Editor’s Note: The first five minutes of the conversation experienced audio issues, which were resolved later in the interview.
As House Republicans tried to gin up false weaponization claims against Jack Smith, the latest example of the Trump Justice Department’s abuse of the legal process collapsed in Minnesota.
On Thursday, a federal magistrate judge rejected a criminal complaint against journalist Don Lemon for reporting on a protest that took place in a St. Paul church.
Former federal prosecutor and First Amendment attorney Mitchell Epner and I broke down the confluence of the events during a Substack Live.
Here are a few of the topics that we discussed:
House unanimously moves to repeal self-enrichment scheme by Senate GOP: The House unanimously approved an amendment to a must-pass funding bill that would repeal a provision letting eight Trump-loyalist senators sue the government for $500,000 because Smith obtained their phone toll records. Smith subpoenaed the records to learn whom Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani were calling on and before the Jan. 6 insurrection in their attempt to deny the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.
Even Trump-loyalist Republicans who falsely claimed the subpoenas were improper voted to repeal the Senate’s provision. One Democratic source told a reporter: “The one thing the House can agree on is f*** the Senate.”
Judge rejects criminal complaint against Lemon: Trump’s Department of Justice targeted Lemon with prosecution for covering a protest that recently took place inside a church under the FACE Act, a federal law shielding clinics and religious spaces from obstruction or intimidation.
Lemon didn’t participate in the protest, but he covered it as a journalist.
Civil rights lawyer arrested for church protest: Trump’s FBI announced the arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong on Thursday in connection with the church protest.
A former Minnesota NAACP president, Levy Armstrong acknowledged organizing the protest in TV interviews, explaining that she wanted to call attention to the fact that an ICE field officer served as a pastor of the church. She told Democracy Now that she is an ordained reverend.
An official White House account appeared to disseminate a doctored photograph of her arrest.
Correction: Ms. Levy Armstong’s name is misstated in the video.
