An indictment unsealed Friday afternoon gives more details about what prosecutors allege about nine people federally charged in a protest at a St. Paul church.

Three people were initially charged, and then a grand jury indicted them and an additional six people. The indictment was filed in federal court Thursday and made public after arrests Friday.

Protesters disrupted services inside Cities Church on Summit Avenue near Snelling Avenue on Jan. 18. They said the acting field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota serves as a pastor at the church.

Among those charged are Twin Cities activists and two independent journalists. Community leaders and politicians have spoken out strongly against their arrests, and media groups have raised concerns about the arrests of journalists.

“I am feeling so disappointed, but not surprised that peaceful protesters and journalists were arrested today,” said Marcia Howard, a Minneapolis resident, mother, veteran and president of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators Local 59 on Friday. “This affront to the First Amendment feels like a full frontal attack on the Constitution of the United States.”

The Trump administration has condemned the church protesters.

“Make no mistake, under President Trump’s leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Friday video statement. “And if I haven’t been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.”

‘Operation Pullup’

Nekima Levy Armstrong holds up her fist after speaking at an anti-ICE rally for Martin Luther King Jr., Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

The indictments came after a magistrate judge rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge independent journalist Don Lemon, formerly of CNN.

Charged are Twin Cities civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, St. Paul School Board Member Chauntyll Allen, independent Twin Cities journalist Georgia Fort, Hennepin County Attorney’s Office lobbyist Jamael Lundy, Twin Cities activist Trahern Crews, along with Lemon, William Scott Kelly, Jerome Deangelo Richardson and Ian Davis Austin.

They are charged with aiding and abetting injuring, intimidating and interfering with exercise of right of religious freedom at a place of worship, along with conspiracy against right of religious freedom at a place or worship. The indictment makes the following allegations:

Levy Armstrong and Allen, “with other persons unknown to the grand jury, organized the operation targeting the church, which they dubbed ‘Operation Pullup’” and promoted on their Instagram accounts on Jan. 17. They and the other seven people charged “entered the church to conduct a takeover-style attack.”

On the morning of Jan. 18, the nine people gathered with 20-30 other people “for a pre-operation briefing” led by Levy Armstrong and Allen in the parking lot of the former Cub Foods on University Avenue in St. Paul.

Levy Armstrong said Thursday that their concerns are not only about immigrant rights, but also about racial justice and constitutional rights.

“When we had the Cities Church protest, it was triumphant for the people because we took a stand by going directly to the power and saying, ‘This cannot stand. You cannot serve two masters because the whole foundation of the gospel message is to love thy neighbor as you love thyself,’” she said at the Thursday press conference. “And Minnesotans have been loving our neighbors and putting our bodies on the line while ICE has been attempting to destroy our neighbors.”

School board member: Worried about kids

Lemon began live-streaming on “The Don Lemon Show” and “explained to his audience that he was in Minnesota with an organization that was gearing up for a ‘resistance’ operation against the federal government’s immigration policies, and he took steps to maintain operational secrecy” by reminding people “to not disclose the target of the operation,” the indictment said.

During a discussion with Levy Armstrong at the briefing, Lemon thanked her “for what she was doing and assured her that he was ‘not saying … what’s going on’ (i.e., was not disclosing the target of the operation).”

St. Paul School Board member Chauntyll Allen speaks during a September 2023 news conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Allen led people in chants they would use at the church, including, “This is what community looks like” and “ICE out of Minnesota.” She directed people to “stay bumper-to-bumper” and confirmed everyone had the address.

As a school board member, Allen said Thursday that her focus is on children who are afraid to go to school, to their neighborhood stores and their sports games.

“I’m willing to do everything in my might to protect all of these children in the Twin Cities,” she said. “They should not be exposed to this. And we need serious accountability right now, and we need ICE out of our city so that we can go back to safety and we can start the healing process.”

People entered church in 2 waves

Levy Armstrong instructed people that the “first wave” of people into the church should enter “essentially in an undercover capacity and position themselves around the church sanctuary,” not sit together and not wear “anything that is activist-identifying,” the indictment said. She said people wearing “anything activism identifying” should enter with the second wave.

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They drove to the church, with Lemon — who was still livestreaming — telling Richardson, “Don’t give anything away.”

The second wave of people into the church were led by Levy Armstrong and Allen, “which the first wave of agitators then actively joined.”

Jordan Kushner, Levy Armstrong’s attorney, said Thursday that it’s “central to the First Amendment that people have a right to protest.”

“This was a peaceful event,” he said. “Free speech can make people uncomfortable, and yet the federal government has totally distorted the case and made it look like there was some kind of persecution of people for their religious beliefs, which has nothing to do with reality.”

Indictment: Chants, whistles, stairs to childcare blocked

The indictment said Levy Armstrong interrupted the pastor as he was beginning his sermon “with loud declarations about the church harboring a ‘director of ICE’ and indicating that the time for Judgment had come” Other people in the group joined in by yelling and blowing whistles.

“(A)ll of which quickly caused the situation in the church to become chaotic, menacing and traumatizing to church members,” the indictment said.

Levy Armstrong, Allen, Richardson, Lundy, Crews, Austin and others “led and/or joined … in various chants, including, ‘ICE Out!,’ ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!,’ and ‘Stand Up, Fight Back!,’ while gesturing in an aggressive and hostile manner, which congregants and the pastor perceived as threats of violence and a potential prelude to a mass shooting,” the indictment continued.

The nine people charged, according to the indictment, “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated the church’s congregants and pastors by physically occupying most of the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the church … and/or physically obstructing them as they attempted to exit and/or move about within the church.”

A congregant reported to responding police officers that some people blocked stairs leading to the church’s childcare area, “and made it difficult and hazardous for parents to retrieve their children.”

Austin “loudly berated the pastor with questions about Christian nationalism and Christians wanting to have their faith be the law of the land,” the indictment said, adding that Kelly chanted, “This ain’t God’s house. This is the house of the devil.”

Kelly approached a woman who was with two young children “and demanded to know in a hostile manner why she was not involved in and supportive of the takeover operation,” screamed “Nazi” in congregants’ faces and asked child congregants, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell,” the indictment said.

Kelly said Thursday that he’s a veteran, an activist and “a man of peace, standing for the dignity of all Americans, of all humans. Why am I being persecuted for this? Make it make sense. Americans, I ask that you remember the Constitution. You remember that this nation was founded on liberty for all.”

Lemon’s livestream scrutinized

Journalist Don Lemon, talks to the media after a hearing at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The indictment said that during Lemon’s livestream, he “observed that the congregants’ reactions were understandable because the experience was ‘traumatic and uncomfortable,’ which he said was the purpose.”

Lemon, Richardson and Fort “approached the pastor and largely surrounded him … stood in close proximity to the pastor in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement while Lemon peppered him with questions to promote the operation’s message,” the indictment said.

Lemon stood so close that the pastor’s hand grazed him, to which Lemon said, “Please don’t push me.”

The pastor told Lemon and the others to leave the church. They did not. After most of the congregants left, some of the people who’ve been charged and “other agitators” chanted, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”

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Lemon “posted himself at the main door of the church, where he confronted some congregants and physically obstructed them as they tried to exit the church building to challenge them with ‘facts’ about U.S. immigration policy,” the indictment said.

A minivan full of children was preparing to leave the church when Kelly walked in front and “angrily yelled at the occupants.” Levy Armstrong and Fort stood in front as Fort interviewed her, the indictment said.

Fort, a journalist for more than 17 years, said Friday, after she made her initial court appearance and was released from custody: “Documenting what is happening in our community is not a crime. And the questions that were asked a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning by concerned community members, those questions still need to be answered. And as a journalist, I am committed to continuing to follow the story until their questions are answered.”

By LEANNE ITALIE and MARK THIESSEN

The death of Catherine O’Hara at 71 prompted an outpouring from the actor’s co-stars and friends over the decades. O’Hara, whose legendary comic skills were on display in “Home Alone,” “Schitt’s Creek,” “Beetlejuice” and much more, died Friday in Los Angeles after a brief illness.

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Macaulay Culkin

“Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I’ll see you later” — the actor, who played O’Hara’s son in two “Home Alone” movies, on Instagram.

Meryl Streep

“Catherine O’Hara brought love and light to our world, through whipsmart compassion for the collection of eccentrics she portrayed…such a loss for her family and friends, and the audience she graced as friends.” — the actor, who co-starred with O’Hara in “Heartburn,” in a statement.

Michael Keaton

“We go back before the first Beetlejuice. She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend. This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her.” — the actor, on Instagram.

Seth Rogen

“Really don’t know what to say… I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen. Home Alone was the movie that made me want to make movies. Getting to work with her was a true honour. She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous… she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it. This is just devastating. We’re all lucky we got to live in a world with her in it.” — “The Studio” creator and star, on Instagram.

Andrea Martin

“Catherine. She is and will always be the greatest. It is an honor to have called her my friend.” — the actor, a fellow original “SCTV” cast member, in a statement.

Mark Carney

“Over 5 decades of work, Catherine earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy — from SCTV to Schitt’s Creek. Canada has lost a legend. My thoughts are with her family, friends, and all.” — the Canadian prime minister, on social media.

Mike Myers

“It is a very sad day for comedy and for Canada. She was one of the greatest comedy artists in history, an inspiration for millions and above all a very elegant lady” — the comedian, in a statement.

Pedro Pascal

“Oh, genius to be near you. Eternally grateful. There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always. Always” — the actor, who worked with O’Hara on the second season of “The Last of Us,” on Instagram.

Kevin Nealon

“Catherine O’Hara changed how so many of us understand comedy and humanity. From the chaos and heart of Home Alone to the unforgettable precision of Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek, she created characters we’ll rewatch again and again.” — the comedian and actor, on social media.

FILE – Former cast members of SCTV, from left, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, foreground, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy and Martin Short, pose at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival on March 6, 1999, in Aspen, Colo. (AP Photo/E Pablo Kosmicki, File)

Craig Mazin

“I think she would prefer that we keep laughing somehow, or at the very least not cry. Not possible at the moment. As brutal as this feels for anyone who knew or worked with her, I know it is far more painful for her husband and sons and close family. I’m thinking about them right now too. It all hurts terribly. Goodbye, you legend… you wonderful, brilliant, kind, beautiful human being. We were lucky to have had you at all.” — the “The Last of Us” showrunner, on Instagram.

Christopher Guest

“I am devastated. We have lost one of the comic giants of our age. I send my love to her family.” — the actor and director, who collaborated with O’Hara on four films, in a statement.

Sarah Polley

“She was the kindest and the classiest. How could she also have been the funniest person in the world? And she was at the very top of her game. There won’t be another like her.” – The Canadian director and actor, on Instagram.

Ron Howard

“This is shattering news. What a wonderful person, artist and collaborator. I was lucky enough to direct, produce and act in projects with her and she was simply growing more brilliant with each year. My heart goes out to Bo & family.” — the actor and director, on X.

Ike Barinholtz

“I never in a million years thought I would get to work with Catherine O’Hara let alone become friends with her. So profoundly sad she’s somewhere else now, So incredibly grateful I got to spend the time I did with her. Thank you Catherine I love you.” — the actor, a co-star in “The Studio,” on Instagram.

Rita Wilson

“Catherine O’Hara — a woman who was authentic and truthful in all she did. You saw it in her work, if you knew her you saw it in her life, and you saw it in her family. Bo, Luke and Matthew, our deepest sympathies. May Catherine rest in peace. May her memory be eternal. — the actor, director and producer, on Instagram.

Alec Baldwin

“Catherine O’Hara was one of the greatest comic talents in the movie business. She had a quality that was all her own and my sympathy goes out to Bo and their family.” — the actor, her “Beetlejuice” co-star, in a statement.

By JENNIFER PELTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — When some Gilded Age gentleman hunters organized a New York event to compare their dogs, could they have imagined that people would someday call it the World Series of dogdom or the Super Bowl of dog shows?

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Of course they couldn’t. The World Series and the Super Bowl didn’t exist. Nor, for that matter, did the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty.

But the Westminster Kennel Club’s dog show did, and still does. With the 150th annual show set to start Saturday, here’s a then-and-now look at the United States’ most famous canine competition.

“The trappings, the window dressing, you know, changes over time. But what’s at the core, what’s the heart of it, which is the love of dogs … that has been the same,” says club President Donald Sturz.

The name

It comes from the Westminster Hotel, where the show’s founders liked to belly up to the bar and brag about their dogs. The hotel is long gone. The moniker stuck.

The dogs

The club’s “First Annual New York Bench Show of Dogs,” in 1877, was no small thing. It featured about 1,200 dogs of a few dozen breeds, ranging from pugs to mastiffs. They included an English setter valued at $5,000, at a time when an average laborer in New York made about $1.30 a day. The Associated Press reported that “the bulldogs are represented by a number of noticeable delegates,” and a family of “Japanese spaniels” was “highly amusing.”

It wasn’t the first U.S. dog show, but it wowed and endured. Among U.S. sporting events, only the Kentucky Derby has a longer history of being held every year.

This year’s Westminster show boasts 2,500 dogs, representing as many as 212 breeds and 10 “varieties” (subsets of breeds, such as smooth vs. wirehaired dachshunds). Some likely hadn’t made it to the U.S. in 1877. Others didn’t exist yet anywhere.

FILE – Four Russian wolfhounds arrive by limousine with chauffeur Jim Colby at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York, Feb. 13, 1956. (AP Photo/Jacob Harris, File)

But many are much the same as they were in Westminster’s early days, Sturz says. Some details — the length of muzzles, the thickness of coats — have shifted in this breed or that, and better canine nutrition may have led to “a little bit more size, or a little more bone” in some, he said.

Today, all the canines have champion rankings in a formalized sport with a complicated point system and official “standards” for judging each breed. They compete for best in show, a trophy that Westminster added in 1907. Earlier shows had no overall prize.

Hundreds of other dogs now vie for separate titles in agility and other sports, which kick off this year’s show on Saturday.

The vibe

When Westminster started, the dogs weren’t the only ones with a pedigreed air.

“Everybody was fashionably dressed and wore an air of good breeding,” The New York Times said of the 1877 show — and the paper was talking about the spectators, not the animals. Not to be outdone, some canines also were gussied up in lace collars and ribbons.

FILE – Guemart Limited Edition, a Yorkshire Terrier from Mexico City, is groomed by Jesus Guerrero backstage prior to competition in the 131st Westminster dog show Monday Feb.12, 2007 at Madison Square Garden in New York.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Over the years, the event drew entries from foreign royals, American tycoons and modern-day celebrities including Martha Stewart and Tim McGraw. A decades-long list of pro athletes have cheered on their animals, from baseball’s Lou Gehrig and Barry Bonds to the NFL’s Morgan Fox.

Westminster has carried a whiff of bygone, clubby gentility into the 21st century — handlers wear suits and dresses, upper-round judges black tie — and the competition is hardly casual. Many top contenders come in with hired professional handlers and a show record built on near-constant travel, with buzz built through dog-magazine ad campaigns.

Still, many people handle their own dogs and work or are retired from policing, medicine, the military, corporate jobs or other fields. Some of the animals also have jobs, including bomb-sniffing and search-and-rescue.

“It’s an elite event, but it’s one that we want everyone to feel that they can access and be a part of,” says Sturz, a clinical psychologist and retired school district superintendent.

The venue

Westminster debuted at Gilmore’s Garden, a precursor to today’s Madison Square Garden. Nearly every subsequent show has been in some iteration of the building, even after part of it collapsed and killed four people, including a Westminster official, shortly before the 1880 show. Next week’s semifinals and best-in-show finals, set for late Tuesday, will be held in the present-day Garden.

FILE – Kirby, a male Papillon, and his owner John Oulton react after winning best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club 1999 Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York Tuesday, Feb. 9, 1999. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

From the start, the show has drawn thousands of spectators in person — and many more on TV since the late 1940s, with still more via streaming.

Of course, that’s not the only way Westminster has been portrayed on-screen.

The movie

Yes, we’re talking about “Best in Show,” director-writer-actor Christopher Guest’s cult-classic 2000 mockumentary about obsessives and oddballs competing at the fictional “Mayflower” dog show in Philadelphia. Guest attended Westminster during his extensive research for the film.

Is it really like that? As with any satire: sort of. Circulate at Westminster, and you’ll certainly see some wound-up people primping and presenting animals, but you’ll also see some competitors cheering for each other, sharing expertise and playing with cherished pets.

Show folk had mixed feelings about the movie. But it helped expand Westminster’s audience, says David Frei, who hosted the show broadcast from 1990 to 2016.

“They didn’t make fun of the dogs,” Frei said. “They just made fun of the people.”

The protests

As Westminster’s prominence grew, it became a magnet for complaints that dog breeding puts looks ahead of health. As far back as 1937, some show-goers questioned whether collies’ narrow heads and long noses were healthy, according to an AP story at the time.

FILE – A security worker wraps up a protester during the best in show competition at the 148th Westminster Kennel Club dog show Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

In recent years, animal welfare activists have sometimes infiltrated the ring or demonstrated on the sidelines. This year, PETA has put up billboards near the venues about the breathing problems of flat-faced dogs, and oxygen-tank-carrying supporters plan to demonstrate outside.

“Westminster has had countless opportunities to evolve, yet it clings to an outdated obsession with aesthetics,” a PETA staff writer said in a recent op-ed distributed by the Tribune Content Agency.

Sturz said the club “has a longstanding history of showing its commitment to dog welfare.”

He notes that the organization has donated to veterinary scholarships, pet-friendly domestic violence shelters, rescue groups and other canine causes. Those ties go all the way back to 1877, when some proceeds from the first Westminster show helped the nation’s oldest humane society, the ASPCA, build its first shelter.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — A huge new tranche of files on millionaire financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released Friday revealed details of his communications with the wealthy and powerful, some not long before he died by suicide in 2019.

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The Justice Department said it was disclosing more than 3 million pages of documents, as well as thousands of videos and photos, as required by a law passed by Congress. By Friday evening, more than 600,000 documents had been published online. Millions of files that prosecutors had identified as potentially subject to release under the law remain under wraps, however, drawing criticism from Democrats.

Here’s what we know so far about the files now being reviewed by a team of Associated Press reporters:

Epstein talked politics with Steve Bannon, ex-Obama official

The documents show Epstein exchanged hundreds of friendly texts with Steve Bannon, a top advisor to President Donald Trump, some months before Epstein’s death.

They discussed politics, travel and a documentary Bannon was said to be planning that would help salvage Epstein’s reputation.

In March 2019, Bannon asked Epstein if he could supply his plane to pick him up in Rome.

A couple of months later, Epstein messaged to Bannon: “Now you can understand why trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends.”

The context is unclear from the documents, which were released with many redactions and little clear organization.

Another 2018 exchange focused on Trump’s threats at the time to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he had named to the post just the year prior.

Around the same time, Epstein also communicated with Kathy Ruemmler, a lawyer and former Obama White House official. In a typo-filled email, he warned that Democrats should stop demonizing Trump as a Mafia-type figure even as he derided the president as a “maniac.”

Bannon did not immediately respond to a message from the AP seeking comment. Ruemmler said through a spokesperson she was associated with Epstein professionally during her time as a lawyer in private practice and now “regrets ever knowing him.”

He also chatted with Elon Musk and Howard Lutnick about island visits

Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk emailed Epstein in 2012 and 2013 about visiting his infamous island compound, the scene of many allegations of sexual abuse.

Epstein inquired in an email about how many people Musk would like flown by helicopter, and Musk responded it would likely be just him as his partner at the time. “What day/night will be the wildest party on our island?” he wrote, according to the Justice Department records.

It’s not immediately clear if the island visits took place. Spokespersons for Musk’s companies, Tesla and X, didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

Musk has maintained that he repeatedly turned down the disgraced financier’s overtures. “Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I REFUSED,” he posted on X in 2025

Epstein also invited Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the island in Dec. 2012. Lutnick’s wife enthusiastically accepted the invitation and said they would arrive on a yacht with their children. The two also had drinks on another occasion in 2011, according to a schedule. Six years later, they emailed about the construction of a building across the street from both of their homes.

Lutnick has distanced himself from Epstein, calling him “gross” and saying in 2025 that he cut ties decades ago. He didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on Friday afternoon.

The records also have new details on Epstein’s incarceration and suicide

Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019, and found dead in his cell just over a month later.

The latest batch of documents includes emails between investigators about Epstein’s death, including an investigator’s observation that his final communication doesn’t look like a suicide note. Multiple investigations have determined that Epstein’s death was a suicide.

The records also detail a trick that jail staffers used to fool the media gathered outside while Epstein’s body was removed: they used boxes and sheets to create what appeared to be a body and loaded it into a white van labeled as belonging to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The reporters followed the van when it left the jail, not knowing that Epstein’s actual body was loaded into a black vehicle, which departed “unnoticed,” according to the interview notes.

Associated Press reporters across the country contributed to this story, including Michael R. Sisak and Philip Marcelo in New York, Cal Woodward in Washington, Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, and Meg Kinnard in South Carolina.