Former CNN anchor Don Lemon and an independent Minnesota journalist, Georgia Fort, were among four people arrested by federal agents in connection to an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minnesota.
Journalists, press advocates and Democratic lawmakers accused the Trump administration of attempting to intimidate independent accountability reporting.
The actual criminal charges have not been unsealed. Protesters interrupted a religious service at the church, where a A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor.
Lemon had followed the protesters in as they demonstrated. In his live-streamed video, he says he is there as a journalist. He interviewed the pastor and others present, as well as protesters.
Some of President Trump's supporters argued he had participated in the disruption.
In a statement posted on social media, Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell, called the arrest an "unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration."
Amnesty International demanded the release of Lemon and Fort, calling their arrests "a critical threat to our human rights."
"Reporting on protests isn't a crime — its protected by the First Amendment," said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. "The Justice Department should drop these prosecutions or they should be thrown out."
Media executives and press rights advocates have been on heightened alert over a series of actions taken by the Trump administration: formal investigations of most of the nation's leading broadcasters, including ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR and PBS; threats by President Trump to hold up big corporate transactions involving media companies; Trump's personal lawsuits against major news outlets including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal; and, most recently, the FBI's seizure of computers and devices from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson without warning, said to be part of an investigation of the leak of national security documents. Typically prosecutors contact news organizations to give them a chance to identify relevant materials and to challenge the need to hand them over in court.
Justice Department celebrates Lemon's arrest
On Friday morning, Justice Department officials celebrated the arrest of Lemon in California after failing twice to secure arrest warrants for him in Minnesota.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took personal credit, posting on X the arrests occurred at her direction "in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota." The two other people arrested early Friday are local activists.
"You have the right to worship freely and safely," she said in a video. "And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you."
Bondi's spokesperson Gates McGavick posted a meme of the attorney general with laser beams emanating from her eyes.
U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon posted on X that the church was "a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service. You are on notice." Dhillon, who oversees the civil rights division of the Justice Department, also reposted a tweet referring to Lemon as one of "today's klansmen."
A federal magistrate judge previously declined to approve Lemon's arrest, citing a lack of evidence. And the chief federal appeals court judge in Minnesota rejected a prosecutor's appeal of the decision, writing there was "no evidence" of any criminal behavior in their work.
The Washington Post reviewed the videos of Lemon at the protest.
"The footage shows that he was with activists before the protest and followed them to the church, where he spent approximately 45 minutes and spoke with four parishioners and five protesters," the Post wrote. "In all but one instance, the exchanges appear to be calm. The footage does not show him participating in the chants that disrupted the service. A pastor at one point asks him to leave. Seven minutes later, he exits the church building."
'Pure authoritarian bile'
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the arrest on the Senate floor, saying it "is a dark message to journalists everywhere: if you dare criticize this administration, watch your back."
"That is not democracy," Schumer said. "That is a police state and that is pure authoritarian bile."
This morning, Fort posted a video on social media saying federal agents were at the door of her home in Minnesota. Fort said in the post that she was reporting when she filmed the church protest. She is a known quantity in Minnesota press circles. According to the National Association of Black Journalists chapter in Minnesota, Fort has won regional awards and served as an officer of the group.
Lemon, who now appears on YouTube, Substack and other social media platforms, left CNN in 2023 after 17 years at the cable network, amid criticism that he made sexist comments about women and aging.
CNN was among those outlets and institutions that weighed in against Lemon's arrest, saying it "raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment."
In the statement, shared with NPR by a spokesperson, the network said the Constitution protects "journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ's attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable."
CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is in the process of trying to sell itself to Netflix, though CNN and other cable channels would be spun off. Antitrust regulators at the Justice Department will get to review the deal if it is approved by shareholders. Trump has said he wants a say in who owns CNN next.
