NEW: I have obtained an email between Minnesota Judge Patrick Schiltz and the DOJ that appears to contradict Schiltz's claims in the NYT article yesterday. While Schiltz portrays himself as caught off guard after the DOJ "had gone around him" to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to authorize arrest warrants in the storming of the Cities Church on Jan 18--the email confirms Schiltz himself told DOJ to go to the appellate court. "[You] continue to have the option of presenting the case to a grand jury, of returning to Judge Micko with a more robust affidavit, or, I guess, of presenting the application to Judge Loken or Judge Stras," Schiltz said, referring to two judges on the appellate court. Background: Magistrate Judge Doug Micko--whose wife is a top aide to MN AG Keith Ellison--had refused to sign arrest warrants for five church protesters including former CNN host Don Lemon. The DOJ quickly asked Schiltz, at the time the chief judge of the Minnesota federal district court, to sign the warrants instead--citing concerns over copy cat attacks that following weekend. Schiltz claimed he wasn't sure he had the authority to do so (he did). Not only did Schiltz state that the protesters in question committed "no violence" and there was "no evidence that those two (Lemon and his producer) engaged in any criminal behavior," he said he wanted to confer with his judicial colleagues before making a decision. He set a bench meeting for a week later. DOJ instead filed a petition at the appellate court asking judges to either sign the warrants or force Schiltz to do so. (The court rejected the emergency petition; the matter became moot after a grand jury returned an indictment of Lemon on Jan 29.) And overall, the government goes "around" judges all the time--it's called the process. Just weird posturing by Schiltz. Further...