Harmeet Dhillon slams hypocrisy of Don Lemon backers, asks if they'd tolerate protest in mosque

WASHINGTON, DC: Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon slammed Don Lemon and his defenders over their reasoning in justifying the Minnesota anti-ICE church protest. 

In an episode of 'The Rubin Report' podcast aired on Saturday, February 7, Dhillon stressed that the First Amendment does not give journalists or activists a free pass to obstruct religious worship.

Harmeet Dhillon tears into Don Lemon, his supporters

"Don Lemon might have gone to the 'learing' School of Journalism, where they did not teach the distinctions in the First Amendment," she quipped.

Dhillon was referencing an allegedly fraudulent Somali educational facility in Minnesota that, ironically, had misspelled the word 'learning' and written 'Quality Learing Center' on its sign.

“The First Amendment has specific time, place, and manner restrictions,” she said. “This is not a license to violate other people’s First Amendment rights.” 

The assistan attorney general also ripped into those who have rushed to Lemon’s defense.

“Do we want to see this type of a scene with neo-Nazis, right, doing a protest in a synagogue or, you know, people who dislike Islam doing a protest in a mosque?” she asked.

“Not everyone is going to be as peaceful and a mild servant of God as Jonathan Parnell. There will be violence. There will be anarchy. There will be a retreat from houses of worship because people will be afraid to go there."

Dhillon added, "That is why we have a zero-tolerance policy for this. And that includes anybody who calls themselves a journalist but is obstructing, intimidating, threatening, and otherwise violating the FACE Act.”

The evidence from Lemon’s own livestream

Dhillon described how Lemon’s own footage has become central to the government’s case.

“We strongly believe that all of the nine people who’ve been indicted so far by the grand jury had both violations,” she said.

“They all went inside. They all obstructed, harassed, intimidated, frightened. People were actually injured in this melee. And on top of that, they all planned to do it. They met outside, and Don Lemon helpfully provided us with live stream video of planning of him bringing donuts and coffee to the co-conspirators, of using the royal ‘we’ repeatedly when he was talking about what we were going to go inside and what we were going to do. He even turned off his microphone at one point to conceal what the co-conspirators were talking about doing.”

The protesters entered during a Sunday service, confronting the pastor after claiming one church leader held a position with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They were chanting “ICE out!”

Lemon, who now works as an independent journalist, was livestreaming and interviewing participants inside the sanctuary.

When the pastor told the group it was “shameful” to bring politics into “the house of God,” Lemon responded that he was exercising his First Amendment rights. Dhillon rejected that outright.

Bipartisan law designed to protect worship

Dhillon walked through the statute at the heart of the charges, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994.

“The FACE Act was passed in 1994 and it was mainly passed to protect abortion clinics from being obstructed by pro-life protesters,” she explained. “The terms are defined broadly. But this law wouldn’t have passed without bipartisan support. And so to get that bipartisan support, Congress added in a provision giving the same protections to houses of worship.”

That extension is now being enforced even-handedly, including against left-leaning activists and the journalists who accompanied them, she said.

The AAG added that she does not view the matter as “the Don Lemon case” but as “the Cities Church case,” with Lemon simply one of many indicted individuals.

Lemon has maintained he was simply documenting events as a reporter. He was arrested in Los Angeles on January 30 on charges of conspiracy and interference with religious exercise. He was later released.