A 30-year veteran of the press in handcuffs! Former CNN star Don Lemon was intercepted by federal agents during a dramatic midnight operation while covering the Grammys. From a chaotic Minnesota church protest to a high-stakes legal battle over the First Amendment, the Justice Department is doubling down on “conspiracy” charges that have the media world in an uproar. WATCH the full report on the arrest that is shaking the foundations of press freedom!
Journalist Don Lemon was apprehended overnight, his legal counsel and several sources with immediate knowledge told CBS News on Friday. The detention arrives nearly two weeks after Lemon was present at an anti-immigration demonstration that interrupted a service at a sanctuary in Minnesota.
A source acquainted with the matter said a grand jury was established Thursday. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement body within the Department of Homeland Security, were engaged in the arrest, sources indicate.
Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s counsel, verified he was taken into custody by federal operatives last night in Los Angeles, where he was reporting on this weekend’s Grammy Awards.
“Don has been a correspondent for three decades, and his constitutionally-guaranteed work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always performed,” Lowell stated in a declaration. “The First Amendment exists to shield journalists whose role it is to illuminate the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more critical time for individuals like Don to be doing this work”.
Lowell remarked the Justice Department has concentrated on arresting Lemon instead of scrutinizing the federal officers who slayed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota earlier this month, labeling it “the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case”.
“This unparalleled attack on the First Amendment and obvious attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will combat these charges resolutely and exhaustively in court,” he noted.
Attorney General Pam Bondi expressed in a statement circulated to social media that federal operatives arrested Lemon and three others “relating to the organized attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota”.
A source informed on the inquiry said Lemon confronts charges of conspiracy to deprive others of their civil rights and infraction of the FACE Act by reportedly interfering by strength with the exercise of others’ First Amendment rights.
CNN, where Lemon formerly worked, remarked his arrest prompts “deeply concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment”. The broadcaster said it will be monitoring Lemon’s case attentively.
“The Department of Justice already faltered twice to obtain an arrest warrant for Don and various other reporters in Minnesota, where a chief judge… found there was ‘no evidence’ that there was any criminal behavior connected to their work,” CNN observed in a statement. “The First Amendment in the United States shields journalists who bear witness to news and events as they transpire, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ’s attempts to breach those rights is intolerable“.
Last week, a federal appellate court refused to mandate a lower court judge to sign arrest warrants for five individuals, including Lemon, concerning a Jan. 18 anti-ICE demonstration inside a sanctuary in St. Paul, Minnesota. However, one of the three appellate court judges expressed he felt there was probable cause to validate the arrests, per court filings and sources acquainted with the matter.
Numerous people have been indicted in relation to the protest, when dissenters entered St. Paul’s Cities Church after learning that one of its ministers is an ICE officer.
The Justice Department had requested the appellate court to force the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to sign the arrest warrants over civil rights allegations claiming the defendants were illegally interfering with the churchgoers’ constitutionally protected freedom to observe religion.
Federal prosecuting attorneys in the Minneapolis-based U.S. Attorney’s Office had substantial concerns with the validity of the evidence in the church manifestations, a source acquainted with the matter told CBS News. When the primary three defendants were first charged, no professional officials from that office surfaced in court, and the Justice Department dispatched two attorneys from the Civil Rights Division in Washington to manage the proceedings.
The magistrate judge supervising the case only authorized one civil rights count in those initial cases against Nekima Levy Armstrong, former president for the Twin Cities chapter of the NAACP, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, an elected member of the St. Paul School Board. But the judge dismissed a FACE Act charge against each of them on the basis that there was no probable cause. A third accused was subsequently charged regarding the protest as well.
The magistrate judge, Douglas Micko, also denied five arrest warrants in the litigation for missing probable cause, including Lemon’s, CBS News formerly reported.
VIDEO! What we know about the church protest that led to Don Lemon’s arrest
The Justice Department has been evaluating a clip of a pre-meeting that Lemon recorded before the rally, the source said. That session was attended by a variety of the defendants, including Allen, Armstrong and Jamael Lydell Lundy. The Justice Department has been concentrating on the assembly as purported evidence of a conspiracy to disrupt people’s religious rights. Lemon was filming the meeting as component of his journalism, the source noted. Lundy was part of the four people apprehended overnight.
The Justice Department has now detained seven individuals in relation to the church protest, but it originally sought to arrest eight. CBS News could not promptly determine what happened with the last person the department intended to charge.
Lemon served at CNN for over 15 years, but was released in 2023. He disclosed in early 2024 that he would be starting The Don Lemon Show on X, but the social media site possessed by billionaire Elon Musk terminated the alliance months later, shortly after Lemon interviewed Musk. Lemon now produces a show on YouTube.
