XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.law-enforcement, alt.christnet.christianlife   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: noreply@dirge.harmsk.com   
      
   Federal agents arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia   
   Fort for covering a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor   
   is also an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.   
      
   Lemon, a former CNN anchor and NBC correspondent, was arrested Thursday   
   night as he was covering the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, his attorney   
   said in a statement. The arrest comes after a magistrate judge rejected   
   a previous request by prosecutors to charge him.   
      
   “Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful   
   Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time,   
   attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment   
   of wrongdoing in this case,” Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, wrote in a   
   statement.   
      
   Fort, an Emmy-award winning Twin Cities journalist, filmed a short   
   Facebook live video around 6:30 a.m. Friday morning announcing that   
   agents were at her door and her lawyer advised her to go with them. The   
   agents said they were able to go before a grand jury and get a warrant   
   for her arrest, Fort said.   
      
   “This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member   
   of the media” Fort said. “I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment   
   right as a member of the press.”   
      
   Fort’s arrest warrant listed charges of conspiracy against the right of   
   religious freedom and interfering with the exercise of religious freedom   
   at a place of worship.   
      
   Fort appeared before a federal judge on Friday afternoon and was   
   released after prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to have her held in   
   jail, arguing the offense was violent in nature.   
      
   U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that two others were also   
   arrested at her direction in connection with the protest: Black Lives   
   Matter activist Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy, who works as   
   a lobbyist for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and is a   
   Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for state Senate.   
      
   Demonstrators, led by civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong and   
   St. Paul School Board Member Chauntyll Allen, interrupted the service at   
   Cities Church on Jan. 18 with chants of “Justice for Renee Good,” who   
   was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month.   
      
   Pastor David Easterwood is an ICE field director in St. Paul, but did   
   not appear to be present at the service during the protest. Fort and   
   Lemon filmed the protest, during which demonstrators sought to point out   
   the contradiction between working for ICE and preaching the Christian   
   Gospel.   
      
   “How dare you claim to be a pastor of God and you are involved in evil   
   in our community,” Levy Armstrong said in the middle of the church.   
      
   Federal agents arrested Levy Armstrong, a former president of   
   Minneapolis NAACP and a reverend herself, on Jan. 22 along with Allen   
   and a third demonstrator. Levy Armstrong was charged under 18 USC 241,   
   felony conspiracy to violate others’ civil rights, according to Homeland   
   Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who called it a “riot.”   
      
   The White House posted an image of Lemon to X on Wednesday with chain   
   emojis, writing, “When life gives you lemons…” After Levy Armstrong was   
   arrested, the White House shared a doctored photo of her, making her   
   face contorted and covered in tears in a move legal experts say could be   
   deemed prejudicial and therefore a violation of her rights.   
      
   Cities Church, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention,   
   supported the charges and is “prayerfully considering” its own legal   
   action.   
      
   In an interview with Fox News, Cities Church’s Lead Pastor Jonathan   
   Parnell said his message for the governor, attorney general, mayors of   
   Minneapolis and St. Paul and the “agitators” is to “turn from your sin,   
   trust in Jesus Christ and be saved. He is our only hope.”   
      
   (Attorney General Keith Ellison is Muslim and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob   
   Frey is Jewish.)   
      
   Messages to Cities Church were not immediately returned.   
      
   The Reformer joined a consortium of news outlets including the Star   
   Tribune, the Spokesman-Recorder and MPR News in condemning the arrests   
   in a statement.   
      
   “The First Amendment recognizes the press as holding a distinct and   
      
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