*** From Paul Vaughn ***

Friends, I want to thank you for your ongoing support and prayers.  Next Tuesday, July 2nd, Federal Judge Aleta Trauger will decide my sentence regarding the Pro-life event from March of 2021 in Mt Juliet, TN.  It took the DOJ 18 months to arrest me at gun point and another 21 months to get to a point where we will have some sort of understanding of what my future holds.

The wait has been long and difficult to manage for our family and especially for the 5 children who are still at home and have to live under such a heavy daily weight as a pending federal sentence for their father.  Not that I suspect the wait has been any easier for my dear wife or even for my married children.  This season has been taxing on all of us.  But that wait and the unknown portion of this spiritual trial is set to come to an end.  At least next Tuesday we will know the extent of the injustice that will be exacted upon me for loving my neighbors as myself.

People have asked me about the status of the case and if we have filed the appeal yet.  Unfortunately, the way the court system works, the sentencing must take place before we can appeal the verdict.  So you can bet regardless of the sentencing outcome the appeal will be filed as soon as we are able once the sentence is handed down next week.

Here is where we are today and what we are looking at on July 2nd.  So far, I have been arrested at gunpoint, I logged one day in federal custody and almost 2 years (21 months) of parole (pretrial release).  Parole consists of not being unable to travel outside of the middle district of Tennessee without permission.  Permission involves an aggressive disclosure of who you are traveling with and who you are staying with.  They want to know how much the trip will cost, and who is paying for it.  In addition, it involves reporting every dime of income earned each month filed in a monthly report.  That is the "punishment" I have already served.  Tuesday we will see what sentence the court adds to this punishment.

The way federal sentencing works is a testimony to the state of insanity in which our nation exists.  Instead of having a jury and a judge with competent character we have an entity called the United State Sentencing Commission. Instead of jurists who the people can trust to diligently administer justice for actual crimes committed by evil people, we have 608 pages of rules and justifications for departing from those rules to make sure sentencing is fair.  Notice it is not about justice but fairness.  I'm pretty sure when John Adams said "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People." He was foreshadowing this commission and a hundred other deep state additions meant to cover for our moral failures.  But I digress.

The parole office produces a Presentencing Report (PSR) for the court based on the Sentencing Commission's guidelines (USSG).  It uses these guidelines and a very invasive interview and investigation process to determine the minimum and maximum recommended sentences for the crimes charged.  In our case we received a +12 upcharge for the conspiracy charge because there were 2 or more people (see USSG-§2H1.1 page 225 in the link above if you are interested in the details) and a +2 upcharge  because the client was a vulnerable victim due to her pregnancy. (USSG-§ 3A1.1 page 345) The child the client had an appointment to terminate made her a vulnerable victim - let that sink in.  We are all getting enhancements on our sentencing because there was a child in her womb we were trying to protect!

The guidelines for these charges and adjustments make my sentencing range according to the parole office from 15 to 21 months in federal prison.  For my part, praying and talking with the police and media, the parole office is recommending the minimum of the range, which is 15 months in federal prison and 1 year of parole.  The government's response to this report is telling, "The United States has reviewed the PSR and has no objections."  They are happy to send me to prison away from my family for over a year.

In response to this, our attorney has filed a Sentencing Memorandum which among other things objects to the vulnerable victim claim and offers the true guideline range should be from 10 to 16 months.  At the same time we are making the case for probation as an appropriate punishment based on the findings of the court and the law as it has been applied in other cases.  Note, that we believe the entire case should be overturned and the verdict should be vacated and I should be fully exonerated as the appeal is heard in the 6th circuit. But we have to go through sentencing to get to the appeals process.

We are asking for a sentence that does not include incarceration, or as the parole office politely calls it, a custodial sentence.  But if it does, the judge also has the power to determine if I remain free while we are on appeal.  It is completely in her hands to make this determination.  Given this information here are a few prayer request.  Please join us in lifting this up to God in your daily prayers. 

1. The court would actually desire justice and not the furtherance of a false narrative where we talk about the mom, but not about the babies who are at risk.
2. That we would have favor with the court and that no jail time will be required.
3. That, should the court give jail time, we would remain free during the appeals process.
4. That we would have a successful appeals process with ultimate victory and vindication.
5. Above all else, at every stage of this process, that I might represent Christ well.  That I might know when to speak and when to remain silent.  That I would speak His words and not mine.  That I would not give credence to false narratives regardless of the personal cost, but would speak the truth in love at every turn.

My family greatly appreciates your prayers and the support you have shown us through this time.  Thank You for your encouragement.  This trial has been very revealing to us all and on one hand it is very disheartening to see the true state of our nation.  But on the other hand to see the broad level of support and the way our story has impacted and encouraged others in their faith is encouraging to us.  May God use these hard times to grow us all in Him.

I will follow up and let you know what the judge determines and provide and update as we move to the appeals process.

In the meantime we are continuing to pray and fast for our nation.  May God have mercy in the midst of the judgement we deserve. 

In Christ,

Paul 

Daniel 9:3-5

I turned to the Lord God, to seek help in prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord, my God and confessed, "Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and show mercy to those who love you and keep your commandments and your precepts!  We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and turned from your commandments and your laws.

9:17 Now, our God, hear the prayer and petition of your servant; and for your own sake, Lord, let your face shine upon your desolate sanctuary.

From Thomas More Society
Biden DOJ Slams Peaceful Pro-Life Father with FACE Act Conviction, Federal Appeal Anticipated

January 30, 2024 By Tom Ciesielka

(January 30, 2024 – Nashville, Tennessee) Thomas More Society attorneys are expected to announce that they will appeal the conviction of pro-life advocate Paul Vaughn, after prosecution by the Biden Department of Justice for his participation in a peaceful life-affirming gathering at a Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, abortion facility. The guilty verdict was announced January 30, 2024, after a six-day federal trial at the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. The case of Paul Vaughn, a devout Christian father of eleven, and several other pro-life advocates, has drawn national attention in the wake of the Biden Department of Justice’s virulent prosecution of pro-life activists—which began in the months following the United States Supreme Court June 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Immediately following the guilty verdict, the pro-life defendants, along with family and friends, gathered in front of the Courthouse to pray and sing hymns together.

Convicted along with Vaughn were five other defendants. Vaughn and five other pro-life advocates were charged with two felony counts for their participation in the March 2021 prayer event, witnessing to life at the abortion business about 20 miles outside of Nashville. The charges included one count of violating the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act and one count of engaging in a “conspiracy against rights”—charges that together carry a sentence of up to 11 years. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for July 2.

Four remaining defendants are scheduled to subsequently stand trial for misdemeanor violations of the FACE Act. An additional original defendant turned state’s witness and was not prosecuted.

“We are, of course, disappointed with the outcome,” stated Steve Crampton, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel and attorney for Paul Vaughn. “This was a peaceful demonstration by entirely peaceable citizens—filled with prayer, hymn-singing, and worship—oriented toward persuading expecting mothers not to abort their babies. Unfortunately, the Biden Department of Justice decided to characterize Paul Vaughn’s peaceful actions as a felony ‘conspiracy against rights,’ to intimidate and punish Paul and other pro-life people and people of faith.”

The Thomas More Society legal team pointed to several key factors that the prosecution relied on to leverage their attack against Vaughn:

· The prosecution relied heavily on a primary witness, Caroline Davis, who participated in and was arrested for the Mt. Juliet prayer event with Vaughn, but later turned state’s evidence.

· The government attempted to paint Paul as willfully deceiving the police during the gathering at the Mt. Juliet prayer event, despite witness testimony from a police negotiator who testified that Paul had been both helpful, collaborative, and peaceful.

· The government also attempted to portray Paul as intending to interfere with the operation of the Mt. Juliet facility using paper-thin evidence, and as a member of a criminal conspiracy despite no evidence of prior knowledge of the event.

· The government also presented an abortion-determined woman who apparently had scheduled an appointment for an abortion but said that she left “because of the protesters.”

· Federal attorneys included an abortion business employee who claimed to be “trapped inside the building during the incident,” despite video that showed traffic clearly passing down the hallway to and from the abortion venue.

“This is a frustrating setback, for Paul, for his family, and for the extended pro-life community, which has rallied support for Paul from the day of his arrest in front of his wife and children by heavily armed FBI agents, on through the trial,” observed Crampton. He noted the fact that the persecution of Vaughn and his co-defendants clearly demonstrated the Biden Department of Justice’s forceful attempt to silence its ideological opponents.

“The Biden Department of Justice’s pattern of arresting and prosecuting peaceful pro-life advocates is disturbing,” shared Crampton, adding that it is especially so when the FBI’s pursuit of those who have violently attacked pro-life pregnancy centers has been criticized by some as being less than vigorous.

An expected appeal in the matter would be filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The United States of America v. Gallagher was heard before a jury, in a trial that began with jury selection on January 23, 2024, and ran through January 30, 2024, at the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville.

Find additional information about the Thomas More Society’s defense of Paul Vaughn following his arrest and prosecution by the Biden Department of Justice, in United States of America v. Chester Gallagher, et al., here.

Message from Paul:

Dear Friends,

After many delays related to the strongest winter storm I have experienced in my 24 years in Tennessee, the trial finally started on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.  I cannot begin to unpack this week. It was full of so many different elements, from the spiritual warfare, the physical and emotional exhaustion, to the supernatural joy and abundant grace that we have experienced.  God has been exceedingly good to His people.

The prosecution and the defense have both rested. We had some final debates on the jury instructions and closed out the week late Friday evening.  When everyone returns at 9 AM Monday we will be moving into closing arguments and then jury deliberation.  We could have a verdict as early as Tuesday.

There is much I'd like to share about the trial and the state of our judicial system in America, but I'll will refrain until we have finished and have a verdict from the jury.  I will be posting on my substack page once this is finished to share our family's experience and any meaningful lessons we can learn from the DOJ persecution.

In the mean time, if you would like to see some highlights from this week, there has been good press from The Daily Wire, The Epoch Times, and others.  I have included the latest media links here:

• https://paultn.substack.com/p/media-links

In addition, if you have not found and followed The Stifled Cry Podcast let me encourage you to do so.  They have posted interviews with most of the defendants in this case and are covering the trial live on their youtube channel.

Lastly, I want to share with you some heroes of this trial.  The little people.  The picture is of Beth and I with our youngest daughter and 4 of our eight grandchildren.  The four year old and under crowd had to put up with a lot this week from staying in a strange home to being in a place where they could not talk or run.  Our two year old asked last night "if we lived at the courthouse now".  They have been troopers all around and made great friends with the federal marshals at the courthouse.  Maybe, if we could be consistent with how we treat the unborn children, we could see children for the blessing God says they are in our culture.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  It is important!  Your prayers have been felt and appreciated repeatedly through out the last year and specifically this week.  This is just the end of phase one of what will be a long battle with the justice department.  If we loose here, we will move to the appeal.  If we win here, we will move to the counter suit.  Either way, this is just the first battle in the long march back to freedom and sanity in our country.

In Christ,

Paul

Dear Friends in Christ,

Thank you for your prayers and support for my family during this unprecedented season of life.  I apologize for not getting more updates to this site.  I have attempted to write each one individually as I was able and to send you the substack page where I'm trying to keep up with the ongoing details of the case and the thought processes that surrounds the spiritual nature of the case.  Be sure to check that out and subscribe at https://paultn.substack.com

Here is a high level timeline of events to catch you up to date on how the case if progressing.

• DOJ Indictment - 13/2022
• FBI Arrest - 15/2022
• DOJ Press Release - 15/2022
• Personhood Press Release on behalf of Paul Vaughn 16/2022
• Defendants Motion to Dismiss - 3/9/2023
• Government’s Response to Motion to Dismiss - 4/12023
• Defendants Rebuttal to Government’s Response to MTD - 4/28/2023
• Motion to Dismissed Denied - 7/3/2023
• Trial Scheduled for January 16th 2023

The family is doing as well as one would expect having a federal indictment with a potential 11 year sentence hanging over their husband and father.  But in the midst of the political insanity we call America, God shows his grace in incredible ways and is faithful through every trial.  Last week we started homeschool coop for this year and everyone is getting back into a normal routine.  Our 2nd daughter is getting married this December and we are all excited for the young couple and look forward to watching God work in their lives.

I still report in to the "Federal Overseers" in pretrial services on the 1st of each month.  I am limited in my travel to the middle district of TN and prohibited from being within 100' of a "Reproductive" Health Facility.  But other than those reminders of the tyranny we live under, in our once free nation, life is progressing each day.  Since abortion is against the law here in TN we are not doing sidewalk counseling, but we are looking for new avenues of ministry and I hope to announce something on the Personhood Tennessee Channel soon. 

In the mean time, we continue to seek the face of God, praise Him for his wonderful works, and His patient and loving hand upon our lives.  He continues to provide opportunities to speak His truth.  I was on a local Tennessee Podcast this week and was able to discuss some ways we can address our nation in both the church and in our political culture.  You can check it out on the Tennessee Stands site. 

Lastly, since this is the fund raising site, I will share our needs. This is difficult because we do not know which way this will go.  If God grants us victory in January and we are vindicated with actual justice, then our financial need will be to raise money for a countersuit. If justice is absent from the courtroom in January, it is possible I could go directly to jail, as we saw in the recent Washington DC case.

In either case, we will need your help even just for the basic needs of a large family without a provider.  I have asked that we raise this campaign goal to $100,000, which is a small amount of what we expect the costs to be.  Fundraising is not a natural gifting for me and I hate asking for money but one of the things God has shown me in this trial is the blessing of participating in the sufferings and persecutions of others.  I have seen a spiritual reality that I had heard and given lip service to in the past.  Through this experience, I have had people participate with me in a real and tangible way, some by offering a cell phone when I was released on the streets of Nashville with no wallet or phone, and others by giving money through campaigns like this one. Through this experience, I have seen this participation as more than just an act of kindness. It is a real and tangible participation in the suffering of Christ through his people. I don't claim to know or understand fully the spiritual reality of that, but I have experienced it as a reality.

It is one thing for someone to give you $5 and say, "Hey, sorry you are having a hard day".  It is something else when someone enters into that suffering with you.  When they identify the injustice and the trial as being related to Christ.  When they enter into prayer and offer support not just out of sympathy, but because they identify with a spiritual truth that is happening to you.  That is a powerful support mechanism that strengthens your faith in ways I have yet to be able to explain.  But I think 1 Peter 4:12-19 gives a glimpse into that process.

• "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

• But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

• For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator."

Thank you for your ongoing support and prayers for my family.  It is greatly appreciated and strengthens our faith in ways I can not begin to express.  Please be in prayer for the trial date in January.

In Christ,

Paul

For the entire Vaughn Family