The FBI has now denied any wrongdoing in the arrest of Pro-Life activist and father Mark Houck.
Twenty plus armed FBI Agents executed a raid on a Pro-Life family’s home early Friday morning. Agents reportedly converged on the Houck home at 7:05 a.m. with drawn weapons to arrest regular sidewalk counselor Mark Houck.
Mark’s wife, Ryan-Marie, described the disturbing scene, “they started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it.” Mrs. Houck further explained that her husband tried to calm his family and before opening the door told the agents, “Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house.”
Despite the family’s cooperation, the agents continued “pounding and screaming” and upon entering the home “had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” Mrs. Houck explained.
“The kids were all just screaming,” Ryan-Marie said of the incident, “it was all just very scary and traumatic.”
In response, a spokesman from the FBI’s Philadelphia office stated, “there are inaccurate claims being made regarding the arrest of Mark Houck… No SWAT Team or SWAT operators were involved. FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck’s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents, and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident.”
Since news of the raid broke, conservatives and Pro-Lifers have responded with outrage. “The corruption & abuse of law is out of control,” responded Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, “I want to know from Merrick Garland directly why Biden’s DOJ is arresting Catholic protestors like terrorists.”
“This appears to be nothing less than a brazen continuation of the abuse of power by federal authorities against average American citizens that must stop,” said Congressman Chip Roy of Texas.
Though Mrs. Houck explains that they were originally told by agents “that they were going to take him whether they had a warrant or not,” agents eventually produced the first page of a warrant. The warrant stated that Mark Houck was being arrested for an incident that occurred over a year ago in which he allegedly pushed a Planned Parenthood activist away from his son, as the activist was verbally berating the 12-year-old boy. The charges against Mr. Houck had since been dropped by local authorities.
Nevertheless, Biden’s Department of Justice took up the case, arresting Mr. Houck in extreme fashion. But new details have made the FBI’s raid appear even more shocking. The firm representing Mr. Houck, the Thomas More Society, has now stated that Mr. Houck voluntarily offered to come in to cooperate in the FBI’s investigation back in June.
“Rather than accepting Mark Houck’s offer to appear voluntarily, the Biden Department of Justice chose to make an unnecessary show of potentially deadly force,” explained Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Peter Breen. “In threatening form, after nearly breaking down the family’s front door, at least five agents pointed guns at Mark’s head and arrested him in front of his wife and seven young children, who were terrified that their husband and father would be shot dead before their eyes.”
“This case is being brought solely to intimidate people of faith and pro-life Americans,” Breen stated. “Mark Houck is innocent of these lawless charges, and we intend to prove that in court.”