WASHINGTON — Journalist Don Lemon, alongside three others, was detained on Friday following an anti-immigration protest that interrupted a church service in Minnesota, heightening tensions between local residents and the Trump administration, according to officials.
Lemon’s arrest took place in Los Angeles, where he was reporting on the Grammy Awards, as confirmed by his lawyer, Abbe Lowell. The specific charges linked to the January 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul remain unclear. This arrest follows a magistrate judge’s decision last week to dismiss the prosecutors’ initial attempt to file charges against him.
Since his departure from CNN in 2023, Lemon has maintained that he had no ties to the organization involved in the church protest, asserting that he was there purely in a journalistic capacity to document the demonstrators.
“For 30 years, Don has dedicated himself to journalism, and his work in Minneapolis was consistent with that commitment,” Lowell stated. “The First Amendment is designed to safeguard journalists as they illuminate truths and hold authorities to account.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi took to social media on Friday morning to confirm the arrests of Lemon and the other individuals involved in the church protest. The site of the demonstration was significant, as a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor there.
“Under my directive, federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy early this morning, in relation to the coordinated incident at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi announced.
Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly, “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene in front of him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.
Shortly after the first attempt to charge him fell through, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.
“And guess what,” he said, “here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Local independent journalist Georgia Fort livestreamed the moments before her arrest on Friday on Facebook Live, saying “agents are at my door right now” and that they had an arrest warrant and a grand jury indictment.
“I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort said, adding that she knew she was on a list of defendants that is under seal.
A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.
The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a social media post last week.
Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads an ICE field office. Many Baptist churches have pastors who also work other jobs.
The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in contrast to its decision not to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing by an ICE officer. The department has not said whether it will open a civil rights probe into the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal officers.
“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.
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