Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor turned independent journalist, was arrested on Thursday night by federal agents in Los Angeles, who alleged that he had violated federal law while covering an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.
Notably, Lemon was not the only journalist targeted by law enforcement for their presence at the Minnesota protest. On Thursday night, local independent journalist Georgia Fort told her followers that the FBI had come to arrest her for being at the protest, livestreaming as agents were demanding she open her door. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed Fort’s arrest the next day, claiming that she, Lemon, and others were part of a “coordinated attack” on the church. Bondi said two other people had also been arrested, including Jamael Lundy, a candidate for the Minnesota State Senate.
In a statement posted to Lemon’s social media accounts, the journalist’s attorney Abbe Lowell stated that Lemon, a harsh critic of the Trump administration, had been covering the Grammy Awards when he was arrested and planned to fight the charges in court. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” he said.
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention, and resources to this arrest,” added Lowell.
Two weeks prior, Lemon had been with a group of protesters that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, tagging along as an observer covering their actions. (NPR reports that the church lists the acting field director of the St. Paul Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office, David Easterwood, as one of its pastors.) The federal government instead claimed that he was not there as a journalist, but as a protester, and attempted to secure a warrant for the arrest of Lemon and the protesters, claiming they were unlawfully interfering with churchgoers’ right to worship. A local magistrate judge denied the warrant for Lemon and several of those protesters, and a federal appellate panel upheld that decision.
According to CBS News, a grand jury had been empaneled on Thursday to issue the arrest, which allegedly involved the FBI and HSI.
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