Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the nominee for U.S. Attorney General, stressed that the weaponization of law enforcement against peaceful pro-life and religious Americans 'should not be happening in the United States of America.'
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, returning President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general in his second administration, pledged Wednesday to end the weaponization of law enforcement against peaceful pro-life and religious Americans once she takes control of the U.S. Department of Justice.
During the first day of Bondi’s confirmation hearings, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri asked her about the outgoing Biden administration’s “unprecedented attack and campaign against people of faith,” including its use of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to prosecute abortion facility protesters and a 2023 memo out of the Richmond, Virginia FBI field office branding “radical-traditionalist” Catholics as a potential threat.
“I think what you’re talking about is the ultimate weaponization,” Bondi agreed, pledging to “personally read that memo” and put a stop to activities targeting Americans on the basis of their faith or political opinions.
“I would think this is something that we can all agree on, on both sides,” she said. “This should not be happening in the United States of America, and (we should) work together on it.” She also committed to review the government’s use of the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an authority on identifying domestic “extremist” groups, which to SPLC generally means only political disagreement with them.
The FACE Act ostensibly protects abortion facilities, pro-life pregnancy centers, and churches alike from protesters blocking access to them, but the Daily Caller reported that, according to data provided by Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, between 1994 and 2024 there were 205 FACE Act prosecutions against abortion opponents and just six against abortion defenders. At least 55 of the pro-abortion prosecutions occurred during President Joe Biden’s tenure, and five of the six against pro-abortion obstructions.
Further, the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) is using the 1870 Conspiracy Against Rights law, which applies to two or more people “conspir(ing) to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” others exercising their rights, to add additional charges to such prosecutions, increasing their jail time by as much as a decade – such as with the case of 75-year-old Paulette Harlow, who was sentenced to 24 months in prison for allegedly violating both laws while protesting at a Washington, D.C., abortion facility in 2020. Lauren Handy was sentenced to four years for the same.
In March 2023, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland claimed to Congress that such discrepancies were due not to politics but to infractions against abortion centers generally being in broad daylight with abundant witnesses and photography to more easily identify perpetrators. He also claimed the DOJ has reached out to victimized churches and pregnancy centers.
But “pro-life centers and organizations that were attacked over the summer in the fallout of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leak, like Concerned Women for America (CWA), (say) they have not heard from the FBI,” the Daily Signal reported in October 2022, citing an interview with CWA president Penny Nance.
Bondi is not expected to face serious difficulty being confirmed by the Senate.
