Former CNN anchor Don Lemon taken into custody after protest at Minnesota church service
Journalist Don Lemon was arrested overnight, his attorney and multiple sources with direct knowledge told CBS News on Friday. The arrest comes nearly two weeks after Lemon was at an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a service at a church in Minnesota.
A source familiar with the matter said a grand jury was empaneled Thursday. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security, were involved in the arrest, sources say.
Abbe Lowell, Lemon's lawyer, confirmed he was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering this weekend's 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 in a statement. "The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work."
Lowell said the Justice Department has focused on arresting Lemon instead of investigating the federal agents who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota earlier this month, calling it "the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case."
"This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court," he said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement shared to social media that federal agents arrested Lemon and three others "in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota."
A source briefed on the investigation said Lemon faces charges of conspiracy to deprive others of their civil rights and violation of the FACE Act by allegedly interfering by force with the exercise of others' First Amendment rights.
CNN, where Lemon previously worked, said his arrest raises "profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment." The network said it will be following Lemon's case closely.
"The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest warrant for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was 'no evidence' that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work," CNN said in a statement. "The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfound, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ's attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable."
Last week, a federal appellate court declined to order a lower court judge to sign arrest warrants for five people, including Lemon, in connection with a Jan. 18 anti-ICE protest inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. However, one of the three appellate court judges said he felt there was probable cause to justify the arrests, according to court filings and sources familiar with the matter.
Multiple people have been charged in connection with the protest, when demonstrators entered St. Paul's Cities Church after discovering that one of its pastors is an ICE official.
The Justice Department had asked the appellate court to compel the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to sign the arrest warrants over civil rights charges alleging the defendants were unlawfully interfering with the churchgoers' constitutional-protected freedom to practice religion.
Federal prosecutors in the Minneapolis-based U.S. Attorney's Office had significant concerns with the strength of the evidence in the church protests, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News.
When the first three defendants were initially charged, no career officials from that office appeared in court, and the Justice Department sent two lawyers from the Civil Rights Division in Washington to handle the proceedings.
The magistrate judge overseeing the case only approved one civil rights charge in those original cases against Nekima Levy Armstrong, former president for the Twin Cities chapter of the NAACP, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, an elected member of the St. Paul School Board. But the judge nixed a FACE Act charge against each of them on the grounds that there was no probable cause. A third defendant was later charged in connection with the protest as well.
The magistrate judge, Douglas Micko, also rejected five arrest warrants in the case for lacking probable cause, including Lemon's, CBS News previously reported.
The Justice Department has been scrutinizing a video of a pre-meeting that Lemon filmed before the protest, the source said. That meeting was attended by a number of the defendants, including Allen, Armstrong and Jamael Lydell Lundy. The Justice Department has been focusing on the gathering as alleged evidence of a conspiracy to interfere with people's religious rights. Lemon was filming the meeting as part of his reporting, the source added. Lundy was among the four people arrested overnight.
"Although Lemon's factual assertions and DOJ's justifications must be tested in court, this case could set a dangerous precedent for charging reporters who cover protests for the conduct of the protesters if there was any prior communications with the protesters, and could even expose American journalists embedded with the U.S. military to being charged with war crimes along with soldiers who may commit such crimes," said Julius Nam, a former federal prosecutor who handled civil rights cases.
The Justice Department has now arrested seven people in connection with the church protest, but it initially sought to arrest eight. CBS News could not immediately determine what happened with the final person the department sought to charge.
Lemon worked at CNN for more than 15 years, but was fired in 2023. He announced in early 2024 that he would be launching The Don Lemon Show on X, but the social media site owned by billionaire Elon Musk ended the partnership months later, shortly after Lemon interviewed Musk. Lemon now hosts a show on YouTube.