Don Lemon Vows To Fight Charges In First Amendment Showdown With Trump

LOS ANGELES — A defiant Don Lemon made his first court appearance Friday, vowing afterward to fight federal criminal charges stemming from his role at a immigration protest in a case that has exploded into a major First Amendment showdown between the Trump administration and a prominent journalist.

“I have spent my entire career covering the news,” Lemon, the former CNN anchor, told a crowd of press and supporters in the courtyard of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse here. “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.”

Lemon’s arrest Thursday night in Los Angeles was met with fury by press freedom advocates, who excoriated the president and the Justice Department for what they said was a blatant incursion on the protections afforded journalists by the Constitution.

In an indictment unsealed Friday, a grand jury in Minneapolis approved charges accusing Lemon and eight others of conspiring to deprive congregants at a church of their civil rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits intimidating or interfering with people seeking to exercise their religious freedom rights at a place of worship.

The criminal case revolves around a protest on Jan. 18, in which demonstrators disrupted a service at a St. Paul church where a pastor also works as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

Lemon, 59, was held in custody overnight and spoke to supporters outside the courthouse following his initial appearance in front of Magistrate Judge Patricia Donahue. He maintained his actions in Minnesota were no different than other reporting he’s undertaken in his decades-long career.

“Last night, the DOJ sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night for something that I've been doing for the last 30 years and that is covering the news,” Lemon said. “The First Amendment of the Constitution protects that work for me and for countless other journalists who do what I do. I stand with all of them and I will not be silenced.”

He said he looked forward to his day in court.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest of Lemon and three others Friday morning. Two additional people are named as defendants in court records related to the indictment, but it’s unclear whether they have been arrested.

Bondi, who posted on X early Friday that the arrest of Lemon and three others were made “at my direction,” said that the charges protected worshippers’ freedom of religion.

“Make no mistake, under President Trump's leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely,” Bondi said in a brief video posted online. “And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you."

In a 30-minute hearing in a small wood-paneled courtroom Friday, federal prosecutors alleged that Lemon “joined a mob” when he disrupted the church proceedings. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Robbins did not ask that Lemon be detained pending trial, but pushed for stringent release conditions, including that he not be allowed to travel outside of New York, where Lemon lives, and Minnesota.

“This is a very serious felony,” Robbins said.

The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, joined Robbins at the hearing.

Lemon’s attorney Marylin Bednarski argued that travel restrictions would harm her client’s ability to practice journalism saying, “that’s what he does.”

Donahue largely agreed with the defense in outlining the terms of Lemon’s release, requiring court permission for international travel and agreeing to allow Lemon to take a pre-planned vacation to France this summer.

Lemon, wearing a beige suit coat and sweater and light jeans, spoke only briefly in response to Donahue’s questions about his rights. At one point when Robbins read from the indictment allegations that Lemon had obstructed worshipers from leaving the church, the veteran journalist laughed to himself and shook his head.

Press advocates and Democratic leaders have seized on the arrest, saying it marks a new low in the president’s long-running assault on the media that has included several civil lawsuits over allegedly biased coverage and earlier this month the seizure of a Washington Post reporter’s computer and phone

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass watched the court proceedings from the second row of the gallery. Before a bank of news cameras outside afterward, she said what she saw was “an embarrassment on the part of the government.”

Bass warned the assembled journalists that the Trump administration’s actions showed that any reporters who cover controversial events could be subject to arrest.

“I hope all of you register the seriousness of this assault on democracy,” Bass said. “Because if they come for one, they can come for all of us.”

The indictment contends that Lemon broke the law because he was aware of the protesters’ plan in advance and took steps to keep it secret before the demonstration began — a fact he repeatedly disclosed on his livestream. The grand jury also contends Lemon attempted “to oppress and intimidate” a pastor at the church, who was “largely surrounded” by Lemon and other defendants as Lemon allegedly “peppered him with questions to promote the operation’s message.”

The indictment also alleges that Lemon “confronted some congregants and physically obstructed them as they tried to exit the Church building to challenge them with ‘facts’ about U.S. immigration policy.”

Three protesters were arrested and charged last week for their roles in the demonstration.

One of those who was arrested Friday, Georgia Fort, said in a video posted on Facebook that she was also acting as a journalist at the protest. Federal officials also sought to charge a producer who shot the video of Lemon that was livestreamed from the church last week.

At hearings in Minneapolis on Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster rejected prosecutors’ request to detain Fort and two other defendants pending trial, the Associated Press reported.

Lemon’s arrest sparked huge interest in LA. By mid-morning, two dozen news cameras had already been set up in the courtyard outside the towering courthouse downtown.

Even before Lemon was added to the court’s calendar, the day already was shaping up to be chaotic, with protests planned across the region as part of to coincide with nationwide anti-ICE demonstrations. The largest of them was blocks away planned for 1 p.m. outside LA City Hall just blocks away. Signs outside the federal building warned that some courtrooms were closing at noon on account of the protests.

Political opponents to Trump were quick to weigh in, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom among a host of Democratic leaders to rebuke Lemon’s arrest, saying that “Putin would be proud.”

“A free press isn’t the enemy,” Newsom said. “It’s the safeguard.”

The White House, meanwhile, celebrated the decision, posting a photo of Lemon on X Friday, saying that he was arrested for “involvement in the St. Paul church riots.”

“When life gives you lemons…” the account added, alongside an emoji depicting chains.