Jonathan Turley Slams Keith Ellison For Being ‘Wrong’ About Claim Involving Anti-ICE Church Rioters

Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said Wednesday that left-wing rioters who stormed a church Sunday were in for “an extraordinary time” because of bad advice from a state attorney general.

Former CNN host Don Lemon aired footage of the incident at Cities Church in St. Paul during a live broadcast at the church, which was reportedly targeted because a pastor is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official. Turley criticized Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who earlier said protesters faced no legal risk. (RELATED: Don Lemon calls parishioners at church stormed by anti-ICE rioters ‘titled white supremacists’)

“This will be an extraordinary moment for many of these Minnesotans who heard their attorney general a day ago say that there was no crime here and that they very well could be indicted very soon,” Turley told Fox News host Martha MacCallum. “The fact is the Minnesota Attorney General was wrong. Ellison stated that the [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances] The FACE Act does not apply to churches, it is a law reserved for abortion clinics. It’s not true and they’re about to find out. This covers churches.

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“People went to this church with, in my opinion, the clear intention of disrupting it,” Turley continued. “They’ve done it and they’ve provided all the evidence that the Department of Justice needs, all these YouTube videos that they’ve posted or eagerly watched that they’ll be eager to present in court. It’s very likely that they will proceed under the FACE Act.”

The text of 18 USC 248(a)(2) includes the protection of religious services. Ellison told CNN host Erin Burnett during a Monday night appearance on the network that the anti-ICE rioters were engaging in “First Amendment activity.”

“They’re clearly not facing any state charges, even if it constitutes trespassing or disorderly conduct. Ellison is clearly not going to enforce his own laws,” Turley said. “Keep in mind this is a state attorney general who once passed around Antifa’s playbook and praised them for putting the fear of God in his political opponent. That’s him we’re talking about, he’s the Attorney General of Minnesota.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon issued a Sunday release announcing that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was investigating the incident, including Lemon’s involvement. While Lemon denied Sunday night that he knew the church would be targeted, at the start of his livestream he seemed to know where the group was going.

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