MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (LifeSiteNews) — Three individuals have been arrested for their roles in storming a Baptist church worship service in St. Paul last Sunday, but open homosexual former CNN journalist Don Lemon was not among them.
FBI and Homeland Security agents arrested activists Nekima Levy Armstrong, a former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, and Black Live Matters (BLM) leader Chauntyll Louisa Allen.
Also arrested was anti-ICE activist William Kelly who famously took to social media earlier this week to taunt U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, daring her to arrest him.
Bondi publicly responded, “Ok.”
Ok ✅ pic.twitter.com/tQZNbKFABA
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 22, 2026
All three have since been released from custody.
“Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country,” declared Bondi following Kelly’s arrest.
“We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith,” promised the Attorney General.
A Minnesota U.S. magistrate judge rejected a DOJ criminal complaint against Lemon who participated in the church invasion but later claimed he acted solely as a journalist covering a story.
“The Attorney General is enraged at the magistrate judge’s decision,” a source told Reuters.
“We were chronicling the protests,” the former CNN personality said in an Instagram post Monday. “Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it, talk to the people who are involved, which included the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization. That’s it. It’s called journalism.”
RELATED: Anti-ICE mob invades church service, DOJ to investigate possible FACE Act violation
FACE Act violations
“The DOJ Civil Rights Division is investigating the potential violations of the federal FACE Act by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers,” announced Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon immediately following news of the attack.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994 — which bars obstruction to abortion clinics and houses of worship — has been used endlessly to bring serious charges against pro-lifers attempting to rescue preborn children, while rarely being used against individuals who desecrate or vandalize Christian churches or who attack Christians.
An unruly leftist mob stormed St. Paul’s Southern Baptist Cities Church following weeks of civil unrest, violence, and death in the Twin Cities as leftists have sought to prevent ICE agents from apprehending persons illegally residing in the U.S.
RELATED: Pro-life activist: Trump admin should repeal the FACE Act, not use it
