On October 12, around 9:00am EDT, Ted Cruz and 39 other congressmen and senators released an open letter to FBI Director, Christopher Wray, regarding the obvious abuse of the FACE Act, indicting and raiding the homes of peaceful pro-life leaders. In addition to that, they recognized the abdication of duty to pro-life victims of violence. The letter comes after two and a half months of relentless pressure from Rev. Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare—whose pro-life medical office in Buffalo was firebombed on June 7—insisting the leadership of the FBI and DOJ moved from abdicating their duty to attacking peaceful pro-life people. Approximately four hours after the release of the letter, at 1:00pm EDT on October 12, the FBI reestablished contact with Rev. Harden in a highly unusual way—offering to come to CompassCare’s Rochester office to talk about 1) CompassCare’s lawsuit against the Amherst Police Department to retrieve CompassCare’s video surveillance evidence and 2) CompassCare’s media engagements. The meeting happened on Tuesday, October 18.
At the October 18 meeting, two agents met Rev. Harden and one of the many pro bono attorneys provided to CompassCare by the Thomas More Society. The agents conveyed their commitment to the investigation and their objectivity. Yet, they said they were unaware of the FBI’s violent SWAT raids on peaceful pro-life leaders in TN and PA. They also said the lines of communication are open and the FBI’s interests are aligned with CompassCare’s to apprehend the perpetrators of the arson. The meeting consisted primarily of double talk and platitudes around two points: CompassCare’s media engagements and lawsuit against the Amherst Police Department to retrieve video surveillance of the firebombing. As an incitement to back off and shut up on both points, the FBI offered CompassCare’s CEO the opportunity to view CompassCare’s own video footage for the first time—133 days after the June 7th firebombing of CompassCare’s medical office.
The next morning, Wednesday, October 19, CompassCare’s CEO and attorney met three more FBI agents at the FBI headquarters in Buffalo, NY to view the footage of the arson attack. At that time, the agents used psychological tactics—leveraging their personal, conservative, Catholic heritage—to soften CompassCare’s perspective on the FBI as a whole. After the meeting, Rev. Harden said, “If I’ve learned anything from the militaristic style of the FBI, it’s that agents do what they’re told to do. We will not back down or give in to violence and censorship or abdication of law enforcement’s oath-bound duty to protect all citizens equally under the law. It is obvious from my experience that the FBI, under Director Christopher Wray, is politicized and is now hiding behind conservative, Catholic agents to further promote a political agenda. Is it a coincidence that this is happening just weeks ahead of a midterm election that could spark an investigation into the dirty tactics of law enforcement leadership?”
Despite the friendly overtures, the agents made no comment as to the status of the myriad of other Jane’s Renege attacks nationwide. At the meeting, Rev. Harden cordially reminded the agents that CompassCare will continue to leverage all of the tools and resources at their disposal to maintain the accountability of law enforcement and protect the ability of pro-life pregnancy centers to serve women and save babies from abortion, free from censorship and violence.
Meanwhile, as reported by CompassCare and the Washington Examiner, targeting pro-life people and organizations seems to be official, Biden Administration and DOJ policy. On July 8, Joe Biden signed an executive order to create “Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access” to address “fraudulent schemes or deceptive practices” the Administration claimed were being perpetrated by pro-life organizations. On July 12, the Department of Justice complied, creating the Reproductive Rights Task Force, monitoring pro-life activity. As early as September 23, the FBI began arresting and indicting peaceful, pro-life leaders.
CompassCare’s hearing in the NY Supreme Court regarding the lawsuit against the Amherst Police Department is scheduled for October 26. The Town of Amherst—represented by Stanley Sliwa, who mischaracterized CompassCare’s supporters as “nut jobs… with guns and AK-47s, bombing and killing people…”—has until October 21 to provide a reason to withhold CompassCare’s private property. New York statute of limitations to bring civil charges against the arsonists is one year. CompassCare is eager to regain control of the video evidence to begin to build a civil case against the two perpetrators and any coconspirators—the window for which closes in eight (8) months.
Help CompassCare expand to reach and serve even more women seriously considering abortion in NY and across the United States.
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