Trey Paul, FISM News
New documents are shedding light on holes in the FBI’s case against Mark Houck, a pro-life sidewalk counselor and father of seven, who said he agreed to allow agents into his Pennsylvania home only to have it raided by more than two dozen agents who pointed guns at him and his wife while his children watched.
During the Sept. 23 FBI raid, Houck was detained at his home and subsequently arrested on suspicion of assaulting an abortion escort, Bruce Love, at an abortion clinic in Philadelphia 11 months earlier. FISM News previously reported that Houck is accused of shoving Love after Houck said he and his 12-year-old son were harassed by Love multiple times.
Many, including a dozen U.S. senators, are calling into question why Houck’s home was raided nearly a year after the incident now that the private complaint filed by Love has been made public, revealing it conflicts with the allegations contained in the federal indictment against Houck, who pleaded not guilty.
The Federalist obtained that private complaint and noted in a recent report:
An email exchange between Houck’s lawyer and the U.S. attorney’s office raises significant questions about the Biden administration’s decision to charge Houck with purported violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or ‘FACE Act,’ and further calls into question the FBI’s excessive show of force when arresting Houck.
The documents present several significant holes in the federal charges against Houck.
Primary among them is the decision to use force to apprehend Houck when his attorney, Matt Heffron, had sent an email to Assistant U.S. Attorney Anita Eve stating that if the government did plan to move forward with a case against his client that Heffron would accept a summons on his client’s behalf so as not to “put Mr. Houck and his family through needless disruption.”
Heffron never received a response from this email until after the FBI raided Houck’s home and forcibly removed him in front of his family.
Additionally, the FBI is charging Houck with two counts of assaulting a reproductive healthcare clinic escort. However, Houck’s attorney, Peter Breen, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Love was not escorting any patients at the time of the altercation. The indictment makes no mention of patients being present, either. Breen argues their apparent absence undermines the federal government’s use of the FACE Act to prosecute Houck.
Breen also noted Love only mentioned being shoved once in the prior criminal complaint. However, Houck’s federal indictment cites two instances of assault.
The fact that Love only later claimed to be shoved a second time undermines the federal government’s decision to charge Houck with two counts of assault, Breen said.
“Apparently Mr. Love is now claiming a second instance where he says he was knocked to the ground. That is false. We look forward to some sort of evidence of that alleged other instance because if a crime had actually taken place, we assume that Mr. Love would have put in his private criminal complaint he brought to the Pennsylvania state courts,” Breen said.
Breen also says his client was praying near an abortion clinic when Love approached him and began behaving “extremely aggressively” and harassing Houck’s then-12-year-old son.
According to Houck’s wife, he is a pro-life advocate who counseled moms on the sidewalk outside the abortion clinic with his 12-year-old son. Love is a “pro-abortion demonstrator” who reportedly poked at Houck’s son verbally for “weeks and weeks,” saying “crude, inappropriate, and horrible things.” Despite Houck asking the man to stop, “he kept doing it and kind of came into [the son’s] personal space” spouting obscenities about the father, and eventually, Houck shoved the man.
So why raid a father of seven’s home? That’s what a dozen Republican U.S. senators want to know. They are demanding that Attorney General Merrick Garland answer that question.
They say they would also like to know why the Justice Department waited 11 months to indict Houck. The senators maintain the FBI chose to raid a pro-life advocate’s home in a flagrant violation of the department’s use of force policy because Houck had been cooperating with their federal investigation.
Mary Margaret Olohan, a senior reporter at The Daily Signal obtained these photos from the morning the FBI arrested Houck in front of his children.
Photos from the morning the FBI arrested Mark Houck in front of his children. pic.twitter.com/NbLq5bnDQa
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 4, 2022
According to the DOJ, if convicted of the offenses, Houck faces up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000.