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March 4, 2026

DOJ charges 30 more in storming of Minnesota church, 25 already arrested

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging roughly 30 more people who took part in storming Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January. Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed the action in a post on X, confirming that federal agents had already arrested 25 of the newly charged individuals.

The indictment accuses all 39 people, including the original nine defendants, of violating two civil rights laws. No additional criminal charges were added beyond those already filed, but the scope of the prosecution just expanded dramatically.

Bondi made the stakes plain: “YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you.”

“At my direction, federal agents have already arrested 25 of them, with more to come throughout the day.”

That language matters. “With more to come” is not a press release pleasantry. It’s a warning to anyone who participated and hasn’t yet heard a knock on their door. The DOJ is treating this as an ongoing investigation, not a closed case with a few symbolic charges tacked on. The original nine defendants were just the beginning. Thirty more names on an indictment suggest investigators spent weeks combing through video footage, social media posts, and witness accounts to identify every person who crossed that threshold. In an era when activists routinely livestream their own crimes, the evidence trail tends to be generous.

The DOJ revealed it was looking into potential violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the so-called “KKK Act.” That combination carries real weight and a certain poetic justice.

“The Biden DOJ used the Klan Act conspiracy charges tacked onto the FACE Act in the case of protests outside abortion clinics to bring much longer sentences.”

For years, the FACE Act served as the Biden administration’s weapon of choice against pro-life demonstrators. Data indicates 97 percent of FACE Act cases since the law’s inception in 1994 have been against pro-life advocates. Grandmothers who prayed outside abortion clinics faced federal prosecution. Peaceful protesters who blocked doorways got the full weight of federal conspiracy charges.

Now the same statute applies to a mob that stormed a house of worship. The left built this legal infrastructure. They sharpened these tools. They established the precedent that interfering with access to a protected facility is a federal crime worthy of aggressive prosecution. They just never imagined those tools would be pointed back at their own side.

There are a number of tools available to us. Who funded this? What other crimes may have occurred? Was there a use of the wires or the mail in preparing for this event?”

Those are not idle rhetorical questions from a cable news guest. That’s the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights telegraphing the direction of a federal investigation. “Who funded this?” is the question that turns a mob action into an organized conspiracy case. Wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy charges carry their own sentencing enhancements. If organizers used email, social media, or any electronic communication to plan and coordinate the storming of a church, the legal exposure multiplies.

The anti-ICE protest movement has long operated with a level of coordination that suggests more than spontaneous outrage. Someone rented buses. Someone printed signs. Someone chose that church on that day. Federal investigators now appear interested in finding out who.

What’s changed is not the law. It’s the willingness to apply it without ideological favoritism. A church is a protected institution. The people inside it have civil rights. A mob that forces its way into disrupting worship and intimidating congregants has committed a federal offense, regardless of whether the mob believes its cause is righteous.

Thirty more indictments. Twenty-five arrests and counting. An investigation into the organizers and the money. For a movement that grew accustomed to consequence-free disruption, the rules just changed.

 

Hegseth: Strikes Kill Head of Iran Unit That Targeted Trump

President Donald Trump got “the last laugh” after the leader of the unit that attempted to assassinate him was killed, War Department Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.

Standing alongside Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine at a Pentagon press conference broadcast live on Newsmax, Hegseth said the Iranian operative was “hunted down and killed” during the opening phase of Operation Epic Fury.

The U.S.-Israeli campaign aimed at dismantling Iran’s missile, drone, naval, and nuclear threat infrastructure succeeded in bringing down the notorious unit leader.

Iranian state television previously aired imagery tied to the 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania, rally shooting with a menacing warning that “this time, the bullet won’t miss.”

The Pentagon briefing described the first four days as a rapid degradation of Iran’s ability to project power.

Caine said Iran’s theater ballistic missile launches were down 86% from the first day of fighting, with a further 23% drop in the past 24 hours, while one-way attack drone launches were down 73% from the opening days.

Caine also said U.S. forces have struck more than 2,000 targets so far, and the campaign is shifting from standoff weapons to “stand-in” precision strikes as U.S. and Israeli aircraft expand their freedom of maneuver over Iran.

The Pentagon also highlighted maritime gains aimed at keeping strategic waterways open. Caine said U.S. forces have destroyed more than 20 Iranian naval vessels and effectively neutralized Iran’s major naval presence in the theater.

Hegseth and Caine emphasized the campaign’s objective is not nation-building but preventing Iran from threatening Americans and allies and severing any pathway to a nuclear weapon, while maintaining what they described as strong U.S. defensive stockpiles and layered regional air and missile defenses.

 

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