A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that the Justice Department established probable cause to charge former CNN host Don Lemon and four others over the anti-ICE church storming in Minneapolis last weekend. The appeals court, however, declined to force a lower court judge to sign arrest warrants.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth District was unsealed on Saturday after the Justice Department asked the appeals court to force a lower district court in Minnesota to sign the five arrest warrants. The ruling did not make the names of the five defendants public, but CBS News reported that its sources confirmed one of the defendants is Lemon. The Justice Department vowed on Friday to pursue charges against Lemon “to the ends of the Earth.”
While Friday’s ruling supported the Trump administration’s pursuit of charging Lemon on paper, it did not solve the Justice Department’s request. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon responded to the ruling, writing on X, “Stay tuned 🤨.” The Justice Department could now seek a grand jury indictment or represent the charges to a magistrate judge.”
Lemon joined a large group of anti-ICE protesters who stormed Cities Church in Minneapolis last Sunday during the worship service because one of the church’s pastors is believed to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Three of the anti-ICE agitators who organized the church storming have been arrested by the FBI, including Black Lives Matter activist Nekima Levy Armstrong.
Lemon’s attorney argued that he is protected under the First Amendment since he was with the anti-ICE agitators to cover the church storming as an independent journalist. The Justice Department, however, argues that Lemon was coordinating with leaders of the anti-ICE group before the church storming.
“Freedom of the press extends to a lot of different areas,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this week. “It does not extend to somebody just trespassing and being embedded with a group of rioters and being part of the group that storms inside of a church.”
Magistrate Judge Doug Micko refused to sign the arrest warrant for Lemon, saying that federal prosecutors failed to present enough evidence to justify his arrest.
The Trump administration is pursuing charges against Lemon and others who participated in the storming of Cities Church through the FACE Act, which penalizes people for interfering with Americans who are exercising their right to religious freedom. The FACE act was used by the Biden administration to go after pro-lifers who were accused of blocking access to abortion clinics.
News of the appeals court ruling broke as Minneapolis erupts into chaos again after an armed man was shot and killed by federal agents on Saturday morning. Video showed federal officers attempting to detain a man on the street during what the Department of Homeland Security said was a “targeted operation” for an illegal immigrant “wanted for violent assault.” The man was armed with a loaded “semi-automatic handgun” and was shot and killed by a federal agent who was fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow agents, according to Homeland Security.
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