A federal prosecutor who quit amid concerns over how the Trump administration was handling the investigation into Renee Nicole Good’s killing is now representing journalist Don Lemon.
On Tuesday, Joseph H. Thompson entered a notice of appearance for Lemon, a former CNN anchor, in a case that accuses Lemon of violating the religious freedom of worshippers following his coverage of protesters who interrupted services at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Lemon faces charges brought by the Trump administration in connection with his livestream of the protest, which targeted a pastor who demonstrators alleged worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a time when federal law enforcement personnel were clashing with protesters amid an immigration crackdown in the area.
Thompson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his representing Lemon.
Thompson recently quit the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the office prosecuting Lemon, over ethical concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the fatal shooting of Good, 37, who was killed by an ICE officer during the federal surge into the Minneapolis region.
Before he resigned, Thompson oversaw a successful federal fraud investigation that long predated the viral YouTube video by a conservative influencer that drew attention to the state’s Somali population.
“It was an honor and privilege to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in both the District of Minnesota and Northern District of Illinois,” he wrote Monday in a LinkedIn post that announced a pivot for his career.
He said he was leaving the Justice Department after 17 years and launching a firm with former Justice Department colleague Harry Jacobs.
“Thompson Jacobs is a boutique law firm focused on white-collar defense, international investigations, complex commercial litigation, and crisis management, » Thompson wrote. « We will also offer anti-corruption and compliance services to private and public sector entities looking to mitigate and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Lemon was covering the protest on Jan. 18. “I went there to chronicle and document and record,” he told Jimmy Kimmel last week. “There is a difference between a protester and a journalist.”
The federal government cited the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to justify the arrests of protesters who were present that day. It prohibits using force or intimidation against anyone trying to access reproductive services, but it also includes provisions that cover houses of worship.
Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration’s top civil rights official in the Justice Department, conceded weeks ago that using the statute against protesters at a church and journalists covering them would lack historical precedent.
“In all these years up until I was the assistant attorney general for civil rights, nobody ever used that houses of worship part to prosecute protesters or criminals blocking access to a house of worship, so we’ve started to do that,” Dhillon said in a video.
President Donald Trump previously pardoned a number of anti-abortion protesters prosecuted under the FACE Act, and federal prosecutors dismissed other pending cases.
A Justice Department memo issued days after Trump was inaugurated last year said FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances.
A federal magistrate judge previously rejected a criminal complaint against Lemon. A source familiar with the matter described Attorney General Pam Bondi as “enraged” by the decision.
Her Justice Department continued to press the matter, and a grand jury returned an indictment charging Lemon and others with conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
Lemon was in Beverly Hills, California, covering the run-up to the Grammy Awards late last month when he was arrested and then released that afternoon. He told Kimmel that he had offered to turn himself in but that he believes federal agents’ arresting him was an attempt to « embarrass » him.
Lemon’s arraignment and initial appearance are scheduled for Friday afternoon. Another of his lawyers has said he plans to plead not guilty.
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