Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest

Three others were also arrested on charges that they had violated federal law during the church protest this month, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

The former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three other people have been arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., this month, lawyers and Justice Department officials said on Friday, reviving a case that was rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

The arrests of Mr. Lemon, a second journalist and two protesters came a little more than a week after three other demonstrators who took part in the action at the Cities Church on Jan. 18 were taken into custody. The prosecution is likely to face pushback from defense lawyers on First Amendment grounds, given that political protest sits at the center of the charges and that Mr. Lemon and the other journalist, Georgia Fort, have said they entered the church to cover a demonstration against the Trump administration’s 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 Justice Department drafted a criminal complaint to charge a total of eight people, including Mr. Lemon, over of the episode, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.

But the federal magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people — Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen and William Kelly. He refused to sign arrest warrants for Mr. Lemon and the others, citing insufficient evidence. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the chief judge in Federal District Court in Minneapolis to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.

In a social media post on Friday morning, James Blair, a deputy White House chief of staff, said that a federal grand jury had indicted Mr. Lemon. Ms. Fort said in a video posted online that she, too, had been indicted.

It remained unclear how the other two defendants — Trahern Jeen Crews, an activist who was a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, and Jamael Lydell Lundy — were charged. It was also unclear whether prosecutors were planning to bring charges against the eighth person who appeared in the original complaint.

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Lemon, vowed to fight the charges.

“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” Mr. Lowell said in a statement on Friday morning. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done.”

Mr. Lowell added, “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”

The Trump administration has pursued two criminal charges against the church protesters and Mr. Lemon — conspiring to deprive rights and interfering with someone’s religious freedom in a house of worship. In the larger fight over the White House’s aggressive immigration crackdown in the state, the Justice Department has pushed hard to charge people who participated in or were at the church protest.

The administration posted photos of the first arrests over the church protest, and a White House social media account posted a doctored photo of Ms. Levy Armstrong to make it look as if she was crying.

Mr. Lemon is scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday. Now that he has been arrested, he is likely to challenge the prosecution’s case by arguing that he was not protesting, but rather covering the event as a journalist.

“Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization,” Mr. Lemon said in a recent video. “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”

Mr. Lemon now works as an independent journalist and has his own YouTube show. He was pushed out of CNN in 2023 after 17 years at the cable network, amid criticism that he made sexist comments about women and aging. Mr. Lemon has been a longtime critic of President Trump dating back to his first term, and frequently calls the president a liar.

Justice Department officials have vowed to prosecute protesters they claim have crossed a line from activity protected by the First Amendment to impeding law enforcement or, in the case of the church protest, violating others’ rights.

For their part, demonstrators who have turned out in force in Minneapolis have asserted that their rights are being violated as they try to speak out against the crackdown.

Ms. Fort, a prominent independent reporter in the Twin Cities, said in a live-streamed video on Facebook posted Friday morning that federal agents had come to her door and that she was about to surrender to them and be taken to the Whipple federal building that has become the headquarters for federal operations in Minneapolis.

“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” she said in the video.

Tensions remain particularly high in Minneapolis after federal immigration agents fatally shot two protesters there. Renee Good, a mother of three, was behind the wheel of her car this month when an ICE agent fired at close range. Administration officials branded her a terrorist and claimed that she had endangered the life of the agent.

In a separate episode, Customs and Border Protection agents on Saturday shot and killed Alex Pretti, an intensive-care nurse. Videos from the scene undercut early claims by administration officials that Mr. Pretti had approached the agents, brandishing a weapon.

Mr. Trump suggested on Wednesday that he was willing to “de-escalate” the situation in Minneapolis, without providing details. He replaced the Border Patrol official who has been the public face of the aggressive immigration efforts in Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino, with his border czar, Tom Homan. Mr. Homan has signaled a willingness to reach an agreement with local officials and draw down the thousands of federal agents sent there.

The arrests come as the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis is in deep turmoil. At a tense meeting earlier this week, a number of prosecutors challenged the head of the office about the administration’s decision not to pursue investigations of the shootings by federal agents, according to people familiar with the internal discussions. At least a half dozen prosecutors have resigned, and more departures are expected.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has called on other federal prosecutors’ offices in the Midwest to send temporary reinforcements to help investigate and prosecute cases.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Ernesto Londoño contributed reporting from Minneapolis.

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