Judge reportedly refused to sign complaint against Don Lemon
Quick Summary
- Three activists have been arrested for disrupting a worship service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday.
- They were charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act for interfering with the church service.
- U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi warns against interfering with places of worship amid ongoing unrest.
Federal agents arrested three activists in connection with an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a worship service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994, which protects religious freedom. Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen were detained, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Armstrong would also be charged under 18 U.S. Code § 241 for conspiracy against rights. Officials emphasized their commitment to safeguarding places of worship, while Vice President JD Vance visited Minnesota amid ongoing unrest.
On Thursday afternoon, Bondi further disclosed the arrest of William Kelly, who was captured on video berating church attendees and crudely ridiculing them as “fake Christians.”
“Our country was established and built by those escaping religious persecution. Religious freedom forms the cornerstone of this nation. We will safeguard our pastors, our churches, and all Americans of faith,” Bondi declared.
According to CBS News, a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota declined to approve a complaint to charge Lemon.
On Sunday, a group of left-leaning activists linked to the Racial Justice Network, including Armstrong, Allen, and Kelly, disrupted a service at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation. Their actions, which involved shouting at attendees, led to the early termination of the worship. Accompanying the protesters was former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who was there to document the event.
The demonstration targeted Rev. David Easterwood, a pastor at the church who also holds the position of acting director at the ICE St. Paul field office. Protesters demanded his resignation in response to ICE’s recent enforcement actions against illegal immigration in the Minnesota capital area, which included two shootings involving ICE agents. One incident resulted in the death of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an agent after her vehicle obstructed a road used by ICE personnel.
Armstrong, who founded and leads the cannabis firm Dope Roots, has earned over $1 million in the past six years while serving as executive director of the Wayfinder Foundation, a Minneapolis civil rights nonprofit funded in part by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, according to Fox News reports.
Allen, a prominent Black Lives Matter organizer and Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education member, publicly took credit for coordinating the protest. As the daughter of a female pastor, she drew parallels between the disruption and Jesus Christ’s act of cleansing the temple, stating in a TMZ interview, “I grew up in the church and one of the things that I remember about Jesus Christ is that when things weren’t going right in the church, he went in and he flipped tables.”
Lemon, who has since separated himself from the group amid a federal probe despite capturing his own involvement on video, echoed this sentiment by comparing the church storming to Jesus expelling moneychangers from the temple. However, numerous Christian scholars note that this biblical event was a singular act by Jesus to assert his divine authority and foreshadow the inclusion of Gentiles, not a model for general protest.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison supported the protesters in an interview with Lemon, asserting that their chanting constituted protected speech under the First Amendment: “Chanting cannot be a crime; it’s freedom of expression.”
In response, a GiveSendGo campaign launched by conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, with approval from church leaders, has collected over $40,000 toward a $100,000 target as of Thursday morning to aid Cities Church.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Justice has applied the FACE Act—which bans similar disruptions at reproductive health facilities—to charge pro-life activists, including Mark Houck, a Catholic father of seven who faced up to 11 years in prison for pushing a pro-abortion activist harassing his 12-year-old son outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood in 2021. The DOJ has pursued other anti-abortion protesters under this law, while in January, former President Trump issued pardons to around two dozen individuals convicted for blocking abortion clinics.
Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, highlighted in a recent interview that the Biden DOJ combined Klan Act conspiracy charges with FACE Act violations in abortion protest cases to impose harsher penalties, adding, “So, there are a number of tools available to us.”
