Bob Onder Rails Against Actions From The DOJ Under The Biden Administration

2 days ago

At a House Weaponization Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) spoke about the politicization of the Department of Justice.

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Transcript

00:00I now recognize the gentleman from the great state of Missouri, Dr.

00:03Under. Thank you, Mr Chairman. And thank you all for coming today. Um, Mr

00:08Breen, um, on September 23rd, 2022, the FBI, uh, raided the home of your

00:14client Mark Howe, following indictment, um, charging face act violations based

00:20on an alleged shoving incident that took place where he was defending his

00:25son, um, near an abortion clinic. Um, Mr Breen, as I is, if my memory serves

00:32right, other prosecutors had looked at that at that case, the how case prior

00:40to this SWAT team raid. Could you could you refresh my memory on that? Yes,

00:44Congressman. And in fact, it had been prosecuted through the state level

00:48system, and the charges were dropped because the complaining witness refused

00:51to show up. Right. In fact, he'd gone on vacation one time. One time he

00:55actually went to the abortion facility to escort. And when Mark arrived, you

01:01know, they went to court. He wasn't there. Mark arrived, said, Did you

01:05enjoy your morning at court? This guy was a complaining witness. So that was

01:09that was looked through there. But even on the federal side, the the

01:14prosecutor, they had started in front of a grand jury and went fallow. It

01:17just stopped. Right. But then the Dobbs leak hits all this, and we watched it

01:22then restart up, and they get out an indictment so that it was clearly

01:26something that was related to trying to make a point on abortion, not because

01:31he had actually committed a crime. So dropped on the state level, dropped in

01:34the federal level and resurrected. And then did did your client do something

01:38like violent or threatened someone or something to merit 25 SWAT officers

01:45that morning? No. And in fact, it's like I can show you the email from my

01:49colleague who was a former federal prosecutor 15 years in Arizona. He had

01:54corresponded with the with the local U. S. Attorney who had requested a

01:59response, said, Hey, if you want, we'll present him. We're glad to. He's

02:03represented. Certainly no need. There wasn't a need to send, you know, 25

02:08officers. I mean, for heaven's sakes, you send one or two to the door and

02:11knock on it if you really want to go arrest him. Right. But I mean, this was

02:15outrageous, and we've seen video of it. I mean, maybe talk to his lawyer and

02:18ask him to appear in court. Right. Well, and this was our thing. Our local

02:22lawyer said if this guy was anyone but him, he would have been brought in to

02:26present. I mean, they let people that are much, much more dangerous and

02:30violent present. I mean, Mark did something, and we found out after we

02:36went into into the case, we realized no one had gone back into the legislative

02:41history of the Face Act. Senator Kennedy and Senator Durenberger literally

02:46on the floor of the Senate, right? Cut a deal and said, We are not getting in

02:50the middle of the sidewalk squabbles, right? And I gotta say he's a good

02:53Republican. You know, we don't like legislative history. It's the thing for

02:56the Republic. I'm a former legislator. I love legislative history. And for

03:00heaven's sakes, for you guys, you guys in the Congress did this. I think you

03:04should be asserting your rights to say, Stop it. You are expanding this law

03:07beyond our intent. Right, right. And so if Mark, how wasn't the kind of

03:13defendant, the suspect that would merit this kind of treatment, this must have

03:19been the Department of Justice sending a political message on abortion. Maine

03:25Justice sent people in to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. And look,

03:29Philadelphia is a rough area. In fact, our trial judge, who was a experienced

03:33prosecutor, his former Pennsylvania attorney general, he said, I have never

03:37in my time on the bench had Maine Justice send someone out to prosecute

03:42a case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Well, let me talk about

03:45another another case of a very dangerous criminal defendant. You might

03:50be familiar with Mr Hawk. On January 23rd, President Trump announced the

03:55pardon for 23 pro life advocates. One of these was Eva Adele, who, at 89

04:03years old, faced a char a sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison. Eva

04:07was a Soviet concentration camp survivor who was charged with singing

04:12and praying from her wheelchair at the entrance to an abortion facility. Um,

04:19you know, in 2022, at least 26 pro life advocates faced federal charges for

04:23face act violations the same year. Pregnancy research centers experienced

04:28serious attacks, fire bombings. And yet, to my knowledge, did not face any

04:35face act prosecutions from the Biden Justice Department. Am I? Am I correct

04:40on that? Yes, Congressman, I have specifically in mind a client in upstate

04:44New York fire bomb. Their facility took him half a million dollars to rebuild

04:49it, and they told him, Oh, we can't figure out who did it, and we can't get

04:53any answers from the police who couldn't get our surveillance video

04:55back. And it just it was outrageous. When you look at the amount of federal

05:00resources that are spent on our clients, they couldn't find these these

05:03terrorists, actual, literal domestic terrorists. So again,

05:09aggressive, aggressive prosecutorial action against pro lifers, none against

05:15actual arsonists, domestic terrorists. Would that be a politicization of the

05:21Justice Department? Absolutely. That's a politicization, and it's one that can

05:24be fixed with the new D. O. J. And under the guidance of this committee,

05:28subcommittee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Chair recognizes the

05:33gentleman from the

Bob Onder Rails Against Actions From The DOJ Under The Biden Administration

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