Judge Blocks Bondi from Charging Don Lemon for Disrupting Church Service, as Justice Department Arrests Three Anti-ICE Leaders From Incident

A federal magistrate judge struck down the Justice Department’s efforts to bring charges against fired CNN star Don Lemon for accompanying dozens of anti-ICE protesters as they entered a Saint Paul Baptist church during Sunday services last weekend and confronted one of the pastors. Three other anti-ICE protesters, however, were arrested and charged with felonies for their role in the protest.The Minnesota federal judge, whose name wasn’t immediately known, reportedly refused to sign the complaint that would have advanced charges against Mr. Lemon — a move that reportedly “enraged” the attorney general, Pamela Bondi, according to CBS News and other news outlets.The Justice Department is currently pursuing “other avenues” to charge Mr. Lemon, whose decision to film the protesters inside Saint Paul’s Cities Church earned him a searing rebuke on Tuesday from President Trump.On Thursday morning, Ms. Bondi announced the arrests of the three individuals who she alleged played key roles in organizing the anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at Cities Church over the weekend.Nekima Levy Armstrong, under arrest. XOn Thursday morning, agents from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen on allegations that they led a group of anti-ICE protesters into the Baptist church on January 18 during a Sunday service.The FBI director, Kash Patel, said that Ms. Armstrong was arrested for allegedly violating the FACE Act, a 1994 law originally passed by Democrats to facilitate the arrest of protesters who blocked access to abortion clinics. The Trump Administration has effectively turned the law on its head by using it to charge liberal protesters.Also on Thursday, the FBI announced the arrest of William Kelly, who goes by the username “DaWokeFarmer” on TikTok, for his alleged role in the Cities Church protest. In a recent video posted on his TikTok account, Mr. Kelly dared Ms. Bondi to arrest him for his role in the Cities Church protest.“Come and get me, Pam Bondi, you f—ing traitorous b—-. All power to the people,” Mr. Kelly said in the video. Anti ICE protester William Kelly was defiant. YouTubeOn Thursday, Ms. Bondi reposted Mr. Kelly’s video, adding her caption “Ok” with a checked-box emoji.The charges against Ms. Armstrong and Ms. Allen were approved by the same federal judge who declined to charge Mr. Lemon, CBS reported.The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, announced the arrests on her X account, posting a photo of a handcuffed Ms. Armstrong being led away by federal authorities. Soon thereafter, the White House posted on its X account a digitally altered version of the same photo of Ms. Armstrong, which had been changed to depict her in tears.The anti-ICE protester Chauntyll Allen was also arrested. Chauntyll AllenMs. Bondi announced the arrests in separate posts on her X account Thursday morning, punctuating each in capital letters with “WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” and “WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOUSES OF WORSHIP.”The News of the arrests comes just days after the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, announced the Justice Department would not be investigating the fatal ICE-involved shooting of Renee Good on January 7th. An independent autopsy commissioned by Ms. Good’s family revealed Wednesday that the 37-year-old sustained one graze wound and three clear gunshot wounds — to the head, forearm, and right breast — fired by an immigration officer as she was moving her SUV during the encounter. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security maintain that Ms. Good was trying to run over the federal officer, who fired four times in self-defense after fearing for his life. Local officials have challenged that account and demanded, so far in vain, that they be included in any investigation.“We are not going to bow to pressure from the media, bow to pressure from politicians, and do something that we never do – not under this administration, not under the last administration. So no, we are not investigating,” Mr. Blanche said during an interview with Fox News on Sunday. Since the January 18 protest, Ms. Bondi and the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, have threatened prosecution against Ms. Armstrong, a former president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis chapter, who disrupted the service at Cities Church to protest one of its pastors, David Easterwood, whom activists claim is also the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s St. Paul field office. The Department of Homeland Security declined to confirm whether Mr. Easterwood holds that role.Don Lemon speaks to far left podcaster Jennifer Welch following the church incident. YouTube Footage of the protest showed demonstrators protesting “ICE out.” Mr. Lemon, who broadcast the protest on his YouTube channel, was reprimanded by Ms. Dhillon on X this week, saying the First Amendment did not “protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service.”“You are on notice!” she added.For his part, Mr. Trump, on Tuesday, called Mr. Lemon a “loser” and a “lightweight” and praised the pastor’s composure. Mr. Lemon claimed he was there only as a journalist, although he said on his YouTube show that he’d done “reconnaissance” at the church before the anti-ICE incursion. He received support from Minnesota’s Democratic attorney general, who advised Mr. Lemon that he had the First Amendment on his side. A general view outside Cites Church on January 22, 2026 located on St. Paul, Minnesota’s prestigious Summit Avenue. Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesThe day after the protest, Mr. Lemon spoke with the far-left podcaster Jennifer Welch and compared the churchgoers to white supremacists. “I think people who are, you know, in religious groups like that — it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice — but I think that they’re entitled, and that entitlement comes from a supremacy, a white supremacy, and they think that this country was built for them, that it is a Christian country,” he told Ms. Welch.In a statement on Tuesday, Cities Church leaders announced they were considering taking legal action against the “group of agitators” for disrupting their service.“Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus — or any other act of worship — is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation,” the statement said.In an interview with Erin Burnett on CNN on Wednesday, Ms. Armstrong denied that she rushed into the service at Cities Church. “We actually went and sat down and participated in the service. And after the pastor prayed, that is when I stood up and asked him a question in response to his prayer. And then he responded to me. And then I proceeded to ask him about Pastor David Easterwood, and how is it possible for him to serve as both a pastor and the director of ICE for Minnesota,” Ms. Armstrong told Ms. Burnett.

Judge Blocks Bondi from Charging Don Lemon for Disrupting Church Service, as Justice Department Arrests Three Anti-ICE Leaders From Incident

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