Judge Rejects DOJ’s Attempt To Charge Don Lemon | EUROtoday

A federal Justice of the Peace choose in Minnesota has blocked the Justice Department’s try to convey costs in opposition to former CNN host Don Lemon for his protection of an anti-ICE protest in St. Paul final weekend, CBS News and CNN reported Thursday.

“The Attorney General is enraged at the magistrate judge’s decision,” an individual conversant in the matter informed each shops.

A lawyer for Lemon, who at present works as an impartial journalist, praised the information of the choose’s determination.

“The magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter,” his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, stated in a press release. “It was no different than what he has done for more than 30 years, reporting and covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally protected activity as a journalist.”

Lemon, he added, is ready to dispute any costs that come his approach.

“Should the Department of Justice continue with a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job,” he continued, “Don will call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”

The DOJ didn’t instantly reply to a HuffPost request for remark.

The choose’s reported refusal to log out on the costs comes 4 days after Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon introduced the DOJ’s plans to pursue costs in opposition to the protesters and stated Lemon was “on notice,” calling his protection of the protest “pseudo journalism.” She additionally stated in a podcast interview that being a journalist was not a “shield” to “being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy.”

Lemon dismissed the efforts in one other podcast interview.

“Whatever they do, let them do it, but in the end, I’m telling you, I don’t think that they’ve realized that people are fed up with this,” he stated in an interview with podcaster Jennifer Welch. ”That’s why you see so many individuals out within the streets. That’s why these protesters went into the church.”

News of the choose’s determination got here shortly after Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced that two folks believed to have been concerned within the protest at Cities Church have been arrested. The protest concerned a bunch disrupting a Sunday service to chant “ICE out!” and alleged that the church’s pastor, David Easterwood, was a prime ICE official in Minnesota.

Lemon, who was there appearing as a reporter and posted footage of the protest to his YouTube channel, has brazenly feuded with President Donald Trump since his first time period in workplace. In 2018, he opened “CNN Tonight” with a damning criticism of the president after Trump referred to El Salvador, Haiti and African international locations as “shithole countries.”

“The president of the United States is racist. A lot of us already knew that,” Lemon stated.

Ryan Grenoble contributed to this report.

This is a growing story. Please verify again for updates.