Judge rejects Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring charges against Don Lemon

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — A federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring charges against journalist Don Lemon for appearing alongside protesters who breached a Minnesota church over the weekend, a source told CNN.

“The Attorney General is enraged at the magistrate judge’s decision,” a person familiar with the matter said. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been on the ground in Minnesota for two days meeting with federal prosecutors from the state.

Lemon, who is a former CNN host who now makes content independently, was with dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters as they rushed into Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday morning, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations, CNN has reported.

Lemon has said that he was present at the demonstration as a journalist and not as a protester. In a video of the episode that he posted on YouTube, Lemon says “I’m just here photographing, I’m not part of the group… I’m a journalist.”

It is highly unusual for the Justice Department to attempt to criminally charge a journalist who is actively working – though it is not without precedent. Such charges are heavily scrutinized, and, if approved by a judge, often face extended legal battles over whether the journalist is protected by the First Amendment before the case makes it to trial.

In Lemon’s case, Justice Department officials immediately, and publicly, asserted that he would face charges. They said Lemon did not have a right to be on the church’s private property, adding that interrupting the service may have impeded in the churchgoers’ constitutional rights to express their religion.

“The magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter. It was no different than what he has done for more than 30 years, reporting and covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally protected activity as a journalist,” Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement Thursday.

Lowell added that Lemon would “fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” should the DOJ continue to pursue them.

The Department of Justice could always try again to bring charges against Lemon.

Over the past several weeks, Minneapolis has been the epicenter of unrest over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown after the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an ICE officer. Tensions between protesters and federal authorities have continued to escalate, with the administration planning to surge federal agents in the city.

The church protesters claimed in Lemon’s video that a pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul, David Easterwood, appeared to be a top ICE official in the Twin Cities. Once they entered the church, the protesters asked a different pastor leading the service to explain Easterwood’s connection to the congregation, one of the protesters told CNN.

Videos of the moment shows the pastor who was leading the service repeatedly asking the protesters to leave.

Dozens of protesters can also been seen on video chanting “Justice for Renee Good” and engaging in angry exchanges with members of the congregation.

The Justice Department has arrested at least three people involved in the protests.

This story was updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
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