Attorney General Pam Bondi convened a federal grand jury Thursday to indict journalist Don Lemon after three separate federal judges rejected criminal charges over a January 18 church invasion. FBI agents arrested Lemon at midnight in his Beverly Hills hotel while he covered the Grammy Awards.
Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko blocked the first attempt January 20. He wrote “NO PROBABLE CAUSE” across Don Lemon’s arrest warrant and struck FACE Act charges against two defendants who disrupted the Cities Church worship service. Micko’s wife, Caitlin Micko, works as an assistant attorney general in Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office.
Ellison appeared at the church scene immediately after the invasion. He defended the protesters on Lemon’s YouTube show and told viewers the FACE Act doesn’t apply to church disruptions. The claim is false. Congress added church protections to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994, explicitly protecting “any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz rejected Justice Department appeals January 23. He wrote the 8th Circuit that Lemon and his producer “were not protesters at all” and concluded “there is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior.” Schiltz called the DOJ’s emergency request “unprecedented” and “unheard of in our district.”
Schiltz donated to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, which provides free legal representation to illegal immigrants. The same week he defended Lemon, Schiltz threatened to hold ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons in contempt for defying “dozens of court orders.” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called him “another activist judge clearly more concerned about politics than the safety of Minnesotans.”
The 8th Circuit declined the Justice Department’s emergency petition January 24. Two judges refused to compel Schiltz to sign arrest warrants. One judge dissented, writing that probable cause existed.
Bondi convened a federal grand jury Thursday. It returned indictments against nine defendants—some names redacted—on charges of conspiracy against religious freedom rights and FACE Act violations. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon admitted earlier this month that “nobody ever used that houses of worship part [of FACE Act] to prosecute protesters” until now. Bondi personally signed the indictment.
Roughly 30 protesters entered Cities Church during Sunday worship January 18. They chanted “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” forcing the service to end. They targeted Pastor David Easterwood, who serves as acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office. According to the indictment, one defendant called congregants “Nazi” and asked children, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell?”
Prosecutors allege Lemon discussed maintaining “operational secrecy” while livestreaming before the invasion. He acknowledged he couldn’t reveal where the group was headed. Lemon interviewed protest organizer Nekima Levy Armstrong before entering the church, kissed her on the cheek, and thanked her for the invitation. Inside, prosecutors claim he stood close enough to the pastor that physical contact occurred, then told the pastor, “Please don’t push me.”
Lemon’s livestream shows him repeatedly stating “I’m here as a journalist” and “We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.” His attorney, Abbe Lowell, called the arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.”
FBI and Homeland Security Investigations arrested Lemon at his Beverly Hills hotel around midnight Friday. Georgia Fort, a Minnesota journalist and Emmy-winning producer, was arrested at her St. Paul home Friday morning. She livestreamed federal agents at her door. Activists Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy were also arrested. All four were released on personal recognizance by Friday afternoon. Lemon did not enter a plea. He requires court permission for international travel, with an exception for a pre-planned trip to France in June. Three other defendants—Armstrong, St. Paul School Board member Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and activist William Kelly—were arrested January 20-22.
The official White House X account posted at 9:50 a.m. Friday: “When life gives you lemons… ⛓️” with a chains emoji. The image declared “DON LEMON ARRESTED FOR INVOLVEMENT IN THE ST. PAUL CHURCH RIOTS.”
The church invasion occurred 11 days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in south Minneapolis. Operation Metro Surge has deployed 3,000 federal agents to the Twin Cities over two months and arrested more than 3,000 illegal immigrants. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced January 19 the Justice Department won’t investigate the Good shooting.
Three federal judges found no probable cause to charge journalists who coordinated with organizers before filming a church invasion. The Attorney General needed a grand jury to bypass judges whose conflicts included marriage to the state attorney general’s assistant and donations to organizations defending illegal immigrants. The workaround succeeded where judicial review failed.
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