Justice Department releases report accusing Biden-era DOJ of uneven enforcement of FACE Act law
The Justice Department released a report Tuesday accusing the Biden administration of using FACE law to target anti-abortion activists who were prosecuted for blocking patients’ access to reproductive health clinics.
The report is the first in a series expected to be released by the Arms Task Force, created last year, which is supposed to examine a variety of topics from the Jan. 6 lawsuits to the handling of investigations into President Trump while he was out of office.
Congress passed the FACE Act in 1994 to address growing concerns about the threats and intimidation women faced in reproductive health clinics. Nonviolent offenses and first-time violations of the law are misdemeanors, while repeat offenses or violations resulting in bodily injury or death may be treated as felonies.
The nearly 900-page report, which includes internal Justice Department records, claims that the Justice Department led by former Attorney General Merrick Garland “violated the rights of Americans” by enforcing the law only to support those who support abortion rights, not those who worked in anti-abortion facilities.
Before its publication, the Justice Department announced Monday fired four federal prosecutors involved in Biden-era FACE Act casesin what many current and former career officials at the department viewed as an act of political retaliation for working on criminal cases that the Trump administration had opposed, CBS News previously reported.
The report accuses the Justice Department and the FBI under former President Joe Biden of working with pro-abortion groups to obtain real-time information on the protest activities of anti-abortion groups, accuses “Biden DOJ prosecutors” of knowingly withholding evidence and eliminating jurors based on their religion, and claims that employees helped pro-abortion groups obtain grants from the department.
It also suggests that Garland’s National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers was too close to abortion rights groups like the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and accused the task force’s leader, Sanjay Patel, of monitoring the activities of “pro-life activists for years before indicting them.”
Release of report preceded by layoffs
Patel was among four prosecutors fired Tuesday, a government official confirmed, in what marks the latest purge of Justice Department employees involved in criminal or civil cases opposed by the Trump administration or Mr. Trump’s allies.
Patel had already been placed on administrative leave in March, while a draft report on the FACE Act was circulating internally.
He declined to comment on his withdrawal from the ministry.
The report also alleges that prosecutors generally sought harsher sentences for anti-abortion activists, noting that they sought “an average sentence of 26.8 months for pro-life defendants, compared to 12.3 months for pro-choice defendants.”
In a statement, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “No department should conduct selective prosecutions based on conviction. The militarization that occurred under the Biden administration will not happen again, as we restore the integrity of our prosecutorial system. »
Although the department fired several prosecutors before the report’s release, the report said it contains no findings regarding internal investigations into misconduct of employees involved in the “weaponization of the FACE Act.”
“Where appropriate, the DOJ may refer current or former employees for criminal prosecution,” the report states. “Similarly, the DOJ may refer current or former employees to the appropriate bar or highest judicial authority in the jurisdictions in which they are licensed to ensure compliance with applicable rules of professional ethics. Here, appropriate internal referrals have been made.”
Stacey Young, a former Civil Rights Division attorney who founded and runs the nonprofit Justice Connection, denounced the firings in a statement Monday.
“Congress passed the FACE Act with bipartisan support more than 30 years ago, and courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of its provisions that ensure safe access to reproductive health services,” she said. “Firing DOJ lawyers for zealously enforcing the law is unconscionable – it politicizes the Department’s enforcement actions and punishes dedicated public servants for doing their jobs.”
Long-standing complaints
The Trump administration has long claimed, with little evidence, that the Biden-era Civil Rights Division used the FACE Act to intentionally target conservative Christians who are morally opposed to abortion.
Although the Justice Department also filed criminal charges against abortion rights activists accused of trying to frighten volunteers and employees at an emergency pregnancy clinic that advised on alternatives to abortion, the report said the total number of those cases was minimal compared to those targeting conservative anti-abortion Christians.
Mr. Trump, early in his second term, pardoned many FACE Act defendants convicted under the Biden administration. The Justice Department also dismissed several other FACE Act-related cases and ordered prosecutors to curb future FACE Act-related investigations.
At the same time, however, the current Justice Department has allowed other FACE Act cases involving abortion rights activists to proceed without interference, with one Florida-based defendant receiving a 120-day prison sentence in March 2025.
On her first day on the job, former Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Department to create a “weapons task force” that would be charged with, among other things, reviewing past use of the FACE Act.
Tuesday’s report marks the first time the Justice Department has made public the group’s work product.
Use of the FACE Act in other Department of Justice cases
Even as the Justice Department has backed away from enforcing the FACE Act against anti-abortion activists, it has also sought to use the law in new and untested ways.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department charged journalist Don Lemon and dozens of others with violating a provision of the law in connection with an anti-ICE protest at a Twin Cities, Minnesota, church that prohibits people from intimidating or interfering with people exercising their constitutional freedom to practice religion.
This retainer has never been charged before – until now in the Lemon case – due to historical factors. constitutional concerns by attorneys from the Civil Rights Division.
The main problem, lawyers told CBS News, is that the FACE Act fundamentally distorts the rights people have under the First Amendment. Although the First Amendment protects the religious freedom of individuals from government interference, it does not protect the religious freedom of individuals from interference by private individuals, such as the protesters and journalists charged in the indictment.
The law has only been used to prosecute people who obstruct reproductive health clinics because they are considered interstate commerce enterprises. Churches, on the other hand, are generally not in this category.
Earlier excerpts from the FACE Act report previously reviewed by CBS News show that the Justice Department’s civil rights appellate attorneys wrote a memo in 2018 that warned prosecutors not to charge the house of worship provision because it was unconstitutional and lacked a jurisdictional hook.
Such an internal memo could potentially harm ongoing FACE Act prosecutions in Minnesota. The final version of the report released Tuesday does not appear to reference the memo.
