Ex-CNN presenter Don Lemon arrested after covering anti-ICE protest in Minnesota

Former CNN journalist Don Lemon has been charged with federal civil rights crimes in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a worship service at a Minnesota church, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Friday.

Lemon was arrested on Thursday in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney said. He was expected to appear in court later Friday.

According to DHS, Lemon is charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a January 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor. Another journalist and two protest participants were also arrested in Minnesota.

Lemon has denied any affiliation with the protest organisers, saying he was present solely as an independent journalist documenting the event.

“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work was no different from what he has always done,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the arrests, saying federal agents acted at her direction in connection with what she described as a coordinated attack on the church.

“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,” Bondi said.

Georgia Fort, an independent journalist also arrested in the case, said federal agents detained her for filming the protest. It was not immediately clear whether she or the other defendants have legal representation.

Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads ICE’s St. Paul field office. “We are grateful that the Department of Justice acted swiftly to protect Cities Church so that we can continue to faithfully live out the church’s mission to worship Jesus and make him known,” lead pastor Jonathan Parnell said Friday in a statement.

Since leaving CNN, Lemon has built an independent online presence, frequently posting on YouTube and offering sharp criticism of President Donald Trump. During his livestream from the church, Lemon repeatedly stressed that he was not participating in the protest, the Associated Press reported.

“I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist,” he said while describing the scene and interviewing both demonstrators and churchgoers.

A magistrate judge had earlier rejected prosecutors’ initial attempt to charge Lemon. Following that ruling, Lemon predicted the administration would try again.

“And guess what,” he said during his online show. “Here I am. Keep trying.”

Georgia Fort, an independent journalist who was also arrested, livestreamed moments before her arrest on Facebook Live. “I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press,” Fort said, as federal agents arrived at her door.

It was not immediately clear whether Fort or the two other Minnesota-based defendants have legal representation.

The arrests brought sharp criticism from news media advocates and civil rights activists. The Rev. Al Sharpton said the Trump administration was taking a “sledge hammer” to “the knees of the First Amendment.”

Kelly McBride, a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said the arrests and the recent search of a Washington Post journalist’s home were intended to intimidate journalists documenting opposition to the president’s policies.

In an Instagram post, the Association of Black Journalists said it was “outraged and deeply alarmed” by Lemon’s arrest. The group called it an effort to “criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement.”

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With inputs from Associated Press