Former CNN host Don Lemon, who is now an independent journalist, was arrested on Thursday over his connection to a protest that occurred inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month.
The protest was held by demonstrators who alleged that a pastor at the church is the acting field director for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in the city. Three demonstrators have been arrested so far.
Lemon was arrested by federal authorities in Los Angeles while he was covering the Grammy Awards, his lawyer Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said, adding:
This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.
Lemon is set to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday.
The circumstances under which Lemon was arrested are unclear. The Department of Justice (DOJ) had twice previously sought to arrest the journalist for his reporting on the protest. The first time, a magistrate judge refused to sign off on charges brought by the department; the second, Minnesota Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz forcefully stated that he wouldn’t support the move, either.
“There is no evidence that [Lemon and his producer] engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so,” Schiltz said in his decision.
Independent journalist Georgia Fort, who is based in Minneapolis, was also arrested on Friday morning for her coverage of the protest. Fort shared details of her arrest as federal agents were knocking outside her door, saying they had a warrant for her arrest based on a grand jury’s indictment.
“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” Fort said in her video. “We are supposed to have our constitutional right, freedom to film, to be a member of the press. [But] I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago.”
“It’s hard to understand how we have constitutional rights when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press,” Fort added.
In response to the arrests, journalist Katie Phang denounced the Trump administration’s tactics. “They are coming after those of us in independent media because we speak the truth!” Phang wrote in a Bluesky post.
Freedom of the Press Foundation Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern also condemned the arrests.
“The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press,” Stern said in a statement, noting that “two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public.”
Stern added:
These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon.
The organization advised against journalists bowing to pressure from the Trump administration, Stern said.
“The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment,” he said. “If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong.”
Some commentators have suggested that Lemon’s and Fort’s arrests are a “test” of the First Amendment — and that freedom of the press will be weighed against freedom to worship in the federal government’s cases against the journalists.
In separate comments sent directly to Truthout, Stern rejected that premise.
“There is a federal law against interference with religious observance, but it requires intent. Journalists don’t get to decide where news is going to happen,” Stern said, adding that the intent of the journalists in this instance “clearly was to document important news where it was happening, not to interfere with anyone’s right to worship.”
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