Protesters Plead Not Guilty in FACE Act Case Stemming From Cities Church Demonstration

Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, St. Paul School Board Member Chauntyll Allen, William Kelly, Jerome Richardson and others pleaded not guilty Feb. 13 to federal charges stemming from a January protest at Cities Church, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Director David Easterwood serves as a pastor.

Federal prosecutors allege that nine protesters, including independent journalist Georgia Fort, violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, by interfering with a religious service during the Jan. 18 demonstration. The law, passed in 1994 in response to escalating violence and blockades targeting abortion providers and houses of worship, was designed to protect abortion clinics and religious congregations from obstruction and threats of force.

Defense attorneys argue the protest constituted peaceful political speech protected by the First Amendment.

The prosecution presents a complicated backdrop for the White House. Just three days into his second term, President Donald Trump granted clemency to 23 anti-abortion protesters convicted under the same FACE Act for blockading abortion clinic entrances.

“They should not have been prosecuted,” Trump said at the time.

Phone Seizures Raise Additional Concerns

Ian Davis Austin, one of the protesters later charged in connection with the Cities Church demonstration, said federal agents took his phone when he was first arrested at the Whipple Federal Building and scanned his face.

“They arrested me the first time and took me into the Whipple and they took my phone and scanned my face,” Austin said.

He was later arrested a second time and formally charged in connection with the Jan. 18 protest.

“They have mine as well,” Austin said of other seized devices. “I don’t think I can get it back the same way.”

Austin is not the first person released from Department of Homeland Security custody without his cellphone. Former U.S. Marine Steven Saari reportedly had DNA samples taken and his phone cloned, according to The Intercept.

“They tricked me,” Austin said. “They brought me in for a second interview, and I was talking to one guy, and then he’s like, ‘hey.’ And I looked over and he was just holding the phone up.”

The Minnesota Reformer reported that other protesters were also released without their phones or personal documents. DHS did not respond to requests for comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Keenan told U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko that Armstrong’s cellphone may be returned next week. Micko declined to order its return, urging the parties to reach an agreement.

Keenan is the same prosecutor who signed onto a Department of Justice memo recommending a one-day jail sentence for former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison, who was convicted in connection with the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor.

Press Freedom Questions Surface

Lemon has maintained he was at the church to document the protest as a journalist and said the case represents a broader threat to press freedom. Coverage of the demonstration shows Lemon and Fort interviewing both protesters and congregation members.

“This is not about me,” Lemon said outside the federal courthouse. “This is about all journalists, especially here in the United States.”

In court, Keenan said Lemon’s phone remains in DHS custody and could not provide a timeline for its return.

The disclosure comes amid prior federal investigations in which agencies seized the phones of journalists and political protesters.

Last month, FBI agents searched the Alexandria, Virginia, home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing her phone, two laptops and a smartwatch as part of a leak investigation involving a government contractor. Investigators told Natanson she is not the focus of the probe.

A federal judge later blocked the Justice Department from examining Natanson’s devices, ruling the government must preserve but not review the seized materials pending further court order.

Press freedom advocates have cited such incidents as examples of escalating federal pressure on newsgathering.

Andrew Crocker, surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that government phone seizures can extend beyond those arrested.

“Our phones contain some of our most personal and private information, and government searches and seizures of these devices can implicate a range of users’ legal rights, including the protections in the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments,” Crocker said. “Especially given the context of these arrests, courts should scrupulously examine the government’s actions and ensure the users’ rights are upheld.”

Constitutional Stakes

Fort described the case as journalism on trial. Armstrong framed the prosecution tied to the Cities Church protest as a constitutional test.

“You have given us life because of your resistance to the authoritarianism, fascism and tyranny of the Trump administration,” Armstrong said. “We have to stand for our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press.”

Armstrong’s attorney, Jordan Kushner, said federal agents aggressively sought her phone at the time of her arrest.

“Then I got a call from a Homeland Security agent who demanded that I turn in her phone right away,” Kushner said. “Chauntyll had her phone, and they took it from her, and then they eventually realized it was Nekima’s phone. But they were desperate to get her phone, and the reason doesn’t have anything to do with the case.”

Armstrong said the confiscations represent governmental overreach.

“They confiscated my phone when they arrested me. Chauntyll Allen had my phone at the time. They also confiscated her phone. We know that they confiscated Don Lemon’s phone, and from my perspective, this was governmental overreach,” Armstrong said. “They had no business taking our phones.”

Kushner said prosecutors are seeking to designate the matter as a complex case, which could significantly extend pretrial proceedings.

“They’re claiming that it’s a complex case, and so they’re going to ask for a lot more time and drag it out,” Kushner said. “It is not a complex case. Politically, it’s a very unusual case, yes, but that doesn’t make it a complex case.”

When asked about potential malicious prosecution claims related to an altered image circulated by the White House, Armstrong said her legal team is reviewing the matter.

“I was calm, cool and collected in that situation, and this is a dangerous escalation by the White House of the use of AI,” Armstrong said. “So I believe that I have a case, but my attorney is looking into that at this time. It’s unacceptable, unconscionable and diabolical.”