Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was released Friday after being arrested late Thursday night in Los Angeles by federal agents.
The arrest stems from an incident at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where protesters interrupted a service. Lemon has said he was present in a journalistic capacity when he entered Cities Church on January 18. Protesters alleged that one of the church’s pastors worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Last night, the DOJ sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night for something that I have been doing for the last 30 years, and that is covering the news,” Lemon told reporters outside the courthouse after his release. “The First Amendment of the Constitution protects that work for me and for countless of other journalists who do what I do.”
“I will not be silenced,” he added. “I look forward to my day in court.”
According to the criminal complaint, Lemon and several other defendants were charged with conspiracy against the right of religious freedom at a house of worship.
The complaint alleges that Lemon and the others conspired to “injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate” church clergy, staff, and congregants. It says the defendants physically occupied the main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the church, restricting movement inside the sanctuary.
It also alleges that Lemon “peppered” the pastor with questions and blocked his movement. The complaint further cites Lemon’s livestreams of the event, including an allegation that he took steps to avoid revealing the church’s location in advance.
In a statement, Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Lemon was taken into custody in Los Angeles while covering the 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 said, calling the case an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.”
“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” he added.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi confirmed Lemon’s arrest in a post on X. She said Georgia Fort, another independent journalist, was also taken into custody, along with two other people. Fort is named as a defendant in the criminal complaint.
“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 wrote.
Fort posted a Facebook livestream Friday morning saying federal agents were at her door.
“They said they were able to go to a grand jury sometime, I guess, in the last 24 hours, and they have a warrant for my arrest,” Fort said. “I’ve talked to my attorney and I’ve been advised to go with them.”
“It’s hard to understand how we gave constitutional rights when you can be arrested for just being a member of the press,” she said near the end of the video, before adding, “Alright, I gotta go, they’re knocking.”
The Trump administration sought to charge eight people in relation to the Cities Church incident, citing a law intended to protect people attending worship services. Minnesota has seen major protests amid a surge of ICE agents sent by the Trump administration as it ramps up deportations.
A federal magistrate judge had previously rejected charges against five people who appeared at the protest, including Lemon, according to The New York Times.
Lemon left CNN in 2023 after 17 years. Since then, he has worked as an independent content creator, distributing content on social media and hosting live events.
The day after the Cities Church protest, President Donald Trump shared a screenshot of an X post on Truth Social calling for Lemon to be imprisoned.
In a statement Friday, Seth Stern, an executive at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, condemned the arrests of Lemon and Fort as “naked attacks on freedom of the press.”
“These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists,” Seth said. “The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them.”
