A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota refused to approve a criminal complaint against the former CNN anchor Don Lemon in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, according to people familiar with the matter.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior Justice Department officials were furious over the rejection, as they have poured federal agents and prosecutors into the state to pursue cases against protesters the Trump administration claims have crossed the line into committing crimes, one of those people said.
A senior law enforcement official familiar with the case said the Justice Department would seek to find other avenues to pursue a case against Mr. Lemon.
The administration has been investigating the protest at the church as possible violations of the Face Act, a law that makes it a crime to physically obstruct or use threats of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services or seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship.
Trump administration officials have sharply criticized the Biden administration for using that law to prosecute people for blocking access to abortion clinics and reproductive health centers.
Mr. Lemon, who was fired by CNN in 2023, has said in a video posted online that he was there as a journalist.
“Once the protest started in the church we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization,” Mr. Lemon said in the video. “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”
The effort to charge Mr. Lemon highlights the competing claims at stake. Protesters have asserted that their rights are being violated as a result of the administration’s immigration crackdown, and the administration has leveraged the same claim against the demonstrators themselves.
The conflicts intensified after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a mother of three, Renee Good, behind the wheel of her car. The administration has branded Ms. Good a domestic terrorist and said she endangered the life of the agent, but analysis by The New York Times of video shows no indication that the agent who fired three shots at close range at Ms. Good had been run over.
The clash comes as the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis is in turmoil. At least six senior prosecutors quit rather than carry out orders to investigate Ms. Good’s widow, according to people familiar with the matter. Those, coupled with earlier departures, have left the office badly short-staffed. Ms. Bondi has sought to use prosecutors in neighboring states to handle the cases the administration wants to pursue, including an investigation of the mayor and the governor.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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