Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

CNN’s Elie Honig Says DOJ Has Grounds To Prosecute Protesters For Violating Churchgoers’ Civil Rights

[Screenshot/CNN]

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) can prosecute the protesters who stormed into a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said that her division was investigating and planned to press charges against the protesters who disrupted a service inside Cities Church on Sunday, where the pastor also served as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official. Honig said on “CNN News Central” that the protesters’ conduct seemed to meet the requirements to prosecute them under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.

“So, there are actually two laws, one of them being the FACE Act, the other being a civil rights law, which says it is a crime to intentionally interfere with another person’s free exercise of religion,” Honig said. “[They are] rarely used, these laws. But they certainly exist. And the conduct that we see here on its face seems to meet the requirements of those laws. Is it intentional? Sure. Are they interfering with people’s exercise of free religion? You see it on these videos. They intentionally went into a private church. So it is met on the face.” 

WATCH: 

The FACE Act prohibits the obstruction of houses of worship and religious services, while the Ku Klux Klan Act criminalizes conspiring against a person’s civil rights.

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was among the individuals who entered the building. Lemon asserted that all he did was “commit an act of journalism” by going inside, though his knowledge of the protesters’ plans beforehand may implicate him in criminal activity, Dhillon said on “The Benny Johnson Show.”

During his livestream, Lemon argued that the protesters were simply exercising their constitutional rights, despite them disrupting a religious service.

“This is the beginning of what’s going to happen here. When you violate people’s due process, when you pull people off the street, you start dragging them and hurting them, and not abiding by the Constitution, you start doing all of that, people get upset and angry,” Lemon said. “Remember what the civil rights movement was about. The civil rights movement was about these very kinds of protests.”

The protesters entered the church and chanted, “Justice for Renee Good,” the woman who was shot by an ICE officer on Jan. 7 after hitting him with her car. Footage from the agent’s perspective showed Good starting her car while officers ordered her to exit the vehicle. She then accelerated forward and hit the ICE agent, prompting him to fire shots.

Good’s significant other, Rebecca, shouted, “drive baby, drive,” as the ICE officers approached. Federal authorities were investigating her to determine whether she interfered with an ICE officer moments before the shooting.