Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has advised Don Lemon that the federal criminal statutes bearing on the riot disrupting Sunday’s service at Cities Church in St. Paul don’t apply to the rioters’ misconduct. “People have a right to lift up their voices and make their peace. None of us are immune from the voice of the public,” according to Ellison. “Quite honestly, I think you’ve got the First Amendment freedom of religion and the First Amendment freedom of expression, and I think that, you know, it’s just something you’ve got to live with in a society like this.”
Ellison to the contrary notwithstanding, two federal criminal statutes apply to the rioters’ misconduct. The first is the FACE Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248. Ellison appears to be unfamiliar with section (a)(2), which broadly prohibits a range of actions constraining “the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship[.]” The second is 18 U.S.C. § 241, which prohibits conspiracies to suppress the “free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same[.]”
A former local leader of the Nation of Islam, Ellison remains a liar, a thug, and a hustler. The shtick has worked out well for him so far. With his nonfeasance in the massive public-programs fraud that has taken place under his jurisdiction — see Feeding Our Future v. Minnesota Department of Education — we have continued our trip deep into the Twilight Zone. I wrote the 2023 City Journal column “The Anti-Cop Attorney General” to document an earlier stage of the trip.
Ellison’s co-star in the Lemon episode is one D.L. Hughley — actor, stand-up comedian, and author. Hughley’s first book is titled I Want You to Shut the **** Up: How the Audacity of Dopes Is Ruining America (I have substituted asterisks in place of the obvious vulgarity). Ellison is no dope, but the sentiment otherwise applies to him with the exactitude of the statutes to the rioters’ misconduct at Cities Church on Sunday.
Perhaps inspired by Hughley’s work as an allleged comedian, Ellison mispronounces Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s last name as “Fray.” Now that is somewhat funny.
A visibly concerned Don Lemon asks Minnesota AG Keith Ellison for his two cents on possible KKK Act charges.
Ellison claims the law was never meant for situations like this, but claims the Trump DOJ is now “stretching” statutes to target people anyway. pic.twitter.com/Nmh0zPhP2S
— Timcast News (@TimcastNews) January 19, 2026
Lemon’s 25-minute episode with Ellison and Hughley is posted here on YouTube. The Washington Times covers Ellison’s contribution to the episode in Valerie Richardson’s story here.
