Staff Reports
The Department of Justice quietly moved this week to hold former CNN anchor Don Lemon accountable for his role in the chaotic anti-ICE protest that invaded a St. Paul church, but a federal magistrate judge declined to sign the complaint charging him — for now. That judicial rebuke is a temporary reprieve, not a verdict of innocence, and it puts the ball back in the DOJ’s court to decide whether it will push forward with more serious steps.
The incident itself was not a peaceful, lawful protest but an orchestrated disruption of a worship service at Cities Church, aimed at intimidating congregants because a pastor was accused of serving as an ICE official. Federal prosecutors have already arrested and charged key organizers tied to the action as authorities move to defend churches and religious liberty from mob tactics.
Senior DOJ officials have signaled they aren’t done — Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon publicly warned that Lemon has made “numerous admissions online” and that claiming to be a journalist does not provide blanket immunity from criminal consequences if one is embedded with a conspiracy. Those remarks make clear the department is looking at other avenues, including grand jury proceedings, to ensure accountability.
While some in the press shriek about “attacks on journalism,” the magistrate’s decision shows prosecutors must meet legal standards before a complaint is signed — a safeguard our system requires even when pursuing high-profile figures. That judicial check does not erase the video evidence and eyewitness accounts showing Lemon wasn’t merely an observer but part of a coordinated presence inside the sanctuary.
Let’s be blunt: Don Lemon spent years sanctimoniously lecturing Americans from a very safe, very well-paid perch about civility and the rule of law, and then walked into a church service with a political mob and tried to play reporter. Conservatives who defend free speech and religious freedom shouldn’t be afraid to call out media elites when their performative “reporting” crosses the line into facilitation of intimidation. No one should get a pass because of a byline.
This is bigger than one personality. The arrests of organizers and the DOJ’s aggressive posture underscore a fundamental point — places of worship must be protected from political mobs, and the law must be applied evenhandedly whether the participant wears a press badge or a protest sign. If the Biden-era claims of impartial justice mean anything to Americans, prosecutors must follow the evidence rather than protect media favorites.
Patriotic Americans should watch this closely and demand the same standard of justice the elites preach. If the DOJ is serious about defending constitutional liberties, it will proceed carefully but firmly; if it is playing politics, conservatives must expose it and insist on prosecutions that don’t bend to fame or cable network loyalty. The country deserves fairness, not selective enforcement.
