Journalist Don Lemon charged with federal civil rights crimes after
covering anti-ICE church protest
[January 31, 2026]
By JAIMIE DING, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Journalist Don Lemon was released from custody Friday
after he was arrested and hit with federal civil rights charges over his
coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a
service at a Minnesota church.
Lemon was arrested overnight in Los Angeles, while another independent
journalist and two protest participants were arrested in Minnesota. He
struck a confident, defiant tone while speaking to reporters after a
court appearance in California, declaring: “I will not be silenced.”
“I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now,”
Lemon said. “In fact there is no more important time than right now,
this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light
on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”
The arrests brought sharp criticism from news media advocates and civil
rights activists including the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said the
administration of President Donald Trump is taking a “sledgehammer” to
“the knees of the First Amendment.”
A grand jury in Minnesota indicted Lemon and others on charges of
conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of
worshippers during the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul,
where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is a pastor.
In court in Los Angeles, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Robbins
argued for a $100,000 bond, telling a judge that Lemon “knowingly joined
a mob that stormed into a church.” He was released, however, without
having to post money and was granted permission to travel to France in
June while the case is pending.
Defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski said Lemon plans to plead not guilty
and fight the charges in Minnesota.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023 following a bumpy run as a morning
host, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into
the church and he was there as a solo journalist chronicling protesters.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally
protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always
done,” his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement earlier Friday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi promoted the arrests on social media.
“Make no mistake. Under President Trump’s leadership and this
administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” Bondi
said in a video posted online. “And if I haven’t been clear already, if
you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you.”
Indictment describes Lemon's livestream
Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have
gone into business for themselves. He posts regularly on YouTube and has
not hidden his disdain for Trump.
Yet during his online show from the church, he stressed: “I’m not here
as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene before
him and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.
The indictment names nine defendants including Lemon. It says two of
them posted their planned action on social media the day before and gave
the others instructions in a shopping center parking lot the following
morning.
Lemon started livestreaming and told the audience he was with a group
gearing up for a “resistance” operation against federal immigration
policies, according to the document. Lemon “took steps to maintain
operational secrecy by reminding co-conspirators to not disclose the
target of their operation,” the indictment says, and stepped away so his
microphone would not accidentally divulge the planning.
During the briefing before the operation, prosecutors say, Lemon thanked
an activist who is among the nine indicted for what she was doing and
assured her he was not saying what was going on.
Inside the church the defendants shouted slogans and blew whistles after
the pastor was about to begin the sermon and gestured in a hostile and
aggressive manner, according to prosecutors, and the pastor and
congregants perceived “threats of violence.”
Lemon told the livestream he saw a young man who was frightened, sad and
crying and it was understandable because the experience was traumatic
and uncomfortable, the indictment says. The defendants then surrounded
the pastor and Lemon “peppered him with questions to promote the
operation’s message.”
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Journalist Don Lemon, talks to the media after a hearing at the
Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 30,
2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
‘Keep trying’
Last week a magistrate judge rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge
Lemon. Shortly afterward he predicted on his show that the
administration would try again.
“And guess what,” Lemon said. “Here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going
to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my
voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel if you want. Just do
it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Independent journalist Georgia Fort livestreamed the moments before her
arrest, telling viewers that agents were at her door and her First
Amendment right as a journalist was being diminished.
A judge released Fort, Trahern Crews and Jamael Lundy on bond, rejecting
the Justice Department's attempt to keep them in custody. Not guilty
pleas were entered. Fort's supporters in the courtroom clapped and
whooped.
“It’s a sinister turn of events in this country,” Fort's attorney, Kevin
Riach, said in court.
Discouraging scrutiny
Jane Kirtley, a media law and ethics expert at the University of
Minnesota, said the federal laws cited by the government were not
intended to apply to reporters gathering news.
The charges against Lemon and Fort, she said, are “pure intimidation and
government overreach.”
Some experts and activists said the charges are not only an attack on
press freedoms but also a strike against Black Americans who count on
Black journalists to bear witness to injustice and oppression.
The National Association of Black Journalists said it was “outraged and
deeply alarmed” and warned of an effort to “criminalize and threaten
press freedom under the guise of law enforcement.”
Crews is a leader of Black Lives Matter Minnesota who has led many
protests and actions for racial justice, particularly following George
Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.
“All the greats have been to jail, MLK, Malcom X — people who stood up
for justice get attacked,” Crews told The Associated Press. “We were
just practicing our First Amendment rights.”
Church leaders praise arrests in protest
A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the
protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil
rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.
The Justice Department launched an investigation after the group
interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,”
referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an
ICE officer in Minneapolis.
Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one
of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads ICE's St. Paul field
office.
“We are grateful that the Department of Justice acted swiftly to protect
Cities Church so that we can continue to faithfully live out the
church’s mission to worship Jesus and make him known,” lead pastor
Jonathan Parnell said.
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Richer and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters
Dave Bauder and Aaron Morrison in New York; Giovanna Dell'Orto, Tim
Sullivan, Steve Karnowski and Jack Brook in Minneapolis; Josh Funk in
Omaha, Nebraska; and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
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