President Donald Trump trashed Don Lemon and denied having advance knowledge that the ex-CNN host would be arrested last week.
Federal authorities arrested Lemon on Thursday evening on federal civil rights charges in connection with his coverage of a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 18. The charges included conspiracy and hampering the First Amendment rights of those worshiping at the church.
According to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Lemon was ”released on his own recognizance.” His next court date is Feb. 9 in Minneapolis.
While talking with reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said Lemon’s arrest was “the best thing that could happen to him” in his decades-long journalism career.
When a reporter asked if he knew Lemon was going to be taken into custody, Trump said that he didn’t “know anything about the Don Lemon thing,” then described him as a “sleazebag.”
“Everyone’s known that. He’s a washed up… Probably from his standpoint, the best thing that could happen to him,” Trump said. “He had no viewers. He was a failure; he was a failed host. And now, he’s in the news. I didn’t know anything about it.”
Minutes after his release, Lemon vowed that he would not stop reporting.
“I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now,” Lemon said. “There is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”
Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell accused the Trump administration of “wrongdoing” in a separate statement shared on Instagram.
“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,” Lowell said. “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand.”
Georgia Fort, another reporter who covered the Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church, shared on her Facebook livestream that she was also arrested early on Friday.
Media and journalist advocacy groups have decried Lemon and Fort’s arrests, calling the matter “extremely alarming” and an “attack on the first amendment.”