Journalist Don Lemon Arrested By Federal Agents While Covering Grammy Awards

Independent journalist Don Lemon was taken into custody by US federal authorities on Friday on charges related to his coverage of a protest in Minnesota.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement on X that federal agents also arrested three others at her direction — fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort, Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy — in connection with an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest at Cities Church in St. Paul on January 18 that the Trump official described as a “coordinated attack.”

Lemon, a former CNN anchor and a critic of President Donald Trump, was arrested in Los Angeles while covering the Grammys. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, released a statement calling the arrest an attack on the First Amendment.

“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” the statement said.

“The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”

Lowell also sought to contrast the administration’s response to the killing of two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — by federal immigration agents with their apparent targeting of Lemon, a prominent critic of President Trump.

“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” the statement added.

“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” it continued.

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that a person close to Lemon told him the journalist spent the night in jail. Lemon is expected to make his first court appearance later on Friday.

Fort, the second journalist arrested, went live on Facebook as federal agents showed up at her door to take her into custody.

“I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press, because now federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” she said.

Last week, Minnesota’s chief federal judge, Patrick Schiltz, declined to reverse a lower court’s ruling rejecting the Justice Department’s effort to issue arrest warrants for Lemon and four others in connection with the anti-ICE protest in St. Paul. The DOJ chose to further escalate the matter, urging the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to compel Schiltz to act. The court refused.

Lemon’s arrest fits the Trump administration’s pattern of targeting journalists and testing the limits of the First Amendment.

It follows the raid of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home earlier this month, during which authorities seized her phone, two laptops, a recorder, a portable hard drive and her smart watch. A judge recently blocked the government from accessing the devices it seized.

The president has also filed numerous lawsuits against news organisations, most recently against the BBC, over its editing of excerpts from his January 6, 2021, speech included in a Panorama documentary.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for Lemon’s immediate release.

“The Trump Justice Department is illegitimate and these extremists will all be held accountable for their crimes against the Constitution,” he said.

Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists said Lemon’s arrest “should alarm all Americans.”

“Instead of prioritisng accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the Trump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists. This behavior has no place in the United States,” Jacobsen said in a statement.

Freedom of the Press Foundation’s chief of advocacy, Seth Stern, issued a statement saying the “unmistakable message” the arrests are sending “is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them.”

“Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon,” the statement said.