Judge Rejects Criminal Charge Against Journalist Don Lemon Over Church Protest

Federal prosecutors sought to charge former CNN journalist Don Lemon in connection with an anti-immigration-enforcement protest that disrupted services at a Minnesota church Sunday, but a magistrate judge declined to approve the charge, two people familiar with the development said.

Lemon’s name appeared among eight defendants in a federal court docket reviewed by POLITICO Thursday afternoon. However, a short time later the case disappeared altogether from the public docket.

In social media posts, Attorney General Pam Bondi did not mention Lemon, but named three other people arrested Thursday over the protest at Cities Church in St. Paul: Nekima Levy Armstrong, William Kelly and Chauntyll Allen, a member of the St. Paul School Board.

“Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution,” Bondi wrote in an X post quickly reposted by the White House. “Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith.”

The people who described the rejected prosecution of Lemon were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. One said Bondi is “enraged at the magistrate judge’s decision.”

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment or to detail the charges against those arrested.

A spokesperson for the U.S. District Court in Minnesota said Levy Armstrong and Allen appeared in court Thursday afternoon. Federal courts don’t typically release the names of proposed defendants when prosecutors fail to win approval for a criminal complaint.

A spokesperson for Lemon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In one video he posted online from the protest, Lemon said: “We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.”

Conservatives have called for criminal charges against the activists who entered the Southern Baptist church on Sunday. Videos posted online by Lemon and others show confusion and chaos during the protest, which organizers said was aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement field director David Easterwood, who appears to be one of the pastors there.

In one of her social media posts Thursday, Bondi called the church protest an “attack.” On Tuesday night, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said arrests related to the disruption could be expected within hours.

The arrests Thursday came shortly before Vice President JD Vance arrived in the Minneapolis area for a planned meeting with ICE agents.