Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal authorities on Thursday in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church service earlier this month.
Lemon, 59, and three others — Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort and Jamael Lydell Lundy — were arrested in what Attorney General Pam Bondi described as a"coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
"Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that four people, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, were arrested overnight Thursday in connection with an anti-ICE protest inside a Minnesota church. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was released by a federal judge on Friday after he was charged by the Trump administration with violating the freedom of religion of worshippers at a Minnesota church where he was covering a protest earlier this month. Lemon was released on a personal recognizance bond and appeared outside a downtown federal courthouse several minutes later, saying the prosecution will not stop him from his work reporting news."I will not stop ever," he said.He added,"The First Amendment of the constitution protects that work for me and for countless other journalists. I will not be silenced."His next courtroom appearance is set for Feb. 9 in Minneapolis. to arrest him and several others under a federal statute that a top Justice Department official conceded had never been used in the context of a protest at a church before. Lemon, 59, and three others — Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort and Jamael Lydell Lundy — were arrested Friday in what Attorney General Pam Bondi described in a on Thursday against Lemon and eight co-defendants. The indictment charges Lemon with conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of right of religious freedom at a place of worship. The Trump administration attempted to keep three of Lemon's co-defendant detained until trial, according to court records, but a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota rejected their request for a detention hearing. Lemon's main defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in an earlier statement that he was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he was covering the lead up to Sunday's Grammy Awards. "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.The group Human Rights Campaign organized a rally outside the Edward R. Roybal federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles where proceedings for Lemon took place on Friday."When journalists can be detained for covering protests, none of us are safe," he said."Punish the press, ignore the dead, dare the public to look away. We will not look away." The arrest of one the country's most recognizable journalists is the latest development in the federal government’s unprecedented immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, in which two U.S. citizens have been shot and killed., allegedly works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The protesters say Easterwood is the acting director of an ICE field office in St. Paul. As DHS did for Lemon on Friday, the federal government cited the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to justify the arrest of the three protesters. The federal statute prohibits the use of force or intimidation to anyone trying to access reproductive services, but also contains provisions that cover houses of worship. Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration’s top DOJ Civil Rights Division official, conceded earlier this month that the use of the statute in this manner lacks historical precedent. “In all these years up until I was the assistant attorney general for civil rights, nobody ever used that houses of worship part to prosecute protesters or criminals blocking access to a house of worship, so we’ve started to do that,” Dhillon said in a video she Trump had pardoned a number of anti-abortion protesters prosecuted under the FACE Act, and the Justice Department dismissed other cases that were pending. Trump’s inauguration last year also created new bureaucratic hurdles on abortion cases that don’t apply to church cases. It mandates that “future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage. Cases not presenting significant aggravating factors can adequately be addressed under state or local law.” The previously arrested protesters were released after federal judges rejected the Trump administration's attempts to keep them locked up until trial, with one judge saying the Trump administration offered “no factual or legal support” for their claim that this was a crime of violence. Lemon was arrested by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations in Beverly Hills at approximately midnight, according to a federal warrant issued in another district."If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good — the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place," he said in a statement last week.The federal government has sent 3,000 federal immigration agents to the Twin Cities over the last two months and arrested more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security., with some residents protesting daily, patrolling the region’s streets for immigration agents and delivering groceries to undocumented families who are afraid to leave their homes. After initially doubling down and referring to both Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists,” Trump administration officials said they plan on reducing the number of agents in the state. On Thursday, the administration also swapped out Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino for Trump border czar Tom Homan, a former Obama staffer, to oversee the immigration operation in the Twin Cities, dubbed Operation Metro Surge Thursday that “no organization is perfect” and that administration officials, including the president, “have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made.”The Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit that promotes press freedoms worldwide, condemned Lemon's arrest. "The arrest of journalist Don Lemon in connection with his reporting on a protest in Minnesota should alarm all Americans," Katherine Jacobsen, who works on the organization's U.S. efforts, said in a statement."Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the Trump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists."Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also condemned Lemon’s arrest and said in a statement that she has “reached out to the U.S. Attorney to check on Don Lemon’s status.” “Let me be very clear — President Trump is not deescalating anything after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents,” she said. “In fact, the arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort demonstrates quite the opposite — he is escalating.”"When life gives you lemons..." the White House account wrote, coupled with a chain emoji and image of Lemon from inside the church.
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