Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present
DOJ Considers Charges Against MN Church Protesters AND Former CNN Anchor
20 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What incident sparked the DOJ's investigation in Minnesota?
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Guaranteed human. Hey there, folks. It is Tuesday, January 20th, and what is going on in Minnesota? You probably saw this trending all day yesterday. Protesters interrupted a Sunday church service. A former CNN anchor is in tow, and now the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. How did we get here?
This was a mess of an ugly scene that was a mess and uncomfortable for a lot of reasons, but I didn't see this one coming.
Yeah, the story grew and grew and grew, and now it's exploded with threats and promises of criminal charges against the protesters for going into that church. And Don Lemon, that ex-CNN anchor you were just referencing, has been specifically referenced by DOJ officials, and his video, his journalism, is at the center of it all.
It's journalism. You can't see us, but journalism was in quotations as we say that, because that's a big part of the question. But let's go to what the core of the matter is, ropes. We've seen protests. We've seen demonstrations. They have been peaceful in a lot of places. We have seen and excuse me.
overwhelmingly they have been peaceful but we have seen confrontations even things that get heated don't sometimes rise to the level of violence this was not violence here however robes this is a pretty incredible heated escalation of what we've been seeing on the streets look there's a lot of stuff folks will tolerate you disrupting for whatever reasons you have you're gonna bust up a church service
Yeah, this was honestly, I hate to say this, but this is the only way I can describe it. This was a new low. And look, protesting peacefully is an important part of being an American and having a free society. That is absolutely everyone's right to stand up for injustice in a peaceful way. But to disrupt a church service and to see the video and to see the...
There was a I hate to say this, but a righteousness about the protesters. See what we're doing. We're going up and we're standing up for justice. They believed the pastor, who I don't even think was there at the time, was a part of the ICE operations. That was what the insinuation was.
So they were going to go in there because they didn't feel like a member of this church and certainly a leader of this church should be also at the same time. be affiliated with ICE. And so they felt justified going in. But you see this situation where you've got half of the parishioners praying and trying to make it go away. You have the protesters disrupting.
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Chapter 2: Who was involved in the church protest and what was their justification?
We have people out there justifying violence. Everybody has a justification for what they're doing, and we don't know where it stopped. But this was in St. Paul, yes, one of the Twin Cities there, where the Justice Department is now investigating a protest at this church. It happened on Sunday, in the middle of Sunday church service, and it was disrupted. This is called the Cities Church in St.
Paul. Robes, I looked on their website. This is a this is a church has been around 100 plus years there. Now, I couldn't get an idea of how large their membership is. But looking at the video, at least this is a medium sized church. At least this service I saw on Sunday looked like the pews were fairly packed with people.
Yeah, I think, my goodness, after the last few weeks in Minneapolis, people needed a church service. I think that might have even, look, who knows how full their pews are on most Sundays, but certainly we've talked in this country about waning church parishioners. Well, it was nice to see a full church, but unfortunately this erupted.
You know, I didn't think about that little nugget. I'm always happy to see people in church.
Yes, that's a good place to be. And especially during these times, that's an amazing way to work out what we're all dealing with emotionally.
So these people were in church on Sunday, like a lot of folks were across the country on Sunday, when boom, bust in.
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Chapter 3: How did Don Lemon's role impact the narrative of the protest?
a group of protesters. Now, by most counts and by my look on the video, certainly not, I wouldn't say 50, but dozens, 30 to 40 possibly that were in this group. So they come in. Who are these folks? This is a group organized. They call themselves the Racial Justice Network. This is a grassroots group run by an attorney and a former law professor who is very much outspoken.
Now, they go here, like you said, Robes, they think that a pastor is which I have not seen this confirmed.
I haven't either.
At least ICE hasn't confirmed it, and why would they? But this group believes that a pastor, one of the pastors, several are listed on their website. They believe he is in charge of an ICE office there. So this is their justification in why they busted up this Sunday service. And Romans wouldn't even know if he was there.
And by all accounts, I have seen nothing that suggested he was actually there at the time. He certainly wasn't preaching.
He wasn't preaching, and certainly the pastor that we will talk about later that Don Lemon interviewed while this protest was going on, who, by the way, handled himself very respectfully. But yes, he was certainly not the man that they were looking for or who they were looking to call out.
Yes. So they walk in, 30 to 40. We'll just tell you what the scene is. All this stuff was live streamed, and now all the video. And the group afterwards posted it and edited video and put it up there, very proud of what they did. So they walk into this church service in robes. This is uncomfortable. I can't imagine being a part of this group.
Look, if you're going after one guy, we understand you're upset. But the people are sitting in that church praising the Lord. And folks walked in, and you hear ice out, and you hear Renee Good chants. The pastor tries to combat it. He's up on stage and essentially saying, shame on you. Now, he is not as heated as the protesters. No.
Actually, he was really calm.
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Chapter 4: What laws could apply to the protesters' actions during the church disruption?
It was an ugly scene. There was no violence, we should be clear here. I didn't see anything even close to that.
It was emotional violence. It wasn't physical violence, but it was emotionally abusive. I think that is the best way to put it. And again, you can see how justified they felt. They felt like this was what needed to be done. They had to push it or take it to the next level to get the attention they wanted, to have their voices heard. And they've certainly gotten a lot of attention.
That was effective.
And they clearly, based on the videos and based on things they've said afterwards, they're justifying what they're doing.
Oh, they've doubled down.
Oh, go. I'm broke. They are gone. Like, we did nothing wrong. Based on what ICE is doing to people in the streets, we have the rights, the justification, and maybe even duty to come into this church and disrupt it because we believe one guy at this church... is an ICE officer.
And you've got a quote here. Who said this? Someone who claims to worship God, teaching people in this church about God, is out there overseeing ICE agents. Think about what we've experienced. How dare you claim to be a pastor of God and you are involved in evil in our community?
That is from the head of the organization that did rush the place. That is the quote she had. And Rose, you saw the video. She's in there with a speaker on a microphone. out shouting these people in their own church service. She took it over.
Yeah, it was, again, it's tough to watch, to go into a place of God and use... It's so interesting to call out a pastor of God as an evil person or at least committing evil acts and doing wrong and using the church to push an agenda that they believe is evil, but then getting up in a church and calling a pastor evil, it's just... It's like the pot calling the kettle black.
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Chapter 5: What is the FACE Act and how does it relate to this incident?
Correct.
If you're an ICE agent, you're against God. There's no way you can be Christian and believe in God and also carry out your orders as an ICE agent. That's tough, Robes.
You're demonizing an entire group of law enforcement who are following the law, who are performing their duties. It is difficult. And how you treat people and how you arrest people, yes, we can get into all of that. I mean, that does matter. And how you treat people, even as you're arresting them, matters. I get their point. But you can't just blanketly...
cast all ICE agents and anyone truly who works for law enforcement under this administration as evil. It's just it's not true and it's not fair. And that incites more rhetoric, which creates and can lead to violence.
Period. And this certainly, Robes, this got more attention because of the Don Lemon involvement. Now, Don Lemon, former CNN anchor, who has been, what's the right way to put it? Lightning rod. And a lot of this is intentional. He does go after and tries to have hot takes. He doesn't mind this at all. Full disclosure, this is somebody we have known for a long time, Robes, in the industry.
And this is someone who's been a friend of mine for 20 years now when we first started at CNN. If I got a problem with him and want to criticize Don Lemon, I will call him and I will criticize him. So you're not going to hear that here from us kind of a thing. But we are explaining how he got into this controversy because he does do an online show, Robes, and he was following at least this group.
So he says he is reporting from inside the church. While this is happening, DOJ says he's embedded and he's a part of the problem. His response was, Robes, that no, I was just there covering it. I wasn't a part of it.
He has been getting ripped online, left and right by everybody for shamelessly putting himself and injecting himself into this, but also, Robes, saying he's a part of it and that he should also be arrested.
Yes, and the DOJ is also saying that. They specifically called him out yesterday multiple times saying that he is being looked into and investigated and will potentially face ā I don't even think it's potentially. They are saying that they are going to pursue criminal charges. But you see Don Lemon at the beginning of ā this was even an edited video that I watched.
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Chapter 6: How did the protest affect public perception of the protesters' cause?
But you see him there saying, we're involved in an operation that is secret. I was invited to this operation that is secret, Operation Pull-Up. So he was a part of it from before. It wasn't like he was... with his crew down the street, saw something happening, and went to go cover it. It wasn't as if he was in the church and happened to see this, pulled out his phone, and covered it.
He was with them as they entered it. He knew what was about to happen, and he... So where is... How would you describe his role? Is he embedded with them? He said he was invited to go with them into this church. So where is the culpability? How much a part of it are you?
Where is the criminal, that's the question, Rose, criminal culpability, where is it? If he is, if the language is, he's clearly embedded. He's clearly embedded. Okay, no doubt he knows what's happening, when it's happening, where it's happening, exactly what they're doing, and he knows he wants this coverage and footage. He is not live streaming just to say, hmm, let's see what'll happen.
Let's see what happens.
We know that. So that's one part, at least, we'll call bullshit on, because it's documented. The ride in the car, that video, he's talking to the live stream. Yeah, we're headed to the church. Oops, was I supposed to say church? He's saying it. We know that. But I don't know, Robes, if you're embedded versus covering. If you just walk in and follow the protesters, are you doing something wrong?
I don't know the rules on that one.
Okay, I'm curious what you or I would do as a journalist getting a call saying, hey, we're about to go bust into a church.
Not walking into a church. Neither am I. Not walking into a church.
And you know, I feel very sure, because we didn't live stream at this point in our careers. We had crews with us. Our camera crews wouldn't have gone in either. They would have said, absolutely not.
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Chapter 7: What ethical dilemmas arise from protesting in places of worship?
I mean, we say, you know what? It's weird. We're sitting here, right? If we just happened upon a scene and some chaos, and wow, there's a news event happening inside, and you go. This is, wait a minute, y'all are doing what? I don't want nothing to do with that.
This is orchestrated and planned and manipulative, and it feels... Look, to the point where you know that we would even get into something where... Someone would say something or there would be some sort of conversation. The cameraman would miss it. Like, can you do that again? And we would say no. No. No. If you missed it, you missed it. There's no staging. And this was kind of staging.
It was completely orchestrated. And in addition, there's also video they put out that shows... them a staging area in a parking lot. Like, all right, guys, this is where we're going to do. Ready? Break. It was almost a little huddle, and Don was covering that and saying he was clearly aware. So to say I was just there to cover something.
Okay, again, this became a part of the story, unfortunately, but robes, this is a big deal in that. there is something, like what law could any of them have been dragged in on? Something called the FACE Act that a lot of people are now talking about.
It is an act that prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person exercising the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship. Now, it's called the FACE Act robes, but it was aimed at people who were trying to go after possibly abortion clinics. But it also protects those who are trying to worship.
They also threw out, what is this Ku Klux Klan act that some are talking about now? Another act from 1870-something that, yes, it protects houses of worship from the Klan. It's literally called that, the Ku Klux Klan act.
Didn't even know that that existed.
Yes. So those are all the reasons. But this was a mess. And trending all day yesterday was Arrest Don Lemon or Don Lemon's name or the Face Act or the Ku Klux Klan. Everybody was talking about this. But stay here, folks.
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Chapter 8: What conclusions can be drawn about the implications of this protest?
We hit on it a little bit here, Romes. But let's get a little deeper into, for just a few minutes, when we come back, is this okay? You feel this way. You feel strongly about what ICE is doing. But is it okay to walk into a church on Sunday to protest? All right, we continue here on Amy and TJ on this Tuesday morning with some, I guess, Monday morning quarterbacking robes.
We look at what happened there in Minneapolis, and we see a journalist going in as well. But the question there, Rob, yeah, there are questions for Don Lemon. Let's get away from that for a second. This is one of... And again, we have to be careful here, Robes, about this isn't necessarily a stance on an issue.
This isn't about what ICE is doing, if it's right or wrong, if the protesters are right or wrong, if Trump is right or wrong, if Waltz and Mayor Fry are right or wrong. Robes, where are we now? If I feel so strongly about something, is a place of worship not even off-limits?
I think it should be off limits. I think there are places where people should and can expect peace. And a church is one of them. If there's any holy grail of don't disrupt, don't incite. A place of worship is sacred. It embodies peace. It embodies love. It embodies acceptance. It embodies forgiveness. And all of these things that we, are trying to bring into our lives in a real way.
You go to a church to hear those values strengthened, to be a better person, to be a better human. But forgiveness and brotherhood are just a part of the walls and the fabric of a church. And so to disrupt that and come in to demand that
you think your thoughts and your views are right, and that a pastor who's leading a congregation is wrong, and so you have every right to go into his house, into God's house, and disrupt it to prove your point. I don't know if it's criminal. I think it's awful.
it's so uncomfortable Robes and I'm sure there's some people maybe listening now and I'm sure there's some people out there who say it justifies like what we're seeing on the streets justifies them doing whatever is necessary like we have no decorum anymore it's all everything is on the table there is nothing off limits this was a you know the ICE agents are following orders
And I'm sure ICE agents, some of them, I don't think you have to get that aggressive. You didn't have to push that hard. You didn't have to spray that in that protester's face.
Curse words and all sorts of stuff that's going on.
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