Former NCS anchor Don Lemon, who faces a number of fees associated to his protection of a protest at a St. Paul church final month, has employed a distinguished former Minnesota federal prosecutor to characterize him, in line with court docket information filed Tuesday.
That lawyer, Joseph H. Thompson, is now pitted in opposition to the very US Attorney’s Office he successfully ran till mid-January.
Thompson abruptly left the Minnesota US Attorney’s workplace last month, alongside at the very least 5 different prosecutors.
The departures got here after strain from the Trump administration to focus the federal probe of the ICE officer shooting of Renée Good on the actions of the Minneapolis mom, her widow and others round her who might have been concerned in ICE protests, in line with an individual temporary on the matter who spoke with NCS shortly following the wave of resignations.
Lemon’s authorized staff is led by distinguished Washington DC lawyer Abbe Lowell.
Thompson served for 17 years within the Minnesota US Attorney’s workplace, most lately because the First Assistant US Attorney. He additionally served because the appearing US Attorney from June till October. NCS has reached out to Thompson’s agency for remark.
Thompson notably led high-profile circumstances involving the multi-billion greenback fraud scandals which have plagued the state for a number of years and contributed to the political fallout that influenced Gov. Tim Walz’s resolution to drop his bid for a 3rd time period.
Thompson and others left the workplace roughly per week after Good’s demise, just a few days earlier than Lemon and protesters entered Cities Church.
Lemon and fellow impartial journalist Georgia Fort had been livestreaming that January 18 anti-ICE protest that interrupted a church service and led to tense confrontations with the pastor and attendees.
Lemon, who hosts his personal present on YouTube, was arrested on January 30 in Beverly Hills. Federal prosecutors alleged he participated in a “takeover-style attack” of the church and intimidated congregants.
Federal authorities charged Lemon with two felonies: conspiring to intimidate or violate the free train of faith, and violating the FACE Act, which prohibits the use of drive or threats to deliberately intervene with somebody’s First Amendment proper to follow faith.