Appeals court rejects DOJ’s emergency bid to arrest Don Lemon, church demonstrators

A federal appeals court brushed back a secretive, emergency effort by the Justice Department to revive rejected arrest warrants for Don Lemon and four other people prosecutors say committed crimes by barging into a St. Paul church last weekend.
A federal magistrate judge earlier this week turned down arrest warrants for five people connected to the protesters — who disrupted a Sunday service to oppose the Trump administration’s deportation operations in Minnesota.

Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko said prosecutors had failed to present evidence to justify the arrests. Among the rejected arrest warrants were those for former CNN anchor Don Lemon and one of his producers, who had advance notice of the protest and were at the church as the events unfolded. Senior DOJ officials have specifically called out Lemon, a longtime antagonist of President Donald Trump, and argued that his role as a journalist would not shield him from criminal charges.