Former cable information anchor Don Lemon was arrested Tursday evening, his lawyer and a number of sources with direct data instructed CBS News on Friday. A supply acquainted with the matter mentioned a grand jury was empaneled on Tursday. FBI and HSI had been concerned within the arrest, sources say.
It was not instantly clear what costs he can be dealing with. Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s lawyer, confirmed he was taken into custody by federal brokers Thursday evening in Los Angeles, the place he was masking this weekend’s Grammy Awards.
“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 mentioned 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. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”
Lowell mentioned the Justice Department has targeted on arresting Lemon as an alternative of investigating the federal brokers who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota earlier this month, calling it “the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case.”
“This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” he mentioned.
CBS News has reached out to the Department of Justice for remark.
Last week, a federal appellate courtroom declined to order a decrease courtroom decide to signal arrest warrants for 5 folks, together with Lemon, in reference to an anti-ICE protest inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. One of three judges mentioned he felt there was possible trigger to justify the arrests, based on courtroom filings and sources acquainted with the matter.
Multiple people have been charged in reference to the protest, when demonstrators entered St. Paul’s Cities Church after discovering that an ICE official gave the impression to be one of many pastors at the church.
The Justice Department had requested the appellate courtroom to compel the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to signal the arrest warrants over civil rights costs alleging the defendants had been unlawfully interfering with the churchgoers’ constitutional-protected freedom to observe faith.
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