Catholic pro-life activist and former Biden Department of Justice target Mark Houck will attend the State of the Union as Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry’s guest on Tuesday night, Houck shared with The Daily Signal on Monday.
“Mark Houck and his family are innocent victims of the radical Left’s reprehensible abuse of power, which systematically seeks to destroy the lives of hard-working Americans whose only ‘crimes’ are using their God-given constitutional rights to protect their families, faith, and way of life,” Perry told The Daily Signal on Tuesday.
“President [Joe] Biden has weaponized the power of the federal government against anyone who thwarts his radical, leftist agenda,” the congressman continued. “He should see the faces of some of those Americans who have been relentlessly and unjustifiably persecuted by the same government sworn to protect their freedoms.”
Houck’s family awoke on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, to FBI agents banging on the door, guns drawn, to arrest him.
The Houck children shared with The Daily Signal that they were terrified and uncertain when they would see their father again. Houck and his attorneys believe that Biden’s DOJ sought to make an example of him for his pro-life activism as a response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“My wife and I are honored to be asked by the Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry to attend the State of the Union as his guests,” Houck said Tuesday after Catholic Vote reported the news. “We hope our presence with members of Congress will continue to raise awareness about the injustice that was rendered against my family and others in recent months.”
“We pray for the opportunity to meet with those who need to hear our story and for the eventual opportunity to testify before the Judiciary Committee about our reckless experience with the Department of Justice,” he added.
A jury cleared the father of seven of the DOJ charges last week, finding him not guilty on two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act when, outside a Pennsylvania abortion clinic, Houck pushed a pro-abortion activist who was antagonizing his son (local authorities had already dismissed the incident).
“We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome,” Peter Breen, Thomas More Society executive vice president and head of litigation, said in a statement Monday. “Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them.”
“We took on Goliath—the full might of the United States government—and won,” Breen added. “The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from Day One. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”
Breen previously told The Daily Signal that the Justice Department sent “20-plus heavily armed federal agents with shields and long guns” to arrest Houck in late September as his children watched “to intimidate pro-life people and people of faith.”
Houck refused to take a government plea deal and pled not guilty to the federal charges. His legal team argued that the Justice Department was violating the Constitution by engaging in “viewpoint discrimination” and “selective prosecution” against Houck, violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment’s protection for the free exercise of religion.
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