Don Lemon has been arrested in connection with a protest at a church in Minnesota that infuriated top Trump officials.
The former CNN anchor, 59, has said he was merely reporting during the incident at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18. The protest had sparked a furious response from MAGA influencers and White House officials, with Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, even personally warning Lemon on social media, “You are on notice!” as MAGA personalities demanded his arrest.
Less than two weeks later, even after a magistrate judge rejected a federal case against him, Lemon has been charged and is due to appear in a federal court in Los Angeles on Friday.
Lemon had filmed himself shadowing an anti-ICE demo at the church, led by protesters who said one of the pastors, David Eastwood, leads the local field office for President Trump’s heavy-handed immigration task force.
“Don was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles,” a statement from his lawyer, shared on his official Instagram page, said Friday morning. Lemon was in L.A. to cover this weekend’s Grammy Awards.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that she initiated the arrest. “At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. More details soon,” she wrote on X.
CBS News cited sources “with direct knowledge” who said that a grand jury was selected and assembled on Thursday before the ex-anchor was arrested. The FBI and HSI were involved in the operation, insiders told the outlet.
CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote on X that he “was charged with conspiracy to deprive rights.”
Former Fox News star and increasingly controversial SiriusXM radio host Megyn Kelly led the MAGA joy in response to the liberal journalist’s arrest.
“For those saying this is criminalizing journalism, journalists don’t get a pass when breaking the law just bc they have a mic,” she wrote on social media.
“If I accompanied ppl storming an abortion clinic harassing/scaring/’traumatizing’ the crying women while saying ‘But I’m a reporter!’ I would absolutely have been charged under any Dem admin.”
Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the church confrontation was “constitutionally protected,” however. Lemon was initially spared the wrath of the Justice Department after a federal magistrate judge swatted away its earlier petition to arrest him over the incident. His saving grace was that he was reporting on the incident, not participating in it, according to Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko. An appeals court upheld that ruling last Friday.
Lemon has insisted he was present for the protest as a reporter, saying in a video he posted to YouTube that he was “just here photographing.” He added: “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”
MAGA influencers nonetheless reacted to his presence at the demonstration with fury, with a host for the right-wing media company The Blaze going so far as to demand Lemon be locked up “if the administration is to ever be taken seriously again.”
Lemon’s legal counsel is leaning on his role as a reporter. “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’s statement read.
“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.
“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.
“This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand.”
Lowell concluded by saying that Lemon “will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
Last week, Lemon said he expected the Trump administration to forge ahead with plans to prosecute him despite the earlier judge’s ruling. “It doesn’t matter if there’s no law to fit. They will try to fit or retrofit something or go around a judge and just do it themselves,” Lemon told Scripps News.
Lemon was axed in acrimonious circumstances at CNN after a 17-year stint, in 2023. He has since set up a YouTube channel where he reports as an “independent journalist.”
