Protests

11:40 AM PT -- Don Lemon posted a statement from his attorney, Abbe Lowell, on his official IG account Thursday after the judge rejected the DOJ's attempt to charge him … noting journalists' First Amendment rights were properly reinforced by the federal judge.

The statement concludes … "Should the Department of Justice continue with a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job, Don will call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court."

Don Lemon looks like he's off the hook in Minnesota ... because a judge reportedly swatted away the U.S. Department of Justice's first attempt to charge him with a crime over an anti-ICE protest that tore through a church service.

CNN reports a federal magistrate judge rejected the DOJ's bid to bring charges against the former CNN host, who reported live from Sunday's protest at Cities Church in St. Paul.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is in meeting with federal prosecutors in Minnesota, is reportedly "enraged" at the judge's decision.

Local and federal authorities are investigating after a group of anti-ICE protesters crashed a Minnesota church service ... and one of the demonstrators tells TMZ she'd still do it all over again.

Here's the deal ... the DOJ and local police are investigating after protesters interrupted a service at the Cities Church in St. Paul ... which is getting major headlines because Don Lemon was in the mix live-streaming the incident.

Chauntyll Allen, leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, who was among the group, tells TMZ … the jarring protest inside the church was necessary to make clear to the parishioners that having a pastor who is also an ICE official is unacceptable.

Donald Trump just cosigned a social media post saying Don Lemon should go to prison for reporting from an anti-ICE church protest in Minnesota.

On Truth Social Monday, the U.S. president reshared a post from an account called "MoniFunGirl," who said she wants to see the journalist slapped with 40 years in prison just for showing up at the protest crowd outside Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday.

The number didn't come out of thin air ... Moni claimed a group of elderly women got 40 years in prison for protesting at an abortion clinic under the FACE Act, and basically insinuating Don was doing the same, and should face the same consequences.

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into an anti-ICE protest that tore through a Minnesota church service Sunday ... and former CNN host Don Lemon could be swept up in it under the century-old "KKK Act."

DOJ Assistant AG for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon tells TMZ ... every demonstrator who stormed the Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul is now under federal investigation. When we asked if Don is in the crosshairs, Dhillon wouldn't confirm or deny it, telling us to connect the dots ourselves.

Don says he was merely doing his job -- reporting a news story from the scene. But, on his livestream, Don is seen kissing the organizer of the protest on the cheek, which the feds might interpret as him having a closer connection to the group.

Dhillon says FBI agents are already talking to witnesses, and while no formal charges have been filed yet, it’s "fair to say" charges are coming under the Face Act and KKK Act, that make it a crime to terrorize and violate the civil rights of citizens.

President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to ongoing protests over ICE activity in the state of Minnesota.

The Insurrection Act has not been used in more than three decades -- last employed during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. President George H.W. Bush sent troops to the city at California Governor Pete Wilson's request following unrest in the wake of four LAPD officers being acquitted of police brutality in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has not requested federal assistance ... quite the opposite. He has called for ICE and CBP personnel to leave the state.

POTUS posted on Truth Social Thursday morning ... "If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State."

The Insurrection Act allows the President to deploy the military and federalize state National Guard forces in limited circumstances.

Before 1992, it was utilized during a civil rights dispute in 1957 in Arkansas, and during the Civil War and Jim Crow eras.

This isn't the first time Trump's threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act ... he floated the idea of invoking the act in October on cities like Portland and Chicago.

Sam Asghari went all in for his roots ... storming the streets of Los Angeles to stand loud, proud, and unmissable in support of the Iranian people.

In an IG video posted Sunday night, the Iranian-born model showed himself waving the Iranian flag shoulder to shoulder with massive crowds in L.A., home to one of the largest Iranian-American communities in the country.

Sam and the crowd gathered near the federal building in Westwood ... making it clear they were pushing back against political repression and calling for regime change among all the protests and chaos that have erupted in Iran.