Top DOJ Official: Don Lemon ‘On Notice’ After Filming Minnesota Church Protest

A top Department of Justice official said on Monday she had put independent journalist Don Lemon “on notice” after he filmed a crowd of protesters interrupting a Sunday church service in Minnesota.

“A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service,” Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, posted to X. “You are on notice!”

Lemon, a veteran news anchor who was fired from CNN in 2023 after several on-air controversies, traveled to Minneapolis over the weekend, where he filmed a nearly seven-hour episode of his YouTube show documenting the city’s ongoing protests against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

Lemon begins the video filming a group of local protesters “calling for justice for Renee Good,” the Minneapolis woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month. The protesters led him on a short drive to Cities Church, in St. Paul, where Lemon filmed the group disrupting a service.

Lemon tried to distance himself from the demonstrators in a video posted to TikTok Sunday night. Speaking directly into his phone’s front camera, Lemon said, “I want to make it clear … I have no affiliation with that organization.”

“Once the protest started in the church we did an act of journalism, which was to report on it and talk to the people involved,” Lemon said. “That’s it, it’s called journalism.

“Why don’t you talk to the actual person who is in charge of the organization and whose idea it was to have the protest at the church before you start blaming me for stuff for which you have no idea,” he added.

The incident went viral overnight, and federal officials responded to the uproar by declaring the protest an act of hatred against Christians — with some even calling for Lemon to be investigated along with those demonstrating.

In a post to X Monday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the DOJ is launching a “full investigation” into the protesters’ presence at the church, calling it a “despicable incident.”

“President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship,” Leavitt posted. She did not mention Lemon by name.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Monday that the church was selected by protesters after they determined that one of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, also works as the acting director of ICE’s field office in St. Paul.

“This man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, masquerading as a pastor,” Nekima Levy Armstrong, a local activist who led Lemon to the church, told the newspaper. “I normally don’t disrupt church services, but this was so extreme that we had to.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a separate X post, said “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,” Bondi continued.

In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Dhillon raised 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 — against the protesters.

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

The city of Minneapolis has seen almost daily protests since the Jan. 7 shooting death of 37-year-old Good at the hands of a federal immigration officer.

A federal judge in the state on Friday ruled that the close to 3,000 federal officers deployed to the area must halt their most aggressive tactics against the burgeoning protest movement, including pepper spraying, detaining and pulling over peaceful protesters.

“The Court has endeavored to balance the ongoing irreparable harm to Plaintiffs against harm to Defendants from limiting their activities,” District Judge Katherine Menendez wrote in her ruling, which applies to all officers involved in the government’s “Operation Metro Surge.”

Over the weekend, tensions continued to rise as NPR reported that up to 1,500 active duty troops in Alaska have been placed on standby for deployment to Minnesota, despite President Donald Trump indicating he would back down from his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also activated the state’s National Guard, which has been on standby since Good’s death, to support local law enforcement.

“They are not deployed to city streets at this time,” the Minnesota Department of Public Safety posted to X, “but are ready to help support public safety, including protection of life, preservation of property and supporting the rights of all who assemble peacefully.”