Pastor blasts woke prosecutor for refusing to charge Don Lemon, comrades over church invasion



St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao — a warrior against what she calls "structural racism" — announced this week that she won't bother bringing state charges against those radicals who stormed into Cities Church in January.

Kao's apparent tolerance for militant leftist agitation has left the church's lead pastor, Rev. Jonathan Parnell, and others wondering whether the woke prosecutor's purported "commitment to protect religious people includes evangelical Christians."

A mostly peaceful church invasion?

Don Lemon — the former CNN talking head who suggested in October that "black people, brown people" should take up arms against Immigration and Customs Enforcement — apparently joined radicals from Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and BLM Twin Cities for a so-called "ICE Out Action" in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18.

'The law will bend for those whose cause aligns with the politics of those in power.'

Rather than interfere with federal law enforcement operations, this motley crew of leftists stormed into Cities Church, doing their apparent best to drown out sounds of Sunday worship.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network and former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, claimed responsibility for the disruption and indicated that Cities Church was targeted because "David Easterwood is a Pastor at this church and the Acting Field Director for the ICE office in St. Paul."

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Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The radicals refused requests from church officials to leave the premises and instead hectored churchgoers and screamed in the aisles and pews.

The Trump Justice Department took the matter seriously, securing indictments against all 39 individuals suspected of disrupting the church service, including Lemon, Armstrong, and Jamael Lydell Lundy — a radical who previously worked for Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum; has served as the right-hand man for Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County’s Soros-backed prosecutor; and is married to St. Paul City Councilwoman Anika Bowie.

Whereas the DOJ appears keen on holding the suspected church invaders accountable for federal civil rights violations, Irene Kao is evidently of a different mind.

Decision, backlash

Kao, the leftist daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, announced this week that her office will not bring state-level criminal charges against Don Lemon and his comrades.

"Our office has a legal and ethical obligation to file charges only when the available evidence establishes probable cause and supports a reasonable likelihood of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt," Kao said in a statement.

"Following a careful evaluation of the video footage, investigative reports, and other available materials, prosecutors determined that the current evidence is insufficient to meet that standard for criminal charges under Minnesota state statutes," continued the woke prosecutor.

After noting that her decision should not be read as an endorsement of illegal behavior, Kao wrote, "The right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to exercise one’s religious beliefs."

"Balancing these equally important rights is paramount to our decision today," continued the leftist prosecutor.

Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for Truth North Legal and representative for Cities Church, said, "The St. Paul city attorney’s decision treats the church like it's a public sidewalk — as if the sanctuary were an open forum that anyone may seize mid-service, rather than private property where a congregation has the right to worship undisturbed."

"By wrongly characterizing the invasion and takeover of a worship service as First Amendment-protected conduct, the city attorney’s office sends an unmistakable signal: The law will bend for those whose cause aligns with the politics of those in power," added Wardlow.

Rev. Jonathan Parnell said in a statement, "According to the St. Paul city attorney’s logic, it is perfectly fine for agitators to invade a mosque, a cathedral, or a temple, intimidate the families and children inside, and shut down their religious gathering. Just call it a 'protest.'"

The Cities Church pastor noted further that "City Attorney Irene Kao’s decision not to charge the agitators who invaded our church on January 18, 2026, leaves us to question whether her commitment to protect religious people includes evangelical Christians."

In addition to facing criticism for setting a dangerous precedent, Kao has been questioned over her possible self-interest in the case.

After all, Jamael Lydell Lundy, one of the radicals whom Kao let off the hook, is married to a member of city council — the very council that confirms the mayor's city attorney appointments.

KSTP-TV has doggedly — but so far unsuccessfully — pressed the offices of Kao and Democratic Mayor Kaohly Her about whether the case should have been handled externally to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

David Schultz, professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University, told KSTP that Kao's handling of Lundy's case creates the "possible appearance of a conflict of interest."

"Send it outside City Hall, not even move it to a different attorney in City Hall, but to basically hire an outside firm, review the file, and make their own independent decision regarding whether or not to prosecute or not," said Schultz. "That way it would clearly have addressed any of the concerns about the appearance of conflict of interest, and again, assured the public that there was no favoritism going on here."

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Psaki confronted over left-wing protesters intimidating SCOTUS justices — but she has no 'official US government position'



White House press secretary Jen Psaki refused on Thursday to condemn left-wing protesters who are intimidating Supreme Court justices by protesting near their personal residences.

What did Psaki say?

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki about the Biden administration's position on the protesters — but all she did was affirm that they are "peaceful" protests.

"You guys had some time yesterday talking about what you think are the extreme wings of the Republican Party. Do you think the progressive activists that are now planning protests outside some of the justices’ houses are extreme?" Doocy asked.

"Peaceful protest? No. Peaceful protest is not extreme," Psaki replied.

When Doocy noted that some of the Supreme Court justices have young kids, Psaki still refused to condemn the protests.

"Look, I think our view here is that peaceful protest — there’s a long history in the United States and the country of that, and we certainly encourage people to keep it peaceful and not resort to any level of violence," Psaki said.

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The fact that protesters have even circulated the addresses of the justices online, which Doocy pointed out, did not stir Psaki to condemn the intimidation tactics.

Instead, Psaki focused on the "sadness" and "fear" that Americans have over U.S. abortion rights — which are among the most extreme in the world — potentially being scaled back.

"Look, I think the president’s view is that there’s a lot of passion, a lot of fear, a lot of sadness from many, many people across this country about what they saw in that leaked document," Psaki said. "We obviously want people’s privacy to be respected. We want people to protest peacefully if they want to protest. That is certainly what the president’s view would be."

"So he doesn’t care if they’re protesting outside the Supreme Court or outside someone’s private residence?" Doocy fired back.

"I don’t have an official U.S. government position on where people protest," Psaki conceded.

"But I think we shouldn’t lose the point here: The reason people are protesting is because women across the country are worried about their fundamental rights that have been law for 50 years," she continued. "Their rights to make choices about their own bodies and their own health care are at risk. That’s why people are protesting. They’re unhappy. They’re scared."

The intimidation tactics have resulted in each Supreme Court justice receiving extra security. CBS News reported that, in addition to their homes being targeted, some justices have even received "more targeted personal phone threats."

Convoy of American truckers hits Washington, DC, takes laps on the Beltway



The American answer to Canada’s Freedom Convoy has arrived.

The trucker convoy drove around the Capital Beltway — the metropolitan interstate highway loops surrounding Washington, D.C. — before heading back to Hagerstown, Maryland to regroup and organize, NBC News reported.

Last month, lawmakers in the D.C. metropolitan area requested support from the National Guard as they prepared for thousands of American truckers to descend on the nation’s capital.

Organizers of the American trucker convoy requested a permit from the National Park Service to allow 1,000 to 3,000 people to gather in Washington, D.C., as they protest policy pertaining to domestic energy production, mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, and federal disregard for immigration law.

Bob Bolus, an organizer of the American trucker convoy — known as the “People’s Convoy” — said that protesters are interested in shutting down the Capital Beltway like a “giant boa constrictor that basically squeezes you.”

The People’s Convoy left California in late February, and according to the New York Times, there are at least 1,000 trucks, recreational vehicles, and cars participating in the protest.

One man, who described himself as the lead trucker in the convoy, said he plans to drive his rig into the heart of Washington, D.C.

He said, “D.C., the government, whomever, can claim that they have all this opposition for us waiting in D.C., but the flag on the back of my truck will go down to Constitution Avenue between the White House and the Washington Monument.”

Christopher Rodriguez, the director of the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said that if the People’s Convoy enters Washington, there will be authorities waiting for them.

He said, “We’ve been preparing for this for over a month now. In the event we do see impact in the district, those personnel and equipment can help move traffic through with the support of the Metropolitan Police Department.”

The People’s Convoy is one of several protests inspired by the Canadian Freedom Convoy.

People gathered across the world in places like New Zealand, France, Austria, and now the United States to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Most of these protests, however, occurred in nations that do not have legally guaranteed protections for peaceful assembly and protests and were subsequently squashed.

In Canada, for instance, the police enforced a “zero tolerance” policy for “any activity in the area” where the Freedom Convoy assembled to protest, per NBC News.

In the aftermath of the Canadian government cracking down on the protests, Canadian police vowed to identify anyone involved in the protests and issue them with financial sanctions and criminal charges.

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