A federal judge said no. Washington exploded. In a single ruling,
a quiet Minnesota courtroom collided with the full fury of the Justice Department,
a furious attorney general, and a former CNN star caught between journalism and alleged criminal conduct.
What happened inside that church,
and why did this one decision terrify both activists and repu… Continues…
The Justice Department’s bid to charge Don Lemon over
the disruptive church protest has become a flashpoint in a much larger battle over power,
protest, and the press. To senior officials,
the magistrate’s refusal to approve criminal charges looks like a dangerous precedent:
a high-profile figure walking away from a sacred-space
disruption that left congregants shaken and a cabinet-level attorney general openly seething.
Yet the same facts paint a different picture to Lemon’s defenders and civil libertarians.
They see a journalist documenting a volatile, newsworthy confrontation in the wake of a fatal ICE shooting
, now shadowed by the threat of prosecution for simply being there.
With activists already in handcuffs, a pastor accused of doubling as an ICE director,
and a Justice Department hunting “alternative options,”
the case has become a test of whether America punishes
what happened in that sanctuary—or who dared to show it.
The Justice Department’s bid to charge Don Lemon over the disruptive church protest has become a flashpoint in a much larger battle over power, protest, and the press. To senior officials, the magistrate’s refusal to approve criminal charges looks like a dangerous precedent: a high-profile figure walking away from a sacred-space disruption that left congregants shaken and a cabinet-level attorney general openly seething.
Yet the same facts paint a different picture to Lemon’s defenders and civil libertarians. They see a journalist documenting a volatile, newsworthy confrontation in the wake of a fatal ICE shooting, now shadowed by the threat of prosecution for simply being there. With activists already in handcuffs, a pastor accused of doubling as an ICE director, and a Justice Department hunting “alternative options,” the case has become a test of whether America punishes what happened in that sanctuary—or who dared to show it.
