The report documents how Biden officials, in their effort to prosecute every pro-lifer they could, relied on the abortion lobby to find targets. But one newly unearthed detail, not directly related to persecution or prosecution, highlights the coziness.

When an abortion group was seeking a foundation grant, officials seeking a reference turned to Biden’s prosecutors — and the prosecutors assented, in essence becoming fundraisers for abortion.

The reference

The National Abortion Federation is the trade association for the abortion industry. Abortionists and abortion lobbyists are NAF’s members.

Planned Parenthood clinics, which combined perform about 1,200 abortions a day, make up the bulk of the NAF. Individual abortionists and independent abortion clinics are also members. Groups that lobby and campaign for abortion are also members of NAF, which spends about $11 million a year.

NAF, as a core pillar in the abortion lobby, is not merely an ally of Democrats, but effectively part of the Democratic Party. It was effectively a part of the Biden administration. The new DOJ memo demonstrates that NAF worked hand-in-hand with the Biden DOJ.

This itself is noteworthy, but NAF’s cozy ties to the Biden administration may be best demonstrated by a pair of email exchanges.

Michelle Davidson, a top official at NAF, and Sanjay Patel, the chief of the DOJ’s task force on prosecuting pro-lifers, had a long-running professional relationship. In late 2023, Davidson wrote with a special “request that I hope you could squeeze into your very busy schedule.”

Davidson explained: “We have the opportunity to submit a proposal for grant funds that would support the already existing security work I do in the” Washington, D.C. area, “for [abortion] providers.”

Davidson then made the ask: “I’m hoping you could write a short impact statement, on DOJ letterhead, and in your own words, on the importance of the NAF Security Departments work and the impact on provider safety in the greater D.C. area.”

“You could also talk about how we work together and some of the outcomes of our efforts if you feel inclined,” Davidson suggested. “I know you have a lot going on, but a statement from you would have a big impact on the proposal. … Looking forward to any updates on the next trial you may have. Let’s chat soon!”

That is, an activist for the abortion-industry lobby was friendly enough with the Biden DOJ to ask the DOJ to fundraise for the group.

Where did Davidson get the idea that the DOJ would do this? Well, they already had.

Back in November 2020, after Biden had defeated Trump (but while Trump was still president), Davidson’s predecessor at NAF, Tara Gannon, wrote Patel with a similar request: “The NAF Security team is working with a funder, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, to help cover the cost of security activities within our department…. We need to provide five references to the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund for our proposal. We previously listed Julie Abbate when she was at DOJ. Can you ask Paige [Fitzgerald] if she would be ok being a reference for us?”

Patel forwarded the email to Fitzgerald, offering to let NAF use him as the reference instead. Patel then replied to Ganon, “Feel free to use me as a reference. If you all would rather use Paige, let me know so that I can get her approval.”

Fitzgerald later told Patel that they “should probably ask our ethics person” if this was okay.

The Justice Department found no evidence that “Patel contacted his ethics officer on this matter or retracted his offer to NAF.”

This shows the intimacy of NAF and the Biden DOJ, a relationship built mostly on NAF giving the DOJ names of pro-lifers to prosecute.

The relationship

In 2021, Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland created the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers. The task of this force, it soon became clear, was finding any pro-life activist or protester who could plausibly be charged with violating the FACE Act, a law that makes it a federal crime to obstruct entrance into an abortion facility.

Patel, who was already cozy with NAF, as shown by the November 2020 emails, was put in charge of the task force.

Patel and his colleagues basically asked NAF who it should prosecute. Patel one year was a speaker at NAF’s annual conference.

Emails show Patel called Davidson the “MVP” in bringing pro-life protesters to his “attention, often in real-time, which usually result in an investigation/prosecution.” He called NAF a “great resource for any investigation we have that involves clinic violence.”

Trump’s DOJ, in the April report ,explained that NAF was also a spy for the DOJ:

“NAF, Planned Parenthood, and [the Feminist Majority Foundation] not only flagged concerns about possible violations of the FACE Act, but also monitored the activities and locations of pro-life activists and shared updates about their First Amendment activities with the Biden DOJ and FBI in case chargeable conduct occurred.”

Fitzgerald, in seeking permission to provide the 2023 referral for NAF, wrote to her ethics colleague:

“We have worked with NAF for decades,” Fitzgerald wrote. “NAF regularly refers potential FACE Act violations and other threats to RHCPs, helps us liaise with clinics and staff, lets us know about upcoming events that might result in security concerns so we can notify FBI and [U.S. Marshals Service], etc. Because they are NGOs, they can poke around on the internet in ways that we can’t, and they have shared leads with us etc. The information flow has always been a one-way street, and they have always been respectful, cooperative, and are frequently quite helpful.”

One of Patel’s cases targeted a handful of pro-lifers who blocked the doors to a Tennessee abortion clinic before it opened in the morning. The defense attorney asked the DOJ for relevant information on “how many FACE Act criminal prosecutions there have been in the last ten years, including both reproductive right clinics, churches etc.”

The defense would be evidence that the Biden DOJ was selectively prosecuting its political enemies (on behalf of its political friends).

Patel refused. “As the national clinic violence coordinator,” he wrote back, weeks later, “I do not keep the kind of records you requested and, as a result, I do not believe that we will provide them to you.”

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This was false, Patel’s emails show. Months before, Patel had apparently requested, and had received, a spreadsheet listing all FACE Act prosecution. Withholding requested evidence is prosecutorial misconduct, of course. But making matters worse, Trump’s DOJ says Patel’s team happily provided basically the same information to NAF on a separate occasion.

Many interest groups ally with the Democratic Party. But probably none is as intimate as the abortion lobby.