Veteran LGBTQ+ journalist Don Lemon, 59, has been arrested following his coverage of a protest at a church in St Paul, Minnesota.
Lemon, a former CNN anchor and now independent journalist with his own YouTube show, was detained late Thursday night (29 January) under allegations he breached federal law during the protest on 18 January. He had entered Cities Church to report on a demonstration opposing recent immigration raids that led to the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, at the hands of federal immigration agents.
The protest, which took place during a church service, targeted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official who also serves as the church’s pastor. Protesters disrupted the service, chanting “ICE out” — a move that saw the Trump administration charge eight individuals, including Lemon, under a law designed to protect the integrity of religious worship services.
While a magistrate judge found insufficient evidence to support charges against Lemon and several others, the U.S. Department of Justice escalated the matter by appealing to a federal court to issue further warrants. That request was ultimately denied.
Lemon’s legal representative, Abbe Lowell, released a statement asserting the journalist’s innocence and intent to fight the charges. “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,” Lowell stated via The New York Times.
Lemon is scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday morning, where he is expected to argue that he was acting in his capacity as a journalist, not as a protester.
Separately, Lemon has found himself at the centre of a public spat with rapper Nicki Minaj. Following Lemon’s coverage of the ICE protest, Minaj, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, took to X on 19 January, branding him “DON ‘C*** SUCKIN’ LEMON” and claiming he should be jailed. She insinuated that Lemon would not have reported similarly on protests involving other religions, and she accompanied the post with an image of Chucky the doll wearing a wig.
Responding during an interview with Scripps News, Lemon called out the rapper for her comments, stating: “So I said, why do African Americans support her, why do gay people support her, members of the LGBTQ community support her? You shouldn’t because she’s a homophobe and she’s a racist. She’s racist, I believe, against Black Americans.”
