Independent journalist Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal authorities early Friday on federal civil rights charges related to his coverage of a protest in Minnesota.
The charges include conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of those worshiping at Cities Church on Jan. 18 in St. Paul, where the protest interrupted a service. Lemon was released on his own recognizance during a federal court appearance in Los Angeles late Friday afternoon. His next court date is Feb. 9 in Minneapolis.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on X that federal agents also arrested three others at her direction — fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort, Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy — in connection with the demonstration against Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the Trump official described as a “coordinated attack.”
In an indictment, Lemon and several other defendants are accused of conducting “a takeover-style attack” at the church, despite there being no physical violence during the demonstration.
“As a result of defendants’ conduct, the pastor and congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship service, congregants fled the Church building out of fear for their safety, other congregants took steps to implement an emergency plan, and young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die,” the indictment said.
Lemon himself was accused of standing “in close proximity to the pastor in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement while LEMON peppered him with questions to promote the operation’s message.”
The indictment also accuses Lemon of lightly admonishing the pastor.
“While talking with the pastor, defendant LEMON stood so close to the pastor that LEMON caused the pastor’s right hand to graze LEMON, who then admonished the pastor, ‘Please don’t push me.’”
Lemon, a former CNN anchor and a critic of President Donald Trump, was arrested in Los Angeles while covering the Grammys. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, released a statement calling the arrest an attack on the First Amendment.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work,” the statement said.
Lowell also sought to contrast the administration’s response to the killing of two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — by federal immigration agents with their apparent targeting of Lemon, a prominent critic of President Donald Trump.
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” the statement added.
“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” it continued.
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CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that a person close to Lemon told him the journalist spent the night in jail. Lemon is expected to make his first court appearance later Friday.
Lemon’s former network later put out its own statement to defend him.
“The FBI’s arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment,” CNN said in a statement. “The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was ‘no evidence’ that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work.”
The network added that the “DOJs attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to comment on Lemon’s arrest during a Friday press conference.
“Do I have a reaction to it? I don’t know what that means,” Blanche said of Lemon’s arrest. “What are you looking for me to do, jump up and down? No, I don’t have a reaction to it. I don’t know that his charges are unsealed yet, so no, I’m not going to comment on that.”
Fort, the second journalist arrested, went live on Facebook as federal agents showed up at her door to take her into custody.
“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,” she said.
Last week, Minnesota’s chief federal judge, Patrick Schiltz, declined to reverse a lower court’s ruling rejecting the Justice Department’s effort to issue arrest warrants for Lemon and four others in connection with the anti-ICE protest in St. Paul. The DOJ chose to further escalate the matter, urging the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to compel Schiltz to act. The court refused.
Lemon’s arrest fits the Trump administration’s pattern of targeting journalists and testing the limits of the First Amendment. It follows the raid of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home earlier this month, during which authorities seized her phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and her smart watch. A judge recently blocked the government from accessing the devices it seized.
The president has also filed numerous lawsuits against news organizations, most recently against the BBC, over its editing of excerpts from this Jan. 6, 2021, speech included in a Panorama documentary.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called for Lemon’s immediate release.
“The Trump Justice Department is illegitimate and these extremists will all be held accountable for their crimes against the Constitution,” he said.
Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists said Lemon’s arrest “should alarm all Americans.”
“Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the Trump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists. This behavior has no place in the United States,” Jacobsen said in a statement.
Freedom of the Press Foundation’s chief of advocacy, Seth Stern, issued a statement saying the “unmistakable message” the arrests are sending “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 statement said.
The White House bragged about Lemon’s arrest in a social media post on Friday.
“When life gives you lemons…” the post said next to an emoji of chains and an image of Lemon.