Federal agents moved in. Cameras rolled. And now a former CNN star, a pastor who’s also an ICE officer, and a Minnesota church are at the center of a legal firestorm. What started as a protest exploded into federal charges, free speech battles, and accusations of a “takeover attack” on worshippers insi… Continues…
Federal prosecutors say this was no ordinary protest. They describe a carefully planned operation designed to storm a St. Paul church, halt a Sunday service, and intimidate congregants as they tried to worship. With nine people now charged under the FACE Act and for conspiring to deprive civil rights, the government is sending a clear warning: political rage stops at the church door, or it becomes a federal case.
But the defendants insist this is an assault on the First Amendment. Don Lemon and journalist Georgia Fort say they were there to document a demonstration against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, not to lead a riot. Defense attorneys argue the government is criminalizing protest and newsgathering, stretching a law meant to stop violence into a weapon against dissent. A jury may now have to decide where protest ends—and persecution begins.