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Magistrate judge rejects charges against Don Lemon over anti-ICE protest in Minnesota church
A Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint charging independent journalist Don Lemon in connection with a protest inside a church in St. Paul on Sunday, multiple sources familiar with the proceedings told CBS News.
“The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate’s decision,” said a source familiar with the matter. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been in Minnesota for two days, as the Justice Department has sought to surge prosecutorial and law enforcement resources there.
A different source stressed that the process is not over, and the Justice Department could find other avenues to charge Lemon.
On Thursday morning, Bondi announced two arrests connected to the church protest — Chauntyll Louisa Allen, who serves on the St. Paul School Board, and Nekima Levy Armstrong. Bondi alleged that Armstrong was involved in organizing the protest.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed that a magistrate judge approved charges against Allen and Armstrong.
Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said Armstrong is being charged with a federal crime under 18 USC 241, a civil rights law that prohibits two or more people from conspiring to interfere with constitutionally protected rights, like the free practice of religion.
Protesters said they entered St. Paul’s Cities Church on Sunday, after discovering that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official appeared to be one of the pastors at the church.
Protests and clashes between some residents and federal immigration officers in the Twin Cities have been occurring daily since the Trump administration deployed thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents to the area. Among other demands, protesters have called for accountability in the death of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident who was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Jan. 7.
Lemon, a former CNN anchor, attended the protest, which interrupted the Sunday service, prompting congregants and their families to leave.
In an interview with the pastor, Lemon said, “There’s a Constitution and a First Amendment, and freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.”
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, has publicly hinted that Lemon could potentially face charges for his role in disrupting the service.
Being a journalist “is not a badge or a shield that protects you from criminal consequences,” she said during an appearance on the “Benny Show,” hosted by far-right podcaster Benny Johnson.
Dhillon declined to comment when reached by CBS News.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., faced similar hurdles last year, after President Trump flooded the streets with federal agents as part of an initiative to crack down on violent crime.
Prosecutors in U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office were ordered to pursue every case as a federal offense when possible – a plan that backfired as the Justice Department began to see grand juries reject charges and magistrate judges push back on cases they viewed as flimsy or that contained constitutional defects.
In an Oct. 8, 2025, opinion, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia revealed that over the course of eight weeks since the crime surge began in August, the government moved to dismiss 21% of all cases that were charged by criminal complaint.
That statistic is “shocking,” he wrote, compared with the 0.5% of cases charged by criminal complaint that the government dismissed in the district over the past decade.
The museums, designed by conservative nonprofits and Trump appointees, tell the story of early America, from colonization to revolution. The one exhibition looking beyond the early years is the “Wall of American Heroes.” It is a list of 51 people, chosen to illustrate 250 years of American history.
A White House spokesman said they were “individuals who shaped this nation’s history, culture and spirit across generations.”
The people pictured on this national honor roll — and the people left out — help illustrate what this administration sees as the highlights of American history.
Amid the administration’s efforts to reshape the nation’s relationship with its past, Trump appointees heavily weighted the list toward a single era of American history — and a few specific kinds of hero.
The other exhibitions in the Freedom Trucks were crafted by a pair of conservative nonprofits, PragerU and Hillsdale College. But the “Wall of American Heroes” was created by Freedom 250, a nonprofit effort whose leaders were chosen by President Trump and that was created to lead the planning of celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday, overshadowing a bipartisan congressional commission.
A spokeswoman for Freedom 250 said Mr. Trump was not directly involved in the selection of those featured.
But the list clearly tracks Mr. Trump’s own lifetime and the heroes of the conservative political movement.
The wall’s tilt toward heroes of the baby boomer generation, for instance, extends beyond Hollywood stars and musicians. Of the four religious leaders on the list, two — Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the Rev. Billy Graham — also appeared on TV regularly in the 1950s and 1960s. The only painter on the list is Norman Rockwell, known for his idealized depictions of American life in that period.
By contrast, there is only a handful of figures from the first decades of American independence.
“That’s a disservice, if your intention is to present the last 250 years,” said Sarah Weicksel, the executive director of the American Historical Association. “Because all of the people on this list are building on the work and struggles and progress that was made by the people in the 150 years prior.”
The “Wall of American Heroes” was inspired by a similar display in a traveling museum created by the State of Virginia. But Virginia’s display celebrates little-known historical figures.
Mr. Trump’s, by and large, celebrates people who are already well-known — and, often, people who were famous in their own time. For example, it praises P.T. Barnum, a circus impresario who used hoaxes and freak shows to draw crowds. The wall calls him an “icon of American sensationalism.”
The spokeswoman for Freedom 250 said that many of the names on the wall were drawn from a list of 250 people that Mr. Trump wants to include in a “Garden of American Heroes” in Washington.
The spokeswoman declined to say what criteria were used to narrow down the list.
The only president whose name appears on the wall — not on the list of heroes, but alongside his quotation — is Mr. Trump himself.
Explore the Wall of Heroes
Navigate the display by dragging from side to side.
Washington — Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey will return to Congress on June 30, his spokesperson said, after being away since March in an unexplained absence that has confounded Capitol Hill.
“Congressman Kean is eager to return to in person work on June 30 and resume a full schedule,” Kean’s spokesperson, Harrison Neely, told CBS News on Thursday. The New Jersey Globe first reported on his return date.
Kean’s whereabouts since he last voted on March 5 have not been disclosed. When he first made a statement about the absence in late April, the New Jersey Republican said he was addressing a “personal medical issue.”
Kean said earlier this month that he would return to Washington within a matter of weeks, at which point he would provide more details about his health.
“Right now I am focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals, I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks. At that time I will be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition,” Kean said in a June 2 statement released by his campaign.
The statement came hours before polls closed in New Jersey’s GOP primary for his seat, in which he ran unopposed.
He has missed more than 130 votes during his absence.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters earlier this month that he had recently spoken with Kean. Johnson said he was aware of the health issue, but would not disclose the details.
“What he’s dealing with is not very common and not a big thing,” Johnson said.
new video loaded: Obama Presidential Center Opens in Chicago
By Shawn Paik
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