EXCLUSIVE: Footage of Firebombing of Pregnancy Center Released by Pro-Life Group

Surveillance footage of an arson attack on CompassCare, a pro-life center in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 7, 2022. Courtesy of CompassCare

The Epoch Times has obtained exclusive video of the firebombing of the pregnancy resource center that was attacked last June by suspected pro-abortion militants in Buffalo, New York.

The video has been at the center of a controversy between CompassCare, the Christian pregnancy center, and the police who refused to return the video to the clinic.

The video was returned under an agreement between the clinic and the Town of Amherst.

Pro-life Group Rejects Demands By Police

According to CompassCare, the town initially wanted the crisis pregnancy center to agree to a provision that the video couldn’t be released for two years; an indemnity from CompassCare for the damages that might arise to the pro-life organization by the Amhurst Police Department’s failure to investigate; and the ability to sue CompassCare over any violations of confidentiality provisions of the settlement.

“As the victim of the crime, CompassCare refused all settlement terms, not willing to be re-victimized by a lawsuit from law enforcement for exercising our First Amendment right to freedom of speech,” CompassCare CEO Rev. James Harding told The Epoch Times about the resolution of the lawsuit.

“After rejecting all settlement terms restricting CompassCare or adding liability to CompassCare, we suggested the judge order a determination. At that point, the Amherst P.D. removed all restrictions on settlement terms, releasing a copy to CompassCare on Thursday April 6, 305 days after the firebombing,” added Harden.

City attorney, Stanley J. Sliwa, said previously that the release of the video would unnecessarily jeopardize the investigation.

Town Attorney’s Remarks

In a September 2022, interview with The Epoch Times, Sliwa appeared to suggest that publicity of the police investigation would stoke political violence from the right.

“You’re aware of all the nut jobs out there with guns and AK-47s, bombing and killing people because they have certain political views,” Sliwa told The Epoch Times.

“The police department is trying to keep a lid on that and trying to keep the investigation as quiet as possible in order to ensure that these people don’t go further underground, as they may already be,” he added.

When asked about which people with AK-47s were engaging in violence over political views he was referring to, the city attorney said it was “people that are part and parcel of the revolt against the United States government” on Jan. 6, 2021.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden at the reopening of the CompassCare Pregnancy Services center in Amherst, N.Y., on Aug. 1, 2022. Photo courtesy of CompassCare

For their part, CompassCare claims that both the Amherst police and the FBI have dragged their feet, pointing to politically-tinged comments like those by Sliwa as proof.

They have also said the FBI “inserted itself” into investigations regarding attacks on crisis pregnancy centers to hinder the investigations.

“The Amherst Police repeatedly declined multiple requests from the CompassCare CEO to view the video, deferring to the FBI. CompassCare has been insisting since early last summer that the FBI inserted itself in local investigations, slow walking those investigation into the pro-abortion Antifa attacks,” Harden told The Epoch Times.

Rubio Decries Targeting of Christians

Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-Fla.) went even further, telling The Epoch Times, that President Joe Biden’s administration has “targeted” Christians.

“Instead of prosecuting criminals that vandalized churches and assaulted members of the clergy, the Biden Administration is spying on Catholic churches and targeting pro-life advocates,” Rubio said.

“This is the weaponization of government they claim to fear but now use against their political enemies. And no one in the old legacy media cares,” he added.

Other prominent conservative and Christian leaders are becoming more alarmed by what they describe as the “one-sided approach” that the Biden administration has used in investigating domestic, politically-motivated violence.

“It is shameful that the investigation into the bombing of the Buffalo pregnancy care center has stalled and law enforcement seems uninterested in finding the violent perpetrators. Federal and local law enforcement agents there should be embarrassed that they have not made an arrest when Jane’s Revenge claimed credit for the horrific attack,” said Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), a conservative advocacy group, told The Epoch Times.

“The FBI did nothing to help find the vandal who tore up Concerned Women for America’s national headquarters including urinating on our front door. Yet, the FBI raided the home of [a] pro-life father who was praying outside an abortion clinic and today we learn the Department of Justice recommended no jail time for an individual who defaced a Catholic Church with profane graffiti, destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary, assaulted a church worker, and resisted arrest,” she added.

Attacks

Harden claims that there have been 300 attacks on pro-life groups, while Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), author of a bill to protect crisis pregnancy centers, said that there have been about 100 attacks, including attacks on churches.

Both were appalled at revelations by Garret O’Boyle, a suspended Kansas-based FBI special agent, and Steve Friend, a former Florida-based FBI special agent, who said that domestic terror “threat tags” were used to scrutinize pro-life groups.

Threat tags are issued by the Department of Justice on individuals and groups that the FBI wants to collect more information about, in order to address the “scope” posed by the individuals or groups for domestic terror, drug trafficking, and or human trafficking.

Last week, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said that the FBI used at least one undercover agent to try to infiltrate Catholic churches to investigate whether the churches were showing signs of religious extremism.

“Justice does not seem to be blind when it comes to law enforcement’s response to attacks on conservatives and Christians and you have to wonder what is driving this one-sided approach to the law,” concluded CWA’s Nance.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House, DOJ, and FBI for comment.