Don Lemon Arrested Last Night Over Covering Minneapolis Church Protest
Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor, was arrested late last night on charges that he violated federal law during that recent protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., his lawyer said, in a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.
Mr. Lemon has said he was simply reporting as a journalist when he entered the Cities Church on Jan. 18 to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown in the area.
The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Trump administration sought to charge eight people over the episode, including Mr. Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.
But the magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people, rejecting the evidence against Mr. Lemon and the others as insufficient. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.
As you may recall (I know, it's hard to tell one day, one month, or one year from the next these days), the Trump administration was very, very offended about the protesters interrupting the sanctity of their worship services, and vowed to arrest them.