The Trump administration is finalizing a report that casts the Biden Justice Department as anti-Christian over its enforcement of laws protecting abortion clinics and enforcement of Covid regulations, among other issues, according to details of the report viewed by NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report stems from a Justice Department-led task force that aims to \u201ceradicate anti-Christian bias\u201d formed after an executive order President Donald Trump signed in February 2025. A final version is expected to be released in the coming weeks, a Justice Department spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report does not carry any legal weight, but serves as an opportunity for the Trump administration to swipe politically at the Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has long claimed that Joe Biden was anti-Christian, though the former president is a devout Catholic who has rejected those statements. At the 2021 National Prayer Breakfast, a Christian-leaning event that brings together members of Congress, the White House and other leaders, Biden condemned the \u201cpolitical extremism\u201d that inspired the riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s order argued that the \u201cBiden Department of Justice sought to squelch faith in the public square,\u201d and the draft task force report uses similar language, claiming the Biden administration \u201cengaged in anti-Christian bias.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An analysis by the Interfaith Alliance after Trump\u2019s executive order found no evidence of widespread anti-Christian bias in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn reality, it will weaponize a narrow understanding of religious freedom to legitimize discrimination against marginalized groups,\u201d the alliance analysis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One part of the report is expected to criticize the Biden Justice Department’s use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which was passed in 1994 in the wake of attacks on abortion clinics and providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some anti-abortion protesters who were prosecuted under the law when Biden was in office were pardoned by Trump when he took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kristen Clarke, the former assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department under Biden, said in a statement to NBC News that the Justice Department \u201cenforced the law even-handedly and put public safety at the center\u201d of its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor decades, the Civil Rights Division brought law enforcement leaders, crisis pregnancy center representatives, and reproductive health care staff together to address the real violence, threats of violence, and obstruction that too many people face in our country when it comes to reproductive health care,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s office didn\u2019t immediately return a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report\u2019s draft language is unusual for the Justice Department, which typically speaks through legal filings, and examinations of internal policies and procedures normally emerge from the inspector general\u2019s office. But it isn\u2019t solely a DOJ product; the task force also included Trump Cabinet members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also expected to touch on a matter of topics that have already drawn attention, including a retracted 2023 memo from an FBI field office in Richmond, Virginia, that discussed \u201cradical-traditionalist\u201d Catholics. Former FBI Director Chris Wray and former Attorney General Merrick Garland both disavowed the memo after it was leaked by a then FBI special agent who grew close to, and has since had a falling out with, FBI Director Kash Patel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patel was interviewed for the upcoming report and noted that the Richmond memo had been \u201cdiscussed widely and rightfully so,\u201d according to details viewed by NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patel said they did a \u201cfull deep dive\u201d into the creation of the memo and said the FBI had \u201cjettisoned all relationships with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League,\u201d which he said \u201ccontributed to this woeful violation of our constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a legal advocacy organization founded in the 1970s that seeks to fight systemic discrimination through litigation. The Anti-Defamation League is a nonprofit dedicated to stopping antisemitism and extremism in all forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harmeet Dhillon, Trump\u2019s appointee to head the Civil Rights Division, has used the FACE Act in a historically unprecedented manner, charging dozens of anti-ICE protesters who showed up to a Minnesota church, as well as former CNN anchor Don Lemon. Her office unsuccessfully attempted to keep many of the defendants incarcerated until trial, an unusual demand in cases where defendants are accused of nonviolent crimes. They also wrongly accused and arrested a woman who didn\u2019t take part in the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonathan Darnel, an anti-abortion activist who was sentenced to 34 months in prison in a FACE Act case and then pardoned by Trump, told NBC News on Thursday that he wanted to see the final report before commenting on it. But Darnel also criticized the Trump administration\u2019s approach to the FACE Act against Lemon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely not a fan of overzealous prosecution, whichever way it goes,\u201d Darnel told NBC News after Lemon\u2019s arrest. \u201cThe punishment should fit the crime, and FACE \u2014 especially when you couple FACE with conspiracy charges \u2014 could send somebody to prison for years, and that just seems like way too much of a penalty for what is effectively just ruining people\u2019s morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darnel said he was afraid that if Trump administration officials \u201cstart using this law as a convenient tool to go after people they don\u2019t like, then it will never get repealed, and it will be much, much more difficult for people to do the sort of things that I did, and what the other rescuers are trying to do, just peacefully interpose at abortion clinics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ready to face certain legal penalties, that\u2019s just part of it,\u201d he said, but added that the punishments under the FACE Act were \u201cway too much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A separate forthcoming report focusing on the FACE Act is the product of the Justice Department\u2019s \u201cweaponization working group,\u201d according to details of that report seen by NBC News. Under a DOJ memo put out last year, the group was supposed to examine FACE Act prosecutions among other issues. The report is expected to single out individual attorneys over their handling of FACE Act cases, according to details seen by NBC News. MS NOW first reported details of that report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in response to a question from NBC News this week that the work of the \u201cweaponization working group\u201d \u2014 previously headed by Jan. 6 defendant advocate Ed Martin \u2014 would emerge publicly soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n