Army Secretary Driscoll and Secretary of Defense Hegseth Directly Respond to the ACLJ, Apologizing to Our Client Operation Rescue for Army Describing It as a "Terrorist Group"

After the outrageous revelation that Army trainees at Fort Bragg (then Fort Liberty) were instructed that pro-life Americans were domestic terrorists, and that our client Operation Rescue was expressly named and its logo pictured prominently on a “TERROR AWARENESS” training slide presentation under the title “TERRORIST GROUPS,” we went to work.

After months of effort, we are pleased to announce that President Trump’s new leadership of America’s mighty military has done what the Biden Administration refused to do: condemn the training, acknowledge that it caused harm, apologize for it, and assure us that it will not happen again under their watch.

In response to our letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, which we sent after the Biden Administration failed to directly respond to our prior letter of August 2024, Army Secretary Driscoll just sent the ACLJ a letter on behalf of himself and Secretary Hegseth that thanked the ACLJ for our letter and then got right to the point:

I was troubled to learn that an Army antiterrorism and protection training conducted at Fort Bragg, North Carolina had mischaracterized Operation Rescue, National Right to Life, and other pro-life groups as terrorist organizations. This mischaracterization was not only inaccurate but also deeply inappropriate.

Equally concerning was the previous Administration's inadequate response to this serious incident. Its failure to provide full transparency or take responsibility for such a grievous error is wholly unacceptable.

Let me be clear, the Army does not consider Operation Rescue, National Right to Life, and other pro-life groups to be terrorist organizations. Further, the Army does not view pro-life beliefs or state-issued pro-life license plates as indicators of terrorism.

On behalf of our client, Troy Newman and Operation Rescue, and all pro-life Americans, we greatly and genuinely appreciate Secretary Driscoll’s letter, written on behalf of himself and Secretary Hegseth, and their clear and decisive response and willingness to actually apologize in a meaningful way.

We sent our letter to the new military leadership following the revelation, which we reported in April 2025, uncovered by our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, that the rot went much deeper than Biden’s Army tried to make it seem, that this shocking anti-pro-life training had been going on since 2011, and that the Biden Army investigator had basically papered over it with a self-contradictory investigation report that itself contained demonstrable inaccuracies.

As we explained, abusing power to target pro-life Americans in this fashion was not some mere oversight. Neither was it, as Biden’s Army officials told Congress, simply placing the wrong title on a slide. The whole presentation was about terrorism, trainees described the training as “teaching doctrine,” and it had been happening as far back as 2011.

On that note, Secretary Driscoll’s letter to the ACLJ assured us that “the Army has reviewed all security mission training materials, including antiterrorism and protection training, across all Army commands, service component commands, and direct reporting units to ensure these trainings are factually accurate, comply with the law, and align with Army values.”

In other words, the cleanup has gone much deeper than just what happened at Fort Bragg. And that’s the silver lining here: The corrupted training was brought to light, and after relentless determination, not only is it being halted where it happened, but now it is being addressed across the entire Army. As he put it bluntly, “Please be assured that I am firmly committed to rigorous oversight of all Army training materials to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.”

In closing his letter, the Secretary expressly acknowledged, “I cannot undo the harm that this training caused.” And on behalf of himself and the Secretary of Defense, he did what our client had sought for so long, he apologized. Not in an obfuscatory word salad, but in a direct and meaningful way.

I want to offer my sincerest apology to Operation Rescue, National Right to Life, and all pro-life groups negatively impacted by the false characterization of all pro-life organizations made by this training.

On behalf of our client Troy Newman and Operation Rescue, and all pro-life Americans, thank you, Secretary Driscoll and Secretary Hegseth, for your apology, your acknowledgment, your assurances, and for calling this travesty what it was, a false mischaracterization, inaccurate, serious, grievous, and deeply inappropriate. Also, we thank you for standing up against the Leftist ideology that had been infecting our military branches and bogging down our warfighters, often cloaked in the bureaucratic morass. We know you have a lot of work to do, and that you took time to address this – not just in response to an oversight function of Congress, but directly to our client who was among those harmed – confirms your commitment to the values for which you fight.

We encourage you to join us in expressing support for our new military leadership and appreciation for their attention and efforts to rectify this disgusting blight within our military. Stand with us, too, as we continue our work to protect pro-life Americans. We can’t do it without you.