WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The Trump administration fired four Justice Department prosecutors involved in cases against anti-abortion activists, accusing the Biden administration on Tuesday of abusing a law
The firings are the latest wave of terminations of employees involved in cases criticized by conservatives or because they were perceived as insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump’s agenda. The terminations came before the accusing the Biden administration of biased prosecutions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or 鈥淔ACE Act.”
鈥淭his Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,鈥� Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said in a 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.鈥�
The report is the first released from the Justice Department’s created by former Attorney General Pam Bondi to scrutinize the federal prosecutions of Trump and other cases criticized by conservatives.
Biden鈥檚 attorney general, Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith, the special counsel who prosecuted Trump, have said they followed only the facts, the evidence and the law in their decisions. Critics of the Trump administration say Bondi 鈥� 鈥� and Blanche are the ones who politicized the agency, with the norm-breaking actions that have stirred concern that the institution is being used as a tool to advance Trump鈥檚 personal and political agenda.
The Biden administration brought cases against dozens of defendants under the FACE Act, which makes it illegal to physically obstruct or use the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services, and prohibits damaging property at abortion clinics and other centers. It was signed into law in 1994, when clinic protests and blockades were on the rise along with such as .
The Trump administration alleges in the report that prosecutors under Biden often 鈥渋gnored and downplayed鈥� attacks against pregnancy resource centers or houses of worship, which are also protected under the law. It also claims that the Biden administration pushed for harsher sentences against anti-abortion activists than it did in cases against abortion-rights defendants. Trump anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances, calling them 鈥減eaceful pro-life protesters.鈥�
Kristen Clarke, who led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under Biden, defended the prosecutions, saying the attorneys “enforced the law even-handedly and put public safety at the center of this work.鈥�
鈥淭he 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,” Clarke said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
Former Civil Rights Division attorneys of cherry-picking emails and other documents to paint a misleading picture of prosecutions that were supported by evidence presented to judges and juries. Maura Klugman, who was a deputy chief in the division鈥檚 special litigation section until last year, described one of the fired lawyers, Sanjay Patel, as an ethical and 鈥渞espected career prosecutor who would never go out of bounds.鈥�
The firings are part of a broader personnel purge that has generally insulated from changes in administrations, thanks to long-recognized civil service protections.
Justice Connection, a network of former department employees, said the agency leadership鈥檚 鈥渃ruelty and hypocrisy are on full display in this report.鈥�
鈥淭hey insist on zealous advocacy by career staff in advancing the President鈥檚 priorities, while shaming and firing those who did just that in the prior administration,鈥� Stacey Young, a former department lawyer who founded Justice Connection, said in a statement. “They鈥檝e put career employees on notice: if they do their jobs, they face potential termination if future political leadership disagrees with the policy goals of prior leadership.鈥�
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