President Joe Biden\u2019s administration relied on information gathered from radical pro-abortion groups to track, prosecute, and snoop on peaceful pro-life protesters, shocking emails released Tuesday by the Trump administration show.<\/p>\n
The emails show a top Justice Department official referring to an abortion activist as an \u201cMVP\u201d for flagging pro-life protests to prosecute and seeking to track the travel plans of Christian pro-life activists not yet charged with crimes. The emails also reveal pro-abortion organizations providing dossiers to the Biden DOJ with personal information and pictures of pro-life activists who were later arrested by the FBI.<\/p>\n
These dossiers contained the information of pro-life activists who were not yet charged with any federal crimes, but were deemed threats by the abortion groups because of their activism. Many of these individuals would later be prosecuted by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nDossier from National Abortion Federation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Under Biden, dozens of pro-life protesters were prosecuted for peaceful protests that included praying, singing, and sitting in front of doors of abortion facilities. Several were sentenced to years in prison with others awaiting sentencing before President Donald Trump pardoned<\/a> the pro-life activists his first week in office.<\/p>\n The emails released Tuesday were included in an extensive report documenting how the Biden administration weaponized the Freedom of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act against pro-life activists. The law was originally passed to protect both crisis pregnancy centers and abortion facilities, but has been disproportionately used against pro-life protesters.<\/p>\n The weaponization can be traced to Biden resurrecting the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers shortly after he was elected, according to the Justice Department. The task force operated largely out of the department\u2019s Civil Rights Division under the direction of Sanjay Patel, who was reportedly fired on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Task Force Director was in regular, ongoing contact with pro-abortion non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the clinics they represented, but disregarded pro-life groups,\u201d the Justice Department wrote Tuesday. \u201cPro-abortion groups capitalized on their relationship with the Task Force to gain internal information and push targets for FACE Act enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n Patel was on \u201ctexting terms\u201d with the National Abortion Federation Security Team and \u201cregularly communicated\u201d with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Justice Department said.<\/p>\n In one exchange from November 17, 2021, Patel connected an FBI agent with Michelle Davidson, the security director for the National Abortion Federation.<\/p>\n Patel told the unidentified FBI agent that Davidson was \u201ca wonderful contact for me as it relates to FACE Act investigations. She has been an MVP bringing incidents to my attention, often in real-time, which usually result in investigation\/prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n The email was labeled as highly important and began with Patel greeting both, \u201cHow the heck are you?\u201d<\/p>\n The bombshell revelations also include details of how abortion groups provided dossiers to government officials with information on pro-life activists later arrested by the FBI.<\/p>\n The report said that Patel monitored \u201cpro-life activists for years before charging them. This monitoring included three of the pardoned defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n One dossier provided to Patel from an abortion group in 2021 contained personally identifying information including addresses, photographs (including of spouses and young children), names of associates and affiliated ministries, information about their upcoming travel plans or planned protests, and even drivers\u2019 license numbers of pro-life activists, according to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n One man who faced particular scrutiny from the Biden DOJ was Calvin Zastrow<\/a>, an evangelical Christian from Michigan who travels the country with his family engaging in evangelism and pro-life activism. Emails showed that Zastrow and members of his family were flagged for the Justice Department and that Patel even enlisted the help of abortion activists to track the whereabouts and activities of Zastrow years before he was charged with any crimes.<\/p>\n An email from the National Abortion Federation to Patel on May 13, 2021 flagged \u201canti-choice social media\u201d Facebook posts from Zastrow reflecting on how previous pro-life protests were \u201cnormal Christian behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n A few months later, Patel reached out to the National Abortion Federation to inquire about his travel plans.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you have any info on Zastrow and Co\u2019s travel to Montana?\u201d Patel asked Davidson of the National Abortion Federation on September 9, 2021. That came after Davidson emailed the DOJ telling officials she \u201cbet\u201d that Zastrow might attempt to lead a protest at an abortion facility in Montana.<\/p>\n Justice Department<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Zastrow was not charged<\/a> by the Biden Justice Department until October 2022 for a protest in Tennessee, and then again in February 2023 for a protest in Michigan.<\/p>\n His daughter, Eva Zastrow, was flagged in a 136-page dossier compiled by the Justice Department documenting attendees of a conference hosted by Operation Save America, a pro-life group.<\/p>\n \u201cThe entire Zastrow family is engaged in anti-choice activities and sometimes refer to themselves as the \u2018Zastrow Holiness Revival Team.\u2019 Several members of the Zastrow family, including Eva, have been arrested at reproductive health care facilities in the past,\u201d the entry on the young woman read.<\/p>\n The dossier added that she was \u201cclosely associated\u201d with Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Heather Idoni, James Zastrow, and Eva Edl, an 89-year-old communist death camp survivor. All of those individuals were later prosecuted by the Biden administration. It also included personal details like birthdate, email address, phone number, addresses, description of her physical appearance, and noted that she had traveled as a missionary.<\/p>\n National Abortion Federation\/DOJ.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The entry detailed protests Zastrow joined at abortion facilities in Tennessee<\/a> and Michigan<\/a>, incidents for which she was later charged and faced prosecution at trials covered extensively by The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n Another dossier included in the exhibits for the report was compiled by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Global Safety and Security Intelligence and Investigations on Operation Save America. The dossier included the photos of multiple individuals later pardoned by Trump.<\/p>\n In contrast, the Trump Justice Department said the Task Force spent little time investigating the attacks on pregnancy centers and largely ignored pro-lifers concerned about the uptick in vandalism targeting pro-life establishments following the leak of the decision to overturn Roe <\/em>v. Wade<\/em>.<\/p>\n At the same time as they worked to prosecute pro-lifers with assistance from pro-abortion groups, Biden officials cozied up to abortion activists and agreed to help them obtain grants to continue their activism.<\/p>\n An email from October 31, 2023 showed Biden DOJ official Paige Fitzgerald describing the relationship between the federal government and the National Abortion Federation as stretching on for \u201cdecades.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have worked with NAF for decades. NAF regularly refers potential FACE Act violations and other threats to RPCPs [Reproductive Healthcare Providers], helps us liaise with clinics and staff, lets us know about upcoming events that might result in security concerns so we can notify the FBI and USMS, etc,\u201d Fitzgerald wrote in the email. \u201cThe information flow has always been a one-way street, and they have always been respectful, cooperative, and are frequently quite helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Fitzgerald was asking a federal ethics officer whether they would be allowed to provide a reference after the National Abortion Federation asked for a letter \u201con DOJ letterhead\u201d to help them with a grant application.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there anything that we can do to tell grant folks that they are totally legit and they have been valuable to our law enforcement efforts?\u201d Fitzgerald wrote.<\/p>\n In a different email from December 2020, Patel said he could serve as a reference for the National Abortion Federation application for a grant with the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s report contains other damning revelations, including that federal attorney Frances Lee Carlson complained about a magistrate judge being Catholic.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we ended up with a very Catholic magistrate on duty this week and he was very particular about the bond conditions and not infringing on their first amendment [sic] rights,\u201d she wrote in an email to Patel while prosecuting a case in Michigan against multiple pro-life defendants later pardoned by Trump.<\/p>\n In response, Patel wrote, \u201cUgh\u2026always a veritable circus with these cases.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-13-at-6.14.57-PM.png\")
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