Minnesota’s Democratic Attorney General Defends Don Lemon After Trump Calls for Fired CNN Star To Serve Prison Time

Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, is defending a fired CNN star, Don Lemon, from accusations that he and anti-ICE protesters who disrupted a Saint Paul church service broke the law. The Trump Administration is investigating anti-ICE protesters who disrupted the church service — on Saint Paul’s prestigious Summit Avenue – on Sunday, including Mr. Lemon, who claims he was simply there to perform journalistic duties. The head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Harmeet Dhillon, warned Mr. Lemon that he is “on notice,” and President Trump called for the journalist and the protesters to be jailed. However, Minnesota’s Democratic attorney general, Keith Ellison, is defending Mr. Lemon and the other protesters, arguing that the protest on Sunday is covered by the First Amendment. Mr. Ellison appeared on the online “The Don Lemon Show” on Monday, saying, “This country started in a protest. You know, it’s freedom of expression. People have the right to lift up their voices and make their case. And none of us are immune from the voice of the public.”Don Lemon is under investigation for crashing Sunday services at a Minneapolis church. Via X“So, quite honestly, I think that you got the First Amendment — freedom of religion and … the freedom of expression — and I think that it’s just something you gotta live with,” he said. Mr. Ellison also suggested on CNN that protesting inside the church is a “First Amendment activity.”Mr. Ellison, a former U.S. congressman, is known for his aggressive prosecution, as attorney general, of the Minneapolis police officers charged in the 2020 death of George Floyd, and for his hesitance to condemn the Black Lives Matter rioters who did significant damage to city business following Floyd’s death.Regarding Mr. Lemon’s case, the Trump DOJ clearly disagrees with Mr. Ellison’s assessment. In a post on X, Ms. Dhillon wrote, “A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service.”Ms. Dhillon suggested that the protesters could be charged under the FACE Act, which prohibits protesters from interfering with abortion clinics or places of worship. The 1994 law – sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy and signed by President Clinton — has mostly been used by Democrats to prosecute demonstrators who oppose abortion access. However, in September, the Trump Justice Department used the law to sue anti-Israel protesters who were accused of intimidating and assaulting worshippers at a synagogue in New Jersey, which was believed to be the first time the FACE Act had been used in connection with protesters interfering with a religious service. Ms. Dhillon also said the prosecutors may try to enhance the penalties by charging the protesters under the Ku Klux Klan Act. Don Lemon made critical comments about Minnesota churchgoers to the far left podcaster Jennifer Welch. YouTube Mr. Trump said on Truth Social that the protesters should be thrown in jail, writing, “Just watched footage of the Church Raid in Minnesota by the agitators and insurrectionists. These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act. They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing.”“They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country. The first to go should be Walz, and Fake Sleazebag, Ilhan Omar, who is supposedly worth over $30 Million Dollars, even though she’s never had anything but a Government job. Investigate these Corrupt Politicians, and do it now!” he added. A spokesman for the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, said in a statement that the governor does not support “interrupting a place of worship.”Mr. Lemon – who struck out as an independent journalist after he was fired by CNN in 2023 after he made offensive comments about women – has pushed back on the criticism of his decision to enter the church. He told left-wing podcaster Jennifer Welch, “I think people who are in religious groups like that — it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice — but I think they’re entitled, and that entitlement comes from white supremacy.”“They think that this country was built for them, that it is a Christian country, when actually, we left England because we wanted religious freedom,” he said. Mr. Lemon also claimed that he was being singled out because he is a gay, black man. He told Ms. Welch he asked his producer how he became “the face” of the protest.“You have a platform, and you’re the biggest name. Of course you’re going to be the person that they single out, and they’re gonna make the headline because it plays to their base, and their base is full of racist, bigoted homophobes,” Mr. Lemon said his producer told him.

Minnesota’s Democratic Attorney General Defends Don Lemon After Trump Calls for Fired CNN Star To Serve Prison Time

Minnesota’s Democratic Attorney General Defends Don Lemon After Trump Calls for Fired CNN Star To Serve Prison Time

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