The Justice Department dismissed four prosecutors ahead of the release of an explosive internal investigation that found the Biden administration collaborated with pro-choice advocacy groups in selectively enforcing federal law against abortion foes.
The terminations came shortly before Tuesday’s release of the DOJ Weaponization Working Group report, an 882-page document that found the Biden-era department wielded the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act almost exclusively against anti-abortion protesters even as scores of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers went unsolved.
When pro-choice activists did face federal charges, prosecutors used a far lighter touch. The department sought prison sentences averaging 12.3 months for abortion-rights protesters versus 26.8 months for pro-life defendants.
“This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Tuesday statement. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden Administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”
Hours before, the department wrote on X that “DOJ has terminated the employment of personnel responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act who still remained at the department.”
The fired prosecutors, according to CBS News, included Sanjay Patel, who worked closely with pro-choice groups in pursuing pro-life protesters as head of the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers under Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Mr. Patel was on “texting terms” with Michelle Davidson, head of the National Abortion Federation security task force, praising her for flagging pro-life targets.
“She has been an MVP bringing incidents to my attention, often in real-time, which usually result in investigation/prosecution,” Mr. Patel said in a 2021 email, as shown in the report.
The heightened prosecutions of pro-life activists came with the Biden administration vowing to “protect access to reproductive health care” following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which sent abortion decision-making back to the states.
Kristen Clarke, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, defended the department’s record, saying that her division “enforced the law even-handedly and put public safety at the center of this work.”
“The Civil Rights Division brought law enforcement leaders, crisis pregnancy center representatives, faith leaders, and reproductive health care staff together to address the real violence, threats of violence, and obstruction that too many people face in our country when it comes to reproductive health care,” she told news outlets in a statement on Tuesday.
In doing so, however, the department treated the FACE Act as a one-way street, the report said.
“Though the Act was supposed to protect both pro-choice and pro-life facilities, the Biden DOJ provided extensive support to abortion clinics, while ignoring and downplaying vandalism and attacks against pregnancy resource centers,” the department said.
TODAY: The Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group published a report detailing the Biden Administration’s weaponization of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) April 14, 2026
“This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” said Acting Attorney… pic.twitter.com/oXV9Y7EirO
The pro-life facilities, which provide services to new and expectant mothers ranging from ultrasounds to baby clothes, suffered nearly 100 attacks in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, including three firebombings.
Even so, federal prosecutors had minimal contact with pro-life leaders on such matters.
Instead, the department worked closely with pro-choice groups, including Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and the Feminist Majority Foundation, to track pro-life demonstrations and activists.
“These groups compiled evidence and dossiers that ultimately gave rise to search warrants and charges,” the department said Tuesday. “The Biden DOJ affirmatively asked pro-abortion groups about pro-life individuals’ travel and constitutionally protected advocacy. The Biden DOJ and career attorneys monitored pro-life activists for years before charging them.”
Prosecutors also helped the NAF secure federal grant funding by acting as references on its grant applications, the report said.
Not only did prosecutors cross the line into advocacy, but the report said they violated the law by withholding evidence from the defense in the case against pro-life activist Chet Gallagher, telling his attorneys that the department had no historical data on FACE Act prosecutions.
“Notably, he had this information readily available and decided not to share it with the defendants, despite sharing substantially identical information with NAF,” the report said.
Prosecutors exhibited an anti-Christian bias, seeking to screen out religious jurors and referring to pro-life views as “culty.”
During the four-year period, the department charged 45 pro-life activists in 20 cases, representing a quarter of all FACE Act prosecutions since the law was passed in 1994, according to the pro-life Thomas More Society.
Meanwhile, prosecutors brought FACE Act cases against only five abortion-rights activists.
Steve Crampton, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, which represented several pro-life defendants, said his legal team “witnessed firsthand this unprecedented weaponization in the courtroom.
“Prosecutors who mocked our clients’ faith, withheld evidence we were entitled to, and took their marching orders from abortion industry leaders,” said Mr. Crampton, who was involved in the trials of three protesters.
“Today’s report proves what we at Thomas More Society have alleged from the start — that these prosecutions were driven not by the rule of law, but by political bias and coordination with the abortion industry,” he said.
Days after taking office, Mr. Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists convicted of FACE Act charges stemming from protests and blockades outside abortion clinics.
Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, called the department’s findings “outrageous” and urged the Trump administration to provide “accountability and continued transparency so that this weaponization does not happen again.”
In addition to the pardons, the department said it has dropped three FACE Act cases against pro-life activists and moved to limit the ability of prosecutors to bring charges under the law.
“The Trump DOJ issued a directive that, moving forward, DOJ prosecutors may only bring abortion-related civil actions and prosecutions under the FACE Act in extraordinary circumstances or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors,” said the department.
The report drew on 700,000 internal documents and includes more than 800 exhibits.
“The behavior unearthed in this report is shameful,” said Assistant Attorney General Daniel Burrows in a statement. “Lawyers who should have known better withheld evidence, worked to keep committed religious people off juries, and generally allowed the Department of Justice to be used as the enforcement arm of pro-abortion special interests.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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