Pam Bondi's mad after judge rejects charging Don Lemon over his Minnesota church reporting

A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota rejected charging gay journalist Don Lemon after he covered a protest inside a St. Paul church Sunday, concerning journalism groups about silencing coverage.

The judge would not sign the charging complaint against him, which has angered Attorney General Pam Bondi, CBS News reports.

"The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate's decision," one source told the outlet.

Related: DOJ threats against Don Lemon worry press freedom groups

Another source said that the Justice Department may find other ways to charge Lemon.

On Sunday, protesters interrupted a church service at St. Paul's Cities Church, which Lemon covered. One of the pastors is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. Protests have erupted in Minnesota after the killing of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7.

The news comes as Bondi announced that two people were arrested in connection with the same church protest.

A magistrate judge had approved charges against them, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and Nekima Levy Armstrong. Armstrong is being charged over a civil rights law that prohibits two or more people from working together to interfere with constitutionally protected rights, CBS Notes.

The former CNN anchor posted a recording Sunday evening on Bluesky showing him questioning Armstrong. The recording appears to rebut claims that Lemon participated in or directed the protest, instead showing him questioning protesters about their motives moments before they entered the church.

He also interviews a pastor of the church and one of the people attending the service.

After Lemon's reporting circulated online, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon said Lemon was "on notice" and that the First Amendment does not shield what she described as “pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service.”

"The magistrate's reported actions confirm the nature of Don's First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter," a statement from Don Lemon's attorney Abbe Lowell said. "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."

Dhillon said on a far-right podcast that Lemon could still be criminally charged, saying that journalism "is not a badge or a shield that protects you from criminal consequences."

“NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists condemns any action taken by the federal government to restrict the constitutional rights of reporters engaged in legal and vital newsgathering,” Ken Miguel, president of NLGJA, told The Advocate. “Threats to limit free speech and a free press undermine the fundamental principles our founding fathers outlined in the Constitution.

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, was even more critical. “Even putting aside constitutional protections, the laws under which the administration is threatening Lemon are totally inapplicable to a journalist intending to document news, not to obstruct religious observance,” he said in a statement to The Advocate. “It’s the latest example of the administration coming up with far-fetched ‘gotcha’ legal theories to send a message to journalists to tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them.”