William Kelly, an anti-Trump agitator touring throughout the nation to websites of political battle, seemed to be a central determine in the shutdown of Sunday providers at Cities Church, a Christian parish in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Kelly, alongside a mob of activists, allegedly stormed Cities Church over the weekend, disrupting a Sunday sermon primarily based on allegations that one of the pastors, David Easterwood, is an ICE official. A person with the similar identify and likeness serves as ICE’s appearing director for the company’s St. Paul subject workplace.
Afterward, on social media, Kelly mentioned he had “the honor of protesting David Easterwood’s church with Nekima Armstrong and the Racial Justice Network!”
Nekima Levy Armstrong, head of the Minnesota-based Racial Justice Network, was the chief coordinator of the well-organized church protest.
BLM COALITION BEHIND ANTI-ICE SHUTDOWN OF MINNEAPOLIS CHURCH SERVICE
Armstrong later thanked Kelly and former CNN host Don Lemon in a Facebook submit for their efforts. Lemon, Kelly, and different “independent journalists” had been reportedly aware about operational plans stored below wraps till the so-called “surprise operation” really unfolded.
At the church, Lemon and Kelly recorded the protesters finishing up the “clandestine mission,” including narration that couched their conduct as constitutionally protected exercise.
Notably, when the activists initially assembled in a close-by parking zone, the protest’s staging grounds, Lemon met them there and started livestreaming earlier than they barged into Cities Church that morning.
Kelly, throughout the demonstration, filmed himself instantly confronting lead pastor Jonathan Parnell and shouting in the faces of parishioners, even following them to their automobiles with crying kids in tow.
“I had no idea I was going to the church that day,” Kelly mentioned when contacted by the Washington Examiner. “I saw a flyer for a protest and showed up to support the Black Community.”
William Kelly, a.ok.a. “DaWoke Farmer,” sporting a T-shirt with a Ku Klux Klan member hung by a Transgender Pride flag. (GoFundMe)
A staple in the anti-ICE activism scene, Kelly seems at pop-up protests throughout the nation, deploying confrontational ways meant to impress his political opponents.
Most lately, Kelly left Minneapolis for an anti-Tesla rally in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 16, took a red-eye flight to Chicago for a protest exterior an ICE facility on Jan. 17, and jetted again to Minneapolis in time for the Cities Church occupation on Jan. 18.
In a message to supporters, Kelly advised his followers, “I plan on organizing some larger movements across the country! I will do my best to come support every city being attacked by fascism!”
Kelly, often known as “DaWoke Farmer” on TikTook, crowdfunds financing for his cross-country journeys by a standing marketing campaign on GoFundMe, initially titled “Help Me to Continue Agitating the Nazis.”
“Road Trip!! Help me travel the Nation scolding the Gestapo for their bad decisions!” Kelly, who additionally collects contributions on CashApp, captioned the fundraising marketing campaign. “No rest for demons!”
To date, the GoFundMe web page has raised over $43,000 in donations, many of them coming in after the Department of Justice threatened to file federal costs in opposition to the organizers and collaborators of the church protest.
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Lemon, in explicit, has been put “on notice” by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, chief of the DOJ’s civil rights division, for potential violations of the FACE Act, a federal legislation defending locations of worship from protests.
As seen on Lemon’s livestream, the former CNN host purchased donuts and low at a Starbucks location after which distributed them to protesters. “Don Lemon is on the front lines right now!” one anti-ICE activist introduced on a megaphone. “Don Lemon’s got coffee for y’all!” To which Lemon added, “And donuts.”
“Whoever paid for, coordinated, or participated in this attack made a big—BIG—mistake,” Harmeet warned. “No worshipper in this country should ever feel intimidated in a house of God, and @TheJusticeDept will bring the full force of the law, as directed by [Attorney General Pam Bondi].”
In response, Kelly mentioned he was protesting “a white supremacist church.”
“F**k ‘em!” Kelly reacted, dismissing the DOJ investigation and additional difficult federal officers to arrest him. “They wanna come after me? F**k ‘em!”
Cities Church is seen in St. Paul, Minn. the place activists shut down a service claiming the pastor was additionally working as an ICE agent, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
In an expletive-filled video assertion, Kelly claimed that Muslim immigrants in Minnesota should not capable of pray with out the worry of ICE raiding their mosques. “How do they deserve any f**king different?” Kelly mentioned, referring to the Christian churchgoers. “F**k those f**king Nazis! Come and get me, Pam Bondi, you f**king traitorous b*tch.”
Kelly insisted to the Washington Examiner that they had been invited into the church, countering claims that the protesters trespassed.
“We preached the words of Jesus. We left,” Kelly mentioned. “They never asked us to leave. The police never talked to us. The service continued with music and prayer the entire time we were in there.”
Calling the threats of costs “baseless,” Kelly mentioned his legal professionals assured him that he would prevail ought to prosecutors carry a case in opposition to him.
Justin Overbaugh, the U.S. deputy undersecretary of struggle for intelligence and safety, knowledgeable Bondi on X that Kelly has additionally been half of a mob that routinely harasses congregants at Christ Church, a parish attended by War Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington, D.C.
Since the church’s founding final summer season, the group gathers on the premises weekly, blaring bullhorns to disrupt church providers “in clear violation of the law,” Overbaugh mentioned.
DOJ PROBING ANTI-ICE PROTEST AT MINNEAPOLIS CHURCH SERVICE
The state of affairs grew so critical that one churchgoer was despatched to the hospital with a shattered eardrum after a protester “let loose with the full force of a bullhorn in his ear,” Joe Rigney, a pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, which based the D.C. church, wrote for the Christian information journal World.
Kelly has a popularity as one of the most disruptive regulars stationed exterior the church.
“He screams incredibly vile and gross things at families, at children, at people,” a Christ Church member advised Fox News. “He’s called my wife a c*nt, a wh*re, and a Nazi breeder, all sorts of fun things.”
Kelly screams by a megaphone at a protest. (GoFundMe)
Kelly and others screaming such obscenities as parishioners enter and exit the sanctuary has culminated in the parish’s requests for police escorts.
Last month, Kelly captured on digicam one of his profanity-laden confrontations with Hegseth.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Kelly mentioned in a December podcast look. “I go to his church almost every Sunday, and I miss him every time. So this was a long time coming.”
Some of Kelly’s different previous targets embrace members of the National Guard, whom he heckled close to Union Station lower than two weeks after two troops had been ambushed by gunfire in the nation’s capital.
Kelly was arrested in December for allegedly stalking a random father, calling the man “a Nazi piece of sh*t” whereas his kids watched. According to Kelly, investigators are “moving forward with disorderly conduct charges” in opposition to him.
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Dhillon confirmed that Kelly was lately arrested and launched days previous to the Cities Church protest in Minnesota for allegedly impeding ICE. After authorities set him free on Friday, Kelly claimed that he was “kidnapped by ICE.”
Kelly advised the Washington Examiner that he’s now suing the Department of Homeland Security on wrongful arrest and extreme violence claims in connection to Friday’s arrest.
“I will not be intimidated,” Kelly mentioned. “The real violation of the FACE Act is being carried out by [Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem every single day. The fear caused by her masked goons and their disregard of due process leaves us citizens afraid to leave their homes. They are afraid to go to mass or prayer!”
