Those hoping Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will prosecute the protesters who caused chaos last weekend at a church service probably shouldn’t hold their breath.
Mr. Ellison said it would be “a wild stretch” to charge the demonstrators under federal statutes that the U.S. Justice Department is considering. Meanwhile, he defended the rights of protesters who disrupted worship over a pastor who allegedly works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I think that if you want to protest the behavior of a particular religious leader, then people are allowed to do that. That’s my 2 cents on that,” Mr. Ellison told podcast host Don Lemon in a Monday interview.
The two-term Democratic attorney general, who announced Tuesday he plans to seek a third term, argued that “protest is fundamental to American society.”
“People have a right to lift up their voices and make their peace. None of us are immune from the voice of the public,” Mr. Ellison said. “Quite honestly, I think you’ve got the First Amendment freedom of religion and the First Amendment freedom of expression, and I think that, you know, it’s just something you’ve got to live with in a society like this.”
His comments came after Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the protest is under investigation and that protesters could face charges under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act.
The FACE Act prohibits protesters from using force, the threat of force or physical obstruction to prevent access to abortion clinics and “places of religious worship.” The law was used mainly to charge pro-life activists during the Biden administration.
Mr. Ellison appeared to be unaware of the provision regarding religious worship.
“The FACE Act, by the way, is designed to protect the rights of people seeking their reproductive rights to be protected, and so people for religious reasons cannot just use religion to break into women’s reproductive health centers,” he said.
He also took issue with charging the anti-ICE activists under the KKK Act, which prohibits conspiracies or insurrections intended to deprive others of their constitutional rights, saying it would be “a wild stretch and inappropriate.”
He added, “How they are stretching either of these laws to apply to people who protested in a church over the behavior or the perceived behavior of a religious leader is beyond me, but they don’t mind stretching these days.”
A visibly concerned Don Lemon asks Minnesota AG Keith Ellison for his two cents on possible KKK Act charges.
Ellison claims the law was never meant for situations like this, but claims the Trump DOJ is now “stretching” statutes to target people anyway. pic.twitter.com/Nmh0zPhP2S
— Timcast News (@TimcastNews) January 19, 2026
Dozens of protesters swarmed the sanctuary of Cities Church in St. Paul during Sunday services, shouting and chanting slogans such as “ICE Out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” the Minneapolis woman shot and killed Jan. 7 in a confrontation with an ICE agent.
Activists ignored pleas by church leaders to leave. Organizers said the church was targeted because one of its eight pastors, David Easterwood, is allegedly the acting ICE field office director for Minnesota.
Trump administration officials decried the protest, which was organized by the Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, saying it violated the parishioners’ civil rights.
The episode comes with the administration locked in a heated legal and public-relations battle with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over the federal immigration-enforcement surge that began last month.
The White House accused the Democrats of egging on anti-ICE activists.
“There is no low these radical leftists won’t stoop to. Jacob Frey and Tim Walz have whipped these rioters into a frenzy and turned them loose to wreak havoc on Minneapolis,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a Monday statement. “Frey and Walz should be ashamed for inciting such chaos, but the Trump Administration will continue enforcing the law.”
Last week, Mr. Walz urged residents to carry their cellphones and record immigration officers in their neighborhoods, but the governor’s office distanced itself from the church protest on Monday.
“The Governor has repeatedly and unequivocally urged protesters to do so peacefully,” Mr. Walz’s office said in a statement to Fox News Channel. “While people have a right to speak out, he in no way supports interrupting a place of worship.”
In his interview with Mr. Lemon, Mr. Ellison accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against its critics.
“We are in the age where the president and the Department of Justice do not care about true legality. They care about using the criminal justice system as a weapon,” he said. “I think that the FACE Act and KKK Act are on their face inapplicable, so it doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve been a lawyer for 35 years, and that’s my 2 cents on that, brother.”
