DOJ Gives Trans-Identifying Man No Jail Time in Pro-Abortion Church Attack Case
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice is recommending no jail time for a 31-year-old man who identifies as transgender in a case centering on the vandalization of a Catholic church, as well as the assault of a church employee.
Maeve Nota defaced St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue, Washington in June of 2022 in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling from the Supreme Court. Along with painting discriminatory messages about Catholics, Nota also smashed a window, vandalized a statue of the Virgin Mary, and spray-painted a church employee in the face. In the plea deal proposed by the DOJ, Nota will receive three years of probation.
Nota’s case is receiving particular attention in juxtaposition to the recent prosecution of Mark Houck; earlier this year, the DOJ attempted to imprison Houck for 11 years after the pro-life father defended his young son from an aggressive abortion facility escort in Philadelphia. The pro-life movement has widely decried the DOJ’s treatment of Houck as unjust, also citing his arrest at the hands of 25 armed federal agents in the presence of his wife and young children as an act with political motivation.
According to Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, Nota’s case sets a disturbing precedent in light of recent hostility faced by churches across the country. “Churches are facing more acts of hostility now than they have in the last six years,” she told The Washington Stand. “It’s disgraceful for the Justice Department to recommend no jail time for someone who admitted to vandalizing a church with profane graffiti and assaulting a church staffer. This will only inspire more violence against churches.”
Likewise, the DOJ’s treatment of Nota has drawn the condemnation of pro-life leaders, who believe that the Biden administration’s pro-abortion stance has influenced the legal proceedings. “Perhaps the president needs a reminder that, since our nation’s founding, equal justice under the law has been of the utmost importance,” Mary Szoch, FRC’s director of the Center for Human Dignity, told TWS. “Adherence to this belief is what led John Adams, an American patriot, to risk his position in society in agreeing to defend the perpetrators of the Boston Massacre. President Biden seems to have much different thoughts on ‘justice’ — namely that it only applies to his political opponents.”
Nota’s act of vandalism was one of over 100 attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers or churches in the past year. Instances of pro-abortion violence drastically increased following the Dobbs ruling; some pro-life centers, such as CompassCare in Buffalo, New York, have suffered multiple attacks.
Del Turco concluded, “This is just further evidence of how progressives are weaponizing U.S. government institutions to go after political opponents while failing to uphold the law when political allies are the ones breaking the law. President Biden’s Justice Department doesn’t seem all that interested in protecting American’s religious freedom — which includes the freedom to live without fear that they will be the next target of an attack.”
