In a recent development, former CNN anchor Don Lemon may have drawn the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), following a protest he attended at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The demonstration, aimed at disrupting normal activities, focused on condemning the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a fatal shooting by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

On Sunday, anti-ICE protestors entered Cities Church, searching for David Easterwood, whom they identified as the acting director of the St. Paul ICE office. Although Easterwood was not present, demonstrators chanted slogans demanding “Justice for Renee Good,” and calling for Easterwood’s resignation, alongside other anti-ICE messages.

The protests were fueled by the January 7 incident where ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good, an event captured on video and widely viewed across the nation. The shooting sparked significant outrage, especially among left-leaning groups and independents. Meanwhile, the Trump administration and its supporters labeled Good as a “domestic terrorist,” claiming her actions justified the shooting.

Despite Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent statement that the DOJ is not investigating the officer involved, President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces, a measure he considered during the 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

A video livestreamed by Black Lives Matter Minnesota showed activists interrupting the church service and confronting the attending pastor, Jonathan Parnell, accusing him and the congregation of being “fake Christians.” Don Lemon, who was present at the scene, conducted interviews with Parnell and documented the unfolding events.

Also inside the church — and recording the action — was Lemon, who interviewed Parnell.

After Parnell said it was “shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship,” Lemon countered that there’s a “Constitution and a First Amendment and freedom of speech to assemble and protest.”

“We’re here to worship Jesus,” Parnell responded, referring to his and the congregation’s own First Amendment right.

In Lemon’s post on his Bluesky account, he can be seen outside the church speaking with activist, reverend, and lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong, a protest organizer, asking her to “tell us why you’re doing this.”

“We show up somewhere that is a key location — they don’t expect us to come there — and then we disrupt business as usual,” explained Armstrong, who heads the Racial Justice Network. She called the protest a “clandestine operation” and also “part of our duty as Christians” to expose the hypocrisy of church leaders, referring to Easterwood.

Lemon separately acknowledged that after some “reconnaissance on the ground” in Minneapolis, he became aware of “Operation Pull Up,” and noted that Armstrong has been “doing this since George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and others, where they surprise people, catch them off guard and hold them to account.” Lemon added that these were “surprise operations” and that he “can’t tell you where they’re going.”

Later in the same video, Lemon spoke with Armstrong inside the church, and she explained the purpose of the disruption.

“We’re demanding justice for Renee Good and letting them know that this will not stand. They cannot pretend to be a house of God while harboring someone who is directing ICE agents to wreak havoc upon our community and who killed Renee Good,” she said. “I am a reverend, on top of being a lawyer and an activist, so I come here in the power of the almighty God.”

During a NewsNation interview, Armstrong said “absolutely not” when asked if the protest went too far.

“I’m not going to go down this line of questioning with you. This is gaslighting. Who has gone too far is Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, JD Vance, and the people who run ICE,” she said.

Lemon, by his own account, “followed” the protesters into the church, not knowing where they were headed, and said he engaged in “an act of journalism” from there.

“That’s what protesting is about. It’s to make people uncomfortable. You may not like it,” he said.

In yet another video, Lemon wondered how he became the face of the story unfolding in Minnesota. Lemon said he realized he was the “biggest name there,” but that his  producers also reminded him, “Don, you’re a gay Black man in America.”

High-ranking DOJ lawyers have specifically raised the possibility of investigating Lemon for possible violations of the Ku Klux Klan Act and at least one other statute — the same law that the Biden administration used to prosecute abortion clinic blockades by anti-abortion activists, each of whom was subsequently pardoned by Trump.

The DOJ Civil Rights Division’s Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon suggested as much in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on his eponymous show, mentioning Lemon by name while discussing at length the KKK Act — which Trump himself was civilly accused of violating on Jan. 6 — and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

BREAKING: DOJ Announces Intention to Charge Don Lemon under the Ku Klux Klan Act.

The KKK Act makes it illegal to threaten, hurt, or intimidate people to prevent them from exercising their God-given rights.

HARMEET DHILLON: “The Klan Act is one of the most important federal… pic.twitter.com/GWnXAMtWc9

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 19, 2026

The FACE Act, in addition to barring interference with access to “reproductive health services,” prohibits “intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere, any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship[.]”

Dhillon, vowing that “we will pursue charges in this case,” stated that she sees “various crimes that have occurred, exactly what they are I’m not going to flag, but the FACE Act has been mentioned as one of the predicates there.” She also contemplated conspiracy and other charges stemming from a “use of the wires or the mails,” which suggests a potential look at the protest’s organizers.

“In other cases, the Biden DOJ used the Klan Act conspiracy charges tacked on to the FACE Act in the case of protests outside of abortion clinics, to bring much longer sentences, so there are a number of tools available to us,” the AAG added, before posing a series of questions. “Who funded this? What other crimes may have occurred? Was there a use of the wires or the mails in preparing for this event? Did anyone cross state lines to do this? All of those are potential predicates for additional federal charges.”

Johnson followed up by asking more about the KKK Act, saying it was the first time he’d heard that mentioned in the aftermath of the church protest.

“The Klan Act is one of the most important federal civil rights statutes, and it goes back to the time when President Lincoln emancipated the slaves, and yet the Southern States — Dixiecrats, mainly — were refusing to give them equal rights,” Dhillon responded. “In fact, you had sheriffs and you had law enforcement harassing the newly freed slaves.”

“So the Klan Act is a law that makes it illegal to terrorize citizens to violate their civil rights, to get together and conspire to violate the civil rights it is often used against law enforcement but is now used against others as well,” she said.

“What the Biden administration did is if three grandmas got together to pray outside an abortion clinic for the souls of the people inside and including unborn children, they would say ‘Oh, that’s not just a violation of the Klan Act, that’s a conspiracy to violate the civil rights of women going in there to get abortions, and so we’re going to add additional charges and punish that more, and make it from a misdemeanor under the FACE Act to a felony under the Klan Act,’” Dhillon continued.

The AAG then named Lemon as a potential “embedded part of a criminal conspiracy,” rather than a First Amendment-shielded individual “committing journalism.”

“This is a very serious matter. Come next Sunday, nobody should think in the United States they should be able to get away with this,” Dhillon said, perhaps a thinly veiled hint at the speed of what may come. “Everybody 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.”

Dhillon’s public statements come at a time when influential voices on the right have called for exactly what she articulated.

“Today Don Lemon and a group of leftist agitators stormed a church service to protest ICE. This is a direct and flagrant violation of the FACE Act, which the Biden Administration used to throw pro-lifers in federal prison for years,” conservative commentator Matt Walsh reacted. “Don Lemon and his co-conspirators should be facing federal prison.”

“I want Don Lemon dragged out of his house by a SWAT team at gun point. That’s what Biden did to pro-lifers,” Walsh added. “Time to make these scumbags play by the same rules. Force feed them a dose of their own medicine for once.”

The White House and top DOJ officials also issued public denouncements, promising investigations and possible prosecutions.

“President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship. The Department of Justice has launched a full investigation into the despicable incident that took place earlier today at a church in Minnesota,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.

The Department of Justice has launched a full investigation into the despicable incident that took place earlier today at a church in Minnesota.

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 19, 2026

“I just spoke to the Pastor in Minnesota whose church was targeted. Attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law. If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi added, possibly alluding to the DOJ’s investigation into Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey  and Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ choice for vice president in the 2024 election, for allegedly trying to impede ICE’s deportation operation through their public criticisms.

Bondi, citing “constant communication” with Dhillon, claimed credit for issuing the “direction” to investigate the church disruption.

Todd Blanche reposts AG Bondi’s and Harmeet Dhillon’s posts vowing investigations (@DAGToddBlanche/X).

“Any violation of federal law will be prosecuted,” Bondi vowed, with Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, reposting the message.