Magistrate judge rejects charges against Don Lemon over anti-ICE protest in Minnesota church
A Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint charging independent journalist Don Lemon in connection with a protest inside a church in St. Paul on Sunday, multiple sources familiar with the proceedings told CBS News.
"The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate's decision," said a source familiar with the matter. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been in Minnesota for two days, as the Justice Department has sought to surge prosecutorial and law enforcement resources there.
A different source stressed that the process is not over, and the Justice Department could find other avenues to charge Lemon.
Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement Thursday that the magistrate's actions "confirm the nature of Don's First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter."
"Should the Department of Justice continue with a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job, Don will call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court," Lowell said.
On Thursday morning, Bondi announced two arrests connected to the church protest — Chauntyll Louisa Allen, who serves on the St. Paul School Board, and Nekima Levy Armstrong. Bondi alleged that Armstrong was involved in organizing the protest.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed that a magistrate judge approved charges against Allen and Armstrong.
Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said Armstrong is being charged with a federal crime under 18 USC 241, a civil rights law that prohibits two or more people from conspiring to interfere with constitutionally protected rights, like the free practice of religion.
Protesters said they entered St. Paul's Cities Church on Sunday, after discovering that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official appeared to be one of the pastors at the church.
Protests and clashes between some residents and federal immigration officers in the Twin Cities have been occurring daily since the Trump administration deployed thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents to the area. Among other demands, protesters have called for accountability in the death of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident who was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Jan. 7.
Lemon, a former CNN anchor, attended the protest, which interrupted the Sunday service, prompting congregants and their families to leave.
In an interview with the pastor, Lemon said, "There's a Constitution and a First Amendment, and freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest."
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, has publicly hinted that Lemon could potentially face charges for his role in disrupting the service.
Being a journalist "is not a badge or a shield that protects you from criminal consequences," she said during an appearance on the "Benny Show," hosted by far-right podcaster Benny Johnson.
Dhillon declined to comment when reached by CBS News.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., faced similar hurdles last year, after President Trump flooded the streets with federal agents as part of an initiative to crack down on violent crime.
Prosecutors in U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office were ordered to pursue every case as a federal offense when possible – a plan that backfired as the Justice Department began to see grand juries reject charges and magistrate judges push back on cases they viewed as flimsy or that contained constitutional defects.
In an Oct. 8, 2025, opinion, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia revealed that over the course of eight weeks since the crime surge began in August, the government moved to dismiss 21% of all cases that were charged by criminal complaint.
That statistic is "shocking," he wrote, compared with the 0.5% of cases charged by criminal complaint that the government dismissed in the district over the past decade.