A prominent Catholic activist is suing President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) authorities raided his home and arrested him in front of his children.
According to Fox News, pro-life activist Mark Houck filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department on Wednesday, seeking restitution for what it called “a faulty investigation” and “excessive force” after a SWAT team of around 25 people arrested him in front of his children. (RELATED: FBI SWAT Team Raids Home of Prominent Pro-Life Activist)
“These government agents intentionally sought to assault Mr. Houck and deprive him of his Fourth Amendment rights by using excessive force to arrest him on non-violent charges when he had not threatened law enforcement, did not own a gun, and had offered to turn himself into authorities if indicted,” the lawsuit, filed by law firm Graves Garrett LLC, read.
Houck is seeking $1.1 million in damages and claimed the lawsuit “seeks to hold the DOJ and the FBI accountable for their investigative and law enforcement officers’ tortious conduct against him.”
Houck and his wife have claimed since the arrest that the FBI was unnecessarily aggressive and threatening while taking Houck into custody. (RELATED: FBI Agents Point M-16s At Innocent Children Of Catholic Father)
“They said they were going to break in if he didn’t open it,” Ryan-Marie previously told Catholic News Agency, “and then they had about five guns pointed at my husband, myself and basically at my kids.”
The Justice Department initially charged Houck over allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act over an incident outside an abortion clinic in Philadelphia in October 2021. (RELATED: Pro-life Activist Acquitted After Traumatizing FBI Raid)
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the FACE prohibits violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services.
However, the Justice Department ultimately dropped the charges.
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