A judge in Minnesota rejected federal prosecutors’ attempt to criminally charge journalist Don Lemon in relation to his presence this week during a protest at a St. Paul church, an extraordinary rebuke of a Justice Department that has drawn criticism for its forceful response to demonstrations against immigration enforcement efforts.
The magistrate judge’s decision was described Thursday by two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss court proceedings that have not been made public.
Their accounts emerged the same day department officials announced the arrests of a prominent civil rights lawyer and two others in connection with the church demonstration.
The protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, which interrupted services Sunday, has become a flash point in the debate over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota and drawn broad condemnation from right-wing influencers who have demanded prosecutions of all those involved.
Lemon, a former CNN anchor now working as an independent journalist, followed the demonstrators into the church as they protested one of its pastors who also works as a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
Lemon interviewed them and upset congregants during a seven-hour live stream on his YouTube channel. Justice Department officials have publicly derided his claim that he was simply reporting on the protest and vowed to investigate him for potential wrongdoing.
It is exceedingly rare for a court to refuse to sign off on a misdemeanor complaint sought by prosecutors, suggesting the judge did not believe there was probable cause to support a case against Lemon.
“The magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
Bondi did not mention Lemon or the failed effort to charge him as she announced the arrests of the demonstrators in a social media post Thursday.
Among those charged are Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and former head of the Minneapolis branch of the NAACP; Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a member of St. Paul’s school board; and William Kelly, a protester who had dared authorities to try to arrest him in a video he posted to TikTok after he was identified online as one of the demonstrators present that day.
“Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution,” Bondi said in a statement on the arrests. “Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith.”
Bondi did not say what charges they are facing, and, as of Thursday evening, there were no publicly available court documents detailing accusations.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said all three people arrested had been charged with conspiring to violate congregants’ constitutional rights — a felony charge, punishable by up to 10 years behind bars.
Jordan Kushner, an attorney for Levy Armstrong, described her case as a “farce” after a brief court hearing Thursday. “This is a political persecution,” he told a crowd gathered outside the courthouse.
Kushner condemned Trump administration officials for posting what appeared to be a digitally altered photograph of Levy Armstrong weeping as federal agents took her into custody Thursday morning.
Levy Armstrong’s husband, Marques Armstrong, said more than 50 agents came to detain his wife after she had offered to surrender to authorities. “They wanted a spectacle,” he said.
Lawyers representing the church hailed the arrests.
“The U.S. Department of Justice acted decisively by arresting those who coordinated and carried out the terrible crime,” Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for True North Legal, a public-interest civil rights firm, said in a statement.
There has been heightened tension involving the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota. For weeks, demonstrators have protested the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the state — a situation exacerbated by the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer.
Justice Department officials have refused calls to examine the shooting, saying no basis exists to criminally investigate whether the officer used excessive force. Instead, they have pushed for an investigation into Good’s partner, who was protesting ICE officers at the time of the shooting, and subpoenaed state and local officials as part of a criminal probe alleging their rhetoric has interfered with ICE’s operations.
Sunday’s church protest quickly became the latest litmus test dividing those who say some protesters have crossed the line into criminality and the demonstrators who maintain the Trump administration is violating their rights to free expression.
Video posted to social media showed dozens of demonstrators at a Sunday morning service, many chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renée Good.” Activists said they targeted the church because they believed David Easterwood, the acting field director of the city’s ICE field office, served as a pastor there. Easterwood was not at the church at the time.
The crowd left shortly after the roughly 25-minute demonstration and was outside the building by the time St. Paul police arrived in response to multiple calls about a disturbance.
In an interview Monday with The Washington Post, Levy Armstrong described the protest as nonviolent, lawful and morally necessary. She said protesters entered the church, sang and prayed with the congregation until Jonathan Parnell, the lead pastor, finished his prayer.
Levy Armstrong stood to ask Parnell about Easterwood and his role with ICE. She said Parnell refused to engage with her questions and instead turned up the music to drown out the chants of protesters.
Parnell told Lemon in an interview during the protest that it was “shameful” of the protesters to interrupt a public gathering of worshiping Christians.
“Our church had gathered for worship, which we do every Sunday. We asked them to leave, and they obviously have not left,” Parnell said.
Outrage quickly erupted online, and, within hours, top Trump administration officials responded, labeling the demonstration an attempt at “intimidation and harassment of Christians.”
Lemon, who drew the brunt of the criticism from the right, has defended his presence in the crowd that day.
“We were chronicling the protests,” Lemon said in an Instagram post Monday. “Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it, talk to the people who are involved, which included the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization. That’s it. It’s called journalism.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said in an interview with Lemon that the protesters were protected by the First Amendment.
“Chanting cannot be a crime; it’s freedom of expression,” Ellison said. The state attorney general was among the Minnesota leaders to receive a Justice Department subpoena this week as part of the investigation into their rhetoric.
Historically, the Justice Department has given journalists wide latitude to cover demonstrations, respecting their role, protected by the First Amendment, to inform the public of significant protest movements. The department has in rare cases pursued charges against reporters seen to be violating laws in ways such as trespassing or disobeying orders to disperse.
Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who oversees the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, rejected Lemon’s explanation of his role during an interview with conservative podcast host Benny Johnson this week.
Lemon, she said, “went into the facility, and then he began, quote, unquote, ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s a sort of shield from being an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.”
Since Bondi became attorney general, she has walked back customary protections the Justice Department has extended to the press, including regulations that had previously barred prosecutors from seizing or seeking subpoenas for reporter records except as a last resort.
Last week, the department executed a search warrant at Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home as part of a criminal investigation of a government contractor accused of retaining classified material.
Though officials have said Natanson is not a focus of that probe, the move drew widespread condemnation from The Post and press freedom advocates who described it as unnecessary and an attack on the independence of the press.
It remained unclear Thursday whether the department intended to try again to file charges against Lemon or others tied to the St. Paul protest.
Prosecutors could try again to find a judge to sign their complaint or file what is known as a criminal information to launch a prosecution without a judge’s approval. They could also seek felony charges by taking the case before a grand jury.
Lowell, in his statement, promised Lemon would challenge any effort to do so.
“Should the Department of Justice continue with a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job,” he said, “Don will call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Kim Bellware contributed to this report.
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