Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

DOJ’s Kristen Clarke Celebrates Prison Time for Pro-Life Activists
Daily Signal ^ | May 17, 2024 | Mary Margaret Olohan

Posted on 05/17/2024 10:08:28 AM PDT by Red Badger

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke issued a statement this week celebrating news that seven pro-life activists would spend time in prison for attempting to stop abortions from taking place.

Clarke, who heads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and is responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, painted the pro-life activists as violent radicals in her remarks: “Violence has no place in our national discourse on reproductive health.”

The activists’ actions were nonviolent, and the DOJ’s release on the matter even notes that they “passively” resisted “their anticipated arrests.”

“Using force, threatening to use force or physically obstructing access to reproductive health care is unlawful,” she added, before referring to the 1993 murder of a Florida abortionist. “As we mark the 30th anniversary of the FACE Act, it’s important that we not lose sight of the history of violence against reproductive health care providers, including the murder of Dr. David Gunn in Florida—tragic and horrific events that led to passage of the law.”

The FACE Act is a 1994 law that supposedly protects both abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers, but has been heavily enforced by President Joe Biden’s DOJ against pro-lifers since the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“The Justice Department will continue to protect both patients seeking reproductive health services and providers of those services,” the DOJ official concluded. “We will hold accountable those who seek to interfere with access to reproductive health services in our country.”

Lauren Handy is the pro-life activist who received the longest sentence. She will spend 57 months in prison and was the first person sentenced for violating the FACE Act.

The enforcement of the FACE Act is led by Clarke, who, following a report from The Daily Signal, recently admitted that she hid an arrest and its subsequent expungement from investigators when she was confirmed to her Justice Department post.

The president’s critics have accused Biden and the DOJ of weaponizing the FACE Act against pro-lifers while failing to charge pro-abortion criminals for the hundreds of attacks on pregnancy resource centers since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating Roe would soon be overturned.

Some, among them Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have called for the repeal of the FACE Act, arguing that it serves no purpose but to target pro-life activists.

“The Biden administration is using the FACE Act to give pro-life activists and senior citizens lengthy prison terms for nonviolent offenses and protests—all while turning a blind eye to the violence, arson, and riots conducted on behalf of ‘approved’ leftist causes,” Lee told The Daily Signal in a Tuesday statement.

“Unequal enforcement of the law is a violation of the law,” he added, “and men and women who try to expose the horrors of abortion are being unjustly persecuted for their motivations.”

The DOJ’s release on the seven pro-lifers who were sentenced to prison time this week describes how the pro-life activists, motivated by a desire to protect unborn babies from abortion, planned a “blockade” at Washington Surgi-Clinic in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The pro-life activists describe this type of activity as a “rescue,” hoping to stop mothers from aborting their unborn.

Under the FACE Act, such activity is considered a crime. The FACE Act prohibits use of force, obstruction, or property damage intended to interfere with “reproductive health care services.” Since 2022, the year the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Justice Department has hit at least 40 pro-life activists with FACE-related charges at five different rescues or blockades.

The DOJ describes the D.C. event as a “clinic incursion,” noting that “the defendants met with other co-conspirators to plan their crime, which included making a fake patient appointment to ensure the group’s entry into the clinic, using chains and locks to barricade the facility and passively resisting their anticipated arrests to prolong the blockade.”

“The clinic invasion was advertised on social media as a ‘historic’ event that was live-streamed on Facebook,” the DOJ said “The defendants’ forced entry into the clinic at the outset of the invasion resulted in injury to a clinic nurse. During the blockade, one patient had to climb through a receptionist window to access the clinic, while another laid in the hallway outside of the clinic in physical distress, unable to gain access to the clinic.”

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg pointed to the matter as evidence that “the FBI and our judicial system will not tolerate the obstruction of civil rights.”

“The FBI will continue to investigate FACE Act violations in all jurisdictions, so patients and providers can exercise their right to receive or provide lawful reproductive health care without the threat of violence or intimidation,” he added.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1994; abortion; abortionclinics; babykiller; chopshops; corruption; dissent; doj; dojsedition; donutwatch; enemieslist; freespeech; kristenclarke; politicalprisoners
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-34 last
To: Red Badger

Someone ought to put her up for the Margaret Sanger Award. I doubt she would understand just what she was actually being awarded for.


21 posted on 05/17/2024 11:33:50 AM PDT by mware
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

dailysignal.com
by Mary Margaret Olohan

snip

During Clarke’s confirmation hearings, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton asked Clarke: “Since becoming a legal adult, have you ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person?”

Clarke responded, “No,” according to responses she submitted to the Senate under oath in a document called “Questions for the Record.”

On Tuesday evening, Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee called for Clarke’s resignation.
“Kristen Clarke is in charge of enforcing civil rights laws,” Lee said in a statement posted to X. “She enforces those laws aggressively against anyone who sneezes near an abortion clinic. And not at all against those who vandalize churches. She lied under oath during her confirmation proceedings, and should resign.”

“She lied under oath to mask her arrest for committing a violent crime, yet she zealously prosecutes peaceful pro-life protesters,” the senator added.

Mary Margaret Olohan is a senior reporter for The Daily Signal and the author of Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult. She previously reported for both The Daily Caller and The Daily Wire. Email her at marymargaret.olohan@dailysignal.com.


22 posted on 05/17/2024 11:34:03 AM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

What is truth?
Power is truth.
And parrnts have the power to kill their own, so they have truth. “I wash my hands”....I’m gonna wash thay man right outta my head,....


23 posted on 05/17/2024 11:46:36 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

nypost.com

Kristen Clarke lied and must step down from the DOJ — NOW

By Post Editorial Board / Published May 2, 2024

DOJ official Kristen Clarke admitted that she lied during her Senate confirmation process in 2021. When you work for Joe Biden, laws really are for the little people — even when you’re in charge of enforcing them.

Witness Justice Department civil rights chief Kristen Clarke, who’s admitted that she lied during her 2021 Senate confirmation process. Asked by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a questionnaire if she had “ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person,” Clarke answered no. In fact, she had been — on a 2006 domestic violence complaint when she allegedly sliced open her hubby’s finger with a knife. Clarke’s now arguing that because the arrest was expunged, she wasn’t required to disclose it to lawmakers. That’s precisely the kind of razor-sharp logic that top Biden appointees are known for.

Then again, Clarke’s the same dunderhead who muffed a major question about First Amendment litigation last year, claiming in a congressional hearing to be totally unaware of the lawsuit by the state of Missouri against the president over government efforts against “disinformation” — a huge civil rights issue where Team Biden had lost and was appealing to the Supreme Court.

Her defense now is beyond pathetic. She told an unambiguous lie to Congress. Was she thinking she’d never get caught, or that if she did, her political connections would protect her? It’s of a piece with the overall attitude of Biden’s circle: If you have the power, laws don’t apply to you.

That a scofflaw like this should serve at such a high level in the Justice Department is beyond absurd. How can someone who seemingly lies under oath be trusted with seeing that laws are properly enforced and justice is truly served?

Not that Clarke’s previous record was stellar. She lobbied the Obama administration, way back in 2009, to let Black Panthers who terrorized black poll workers off the hook. She served on an academic journal (did she plagiarize?) with antisemitic 9/11 truther Amiri Baraka, and lied about that too.

In other words, she’s a radical to the bone. But that’s a plus in this administration: Biden has remade Justice into the enforcement arm of his political agenda, siccing the FBI on (for example) parents who protest school boards. Ideology is what matters, not integrity.


24 posted on 05/17/2024 11:47:59 AM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I’ll take ‘people who need their face knocked in’ for $500, Ken.


25 posted on 05/17/2024 11:49:46 AM PDT by Bullish (...And just like that, I was dropped from the ping-list)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sauropod

review


26 posted on 05/17/2024 11:57:51 AM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Liz

The FBI may reach out to you for more information as they investigate YOU


27 posted on 05/17/2024 11:59:11 AM PDT by itsahoot (Many Republicans are secretly Democrats, no Democrats are secretly Republicans. Dan Bongino.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: All

American Law Journal.com

excerpt-—Clarke has dedicated her career to strengthening democracy by combating discrimination faced by African Americans and other marginalized communities.

She has written many articles and books including chapters in Barack Obama and African American Empowerment: The Rise of Black America’s New Leadership and Seeking Higher Ground: The Hurricane Katrina Crisis, Race and Public Policy Reader where she also served as co-editor of both volumes.


Does she know ousted Harvard plagiarist Claudine Gay?
Did Ckarke plagiarize her numerous law journal opinions on discrimination?


28 posted on 05/17/2024 12:01:03 PM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

That’s right.

“We must cull the colored race like we do weeds.”

Rachael Carson


29 posted on 05/17/2024 12:02:31 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: laplata

Margaret Sanger.

Rachel Carson was a the Anti-DDT woman.....................


30 posted on 05/17/2024 12:04:20 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: laplata

Dang, my age is messing with my memory. Thank you.


31 posted on 05/17/2024 12:06:11 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Dang, my age is really messing with my name recall. Thank you.


32 posted on 05/17/2024 12:07:20 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: From The Deer Stand
Through its various rulings since 1947's Everson v. Board of Education, (Wall of Separation nonsense) which banned God from public schools, I hold Scotus largely responsible for the horrid coarsening of American society.
33 posted on 05/17/2024 12:32:09 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: George from New England

“One of the every more faces of today’s evil.”

Yes. The only difference between our current Gov. and the old school Nazis and Commies is that NOW they ruin your life with a big smile.


34 posted on 05/17/2024 12:51:41 PM PDT by ohioman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-34 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson