After protesting with others outside a Mt. Juliet, Tenn. abortion clinic in March 2021, Vaughn and 10 other pro-life activists faced up to eleven years in prison when the Biden-era DOJ charged them with violating the FACE Act and hit them with a conspiracy charge.
During that protest in a medical office hallway, the protest was livestreamed by the group, and the protesters prayed and sang hymns, and listened to Bible teaching.
Mount Juliet police charged 11 protesters with trespassing, a misdemeanor, and the federal indictments came a year and seven months later for the defendants
After a federal jury convicted him in 2024, Vaughn was spared a lengthy prison sentence when he was sentenced to three years of supervised release and six months of home detention.
The settlement with the Trump-led Department of Justice was announced this week by Thomas More Society, the religious liberty law firm which represented Vaughn.
In a statement, Vaughn thanked the current Department of Justice for being willing to "look honesty" at what the previous DOJ did to him, his family, and to other pro-life activists.
On January 23, 2025, Vaughn and 23 other pro-life advocates were pardoned by President Trump while his case was on appeal.
Steve Crampton, Thomas More senior counsel, told American Family News that Vaughn deserved justice because the Biden administration wanted to make examples of pro-life activists and strike fear into the pro-life community.
Vaughn was arrested, charged, and convicted even though he was never in front of the clinic entrance or blocked the entrance, which would trigger a FACE Act violation, Crampton said. Outside the abortion clinic, Vaughn even spoke with and cooperated with police officers who were called to the scene, the attorney said.
Vaughn, a father of 11, was also arrested by FBI agents in a pre-dawn raid on his home.
A video of that arrest, filmed by Vaughn's wife, was shared with Townhall and posted to X.
“This family did nothing wrong,” Crampton said. “Paul prayed and sang. He bore witness to his faith and for that, the full weight of the federal government was brought crashing down on his front door before the sun rose.”
That tactic mirrored the arrest of another pro-life activist, Thomas Houck, who faced a FACE Act charge after pushing a cursing clinic volunteer outside a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania abortion clinic. After he was indicted and a SWAT rushed his house to arrest him, a jury acquitted Houck after only an hour of deliberation.
Among the Mt. Juliet protesters, AFN previously reported the Biden DOJ arrested and charged an 89-year-old woman, Eva Edl. She was sentenced to three years' probation and spared a six-month prison sentence.
