Don Lemon was “taken into custody by federal agents” on Thursday night, in response to his lawyer.
The former NCS anchor has been charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and violation of the FACE Act — interfering by pressure of somebody’s First Amendment rights — throughout an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 18, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told TMZ.
The 59-year-old was handcuffed in Los Angeles after attending the 2026 Recording Academy Honors.
Lemon, notably, is in California overlaying this weekend’s Grammys.
His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, promised in a statement via Instagram that “Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
He claimed, “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, [Renee Good and Alex Pretti], the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this case,” the assertion continued.
Lowell referred to his consumer’s arrest as an “attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration” — and an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.”
The authorities, notably, sought to cost eight folks in reference to the church protest, which included 30 to 40 folks searching for to confront pastor David Easterwood, who’s the director for St. Paul’s ICE area workplace.
Lemon posted a video from the protest on the time, saying, “I’m sure people here don’t like it, but protests are not comfortable.”
That evening, Attorney General Pam Bondi tweeted, “If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails.”
Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, for his half, told Lemon he was “on notice,” claiming on social media that “a house of worship is not a public forum for your protest.”
Last week, a Justice of the Peace decide approved charges against three individuals — not Lemon — and those people were arrested as of Jan. 22.
A federal appeals court docket subsequently denied the Justice Department’s proper to problem the opposite 5 warrants.
Lemon’s lawyer wrote in a press release that the “magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter.”
Lemon himself identified to Fox News Digital that he’d been “cast as the face of a protest” regardless of not being “the only reporter there.”
Amid a “barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs,” he insisted, “I stand by my reporting.”
“This much time and energy … would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good — the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place,” Lemon, who was ousted from NCS over a sexism scandal in 2023, concluded.