A federal appeals court on Friday turned down an extraordinary request from the Justice Department to force a judge to issue arrest warrants for journalist #Don #Lemon, and four other people in connection with a church protest in Minneapolis last week.
The department’s unusual petition, which was unsealed on Saturday along with other documents arising from the case, was a remarkably aggressive attempt by the Trump administration to strong-arm judges into doing its bidding.
It prompted an equally remarkable pushback from the conservative chief federal judge in Minnesota, who called the petition “frivolous” and categorically rejected the administration’s efforts to depict its need for the warrants as what he described as a “national security emergency.”
The dispute also shows the boundary-pushing lengths to which Trump administration officials are willing to go in their efforts to crack down on what they see as criticism of the president’s aggressive immigration measures.
The fight over the warrants began Tuesday evening, when federal prosecutors presented a criminal complaint to Magistrate Judge Douglas L. Micko in the Federal District Court in Minneapolis,
seeking the arrest of eight people in connection with the disruption of a church service in neighboring St. Paul, Minn., just days before.
The protest was held because the pastor of the church apparently also works as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.
After considering the complaint, Judge Micko found there was probable cause to issue warrants for three of the suspects
— Nekima Levy #Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa #Allen and William #Kelly
— all of whom were ultimately💥 taken into custody on Thursday.
But he refused to approve warrants for the other five people, including Mr. Lemon, who had been working as an independent reporter, and his producer, the unsealed court papers said.
Almost immediately, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel N. Rosen, who was appointed by President Trump last year, notified the district’s chief judge, Patrick J. Schiltz, that 👉 he wanted another judge to review Judge Micko’s decision — a highly unusual move.
Typically, Judge Schiltz wrote in a letter to the appeals court, if the government is unsatisfied with a magistrate’s refusal to sign warrants, it can either “improve” its affidavit making the request and present it again, or it can set aside its criminal complaint and try a different way to charge the suspects: by seeking a grand jury indictment.
“It is important to emphasize that what the U.S. attorney requested is unheard-of in our district or, as best as I can tell, any other district in the Eighth Circuit,” wrote Judge Schiltz, a staunch Republican appointed by President George W. Bush.
“I have surveyed all of our judges
— some of whom have been judges in our district for over 40 years
— and no one can remember the government asking a district judge to review a magistrate judge’s denial of an arrest warrant.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/us/politics/don-lemon-arrest-warrant.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share