The Department of Justice (DOJ) has fired at least four federal prosecutors who were involved in cases under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during the Biden administration, a government official familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The department “has terminated the employment of personnel responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act who still remained at the department,” a DOJ spokesperson said.
According to CBS, Sanjay Patel, a longtime prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division’s criminal section who had been placed on administrative leave last month, was among those fired. The outlet did not identify any other staffers.
The Trump administration has long argued that the Biden administration disproportionately used the FACE Act to target pro-life activists engaged in peaceful prayer or protest outside abortion facilities. In January 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-lifers whom many argued had been unjustly prosecuted by the Biden DOJ. Some individuals faced several years in prison for peaceful protesting and sidewalk counseling.
The FACE Act, passed by Congress in 1994, makes it a federal crime to use force, threats, intimidation, or physical obstruction to interfere with people seeking “reproductive health services” or those attending religious services.
The firings came as the department’s “weaponization working group” — established early in former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s tenure — finalized a report examining how the FACE Act was enforced under the prior administration.
The report, released April 14, found that the Biden administration repeatedly weaponized the FACE Act, including by collaborating with pro-abortion groups to track pro-life activists’ activity and providing support to abortion facilities while overlooking vandalism and attacks against pro-life pregnancy resource centers, as Zeale News reported. It also said the Biden administration pursued “significantly harsher sentences for pro-life defendants than violent pro-abortion defendants.”
>> DOJ releases report on Biden admin’s ‘weaponization’ of FACE Act <<