US: Former CNN host Don Lemon arrested after anti-ICE protests ⁰

Former CNN host Don Lemon has been arrested after he entered a Minnesota church and filmed anti-immigration enforcement protesters as they disrupted a service.

Lemon, now an independent journalist, was taken into custody by federal agents on Thursday night while in Los Angeles covering the Grammy Awards, according to a statement from his lawyer Abbe Lowell.

“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” the attorney said. Lemon, 59, is due to appear in federal court in LA on Friday.

He went into the Cities Church in St Paul on 18 January with a group of protesters who said one of the pastors was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.

“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement posted to his client’s Instagram account on Friday.

The lawyer added: “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand.”

In his own defence, Lemon said in a recent video: “Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it.”

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that federal agents also arrested three others: Trahern Jeen Crews, local independent journalist Georgia Fort and Jamael Lydell Lundy.

She accused them and Lemon of participating in a “coordinated attack” on the church. The exact charges the government will bring against Lemon is unclear. The BBC has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.

Source: BBC