Mark Houck received the best news of his life on Monday, when a jury cleared him of FACE Act-related charges filed by the Department of Justice. The pro-life warrior was facing up to 11 years in jail for pushing a “escort” from Planned Parenthood who verbally harassed his kid.

Dozens of others continue to face penalties under the manifestly illegal FACE Act, which violates the right to free expression in order to provide abortion mills with special protections. In Houck’s case, despite state charges being dismissed and a self-defense justification existed, the DOJ proceeded to seek prosecution as part of the Biden administration’s assault on pro-life advocates following Roe v. Wade’s overturning.

Now that we have more information about what occurred in the Houck incident, the DOJ must provide an explanation.

BREAKING: Hannity just aired the footage of the incident between Mark Houck and the Planned Parenthood escort, who clearly walks down the road to where Houck and his son are praying and counseling to threaten them.

The Biden DOJ tried to put him in jail for 11 years for this. pic.twitter.com/jqpFQi7zCv

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 31, 2023

The surveillance footage, which was released on Sean Hannity’s broadcast on Monday evening, showed numerous significant details. As an example, we see that Houck was not at the door of the abortion clinic and appears to have been more than 100 feet away, as required by the FACE Act. Moreover, it is evident that the “escort” went alone the whole length of the sidewalk in order to intimidate Houck’s kid. The advocate for abortion was not escorting anybody.

Given this, it appears that there was no rationale for the DOJ to seek FACE Act charges against Houck. Remember that the issue in this case was not whether Houck shoved the man. This situation was handled locally, as it should have been, and no one gets sentenced to 11 years in prison for shoving someone. The question was whether Houck’s activities violated the FACE Act, so allowing the DOJ to file federal charges.

I do not believe he did, and the case was sufficiently murky that the DOJ should never have intervened. They did so for solely political reasons, aiming to dissuade pro-life demonstrators from peacefully protesting and praying outside abortion facilities using the entire weight and authority of the United States government. It demonstrates exactly how tainted the DOJ is.

The fact that the prosecution was the penalty makes the situation more worse. Houck was forced to spend thousands of dollars and risk his life to defend himself against an assassination attempt whose sole purpose was to promote the radical pro-abortion agenda of the far-left. The DOJ’s normal fare is now lawfare, and it’s terrifying.