Federal prosecutors have offered plea agreements to most Cities Church defendants
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It emerged Friday that federal prosecutors have offered plea agreements to many of the 38 people charged in connection to an anti-ICE protest at a church earlier this year.
It doesn’t appear that any of the 29 defendants offered plea agreements have accepted them. If accepted, defendants’ conspiracy charges would be reduced from felonies to misdemeanors.
The defendants could still face punishments including community service, fines and restitution to the church for security costs under the agreement, according to an agreement examined by MPR News. The government would agree not to charge defendants again for the same incident.
These conspiracy charges are tied to a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul after activists learned that a pastor at the church named David Easterwood was also leading ICE efforts in the Twin Cities. The protest occurred during the height of the ICE surge into the state and elicited strong statements from officials including President Donald Trump, who described protesters as "agitators and insurrectionists.”
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The conspiracy charges are based on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which bans restricting people’s ability to worship or access health clinics. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Some of the defendants are journalists that covered the protest, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon and Minnesota independent journalist Georgia Fort.
A spokesperson for the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment or questions about why the plea offer wasn’t made to all defendants.
The realization that plea deals were offered to defendants comes at a time when the federal government has been struggling with its prosecution of activists for anti-ICE protests.
As of last week federal prosecutors have dismissed charges against 21 of the 36 people they charged with assaulting or impeding federal agents in Minnesota during the surge. In those cases, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office initially charged all the 36 people with felonies, but later reduced the charges to misdemeanors for all but two defendants.
This church protest case has been plagued by quite a few missteps from prosecutors. Last week, the judge overseeing the case ordered the government to turn over some grand jury transcripts to him to examine.
Defendants want to see if federal prosecutors essentially committed misconduct, which has happened in places like Illinois and led to charges being dropped in a conspiracy case there.
One of the defendants’ attorneys said in a hearing last week that prosecutors have routinely failed to follow the law and published inaccurate information about defendants. A prosecutor responded that they weren’t what he called “material falsehoods” but honest mistakes.
