Now that he has been acquitted and beat the bogus charges the Biden administration filed against him for peacefully protesting abortion, pro-life father Mark Houck says he plans to press charges against the FBI agents who raided his home and traumatized his wife and family.
As LifeNews reported, a Philadelphia jury has found Houck not guilty on both counts that he violated the federal FACE law when he was helping women outside an abortion center. An abortion business escort accosted and bullied his son and Houck stepped in to stop it – and, in doing so, the older abortion center volunteer fell down. Houck could have faced over a decade in prison if he was found guilty.
According to a CNA report, Houck plans to legally pursue the FBI for politically targeting him:
On a Jan. 31 episode of the podcast “War Room,” the host, Steve Bannon, asked Houck: “Do you intend to press charges for prosecutorial abuse? And are you going to press charges against the FBI agents and the state troopers?”
“We most definitely will and we will be seeking counsel on that,” Houck responded.
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At the time of the arrest, Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, told CNA that “a SWAT team of about 25 came to my house with about 15 vehicles and started pounding on our door.” She added: “They said they were going to break in if he didn’t open it. And then they had about five guns pointed at my husband, myself, and basically at my kids.”
On the podcast, Houck talked more about the shameful FBI raid, conducted after his attorneys told the Biden administration he would willingly turn himself in.
“The next thing I know, I had 20-plus federal agents and state troopers banging on my door at 6:45 in the morning on Sept. 23, Friday morning,” he said.
Houck said he was awake, but his wife and kids were asleep. He said the FBI “repeatedly” rang the doorbell and banged on the door saying “open up.’”
Houck said that the authorities did not identify themselves while banging on the door.
He described the FBI’s tactics as “recklessness” and an “act of terror.”
“I opened the door and I said, ‘What are you doing here?’”
“They said, ‘You know why we’re here,’” Houck said.
“And then I said, ‘Oh, I know why you’re here. You’re here because I rescue babies,’” he said.
Houck said that he looked at all of the agents and said, “You wouldn’t be here if the Trump administration was in the White House.”
The nosy guilty verdict was a huge victory for Houck and the pro-life movement. Houck’s attorney Peter Breen celebrated the decision in comments to LifeNews.
“Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them. We took on Goliath – the full might of the United States government – and won,” he said.
Breen added: “The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”
During the trial, Houck delivered strong, clear testimony about what really happened on October 13, 2021 and testified that the two incidents that day were caused by the aggressive actions of now-former clinic escort Bruce Love.
In June 2022, Thomas More Society attorneys notified the Biden Department of Justice that the FACE Act does not cover one-on-one altercations like the one involving Houck, which was initiated by the abortion proponent who was harassing Houck’s son.
The DOJ charges go against court precedent. In June 2019, Thomas More Society attorneys won a case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, establishing that a one-off altercation, like the one in which the Biden Department of Justice is levying two counts against Houck, cannot form the basis for a FACE claim.
Houck faced a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000 for merely defending his son from being attacked.
However, Houck never blocked access to the abortion center, which is what the law is designed to stop, and the incident was nothing more than a minor scuffle. And the jury in the case agreed.
