A Minnesota federal Justice of the Peace choose refused to signal a grievance charging unbiased journalist Don Lemon in reference to a protest inside a church in St. Paul on Sunday, a number of sources conversant in the proceedings advised CBS Information.
“The lawyer common is enraged on the Justice of the Peace’s resolution,” mentioned a supply conversant in the matter. Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi has been in Minnesota for 2 days, because the Justice Division has sought to surge prosecutorial and regulation enforcement assets there.
A unique supply confused that the method just isn’t over, and the Justice Division may discover different avenues to cost Lemon.
The Justice of the Peace choose who declined to approve expenses for Lemon was Douglas Micko, sources advised CBS Information. Micko beforehand labored as a federal public defender.
Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, mentioned in an announcement Thursday that the Justice of the Peace’s actions “verify the character of Don’s First Modification protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter.”
“Ought to the Division of Justice proceed with a shocking and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job, Don will name out their newest assault on the rule of regulation and battle any expenses vigorously and completely in courtroom,” Lowell mentioned.
The federal government had hoped to cost Lemon together with a raft of different individuals who participated within the protest on the church.
On Thursday morning, Bondi introduced two arrests linked to the church protests — Chauntyll Louisa Allen, who serves on the St. Paul Faculty Board, and Nekima Levy Armstrong. Bondi alleged that Armstrong was concerned in organizing the protest. Bondi later mentioned a 3rd particular person, William Kelly, was arrested.
Allen and Armstrong each appeared in federal courtroom in St. Paul on Thursday, the place they have been every charged with violating a civil rights regulation that prohibits two or extra individuals from conspiring to intervene with constitutionally protected rights, just like the free observe of faith.
Micko, who presided over Thursday’s listening to, declined to approve a second felony cost in opposition to the 2 native activists that accused them of violating a provision within the FACE Act which makes it against the law to make use of power, threats, or bodily obstruction to injure, intimidate, or intervene with an individual who’s exercising their First Modification proper of non secular freedom at a spot of worship.
In a replica of an arrest warrant in opposition to Allen obtained by CBS Information, the second cost was bodily crossed off, with “NO PROBABLE CAUSE” written within the margin. An lawyer for Armstrong mentioned that the Justice of the Peace choose additionally crossed off a cost on her arrest warrant.
Rigidity was evident throughout Thursday’s listening to to evaluation the arrests. Simply minutes after Micko started the listening to, federal prosecutors conceded they’d but to supply copies of the arrest warrants to the 2 girls arrested and their attorneys.
“We are able to get them,” Robert Keenan, an lawyer within the Civil Rights Division, advised the choose.
Micko then ordered a recess and vowed to not proceed till that occurred, prompting audible gasps and a few cheers from these in attendance watching in overflow rooms.
When proceedings restarted, the Justice Division’s request for Armstrong and Allen to be detained was swiftly denied, as have been their requests for detention hearings.
Keenan argued that the allegations concerned “crimes of violence,” however Micko shot again that he did not see “any menace or use of power.”
In the end, each Armstrong and Allen have been ordered to be launched on situation they continue to be in Minnesota, keep off the church’s property, and keep away from contact with any witness or sufferer.
Prosecutors additionally requested that the felony complaints stay sealed regardless of the very public nature of the case — a movement that was accepted for twenty-four hours.
The 2 federal prosecutors who appeared within the courtroom usually are not from Minnesota.
Earlier than becoming a member of the Civil Rights Division, Keenan beforehand labored as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, the place he argued {that a} native deputy sheriff convicted of civil rights violations ought to have his conviction on the felony counts struck and mustn’t serve jail time. The efforts to strike the felony conviction led a number of prosecutors on the case to resign in protest.
Most lately, he was dispatched to Louisville to deal with the sentencing for a former Louisville police officer who was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights, the place he requested the choose to impose a sentence of simply at some point.
Orlando Sonza, a former congressional candidate from Ohio, was tapped by Mr. Trump to work within the Civil Rights Division final summer time.
Protesters in opposition to ICE enter St. Paul church service
Protesters mentioned they entered St. Paul’s Cities Church on Sunday, after discovering that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official gave the impression to be one of many pastors on the church.
Protests and clashes between some residents and federal immigration officers within the Twin Cities have been occurring day by day for the reason that Trump administration deployed 1000’s of ICE and Border Patrol brokers to the realm. Amongst different calls for, protesters have known as for accountability within the loss of life 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 households to go away.
In an interview with the pastor, Lemon mentioned, “There is a Structure and a First Modification, and freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.”
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant lawyer common for the Civil Rights Division, has publicly hinted that Lemon may doubtlessly face expenses for his function in disrupting the service.
Being a journalist “just isn’t a badge or a defend that protects you from felony penalties,” she mentioned throughout an look on the “Benny Present,” hosted by far-right podcaster Benny Johnson.
Dhillon declined to remark when reached by CBS Information.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Washington, D.C., confronted related hurdles final 12 months, after President Trump flooded the streets with federal brokers as a part of an initiative to crack down on violent crime.
Prosecutors in U.S. Legal professional Jeanine Pirro’s workplace have been ordered to pursue each case as a federal offense when potential – a plan that backfired because the Justice Division started to see grand juries reject expenses and Justice of the Peace judges push again on instances they seen as flimsy or that contained constitutional defects.
In an Oct. 8, 2025, opinion, Justice of the Peace Decide Zia Faruqui within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia revealed that over the course of eight weeks for the reason that crime surge started in August, the federal government moved to dismiss 21% of all instances that have been charged by felony grievance.
That statistic is “surprising,” he wrote, in contrast with the 0.5% of instances charged by felony grievance that the federal government dismissed within the district over the previous decade.
