Minnesota magistrate judge rejects charges against Don Lemon over anti-ICE church protest, blocks some charges for 2 protesters
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.
The magistrate judge who declined to approve charges for Lemon was Douglas Micko, sources told CBS News. Micko previously worked as a federal public defender.
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.
The government had hoped to charge Lemon along with a raft of other people who participated in the protest at the church.
On Thursday morning, Bondi announced two arrests connected to the church protests — 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. Bondi later said a third person, William Kelly, was arrested.
Allen and Armstrong both appeared in federal court in St. Paul on Thursday, where they were each charged with violating a civil rights law that prohibits two or more people from conspiring to interfere with constitutionally protected rights, like the free practice of religion.
Micko, who presided over Thursday's hearing, declined to approve a second criminal charge against the two local activists that accused them of violating a provision in the FACE Act which makes it a crime to use force, threats, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with a person who is exercising their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
In a copy of an arrest warrant against Allen obtained by CBS News, the second charge was physically crossed off, with "NO PROBABLE CAUSE" written in the margin. An attorney for Armstrong said that the magistrate judge also crossed off a charge on her arrest warrant.
NEW: Arrest warrant for church protest suspect Chauntyll Allen shows two original charges but one is scratched off by magistrate judge for “no probable cause.” @CBSNews @MacFarlaneNews @JenniferJJacobs @SarahNLynch @camiloreports @WCCO pic.twitter.com/58LFuOXXzK
— Jonah Kaplan (@JonahPKaplan) January 22, 2026
Tension was evident during Thursday's hearing to review the arrests. Just minutes after Micko began the hearing, federal prosecutors conceded they had yet to provide copies of the arrest warrants to the two women arrested and their attorneys.
"We can get them," Robert Keenan, an attorney in the Civil Rights Division, told the judge.
Micko then ordered a recess and vowed not to proceed until that happened, prompting audible gasps and some cheers from those in attendance watching in overflow rooms.
When proceedings restarted, the Justice Department's request for Armstrong and Allen to be detained was swiftly denied, as were their requests for detention hearings.
Keenan argued that the allegations involved "crimes of violence," but Micko shot back that he didn't see "any threat or use of force."
Ultimately, both Armstrong and Allen were ordered to be released on condition they remain in Minnesota, stay off the church's property and avoid contact with any witness or victim.
But later Thursday, defense attorneys told CBS News that both Armstrong and Allen would not be released pending the Justice Department's plan to appeal and seek their detention.
"This is the due process for the prosecution that doesn't seem to happen to folks we try to get out of Whipple [Federal Building] or any other f***ing jail in this city," lamented attorney James Cook, who represents Allen.
A judge is expected to make a ruling on the Justice Department's appeal on Friday.
Prosecutors also asked that the criminal complaints remain sealed despite the very public nature of the case — a motion that was approved for 24 hours.
The two federal prosecutors who appeared in the courtroom are not from Minnesota.
Before joining the Civil Rights Division, Keenan previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, where he argued that a local deputy sheriff convicted of civil rights violations should have his conviction on the felony counts struck and should not serve prison time. The efforts to strike the felony conviction led several prosecutors on the case to resign in protest.
Most recently, he was dispatched to Louisville to handle the sentencing for a former Louisville police officer who was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights, where he asked the judge to impose a sentence of just one day.
Orlando Sonza, a former congressional candidate from Ohio, was tapped by Mr. Trump to work in the Civil Rights Division last summer.
Protesters against ICE enter St. Paul church service
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.