Don Lemon, a 59-year-old journalist and media figure known for his almost three-decade career on television, was taken into custody by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents, as confirmed by his lawyer and sources from the Department of Justice.
The case is part of what some progressive American media describe as an “offensive by the Trump administration” against what the authorities describe as a “coordinated” action by activists who broke into the Cities Church in St. Paul to denounce the presence of a pastor linked to ICE, the US immigration police.
What happened at St. Paul’s Church
On January 18, a group of protesters entered Cities Church in St. Paul after discovering that one of its pastors is the field director of the ICE office in that city. The activists, who identified themselves as opponents of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, interrupted the religious service while Lemon livestreamed the protest with his camera.
Federal agents and the Department of Justice have described the events as a “coordinated” attack on a place of worship, and have stressed that the church is not a “public forum” for protests, as warned in a DOJ statement addressed to Lemon himself.
Charges and legal reactions
Lemon has been charged with conspiring to deprive others of their civil rights and interfering with the right to religious freedom under the FACE Act of 1994, which protects abortion clinics and places of worship from obstruction or intimidation.
In addition, three other people, including another independent journalist from Minnesota, Georgia Fort, have been arrested for their participation in the same protest.
Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has called the arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and insisted that the former CNN anchor was acting as a journalist, not a protester. In a statement, Lowell said that “Don has been a journalist for 30 years and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different from what he has always done.”
The role of the Trump administration
Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced the arrest of Lemon and the other three involved through a publication on
White House and Justice Department officials have reiterated that protesters intimidated Christian worshipers and that protecting places of worship is a government priority.
However, a federal judge in Minnesota had rejected Lemon’s first request for arrest weeks ago, alleging a lack of sufficient evidence, which has added tension to the case and fueled criticism from organizations defending press freedom.
Don Lemon’s career and media context
Don Lemon worked for 17 years at CNN, where he became one of the channel’s most recognizable faces, especially in debate and political analysis programs. In 2023 he was fired after on-air comments about women and the then Republican candidate Nikki Haley that were considered sexist by much of the public; Lemon publicly apologized for his remarks.
Now, his arrest has once again placed him at the center of the political and media debate, with defenders who see him as an example of the growing pressure on journalism critical of the Government and detractors who accuse him of crossing the line between reporting and actively participating in the protest.
