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Washington, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) reportedly harassed pro-life advocates and employed manipulation and intimidation tactics against them in pre-trial interrogations before later throwing them behind bars in the Washington, D.C., FACE Act trials.
One of the defendants in the case, who wished to remain anonymous, has told LifeSiteNews that during pre-trial interrogations, pro-lifers were questioned by the FBI and a government agent from the division for domestic terrorism without being told their full rights until afterward.
READ: Biden DOJ’s treatment of jailed pro-lifers meets international definitions of torture
This questioning led the government to learn of communications between the pro-lifers concerning the rescue of the unborn that took place at the late-term D.C. abortion facility, the Washington Surgi-Clinic, on October 22, 2020. The DOJ and FBI used this information as grounds for the charge of “conspiracy against rights,” which carries up to 10 years in prison, thereby maximizing penalties against the pro-life defendants in a novel legal move untested in court until the D.C. FACE Act trials last fall.
“We’re targeted as domestic terrorists,” the pro-lifer told LifeSiteNews. “But I was interviewed; they had somebody from Domestic Terrorism come up from Florida. One of the FBI in charge of that came up from Florida to interview me, when I was in jail, and this was in 2020. So [Attorney General Merrick] Garland’s saying they haven’t targeted us, but he’s in charge. He must know that this stuff is going on or he’s ordering it.”
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Jailed pro-lifer paraded into courtroom fully shackled ahead of Michigan FACE Act trial
The pro-lifer explained that when they were initially arrested, it was only for trespassing. At the time, no charges were lodged against them.
“When we were first arrested, nothing happened. We didn’t have any charges put against us at all. They said it just was trespassing, but nothing happened from it.”
However, they were brought into custody again for questioning by the FBI and an agent from domestic terrorism.
Recounting a conversation while in custody, the pro-lifer said, “They said, ‘You have to talk to the FBI before you can leave.’ They didn’t tell us it was optional to talk to the FBI. But then, when we went down to talk to the FBI, they did read us our Miranda rights. But we all were under the impression that we had to talk to the FBI, whether we liked it or not.”
“The memorandum said you don’t have to talk to them. But we were already down there, and they were making it seem like we had to talk to the FBI. We really didn’t,” he continued. “We could have gone into the room and said, I’m not talking to anybody. But we didn’t realize that; we didn’t get that. If we were a criminal, we’d know all about that.”
READ: Elderly jailed pro-lifer begs congressman to intervene with Democrat judge for urgent medical care
“The lady from Domestic Terrorism came up from Florida. My lawyer asked her during my trial. Were you here for anybody else? How many times have you been up here to interview people before? She said, ‘This was my first time.’”
“Telling us that we had to talk to the FBI before we could leave, that wasn’t true. We didn’t. They knew they were manipulating us. So, we didn’t know that we didn’t have to talk to the FBI,” he added.
The pro-lifer also recounted the dawn raid the FBI conducted before the interrogations, similar to the infamous FBI arrest of Mark Houck, in which the Catholic pro-life father of seven was taken at gunpoint in front of his wife and small children for defending his son from assault while sidewalk counseling at an abortion facility.
“We have FBI agents arrive at the crack of dawn at my house. Thirty-three Suburbans pull in the driveway, and I get dragged off to Boston. The local police had to go with me. They said, ‘You have to do this and that and everything else; you have to give your DNA.’ And I didn’t know any of that was optional. They just said, ‘You have to do this, you have to do that,’ and they just took my DNA and did all those things without my permission. And I found out later that that is not mandatory, that you have a right to refuse that,” he recalled.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Elderly jailed pro-lifer denied urgent medical treatment for ‘excruciating’ hip pain
The pro-lifer also recounted another instance of harassment, when, after being detained in the basement of a jail for nearly an entire day, they were brought before a judge to decide whether to hold an identification hearing, which the defendant declined as unnecessary.
“Then I had to go in there for the day and we sat in court, we sat in Boston in the jail, in the basement of the jail until all the other cases were heard. [It was] about 4:00 in the afternoon. We went in, and they said, ‘Well, you have a right to waive your right to an identification hearing. You can have an identification hearing to say that you are who you say you are. But if you want, you have a right to waive that,'” he said.
“So then, I said, ‘I don’t have to have a hearing to identify who I am. I know who I am, and this is who I am.’ And then that was it, that’s all that they did. It was harassment to bring us into court that day, absolute harassment. They could have written us a letter, a phone call would have done, they could have done any of those things. That was completely frivolous.
The pro-lifer added that when the FBI arrested another defendant who is currently behind bars, “they broke down his door and went in with their guns drawn,” similar to other arrests of Christian pro-lifers across the country.
“We do not get treated like regular people get treated,” the pro-lifer said.
Sentencing for the nine D.C. pro-lifers will take place on May 14, 15, and 17.
Sign the prayer pledge for the nine pro-life rescuers facing a decade in prison.
LifeSiteNews’ extensive coverage of the D.C. Face Act trials can be found here.
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