The Justice Department has fired at least four prosecutors involved in cases under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during the Biden administration, according to a government official familiar with the matter. Among those terminated is Sanjay Patel, a longtime federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division's criminal section, who was placed on administrative leave last month. The firings occurred as a report on the FACE Act and the Biden Justice Department was finalized.
The FACE Act, passed by Congress in 1994, aims to protect access to reproductive health clinics by criminalizing threats and intimidation. Nonviolent first-time offenses are misdemeanors, while repeat offenses or those causing injury can be felonies. The report is being drafted by the DOJ's "weaponization working group," established early in former Attorney General Pam Bondi's tenure.
A DOJ spokesperson stated that the department terminated personnel "responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act." Critics, including Stacey Young, a former Civil Rights Division lawyer, argue that the firings politicize enforcement and punish attorneys for upholding the law. The Trump administration has alleged, without evidence, that the Biden-era DOJ targeted conservative Christians opposed to abortion. However, the DOJ also pursued cases against abortion rights activists accused of harassing crisis pregnancy clinic workers.
Early in his second term, President Trump pardoned several FACE Act defendants convicted during the Biden administration.