OPINION:
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon brainstormed with a Black Lives Matter leader about how to invade a St. Paul, Minnesota, church on a Sunday. Once inside, he blocked some fearful parishioners from leaving.
This is according to an unsealed grand jury indictment that charges Mr. Lemon and eight others with two felony charges for violating the Christians’ civil rights.
Mr. Lemon, who livestreamed the event, says he is innocent, simply a journalist doing his job in what invaders dubbed “Operation Pullup.”
Here’s what the indictment, reviewed by The Washington Times, says about the left-wing Jan. 18 raid on Cities Church, orchestrated to get back at President Trump for enforcing immigration law.
“After the service commenced, a group of approximately 20-40 agitators, including all of the defendants named in this Indictment, entered the church in a coordinated takeover-style attack and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.
“As a result of defendants’ conduct, the pastor and congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship service, congregants fled the church building out of fear for their safety, other congregants took steps to implement an emergency plan, and young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die.”
The document states that all nine defendants, including Mr. Lemon, met at a shopping center “for a pre-op briefing.” Chauntyll Louisa Allen, who heads Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, and Nekima Levy Armstrong, former president of the NAACP, Minneapolis chapter, “advised other co-conspirators … about the target of their operation (Cities Church) and provided instruction on how the operation would be conducted once they arrived at the church.”
After the briefing, Mr. Lemon, the indictment says, “took steps to maintain operational secrecy by reminding certain co-conspirators not to disclose the target of the operation and stepped away momentarily so his mic would not accidentally divulge certain portions of the planning session.”
“Once at the church, all of the defendants entered the church to conduct a takeover-style attack and engaged in various acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
The narrative continues: “As the pastor was beginning his sermon, defendant Armstrong interrupted the service with loud declarations about the church harboring a ‘Director of ICE’ and indicating that the time for Judgment had come, and other co-conspirators immediately joined in by yelling and blowing whistles in a takeover attack on the church, all of which quickly caused the situation in the church to become chaotic, menacing, and traumatizing to church members.”
“Director of ICE” refers to a church pastor (not the one leading the service) who heads the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
As chaos broke out, parishioners tried to escape. Witnesses said the agitators prevented them from gathering their children. As they ran to their vehicles, some churchgoers fell.
William Scott Kelly, aka “DaWokeFarmer,” a leader in the street campaign to harass ICE officers trying to arrest criminals, spotted a minivan. “As a minivan full of children was preparing to depart from the church, defendant Kelly walked in front of the minivan and angrily yelled at the occupants and (2) defendants … stood in front of the minivan.”
As he livestreamed, Mr. Lemon took an active role. “At one point, defendant Lemon posted himself at the main door of the church, where he confronted some congregants and physically obstructed them as they tried to exit the church building to challenge them with ‘facts’ about U.S. immigration policy,” the indictment said.
The indictment cites 29 “overt acts” that drove the invasion. Mr. Lemon was cited for 13 of them, including the planning session, keeping the operation secret, surrounding the pastor so he could not leave, and blocking the exit.
The Justice Department filed two felonies: the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance, which includes places of worship, and “conspiracy against the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.”
The Justice Department’s move against Mr. Lemon brought an old Washington legal battler into the fray: Abbe Lowell, who most recently defended Hunter Biden.
Now defending Mr. Lemon, the lawyer said, “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”
Journalists have a right to embed with police on a raid, with the military on a strike and with ICE officers on an arrest. But do they have the right to organize with Black Lives Matter to disrupt a Sunday morning church service, make children cry, send frightened parishioners out the back door and block vehicles and the main exit? Not to mention yelling insults and telling children their parents are Nazis?
Liberals would say yes. Conservative Christians are their enemies, even more so than illegal immigrants who rape and kill.
If journalists can wreck a church service, is embedding with bank robbers just around the corner?
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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