A career prosecutor who quit to protest the Justice Department’s handling of the killing of Renee Nicole Good is taking on his former office as part of the defense team for one of President Trump’s foes.
Former CNN star Don Lemon, who now works as an independent journalist producing a YouTube show, was arrested last month over his live coverage of a protest inside a Minnesota church where one of the pastors is believed to be a senior ICE official.
Lemon, 59, identified himself as a journalist and interviewed both protesters and parishioners, but the DOJ has launched a crusade against the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning reporter and another independent journalist, Georgia Fort, claiming they participated in a “riot” inside the church.
After a federal magistrate judge refused to sign warrants for their arrests, the DOJ secured a grand jury indictment for felony charges accusing them of conspiring to violate religious freedoms and interfering with the free exercise of religion.
On Tuesday, former prosecutor Joseph H. Thompson informed the U.S. District Court of Minnesota that he would be representing Lemon, who Trump has said should spend “40 years in prison” for documenting the church protest.
Thompson spent nearly 17 years with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Minnesota, eventually becoming the office’s second in command, before resigning on Jan. 13 after clashing with DOJ leadership over Good’s killing, The New York Times reported.
The veteran prosecutor wanted to investigate whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross broke the law when he shot and killed Good, 37, while she was trying to drive away from federal agents.
But senior department leaders overruled him and instead ordered an investigation into whether Good’s widow, Rebecca Good, had ties to anti-ICE groups, prompting a wave of resignations.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DOJ and Thompson for comment.
The same day he filed noticed to appear for Lemon, Thompson announced on LinkedIn that he was starting his own firm together with former prosecutor Harry Jacobs, who also quit on Jan. 13.
Days later, Attorney General Pam Bondi raged at the departing prosecutors during an appearance on Fox News, saying they had wanted to resign and use their annual leave through April.
“What happened in Minnesota? We had six prosecutors who suddenly decided they didn’t want to support the men and women of ICE!” she said.
“They wanted the taxpayers to pay for them to go on vacation because they decided they didn’t want to support law enforcement. So, the breaking news tonight? I fired them all! They are FIRED from the office.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota continued to hemorrhage lawyers following her outburst, forcing the DOJ to transfer attorneys in from other states.
Career prosecutors have nevertheless refused to pursue the case against Lemon, leaving attorneys from outside the Minnesota office to sign the indictment, according to the Times.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, a DOJ spokesperson said the case is being led by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Keenan, a career federal prosecutor with more than 25 years of experience.
Thompson will be working to defend Lemon alongside powerhouse defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who is also representing New York Attorney General Letitia James against the Trump administration’s so-far-unsuccessful efforts to charge her with mortgage fraud.
