Hello, I'm Michael Watson, joined by Sarah Lee, and this is the Influence Watch podcast.

Amid protests over immigration enforcement by leftists in Minneapolis, a group of Black Lives Matter

demonstrators allegedly invaded a service in a church whose pastor they claimed was an immigration and

customs enforcement official. X CNN Talking Head Don Lemon was also there, claiming to be an independent journalist.

The U.S. Department of Justice issued statements that they are investigating the incident with

the possibility of pressing charges under the Face Act, a piece of legislation enacted in 1994

to deter protests and abortion clinics that contains a provision extending its provisions to religious

worship sites, or the Ku Klux Klan Act, Reconstruction era legislation that made interfering with

American civil rights a federal crime. Already, the federal government has announced that

multiple activists involved in the in the demonstration have been arrested.

Is that reasonable? We are joined by Manhattan Institute Legal Policy Fellow Tell Fort Gang to discuss.

Tell, before we begin, can you tell our listeners a little bit about your background and your work with Manhattan?

Well, sure. I thank you for having me, first of all. My background is that I've worked in public policy for almost a decade now, focused on issues ranging widely from poverty and welfare and economic mobility policy to my current focus,

which is domestic extremism and the legal avenues that are available to combat it.

As a lawyer, you realize that much of the law in these areas are a bit unsettled,

and there's actually quite a bit of opportunity for deep thought and for construing and applying these laws in ways that may seem novel,

just because there is not merely as much precedent as you may think.

So that is one of my main areas of focus now.

So before we get to the law, let's talk about the facts so far as they can be determined.

What did the BLM protesters do, allegedly?

Well, there were a few incidents, the one that seems to have gotten the most attention,

is protesters entering a church, disrupting the services that were ongoing there,

...