‘He Clearly Knew’: Don Lemon Put On Notice By Trump DOJ After ‘Storming’ Church

Ex-CNN commentator Don Lemon has drawn a warning from the Justice Department amid allegations he joined a mob of anti-ICE protesters who stormed a church service Sunday in St. Paul.

“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 Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, chided Lemon on X.

“You are on notice!” she added, saying in a follow-up post that the FBI has been “activated” and accusing the protesters of “desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.”

In an interview on Benny Johnson’s show on Monday, Dhillon said Lemon “clearly knew” that what he was partaking in was illegal.

Lemon, who has been documenting protests that erupted after the shooting of Renee Good, entered the church alongside agitators as the disruption unfolded and began filming the chaos.

He brushed off calls for prosecution and insisted his actions were protected speech under the First Amendment.

“The MAGA administration and the fake news MAGAs are losing their mind over something that’s not even true,” Lemon said, claiming he had “no affiliations” with the group and defending his presence as “an act of journalism.”

🚨 BREAKING: Assistant AG Harmeet Dhillon confirms Don Lemon is NOT PROTECTED from FACE Act charges after the left stormed a church with him

“He CLEARLY knew about the violation of federal law.”

“The only question is HOW MANY CHARGES will be brought?” 🔥pic.twitter.com/YFZJKftBFt

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 19, 2026

Several dozen agitators burst into Cities Church during Sunday morning services, chanting “ICE out” after reportedly concluding that the church’s pastor, David Easterwood, was a member of federal immigration enforcement, a claim Lemon amplified in a post on the left-wing social network Bluesky.

Lemon interviewed the church’s lead pastor, Jonathan Parnell, on camera. Parnell called the protest “shameful.”

WATCH: Don Lemon Joins Far-Left Mob In Storming Minneapolis Church

Lemon responded, “Listen, there’s a Constitution and a First Amendment to freedom of speech and freedom to assemble and protest.”

The former CNN anchor took a far less absolutist view of free speech in a 2024 interview with Elon Musk, when he pressed the tech billionaire to remove several “hateful” memes from X, a request Musk rejected, arguing the posts were not illegal.

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