The Department of Justice has launched an investigation after a group of activists, including ex-CNN star Don Lemon, disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday.
Dozens of protesters crowded into Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday as part of a “clandestine operation” to “disrupt business as usual,” activist leader Nekima Levy-Armstrong told Lemon, who embedded with the protest group.
The protest lasted roughly 30 minutes and effectively ended the church service as it drove congregants out of their Sunday service.
Lemon was front and center, including interviewing Levy-Armstrong ahead of “Operation Pullup,” as the protest was called, and followed agitators to Cities Church, conducting interviews, and, at times, arguing with members of the church and defending the “free speech” of the protesters, comparing the church invasion to the civil rights movement.
Clips from Lemon’s coverage of the protest spread on social media and drew the attention of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
“The [Civil Rights Division] is investigating the potential violations of the federal FACE Act by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers,” Dhillon said in a post on X.
The @CivilRights is investigating the potential violations of the federal FACE Act by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers. @AGPamBondi https://t.co/uZBBv1iuuH
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) January 18, 2026
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, “prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services or to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship,” according to the Justice Department.
In Lemon’s footage, he compared the protest to the civil rights movement and asserted that the protesters’ actions were protected under the Constitution.
“There is nothing in the Constitution that tells you what time you can protest. You can protest at any time. That’s the whole point of it, to disrupt, to make uncomfortable. And that’s what they’re doing,” Lemon said. “When you see how uncomfortable people, uncomfortably and harsh people are being treated on the streets, you have to be willing to go into places and disrupt and make people uncomfortable. That is what this country is about.”
Lemon at one point notes a “young man” in the corner of the church who Lemon says is “scared” and “crying.”
The former CNN host turned YouTuber later states, “It’s uncomfortable and traumatic for the people here … but that’s what protesting is about.”