Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that federal agents have arrested two additional suspects tied to the storming of a St. Paul church last month, vowing swift consequences for what she described as a coordinated attack on religious worship.
Bondi identified the suspects as Ian Davis Austin and Jerome Deangelo Richardson. She said the arrests stem from a Jan. 18 disruption at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as pastor. With the latest arrests, nine people have now been charged in connection with the incident.
The group is accused of conspiring to violate constitutional rights and of violating the FACE Act, a 1994 federal law that bars the use of force, intimidation or obstruction to deliberately “injure, intimidate, or interfere” with an individual’s right to worship freely. Bondi said the two newly arrested suspects are expected to face the same charges as the others.
“If you riot in a place of worship, we WILL find you,” Bondi wrote on X.
Video from the January incident shows anti-ICE protesters chanting “ICE out” and interrupting a church service, forcing congregants to endure the disruption mid-worship. The Justice Department says the actions crossed the line from protest into criminal conduct.
Violations of the FACE Act can carry penalties ranging from fines to prison time, depending on the severity of the offense and whether aggravating factors are present.
The new arrests follow the Justice Department’s decision last week to take former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort into custody over their alleged roles in the same protest. Federal charging documents say both face possible FACE Act violations.
A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota had earlier rejected an initial attempt to charge Don Lemon, calling the government’s first case against him “frivolous.” Prosecutors later returned with revised filings.
Both Lemon and Fort have insisted they were present strictly in a reporting capacity and not as participants in the protest.
The arrests have drawn sharp criticism from Democratic officials and media allies, who argue the case raises First Amendment concerns. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her both condemned the move.
“The arrest today of journalists for covering a protest is deeply chilling,” Her said in a statement Friday. “We need to all be hyper vigilant and call out the way this administration has eroded our First Amendment and other Constitutional rights, because if we let this go unanswered, it won’t stop here.”
Pam Bondi and Justice Department officials have pushed back, saying press credentials do not grant immunity from criminal conduct and that places of worship will be protected under federal law.
