‘There Is No Press Pass to Invade a Church’: Attorney for Minnesota Church Rips Don Lemon

The lawyer for Cities Church ripped Don Lemon for following anti-ICE protesters who stormed the Minnesota church earlier this month, saying he violated federal law by disrupting a service.

Attorney Renee Carlson called out Lemon while sitting next to lead pastor Jonathan Parnell during an interview on Fox & Friends on Monday morning.

“To Mr. Lemon, there is no press pass to invade a church,” Carlson said. “This is a violation of the FACE Act.”

She was referring to the 1994 law that prohibits people from intimidating others at a house of worship or from interfering with a religious service.

Carlson said the church was “prayerfully considering” its legal options to “hold these agitators” accountable.

Their appearance on Fox comes a little more than a week after the anti-ICE protesters ran into Cities Church and sabotaged a Sunday service that was taking place. The protesters said they targeted the church because they believed one of the pastors was a federal immigration agent.

Lemon captured the wild scene on a livestream on his YouTube account. The ex-CNN star told one church attendee that he was “just [there] photographing, I’m a journalist,” but critics have questioned whether he did more to assist the protesters.

Before the incident, Lemon was seen giving a kiss to Nakeema Armstrong, one of the three protest organizers who was arrested, and he also passed out donuts to protesters.

Lemon reported on his stream that some attendees were so rattled by the protest they were “crying.” But Lemon told viewers the protesters were simply exercising their right to peacefully protest when they stormed the church.

“This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest,” Lemon said. “I’m sure people here don’t like it, but protests are not comfortable.”

A federal magistrate judge declined to bring charges against Lemon last week, and an appeals court also rejected the Trump DOJ’s request to arrest Lemon afterwards.

Parnell told Fox News on Monday that his message to Lemon would be that his congregation has a lot in common with the protesters right now.

“We’re heartbroken over what’s happening in our cities right now,” he said. “There is a lot of pain in our cities, and we need healing.”

Watch above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!