Don Lemon suggested his legal troubles weren’t finished just days before federal agents arrested him, after a judge rejected the Justice Department’s first attempt to indict him.
“Look, I’m not naive,” Lemon said in an interview with Scripps News’ Alisyn Camerota on Friday, Jan. 23.
“I think they’re probably going to try again and again to shame like they did with James Comey and everyone,” he added, pointing to the former FBI director’s indictment in September, which was later dismissed.
“If one doesn’t work they try something else and that fails and they try something else and then they just don’t give up because they want to save face,” Lemon said. “I don’t know what’s next.”
Camerota referenced a federal magistrate judge’s earlier comment that the Department of Justice “didn’t have a case” against Lemon and asked, “But you think it’s not over?”
Lemon, 59, said he believed the administration would keep pushing forward regardless.
“It didn’t matter,” he said, arguing that “if there’s no law to fit,” President Donald Trump’s administration would “go around a judge and just do it themselves.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he repeated.
The exchange came one week before Lemon was arrested by federal agents.
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement on Friday, Jan. 30, that Lemon “was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards.”
The FBI confirmed the arrest in a statement, saying, “[Homeland Security Investigations] & FBI arrested Mr. Lemon last night in Beverly Hills at approximately midnight based on a federal warrant issued in another district.”
Lemon’s attorney was contacted for additional details.
What the arrest is tied to
According to reports, Lemon’s arrest stems from a Jan. 18 protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., where demonstrators interrupted a religious service to protest against immigration enforcement, chanting, “ICE out.”
Prosecutors have accused Lemon of violating a federal law that protects people’s right to participate in services at houses of worship, The New York Times reported. Lemon’s attorney, however, said Lemon entered the church as a journalist covering the protest.
“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.
“The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable,” the attorney added.
During the Jan. 23 interview, Lemon said authorities’ concerns were aimed at protesters — not him.
“I was not a protester,” Lemon said.
He also suggested that, in his view, the government could be motivated by the visibility of his presence.
“If they get a Don Lemon, woohoo, that’s a victory,” he said.
Justice Department officials have said “they intend to prosecute protesters they believe crossed the line from activity protected by the First Amendment into unlawful conduct,” The New York Times reported, as protesters in Minneapolis have argued their constitutional rights are being violated amid the Trump administration’s aggressive federal immigration crackdown.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis residents remain on high alert following the fatal shootings of two American citizens by federal immigration agents: Renee Nicole Good, who was shot on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, who was killed two weeks later on Jan. 24.
