Don Lemon Arrested By Federal Agents While Covering Grammy Awards | EUROtoday

Independent journalist Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal authorities early Friday on federal civil rights fees associated to his protection of a protest in Minnesota.

The fees embrace conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of these worshiping at Cities Church on Jan. 18 in St. Paul, the place the protest interrupted a service. Lemon was launched on his personal recognizance throughout a federal courtroom look in Los Angeles late Friday afternoon. His subsequent courtroom date is Feb. 9 in Minneapolis.

Attorney General Pam Bondi stated in a press release on X that federal brokers additionally arrested three others at her path — fellow impartial journalist Georgia Fort, Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy — in reference to the demonstration in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the Trump official described as a “coordinated attack.”

In an indictment, Lemon and several other different defendants are accused of conducting “a takeover-style attack” on the church, regardless of there being no bodily violence through the demonstration.

“As a result of defendants’ conduct, the pastor and congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship service, congregants fled the Church building out of fear for their safety, other congregants took steps to implement an emergency plan, and young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die,” the indictment stated.

Lemon himself was accused of standing “in close proximity to the pastor in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement while LEMON peppered him with questions to promote the operation’s message.”

The indictment additionally accuses Lemon of calmly admonishing the pastor.

“While talking with the pastor, defendant LEMON stood so close to the pastor that LEMON caused the pastor’s right hand to graze LEMON, who then admonished the pastor, ‘Please don’t push me.’”

Lemon, a former CNN anchor and a critic of President Donald Trump, was arrested in Los Angeles whereas protecting the Grammys. His legal professional, Abbe Lowell, launched a press release calling the arrest an assault on the First Amendment.

“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. 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,” the assertion stated.

Lowell additionally sought to distinction the administration’s response to the killing of two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — by federal immigration brokers with their obvious concentrating on of Lemon, a outstanding critic of President Donald Trump.

“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” the assertion added.

“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” it continued.

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that an individual near Lemon advised him the journalist spent the evening in jail. Lemon is anticipated to make his first courtroom look later Friday.

Lemon’s former community later put out its personal assertion to defend him.

“The FBI’s arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment,” CNN stated in a press release. “The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest 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.”

The community added that the “DOJs attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to touch upon Lemon’s arrest throughout a Friday press convention.

“Do I have a reaction to it? I don’t know what that means,” Blanche stated of Lemon’s arrest. “What are you looking for me to do, jump up and down? No, I don’t have a reaction to it. I don’t know that his charges are unsealed yet, so no, I’m not going to comment on that.”

Fort, the second journalist arrested, went reside on Facebook as federal brokers confirmed up at her door to take her into custody.

“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 arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” she stated.

Last week, Minnesota’s chief federal decide, Patrick Schiltz, declined to reverse a decrease courtroom’s ruling rejecting the Justice Department’s effort to subject arrest warrants for Lemon and 4 others in reference to the anti-ICE protest in St. Paul. The DOJ selected to additional escalate the matter, urging the eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to compel Schiltz to behave. The courtroom refused.

Lemon’s arrest matches the Trump administration’s sample of concentrating on journalists and testing the bounds of the First Amendment. It follows the raid of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s house earlier this month, throughout which authorities seized her cellphone, two laptops, a recorder, a conveyable arduous drive and her good watch. A decide just lately blocked the federal government from accessing the gadgets it seized.

The president has additionally filed quite a few lawsuits in opposition to information organizations, most just lately in opposition to the BBC, over its modifying of excerpts from this Jan. 6, 2021, speech included in a Panorama documentary.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) known as for Lemon’s quick launch.

“The Trump Justice Department is illegitimate and these extremists will all be held accountable for their crimes against the Constitution,” he stated.

Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists stated Lemon’s arrest “should alarm all Americans.”

“Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the Trump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists. This behavior has no place in the United States,” Jacobsen stated in a press release.

Freedom of the Press Foundation’s chief of advocacy, Seth Stern, issued a press release saying the “unmistakable message” the arrests are sending “is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them.”

“Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon,” the assertion stated.

The White House bragged about Lemon’s arrest in a social media submit on Friday.

“When life gives you lemons…” the submit stated subsequent to an emoji of chains and a picture of Lemon.