On April 14, 2026, the Trump administration fired four federal prosecutors who handled Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act cases under the Biden administration. The FACE Act, signed in 1994, protects access to abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers. Under Biden, prosecutors used it to bring criminal charges against pro-life activists who blockaded clinic entrances. Some were sentenced to years in federal prison.
Now those prosecutors are gone, and the DOJ says they were the real criminals.
Based on a review of more than 700,000 internal records, the DOJ report alleges:
• Prosecutors coordinated with abortion-rights groups to identify activist targets
• Sentencing recommendations for pro-life defendants averaged 26.8 months vs. 12.3 months for attacks on pro-life organizations
• Prosecutors attempted to screen out jurors based on religious beliefs
• In some cases, evidence was withheld from defense attorneys
• Aggressive arrest tactics were used instead of allowing voluntary surrender
“This department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice. 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.” — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche
The Full Sequence
The firings are the final step in a systematic dismantling of FACE Act enforcement:
Step 1: Trump issued pardons for pro-life activists convicted under Biden. Criminal records cleared.
Step 2: The DOJ dismissed several pending civil FACE Act cases.
Step 3: Future FACE Act prosecutions were limited to “extraordinary circumstances” only.
Step 4: The DOJ published a report accusing the previous administration of weaponizing the law.
Step 5: The prosecutors who brought the cases were fired.
The DOJ’s rapid response account on X posted: “The Department of Justice has terminated the employment of personnel responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act who still remained at the department.”
The Other Side of ‘Two-Tiered’
The DOJ’s own numbers tell a different story than Blanche’s framing suggests. The sentencing disparity — 26.8 months for pro-life defendants versus 12.3 months for attacks on pro-life organizations — could reflect case severity, not bias. Blockading a clinic to prevent patients from accessing medical care is a different act than vandalizing a pregnancy center, and federal sentencing guidelines treat them differently.
But the broader point is structural. The same DOJ that published a report accusing Biden’s prosecutors of “selective prosecution based on beliefs” is selectively prosecuting based on beliefs. They pardoned the convicted. They fired the prosecutors. They restricted future enforcement. And they did it all while using a civil rights statute as a cudgel against the people who enforced it.
The FACE Act still exists on the books. It still technically protects both abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers. But when the prosecutors who enforce it get fired, and the people convicted under it get pardoned, and future enforcement requires “extraordinary circumstances” — the law is dead in everything but name.
Sources
- Fox News / WFMD: Four prosecutors fired; 700,000 internal records reviewed; sentencing disparity (26.8 vs. 12.3 months); juror screening allegations; Blanche “two-tiered” quote; DOJ X post. April 14, 2026.
- Department of Justice: DOJ report on FACE Act enforcement; Acting AG Blanche statement; Daniel Burrows “shameful” quote; pardons and dismissals under current administration. April 2026.