An unsealed indictment reveals how ex-CNN host Don Lemon allegedly worked with protesters to storm a Minnesota church on Jan. 18 and keep terrified worshippers from leaving the building.
Lemon was arrested Thursday evening and charged with conspiracy to violate the right of religious freedom at a house of worship and violations of the FACE Act, a law that, in part, prohibits the disruption of worship services, which the Biden administration infamously weaponized against peaceful anti-abortion protesters, according to a copy of the indictment obtained by The Daily Wire. He was charged with eight others.
For his role, Lemon claims he was attending the protest solely to cover it as an independent journalist. The new court documents, however, suggest otherwise.
Before allegedly storming the church, Lemon attended a “pre-op briefing” where organizers “advised” him of their “target,” Cities Church in St. Paul, “and provided instruction on how the operation would be conducted once they arrived,” according to the indictment.
He then began “livestreaming” and “explained to his audience that he was in Minnesota with an organization that was gearing up for a ‘resistance’ operation against the Federal Government’s immigration policies,” while also not giving away specific details “to maintain operation secrecy by reminding certain co-conspirators to not disclose” that they were going to the church.
Lemon then “stepped away momentarily so his mic would not accidentally divulge certain portions of the planning session,” the indictment alleged.
He also “thanked” alleged protest leader Nekima Levy Armstrong “for what she was doing and reassured her that he was ‘not saying … what’s going on.'”
Before he arrived at the church, Lemon informed his livestream audience, “We’re going to head to the operation. Again, we’re not going to give any, any of the information away.”
As he headed toward the church, an unnamed demonstrator told Lemon that “they had to ‘catch up’ to the others,” to which Lemon replied: “Let’s go, catch up” as he continued to livestream, stating, “We can’t say too much. We don’t want to give it up.”
Lemon entered the church with the “first wave of agitators,” and allegedly “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated the Church’s congregants and pastors by physically occupying most of the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the Church, engaging in menacing and threatening behavior, chanting and yelling loudly at the pastor and congregants, and/or physically obstructing them as they attempted to exit and/or move about within the Church,” according to the indictment.
Lemon told his livestream audience that he saw a “young man” who appeared to be “frightened,” “scared,” and “crying,” acknowledging “that the congregants’ reactions were understandable because the experience was ‘traumatic and uncomfortable,’ which he said was the purpose.”
Lemon also said that “the whole point of [the operation] is to disrupt.”
He also asked Armstrong: “Who is the person that we should talk to? Is there a pastor or something?” as she pointed toward the pastor, who she said “might have run away.”
Lemon then “approached the pastor and largely surrounded him (to his front and both sides), stood in close proximity to the pastor in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement while” he “peppered him with questions to promote the operation’s message.”
Lemon was standing “so close to the pastor” that he caused the religious leader’s “right hand to graze” him before he “admonished the pastor, stating ‘Please don’t push me.'” Lemon even tried to block fearful congregants from leaving.
“At one point, defendant Lemon posted himself at the main door of the Church, where he confronted some congregants and physically obstructed them as they tried to exit the Church building to challenge them with ‘facts’ about U.S. immigration policy,” the indictment read.
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