Former President Donald Trump recently amplified a social media post advocating for ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon to face a 40-year prison sentence. The call for punishment came after Lemon live-streamed an anti-ICE protest held at a Minnesota church last Sunday. Trump, aged 79, shared the contentious post from a user named ‘MoniFunGirl’ on Truth Social, which was riddled with inaccuracies. The post cited an unclear incident where a group of elderly women allegedly received 40-year sentences for protesting at an abortion clinic, supposedly under the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act.

The specific event referenced by the poster remains ambiguous. However, it is noteworthy that Trump pardoned several anti-abortion activists previously convicted under the FACE Act, which aims to prevent obstruction of reproductive health services or religious practices. In one 2020 case, several women in their 70s were sentenced to two to nearly five years for forcibly blocking access to a Washington, DC abortion clinic. Initially, the post demanded a similar sentence for Lemon but later corrected the intention to mean ‘months’ rather than ‘years’.

Without adding his own commentary, Trump re-shared this post. Don Lemon, aged 59, had been live streaming from Minneapolis as he covered anti-ICE demonstrators who had entered a church in St. Paul. The Justice Department has announced plans to press charges against all involved in the protest, with Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon specifically mentioning Lemon. In a conversation with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, Dhillon emphasized the importance of the presumption of innocence, stating, “I want to preserve my ethical duties here.”

‘But let me just say that, you know, he’s a journalist – he was a journalist, I don’t know he is now, but he – journalism is not a badge or a shield that protects you from criminal consequences when you are part of a crime. And I think the videos show how close he was to these folks,’ She continued: ‘I think further evidence will show more information about that. But he clearly knew and he stated before going into the facility, it’s on his own video, what was going to happen there.’ Dhillon then cited possible enforcement of a crucial a 1871 federal law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which enables the president to use military force and prosecute state officials in certain instances.

The act was passed during Reconstruction to deter intimidation tactics from the KKK during elections and government operations. It was enacted at President Ulysees S. Grant’s request to combat violence and anti-black conspiracies, and and restore federal authority in the post-Civil War South. Dhillion suggested to Johnson that the law could be used on the grounds that Lemon interfered with parishioners’ right to worship. She later singled out Lemon in a pointed post on X where she wrote that the longtime legacy media journalist is ‘on notice’ for his involvement in the incident. During an interview with Glen Beck on Monday, she told Lemon to ‘lawyer up’.

Lemon – who was pushed out of CNN in 2023 after making an off-color remark about women – has since addressed the backlash, telling podcaster Jennifer Welch he is purposely being propped up as a pariah by the current administration. ‘I was on with my producers this morning… My producers were saying, I said, “How did I become the face of this?”, and my producers said Don, you’re a gay, black man in America. ‘And you have a platform, and you’re the biggest name. Of course you’re going to be the person that they single out, and they’re gonna make the headline because it plays to their base, and their base is full of racist, bigoted homophobes.’

When contacted by the Daily Mail on Monday, Lemon’s husband, Tim Malone, declined to comment on the controversy. One of the pastors at Cities Church, where the incident took place, leads the local field office for ICE. Lemon maintains his participation in the protest was as a journalist and is protected by the First Amendment. Trump pardoned all of those convicted in the 2020 abortion clinic incident after he took office early last year.