led Justice Department.
Last week, 40 Days for Life CEO Shawn Carney described the settlement as “a bigger victory for the pro-life movement at large,” as well as “a huge victory for free speech” and “a huge victory for all Americans who want our right to speak our minds peacefully in a law-abiding way without fear of our own government.”
Carney also credited President Trump for reining in federal overreach, saying that the pro-life movement had received “so much persecution from the DOJ under Biden” and expressed gratitude that “President Trump has corrected that.”
The DOJ released a report this week concluding that the Biden administration “shattered the public’s trust by weaponizing the FACE Act to advance a pro-abortion agenda.”