Journalist Georgia Fort, Targeted for Covering Same Protest as Don Lemon, Livestreams Her FBI Arrest: ‘Agents Are at My Door’

Independent journalist Georgia Fort was arrested by FBI agents while livestreaming on social media after reporting on an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.

Fort, who is based in Minnesota, was among several journalists — including Don Lemon — who filmed a Jan. 18 protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn. During the demonstration, protesters interrupted a religious service to object to the congregation’s pastor, David Easterwood, who also works as an ICE agent.

Fort’s arrest was captured on a Facebook livestream in the early hours of Friday, Jan. 30. In the video, she told viewers that FBI agents arrived at her home and said they had an arrest warrant issued by a grand jury.

“I wanted to alert the public that agents are at my door right now,” Fort said.

Fort added that her children were inside the home and said the situation was affecting them. “They are impacted by this,” she said, adding that the arrest stemmed from her work documenting the protest as a member of the press.

“We are supposed to have our constitutional right of the freedom to film, to be a member of the press,” she said. “I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press because now federal agents are at my door for filming the church protest a few weeks ago.”

Fort said she believed she could be targeted after covering the demonstration and followed her attorney’s advice in the time since.

After the arrest, Fort’s 17-year-old daughter spoke to reporters, arguing that her mother was being detained for doing her job.

“My mom is being arrested for documenting what happened at Cities Church. And this is wrong. This goes against her First Amendment right as a journalist. And it’s being challenged today,” she said.

“She is not a protester. She is not an activist,” she added. “She is a mom working to provide for her children through the only way she knows how, documenting and sharing stories of the community and the truth of what’s happening here every day in our state.”

“My 7- and 8-year old sister woke up today without a mom. My father woke up today without his wife. I’m demanding that my mom gets released,” she continued.

Fort’s arrest came shortly after Lemon was taken into custody by more than two dozen federal agents while covering the same protest.

Lemon — a former CNN anchor who now works independently — had recently discussed the possibility of being arrested, referencing what he described as a previous failed attempt by the Trump administration to indict him.

“Look, I’m not naive,” Lemon said during 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 said, referencing the indictment of the former FBI director 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,” he continued. “I don’t know what’s next.”

Lemon suggested the administration would “go around a judge and just do it themselves” if there’s “no law to fit.”

Prosecutors have charged Lemon with conspiracy to deprive rights and violating the FACE Act, “which prohibits the use of force or threats to intentionally interfere with someone expressing their First Amendment right to practice religion,” according to a source familiar with the investigation.

However, Lemon’s attorney has insisted that he entered the church as a journalist in order to cover the protest.

In a Jan. 30 post on X, Attorney General General Pam Bondi confirmed two additional arrests alongside Lemon and Fort: Black Lives Matter Minnesota co-founder Trahern Jeen Crews and community activist Jamael Lundy.

The arrests have added to tensions between Minnesota residents and the Trump administration following the fatal shootings of two American citizens by federal immigration agents: Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three who was killed on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, an intensive-care nurse who was killed two weeks later on Jan. 24.