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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No school. No work. No shopping. A second, national ‘day of action’ planned for Friday.
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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.”
