WASHINGTON — Journalist Don Lemon and three different folks have been arrested Friday in connection with an anti-immigration protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and elevated tensions between residents and the Trump administration, officers stated.
Lemon was arrested by federal brokers in Los Angeles, the place he had been masking the Grammy Awards, his lawyer Abbe Lowell stated. It is unclear what cost or fees Lemon and the others are going through in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon’s arrest got here after a Justice of the Peace choose final week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to cost him.
Lemon, who was fired from NCS in 2023, has stated he has no affiliation with the group that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell stated in an announcement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media Friday morning confirming the arrest of Lemon and the others who have been current through the protest at the church the place an area official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor.
“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi stated.
Since he left NCS, Lemon gone into enterprise for himself, posting usually on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for Trump. Yet throughout his on-line present from the church, he stated repeatedly, “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene in entrance of him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.
Shortly after the primary try to cost him fell by, he predicted on his present that the administration would strive once more.
“And guess what,” he stated, “here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Local unbiased journalist Georgia Fort livestreamed the moments earlier than her arrest Friday on Facebook Live, saying “agents are at my door right now” and that that they had an arrest warrant and a grand jury indictment.
“I don’t feel like I have my first amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort stated, including that she knew she was on an inventory of defendants that’s underneath seal.
A outstanding civil rights lawyer and two different folks concerned in the protest have been arrested final week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.
The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted companies by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in social media publish final week.
Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists considered one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads an ICE area workplace. It isn’t uncommon for church buildings to have pastors who additionally work different jobs.
The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in distinction to its determination to not open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing by an ICE officer. The division has not stated whether or not it’ll open a civil rights probe into the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal officers.
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lowell stated.