DOJ civil rights chief blasts Don Lemon for covering anti-ICE protest inside church, vows charges against protesters

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department “will pursue charges” related to a protest in a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Monday, specifically calling out ex-CNN journalist Don Lemon for his coverage of the event.

In an interview with conservative influencer Benny Johnson, Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said journalism is not a “shield” from a “criminal conspiracy.”

“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” 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.”

Dhillon did not confirm whether the Justice Department would pursue charges against Lemon in particular. NBC News has asked the Justice Department and the place of worship, Cities Church, for comment.

Reached for a response to Dhillon’s remarks, Lemon said in an email that “it’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there.”

“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.”

Lemon said he stood by his reporting.

“If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good — the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place,” he wrote, referring to the woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer this month.

Dhillon said in her interview that the Justice Department is “putting the facts together,” adding that it was “a very serious matter.”

“Come next Sunday, nobody should think in the United States that they’re going to be able to get away with this,” she said. “Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long, long time.”

In a video posted on his digital talk show’s YouTube channel, Lemon stands outside with protesters while he explains that he is at an “operation that is a secret.”

Speaking to Lemon, one of the protesters, Nekima Levy Armstrong, refers to the protest as “Operation Pull Up.” She says the protesters are “demanding justice for Renee Good and letting them know that this will not stand.”

In a later clip of the protest inside the church, Lemon says, “We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.”

Lemon reported that activists had gone to the church because, they alleged, one of its officials worked at the local ICE field office. NBC News has not verified a connection.

Dhillon said Sunday afternoon on X that the Justice Department was “investigating the potential violations of the federal FACE Act by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers,” referring to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

The law, enacted in 1994, prohibits interfering with or obstructing people from seeking reproductive health services or exercising religious freedom at places of worship.

In her interview with Johnson, Dhillon also mentioned the possibility of invoking the Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was passed during Reconstruction to protect Black Americans’ civil rights.

“Whenever anyone conspires to violate the protected civil rights of American citizens, the Klan Act can be used to bring a conspiracy charge,” she said.

Protesters can face restrictions on private property without the consent of the property owner.

A livestream posted on the Black Lives Matter Minnesota Facebook page showed protesters at the church Sunday chanting “ICE out” and “Renee Good.”

During the protest, Lemon reported from inside the church, interviewing a pastor who asked him to leave the building unless he was there to worship.

“This is what the First Amendment is about, about the freedom to protest,” Lemon said in his YouTube channel video.

Tensions and anti-ICE protests have grown in the aftermath of Good’s killing in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. The administration has sided with Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who shot her, arguing that he acted in self-defense. Protesters and Minnesota officials have slammed ICE, calling on the administration to remove its personnel.

President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to the protests, which Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said would be “a shocking step.”

“In Minneapolis, we’re not going to be intimidated,” Frey said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “We’re not backing down.”

The Defense Department has also ordered about 1,500 troops to prepare for deployment to Minnesota if Trump does invoke the Insurrection Act, two defense officials told NBC News, although Trump told reporters Friday that he might not need to use it.