39 now charged in St. Paul church protest against ICE as additional arrests are made

Attorney General Pam Bondi said 30 additional people were charged on Friday, in addition to the nine people previously charged.

MINNEAPOLIS — Several additional arrests have been made in connection with a St. Paul church protest last month that already saw the high-profile arrests of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon, as well as attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong.

Court documents obtained by KARE 11 show a total of 39 people are now charged in connection with the case, in which a group entered Cities church on Jan. 18 to protest against Pastor David Easterwood, saying he also holds a local leadership position with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media that 30 additional people were charged on Friday following nine previous arrests. Bondi said 25 of the new defendants were taken into custody by federal agents Friday, with more arrests expected.

According to a federal indictment, all 39 defendants are charged with two counts: “Conspiracy Against Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship,” as well as “Injure, Intimidate, and Interfere with Exercise of Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship.” 

KARE’s Lou Raguse said sources reported those arrested were taken to the federal courthouse in St. Paul, where made their first court appearances Friday afternoon.

The indictment alleges the defendants “entered the Church to conduct a takeover-style attack and engage in various acts in furtherance of the conspiracy.” It claims the defendants “collectively oppressed, threatened, and intimidated the Church’s congregants and pastors, by physically occupying most of the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the Church, engaging in menacing and threatening behavior.”

The indictment also lists several “overt acts” allegedly committed by the defendants, specifically citing several individuals by name for sharing a flyer about the protest on their personal Facebook accounts.

Lemon, Fort, Armstrong, and several other activists were previously taken into custody by federal authorities and subsequently released in the days following the protest. At least five of them have now pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges.  

“For more than 30 years, I’ve been a journalist, and the power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work,” Lemon told reporters following his court appearance earlier in the month. “The events before my arrest and what’s happened since, so that people are finally realizing what this administration is all about. The process is the punishment with them. And like all of you here in Minnesota, the great people of Minnesota, I will not be intimidated. I will not back down. I will fight these baseless charges, and I will not be silenced.” 

“We are on the right side of history, I don’t care what lies they tell,” Armstrong said following Friday’s court appearances for the additional defendants.

The protest drew sharp criticism from those on the right, including Bondi, who has said she considers the incident a “coordinated attack” on a place of worship.

“YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you,” Bondi posted Friday. “This Department of Justice STANDS for Christians and all Americans of faith.”

Following Bondi’s statement, Doug Wardlow, the director of litigation for True North Legal and legal representative for Cities Church, agreed with the attorney general, saying the “indictment sends a clear message” that “houses of worship are off limits … to advance a political agenda.”

“The invasion of Cities Church was a planned, coordinated effort to disrupt a worship service and interfere with religious exercise that placed congregants, including children, in fear for their lives,” he said. “The First Amendment does not give anyone — regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside. Cities Church is grateful for the Department of Justice’s continued commitment to enforcing federal law to protect churches and other places of worship. The Department’s aggressive prosecution of this case affirms a foundational principle: in the United States, the sanctuary remains a sanctuary.”

The arrests came at the height of the federal government’s “Operation Metro Surge” — an initiative to bring thousands of immigration enforcement agents to the Twin Cities. 

Trump administration officials announced on Feb. 12 that they’d end the initiative and pull agents out of Minnesota, coming after two Minnesotans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, were shot and killed by federal agents in two incidents about a week apart.