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Mark Houck was making breakfast in his Pennsylvania home in the quiet hours of Sept. 23, 2022. His seven children were still sleeping when he was startled by urgent pounding on the front door and the doorbell rapidly ringing.

“Open up!” men bellowed aggressively.

“You would think they would have yelled, ‘It’s the FBI. We have a warrant for your arrest. Please open the door,’ or something like that. They just yelled, ‘Open up!” Houck told The Federalist. “So, I go to the door, very anxious and concerned, and I yell through the door, ‘Who is it?’ And they did the same thing; they banged on the door, they rang the doorbell again, and this time they said, ‘Open up! It’s the FBI! Hurry up! Hurry up, hurry up!’ like they’re going to come in if I don’t open the door.”

There was a time when the average person did not think about the FBI. But under President Joe Biden’s administration and FBI Director Christopher Wray, the FBI was weaponized to go after Christians, conservatives, and pro-lifers with no criminal record. Despite Wray’s announcement this week that he will step down before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the effects of Wray’s heavy-handed leadership leave scars and, for some, changed the direction of their lives.

Through the door, Houck asked the FBI agents to stay calm and told them he had his children in the house. Then he opened the door. He saw about 20 people on his porch and in his yard. Some had M16 rifles, others had pistols drawn. They patted him down.

“I said, ‘What are you doing here?’” Houck recalled. “They said, ‘You know why we’re here.’ Then I connected it. I said, ‘You’re here because I rescue babies.’”

Houck said everyone paused when he said that. Silence. “You wouldn’t be here if the Trump administration was in the White House,” he added.

Six months earlier, he received a letter from the FBI saying he was the target of a grand jury investigation. Houck routinely acts as a sidewalk counselor at a Philadelphia abortion mill, and he says his family has saved over 100 babies’ lives by offering pregnant women alternatives to abortion. Months earlier, an abortion escort who shields women from sidewalk counselors by walking them into the building was harshly taunting Houck’s young son. Houck asked the escort to stop, he didn’t, and Houck shoved him. The man fell to the ground but was uninjured.

The man asked police and the district attorney to file charges, but they did not find a crime. The escort then went to the feds, and that started the grand jury investigation. Houck said his attorney checked in with prosecutors months before the FBI raid, but the FBI did not return his calls.

They assumed the incident was over. Houck’s attorneys told the Department of Justice that he was willing to come into the office and meet with them. But the FBI opted to arrest him in front of his children at 6:30 a.m. They charged Houck with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), which prohibits interfering with a woman walking into an abortion mill. No abortion customer was involved in the scuffle. A jury acquitted Houck on Jan. 30, 2023.

The morning of the arrest, Houck’s wife and children heard the commotion and came downstairs. She stood in the doorway, and the children were on the stairs. The FBI pointed guns in the direction of his wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, and their children.

Mrs. Houck asked FBI agents if they had a warrant for his arrest.

“They said, ‘Ma’am, we’re taking him with or without a warrant.’ Like … ‘We don’t have to give you anything,’” Mr. Houck said. “But they do have to give you a warrant, because that’s against the Fourth Amendment. They can’t take someone from their home without a warrant. That was the attitude under Director Wray.”

Lasting Effects

The dramatic arrest and stress of the federal court case haunt the family. The uncertainty of how long Houck might have to spend in prison was oppressive. The couple has lost three babies to miscarriages since the raid. When someone knocks on the door or they see a strange car in the driveway, some in the family have panic attacks.  

All of the children have had sleeping problems. Because his reputation was smeared, Houck lost many speaking engagements and business opportunities that were part of his normal income.

The Houcks are suing the federal government for damages for the impact the needless raid had on the family.

“We’re holding them accountable on behalf of the American people, on behalf of pro-lifers, on behalf of the First Amendment,” Houck said.

Mr. Houck ran for Congress as a Republican in 2023 but lost to incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the primary race.

“You don’t feel safe in your home anymore. That’s probably the biggest thing, and maybe the worst thing that the FBI did. They stole the innocence of my children in an instant. They took them from that which we had been fighting and preserving through homeschooling. That’s the biggest crime in all this, that the children were robbed of that innocence at a very young age.”

FBI Raids Again

Paul Vaughn, a Tennessee father of 11, had a similar visit from Wray’s weaponized FBI in October 2022. Vaughn had been in a hallway outside a Tennessee abortion mill reading from the Bible and singing church hymns in March 2021.

When they were ready to charge him with FACE violations, the FBI raided his home early in the morning.

FBI vehicles came rushing into the driveway with lights flashing, and FBI agents ran out of the vehicle.

Three of Vaughn’s children were in the yard getting ready to go to school when the FBI arrived, Vaughn told The Federalist. Agents with rifles detained his children in the side yard while other agents went up to the house, banging on the doors and windows.

Three agents arrested Vaughn in front of his other children who were in the house.

His children have suffered from symptoms similar to those the Houck children have faced, including post-traumatic stress from the arrest and trial process.

Vaughn was found guilty, along with others who were at the abortion mill with him. He is a convicted felon and cannot vote or own a gun. He is serving house arrest for six months followed by three years’ probation. His movement is restricted, and he cannot leave his region without permission from his parole officer.

Vaughn was invited to testify about the FACE Act in Congress on Dec. 18, but before he could speak, he had to jump through a lot of hoops to get permission.

He needed to engage an attorney and get the permission of his parole officer, the judge, and four people within the Department of Justice. They have given him permission, so he will be allowed to travel.  

“It is a wonderful thing that he was not given jail time; no doubt that was a huge win,” Steve Crampton, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, which represented Vaughn, told The Federalist. “Nonetheless, as a convicted felon under house arrest, followed by three years of supervised release, which entails his having to get permission from his probation officer to visit even a daughter or daughter-in-law giving birth in the hospital, to go and visit the newborn grandchild, to go visit a family for holidays, and in this case, to go and do his civic duty and testify before Congress. He is at the mercy of his probation officer and the government. I mean, it’s preposterous.”

Vaughn says as much as his case, which started as an FBI raid, is an injustice, there are people in prison under the same pretense.

“Their facts were mildly different, but the spirit they operated in — there was no violence. There was very peaceful discussion, and seeking to help unborn children was the heart of what they’re doing, and they’re in jail,” Vaughn said. “And so as much as I’m incensed by the injustice of the process that I’m engaged in, it’s 10 times worse when you’re literally not able to be on house arrest at Christmas or Thanksgiving.”

“The government is supposed to be defending the lives of innocent people. And as the government failed,” Vaughn continued. “These people stood up and were willing to do that, peacefully and nonviolently. And now the government is inflicting the price of prison on them.”

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.