(LifeSiteNews) — The Thomas More Society (TMS) has released a dramatic short video recalling the gratuitous ordeal the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) inflicted upon pro-life activist Mark Houck and his family along with the monumental victory they achieved on his behalf winning his full acquittal from a Philadelphia jury.
As originally reported by LifeSiteNews, Houck was subjected to a dawn raid by the Biden administration’s FBI in September 2022, with dozens of heavily armed agents swarming the family’s property, “terrorizing” Houck’s wife and children, as he described the incident later.
In the video, Houck explains his experience of his sudden arrest, having several FBI agents “in heavily armored vests, ballistic helmets, [and] ballistic shields,” pointing M-16 guns at him when he opened the door of his house in response to their violent pounding.
A father of seven young children, Houck and his wife Ryan-Marie both emphasized the shocking impact this traumatic experience had on their kids, describing them as “screaming” and “hysterical” throughout the ordeal.
READ: FBI raids home of Catholic pro-life speaker, author with guns drawn as his terrified kids watch
The video also highlights clips of U.S. Senator Josh Hawley’s grilling of Attorney General Merrick Garland over the incident last March.
“The local prosecutor, the Philadelphia district attorney, who is a Democrat, a liberal, very progressive, declined to prosecute [Houck],” Hawley recalled. Furthermore, “there was a private suit that got dismissed. And then after all of that, your Justice Department sent between 20 to 30 armed agents in the early morning hours to the Houck’s private residence to arrest this guy, after he had offered to turn himself in voluntarily!”
READ: GOP senators grill Merrick Garland over FBI, DOJ terrorizing Mark Houck and his family
“Why did the Justice Department do this?” the Missouri senator demanded of Garland. “Why did you send 20 to 30 SWAT-style agents and a SWAT-style team to this guy’s house when everybody else had declined to prosecute and he’d offered to turn himself in?”
Describing the humiliation he was subjected to by FBI agents, Houck said after fingerprinting him at the federal building in Philadelphia, “they proceeded to cuff me again, but this time, the cuffs were not on my wrists, but they were on my ankles. And then they belly-shackled me. Don’t ask me why.”
“They mistreated me in every way that I could be mistreated, verbally dehumanized me, [as if I] had no dignity. And I learned quickly that the process was the punishment, that they wanted to punish me for my pro-life stance, for my family’s activism.”
Charges against Houck carried a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison, $350,000 in fines and three years’ supervised probation. “And I’m just preparing my heart for prison because I know I’m not going to get a fair trial in the city of Philadelphia. I know I’m not going to get fair treatment. Why should I expect that?”
“I remember when the jury first came in and I first saw them,” Ryan-Marie, Mark’s wife, recalled. “It was such a strange moment to look at the faces of these strangers who would be deciding my family’s fate. All of the jurors either had used Planned Parenthood services, volunteered at Planned Parenthood or financially supported them.”
“When the verdict came, we were just overwhelmed with joy,” she said, emphasizing their family’s appreciation for the generous and competent representation of TMS attorneys. “Just on the legal front, we couldn’t have done this without them, so we’re super grateful to them.”
READ: Mark Houck acquitted on both charges in major pro-life victory
Houck’s criminal trial, United States v. Mark Houck, was conducted and concluded in late January at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Houck was acquitted on all charges.
The DOJ had charged Houck with two felonies for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act when he pushed abortion clinic “escort,” Bruce Love, 73, during sidewalk altercations on two separate occasions in 2021.
During the trial, the TMS attorneys successfully made the case that the Catholic sidewalk counselor and father pushed abortion “escort” Love simply to protect his then-12-year-old son, whom Love had been verbally harassing using vulgar language.
The federal government attempted to claim that Houck violated all elements of the FACE Act because he had undeniably pushed Love, as evidenced by video footage; that he did so to stop him from his work as an abortion “escort;” and that he was motivated to do so because he “had had enough” of Love performing his function.
However, Houck consistently stated that he simply pushed the “escort” “because he was harassing my 12-year-old boy.”
In addition, the defense team presented evidence earlier in the trial indicating that the FACE Act was never intended to cover abortion “escorts.” Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, chief sponsor of the legislation, had clearly stated that “Demonstrators, clinic defenders, escorts, and other persons not involved in obtaining or providing services in the facility may not bring such a cause of action.”
Defense attorney Brian McMonagle, who is working in tandem with the Thomas More Society, also told the jury during his closing arguments at the time that Houck had “a right to be on that sidewalk” and argued that the case centers around the First Amendment.
McMonagle noted that, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews, the Planned Parenthood “escort” manual explicitly forbids the volunteers from engaging in altercations with protesters. He also observed that the CEO of the local Planned Parenthood chapter wanted Love pulled from his rotation because of his failures to abide by the policy.
Pointing out that the Biden administration’s DOJ didn’t take up the case until a year after it occurred, McMonagle said “you’re darn right” the prosecution of Houck “has to do with politics.”
According to McMonagle, Love “set in motion a chain of events that now jeopardizes that young man’s dad [pointing to Mark’s young son], and you know it.”
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