Kamal Ghorui
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who was inside the Minnesota church when it was disrupted by anti-ICE protesters, triggering suspicion that he was aware of the planned protest, is not facing charges now as a federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to formally charge him. According to insiders, this enraged Attorney General Pam Bondi and she said she will be coming to Minnesota herself. The Sunday service of the church was disrupted when the protesters stormed the church, suspecting ICE links of the pastor. The protesters said the pastor was the acting field director of a local ICE office.This was a major flare-up in Minnesota after Renee Good’s death on January 7 when the Minneapolis woman was shot dead by ‘defensive’ firing of ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Minnesota has been on fire since then as ICE strengthened its crackdown and protesters doubled down on their resistance. The Justice Department condemned the church incident and said they will charge Don Lemon for his coverage of the event. “Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said on “The Benny Show.” “He went into the facility, and then he began — quote, unquote — ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.”Even President Donald Trump spoke against Don Lemon. “I saw him the way he walked in that church, it was terrible,” Trump said of Lemon earlier this week. “I have such respect for that pastor. He was so calm, he was so nice. He was just accosted. What they did in that church was horrible.”Don Lemon said he was not the only reporter there but he was being targeted. “That framing is telling,” he said. “What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press.”Two protesters, called the leaders of the church storming, have been arrested by the FBI Thursday. Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and activist in the Twin Cities, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a community organizer and schoolboard member, have been arrested for teh “coordinated attacks” on Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota.
