The lawyer representing pro-life protester, author, and father of seven Mark Houck, who was arrested after FBI agents stormed his house this weekend, said he is “innocent,” and accused the Department of Justice of targeting him “solely to intimidate people of faith and prolife Americans.”
"Rather than accepting Mark Houck's offer to appear voluntarily, the Biden Department of Justice chose to make an unnecessary show of potentially deadly force, sending twenty heavily armed federal agents to the Houck residence at dawn this past Friday," said the attorney representing Houck, Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel Peter Breen.
"In threatening form, after nearly breaking down the family's front door, at least five agents pointed guns at Mark's head and arrested him in front of his wife and seven young children who were terrified that their husband and father would be shot dead before their eyes,” Breen added.
Houck's wife, Ryan-Marie, told Catholic News Agency that a “SWAT team of about 25 came to my house with about 15 vehicles and started pounding on our door" on Friday to arrest her husband after he allegedly physically assaulted a 72-year-old Planned Parenthood clinic escort in October 2021.
Houck was arrested in front of his “screaming children” for alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits interfering with anyone trying to access an abortion clinic.
According to his wife, Houck drives hours to Philadelphia every Wednesday to speak outside of abortion clinics for six to eight hours at a time. Houck pushed a pro-abortion man away from his 12-year-old son after the man entered "the son's personal space" and didn’t stop hurling "crude… inappropriate and disgusting" comments at the family.
A spokesman for the FBI Philadelphia field office told Fox News that no SWAT operators were used in Houck’s arrest and denied that agents pointed their guns at Houck or his family members, though he conceded that their weapons were drawn when they knocked on Houck’s door.
In June of 2022, Thomas More Society attorneys told the DOJ that the FACE Act “does not cover one-on-one altercations like the one involving Houck,” and that he would “appear voluntarily” if charges were brought against him, a statement from the law firm read.
"This case is being brought solely to intimidate people of faith and prolife Americans," Breen said. "Mark Houck is innocent of these lawless charges, and we intend to prove that in court."
Comments
Post a Comment