DOJ fires attorneys who weaponized FACE Act against pro-life activists under Biden

The Department of Justice announced on Monday that it has fired prosecutors who were "responsible for weaponizing the FACE Act" under the Biden administration. The firings come as a report regarding the Biden Department of Justice’s use of the FACE Act is being finalized. 

A government official familiar with the firings told CBS News that at least four prosecutors were terminated, including Sanjay Patel, a longtime Civil Rights Division criminal section prosecutor who had been placed on administrative leave in March. 

Among some of the first actions Trump took during his first week back at the White House was pardoning 23 pro-life activists who had been prosecuted by the Biden administration under the FACE Act. The FACE Act, or Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances and Places of Religious Worship Act, prohibits "the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services or to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship."

Trump said at the time, “They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. This is a great honor to sign this." The activists were imprisoned for protests at abortion facilities located in Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and New York.

In a January 2025 memo, the Department of Justice wrote that "future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage." Cases that do not reach that threshold "can adequately be addressed under state or local law. Additionally, until further notice, no new abortion-related FACE Act actions—criminal or civil—will be permitted without authorization from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division."