Don Lemon spoke candidly about his arrest last week, saying that the government wasted resources on the public spectacle.
The independent journalist and former CNN anchor spoke to Jimmy Kimmel last night (February 2) and described the moment when he was arrested by federal agents on the night of January 29. According to Lemon, he was confronted by the officers when on his way to his hotel room in Los Angeles, where he was attending pre-Grammys parties. On his way to the elevator, he said he felt people grab him and put him in handcuffs.
“‘We came to arrest you.’ I said, ‘Who are you?’ Finally, they identified. I said, ‘If you are who you are, where’s the warrant?’ They didn’t have the warrant. So, they had to wait for someone outside, an FBI guy to come in, to show me a warrant on a cell phone.”
Lemon and journalist Georgia Fort were both arrested for covering the anti-ICE protestors who demonstrated at a church in Minneapolis on January 18. An activist, named Trahern Jean Crews, and a Hennepin County employee named Jamael Lydell Lundy were also arrested the same day.
He also explained that his lawyer had offered to arrange for a voluntary surrender “weeks before” to avoid a public arrest. Instead, he was confronted by around a dozen authorities, whom he called a “waste of resources.” Lemon said about the Trump administration, “They want to embarrass you. They want to instill fear. That’s why they did it that way.”
He also told Kimmel that he was not allowed his “one phone call,” and instead tried to use his Apple watch to contact his husband and lawyer. When that didn’t work, he asked an FBI agent to take his bracelet to his husband, who was in the hotel room sleeping.
“Otherwise, no one would’ve known where I was,” he said. He later commented that the agents who held him treated him better than the ones who arrested him.
Lemon was released on Friday without bail and is scheduled to appear in court next week. He has been charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which was initially enacted to protect people who enter abortion clinics from being attacked by anti-abortion protestors. The law prohibits individuals from using force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone obtaining or providing reproductive health services, or exercising their right to religious freedom at a place of worship.
“I have spent my entire career covering the news,” Lemon said in his first statement since his arrest. “I will not stop now. 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. Again, I will not stop now, I will not stop ever.”
Speaking to Kimmel, Lemon also shouted out the journalists who held his broadcast down while he was detained.
“I asked my husband what happened to the channel today, because that’s my livelihood. And he said, ‘Your channel’s been going all day.’ We have Monique Pressley and other folks who were filling in for me. And he said, ‘Every journalist you know has been calling in and coming on the show, and it’s been going for nine hours.”
