The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged former CNN host Don Lemon with federal civil rights crimes after he live streamed anti-ICE protesters storming a church in Minnesota.
Lemon, who was arrested on Thursday, was charged with “conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a January 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul,” according to the Associated Press:
The veteran journalist is charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during a Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor. Another journalist and two protest participants were also arrested in Minnesota.
In a post on X, CNN’s Jake Tapper posted photos of the “DOJ indictment v Don Lemon.”
“The DOJ indictment v Don Lemon et al was just unsealed,” Tapper wrote, adding that it was 12 pages.
Lemon, along with Nekima Valdez Levy-Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, William Scott Kelly, Jamael Lydell Lundy, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Ellyse Fort, and two others were charged with two counts, according to the photos of the indictment posted by Tapper.
The defendants were charged with Conspiracy Against Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship, and “Injure, Intimidate, and Interfere with Exercise of Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that at her direction, federal agents “arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church.”
Breitbart News’s John Nolte reported that Abbe Lowell — who serves as Lemon’s attorney, issued a statement on Friday that Lemon “was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was 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 added. “The First Amendment exists to protest journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
As Breitbart News previously reported, during Lemon’s live YouTube video of the protesters storming Cities Church in the middle of a service, Lemon explained that he was “not part of the group,” but that he was there as a journalist “photographing.”
Lemon also explained that the protesters had found out that one of the pastors was a “member of ICE.”
