Veteran journalist Don Lemon called out the Trump administration after the U.S. Department of Justice attempted to criminally charge him for reporting live at a protest against ICE inside a Minneapolis church.
A federal maistrate judge refused to approve the DOJ’s criminal complaint against Lemon, 59, for his on-the-ground coverage of the Jan. 18 peaceful protest inide Cities Church, where protesters accused its pastor, David Easterwood, of being an ICE field director in the community.
Lemon, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, entered the church to interview church members about the demonstration. He had been in Minneapolis covering ongoing protests in the city amid the Trump administration’s escalating immigration and law enforcement activities targeting Black and Brown immigrants, following the Jan. 7 fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old mother Renée Good.
In a statement hitting back at the Trump DOJ’s failed attempt to charge him, Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell said, “The magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter. 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.”
According to The New York Times, DOJ prosecutors sought to charge Lemon for possible violations of the Face Act, a law that makes it a crime to physically obstruct or use threats of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services or seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship.
During White House press conference on Tuesday, President Donald Trump accused Lemon of accosting the church’s lead pastors Jonathan Parnell and defended the actions of ICE agents.
“They have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who’s a, you know, loser, lightweight. I saw him, the way he walked in that church. It was terrible,” said Trump.
The Times reports that, despite the judge’s denial, the DOJ will still seek to charge Lemon through other avenues; however, what that is remains unclear.
Lemon’s attorney said should the Department of Justice continue with its “stunning and troubling” effort to “silence and punish” him for exercising his First Amendment right as a member of the Free Press, Lemon will “call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
While unsuccessful in prosecuting Lemon, the Trump administration began arresting activists who participated in the church protest, including lead organizer and civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong and St. Paul Public Schools board member Chauntyll Allen, both Black women.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rebuked the administration for the arrests, calling it a “gross abuse of power,” and demanded their release.
“The federal government is picking and choosing who to investigate – going after protestors and not the person who shot and killed one of our neighbors,” said Frey.
