21-year-old Merlin Lu slapped with hate crime charges for Chicago cross-burning he confessed to in TV interview

The 21-year-old college student who confessed to a cross-burning earlier this month in a Chicago park has been charged with two felony hate crime counts, arson and property damage as well as several misdemeanors related to the crime. The man's lawyer suggested he could mount a First Amendment defense.

Merlin Lu confessed to staging the cross-burning in a candid interview with a Chicago TV news station last week, saying the burning cross was meant to protest President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement. In the TV interview, he insisted the cross-burning was not meant as a threat to Trump and that he was unaware of the racist symbolism behind cross-burnings. 

Lu appeared in a Chicago courtroom Monday for a status hearing. Authorities in Chicago say Lu built the wooden cross, wrapped toilet paper around it and then doused it in kerosene before setting it on fire in Chicago's Grant Park. He also has admitted to attaching a red hat, meant to resemble Trump's signature MAGA hat, to the top of the cross Flames from the burning cross spread to trees in the park, and Lu was seen in surveillance footage fleeing the scene.

Alexander Michael, his defense lawyer, told NewsNation reporter Mills Hayes that Lu was "protesting Trump and his Christian nationalist base," and added that Lu didn't mean to do “anything harmful to religion or race.”

“I think he used the term Christian to describe the base, but it was not motivated by their Christianity,” Michael said. “It was motivated by the fact that they’re supporting President Trump, and he’s obviously targeting their supporters.”

Outside the courthouse on Monday, Lu waved away reporters who tried to ask him questions, refusing to speak. Michael suggested he may be building a free speech case to defend his client, saying Lu was exercising his First Amendment right in a "foolish manner." Speaking to reporters outside of court after the hearing, Michael said, “I mean, again, he’s 21, you know, we’ve all been 21. We’ve all done things we’ve regretted at that age." According to WGN News, Lu's next court hearing is set for July 9. For more from his lawyer, watch the video report below.