DOJ fires at least 4 prosecutors involved in FACE Act cases during Biden administration

The Justice Department has fired at least four prosecutors who were involved in prosecutions under the FACE Act during the Biden administration, a government official familiar with the firings told CBS News.

Among those fired Monday is Sanjay Patel, a longtime federal prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division’s criminal section who was placed on administrative leave last month, sources told CBS News at the time. The terminations occurred at about the same time a report on the FACE Act and the Biden Justice Department was being finalized. 

Congress passed the FACE Act in 1994 to address rising concerns about threats and intimidation that women were facing at reproductive health clinics. Nonviolent and first-time offenses of the law are misdemeanors, while repeat offenses or violations that result in bodily injury or death can be treated as felonies.

The FACE Act report is being drafted by the Justice Department’s “weaponization working group,” established in the first days of former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s tenure. 

Tuesday’s firings mark the latest in a purge that started last year of Justice Department employees, many of whom worked on criminal or civil cases opposed by the Trump administration or President Trump’s allies.

A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement that the department “has terminated the employment of personnel responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act who still remained at the department.”

Stacey Young, a former Civil Rights Division lawyer who founded and leads the nonprofit Justice Connection, said in a statement, “Congress passed the FACE Act with bipartisan support more than 30 years ago, and courts have consistently upheld the constitutionality of its provisions that ensure safe access to reproductive health services.”

She added, “Firing DOJ attorneys for zealously enforcing the law is unconscionable — it politicizes the department’s enforcement actions and punishes dedicated civil servants for doing their jobs.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly alleged without citing evidence that the Civil Rights Division under former Attorney General Merrick Garland used the Act to intentionally target conservative Christians who are morally opposed to abortion.

Although the Justice Department also pursued criminal charges against abortion rights activists who were accused of trying to scare volunteers and workers at a crisis pregnancy clinic that counseled on alternatives to abortion, excerpts of a draft the report reviewed by CBS News said the total number of such cases were minimal compared to those targeting conservative anti-abortion Christians.

Early in his second term, Mr. Trump pardoned many of the FACE Act defendants convicted during the Biden administration. The Justice Department also dismissed several other FACE Act cases and ordered prosecutors to put the brakes on future FACE Act investigations.

At the same time, however, the current Justice Department has allowed the remaining FACE Act cases involving abortion rights activists to proceed without interference, with one Florida-based defendant receiving a 120-day prison term in March 2025.

Many of the other former federal prosecutors who handled FACE Act cases have since left the Justice Department.

MS NOW was first to report that Patel had been placed on administrative leave.