Don Lemon Arrested in Connection With ICE-Protest Coverage |
Don Lemon, a former anchor for CNN, was taken into custody by federal authorities on Thursday in connection with his presence at a protest at a Minnesota church earlier this month.
Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s attorney, confirmed in a statement that his client was taken into custody in Los Angeles on Thursday evening, where Lemon was preparing to cover the Grammys on Sunday. Lowell called Lemon’s arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and said that the longtime journalist intends to fight the charges against him “vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
On Friday morning, U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that she directed the arrest of Lemon as well as three others involved in the church incident — Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy — “in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul.” FBI director Kash Patel confirmed that his agents and members of Homeland Security Investigations conducted the arrests.
The federal indictment charges the four with conspiracy and interfering with the right to worship, alleging the defendants “entered the Church in a coordinated takeover-style attack and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.” The indictment also names Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and William Kelly, three demonstrators who were arrested........