Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Church Storming Incident
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards..."
This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Harold Hutchison
Federal agents arrested former CNN host Don Lemon Thursday night in Los Angeles on charges reportedly related to the storming of an evangelical church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Lemon covered the Jan. 18 incident where anti-ICE rioters stormed Cities Church in St. Paul, claiming he was engaging in journalism. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, confirmed Lemon was taken into custody in a statement sent to multiple media outlets.
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” Lowell’s statement read. “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 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 did not specify what charges Lemon is facing in the statement, though other outlets reported they stem from the church storming incident.
Lemon broadcast footage of the disruption on his YouTube channel, arriving at Cities Church about 40 minutes into a lengthy Sunday livestream during which he greeted Nekima Levy Armstrong, who led the group who stormed the church, claiming one of its pastors worked for ICE. While Lemon denied on Jan. 18 that he knew the church would be targeted, at the start of his livestream, he appeared to know where the group was going.
“These operations are surprise operations,” Lemon said at the start of his Sunday livestream. “Again, can’t tell you where they’re going and where we’re gathered right now.”
Lemon also defended the disruption of the service during a Jan. 19 appearance on the “I’ve Had It Podcast” hosted by left-wing podcaster Jennifer Welch.
“I think that there is obviously… racism in it. The whole point of it is that they’re trying to they’re detaining people on the streets because of accents and the color of their skin and they’re also targeting they’re targeting people of color and black people as well as brown people,” Lemon claimed. “So there is a certain degree of racism there and there’s a certain degree of entitlement.”
“I think people who are you know in the religious groups like that, it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice, but I think that they’re entitled and that that entitlement comes from supremacy, white supremacy, and they think that this country was built for them, that it is a Christian country, when actually we left England because we wanted religious freedom,” Lemon continued.
Anti-ICE rioting in Minneapolis became more intense after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good during a “targeted” immigration enforcement operation on Jan. 7, an ICE agent wounded one of three illegal immigrants who ambushed him and the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on Jan. 24. The shooting of Pretti, who had a concealed carry permit, is under investigation, with two Border Patrol agents involved in the shooting being placed on administrative leave.
Pretti’s neighbors told the Mirror he was involved with an anti-ICE network. Pretti was injured during a previous confrontation with ICE in the days before his fatal encounter, suffering a broken rib, CNN reported.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told podcaster Benny Johnson in a Jan. 19 media appearance that Lemon could potentially face charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
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Solid coverage on a complicated case. The timestamped livestream detail where he says 'can't tell you where they're going' before arriving at the church is gonna be tough for his lawyers to explian. I covered similar cases bac in law school and that prior knowledge element usually makes or breaks these First Amendment defenses.
I want to see him prosecuted and penalized appropriately.