DOJ says 30 more defendants charged for roles in anti-ICE protest at Minnesota church
The Justice Department on Friday announced it was charging 30 additional defendants for their roles in a January anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a criminal civil rights case that has also ensnared journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
The department moved to unseal the superseding indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement on X said that 25 of the 30 have been arrested, with more to come.
The original nine defendants in the case, including Lemon and another fellow journalist, have all pleaded not guilty.
The new version of the indictment does not add any additional criminal charges.
It accuses all 39 people of violating two civil rights laws. One is a misdemeanor offense in the FACE Act, which prohibits people from intimidating or interfering with people exercising their constitutional freedom to practice religion. The other is a felony charge of conspiring to interfere with individuals’ religious rights.
