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FAIR
View article on FAIR's website ([link removed])
Lemon Arrest Shows Being Near Protesters Can Make You an Enemy of the State Ari Paul ([link removed])


Politico: Don Lemon arrested over Minnesota church protest after judge previously rejected charge

“Two of the five protesters were not protestors at all," Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote (Politico, 1/30/26 ([link removed]) ). "There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.”

Two journalists—former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort—were arrested by federal agents for their role in covering an anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul church. According to Deadline (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ), a “Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that Lemon was facing ‘conspiracy to Deprive Rights, and …interfering by force of someone’s First Amendment rights,’" meaning “Lemon could face up to a decade behind bars on the first charge and fines and more than a year in prison on the second charge.”

This is a serious escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the press, as “the chief federal judge in Minneapolis declined to allow the case because he saw no probable cause to arrest the longtime journalist,” Politico (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ) said. The administration stewed over Lemon’s coverage, and decided it was worth going after him. These arrests are a sign of the administration growing authoritarianism, as journalists are rounded up as protests are met with state violence.

To understand how badly the administration wanted to go after Lemon in particular, consider the description from the Washington Examiner (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ) of the hurdles it faced:

The Justice Department had dropped ([link removed]) its arrest warrant requests for Lemon and several others involved in the protest earlier this week, after federal Magistrate Judge Douglas L. Micko had also previously rejected the charges against Lemon.

After Micko initially rejected the arrest warrants, the DoJ appealed ([link removed]) the decision to a higher court, in which Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, also refused to take action on the emergency request. Then, the DoJ appealed for a “writ of mandamus” to request a higher court force Schiltz to take action, according to Politico. That panel of judges rejected ([link removed]) the emergency decision as well.

The New York Times (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ) explained that the arrests finally resulted from a grand jury indictment—an illustration of New York Judge Sol Wachtler's observation ([link removed]) that “any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.”


** Scoffing at the First Amendment
------------------------------------------------------------
NY Post: Ex-CNN host Don Lemon arrested for Minnesota church invasion while in Los Angeles covering Grammys

The New York Post (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ) asserted that Lemon "was very much part of the [protest] group," because beforehand he did a stand-up saying, "They’re planning an operation we’re going to follow them on." This standard would make every embedded reporter a military combatant.

Regime-adjacent media are giddy about Lemon’s arrest and already scoffing at the First Amendment concerns. The New York Post (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ) said:

While he’s denied being part of the demonstrators, video posted by Lemon himself before, during and after the church takeover ([link removed]) showed he was very much part of the group, under the guise of “chronicling” the event as a reporter.

Before the group barged into the house of worship, Lemon filmed a segment admitting he had done some “reconnaissance” with the activists, which included members of Minnesota Black Lives Matter, who were milling about in a parking lot a few feet away.

“They’re planning an operation we’re going to follow them on. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s called Operation Pull-Up,” he said.

That’s just called reporting, but that does seem to be the point: The administration views reporting as a threat to the ongoing DHS operations in Minneapolis, and therefore it cannot be tolerated.

The Daily Mail (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ), a right-wing British tabloid, mocked Lemon after his arrest:

​​An insider familiar with the investigation added that prosecutors considered that Lemon would likely enjoy the publicity of his arrest, and said it was "definitely a downside" to bringing charges against him.

"He’ll write a book and act like he’s a martyr," the source said. "But I also think if you don’t do anything you send a message that people can disrupt church services, and I think they have to cut that shit off and enforce the law."


** Accomplices to protesters
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FAIR: Corporate Media Analysts’ Indifference to US Journalists Facing 70 Years in Prison

Prosecution of reporters for being present at demonstrations has mostly happened to journalists less prominent than Lemon (FAIR.org, 9/26/17 ([link removed]) ).

Lemon’s arrest clearly gratifies Trump and the MAGA base, who perceive the journalist as having mocked both the president and his fans (Poynter, 1/29/20 ([link removed]) ). “Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!),” Trump posted on the site then known as Twitter (1/28/20 ([link removed]) ). But it also sends a broader message to journalists: Reporting from anti-ICE protests means you are an enemy of the regime, a stance that could have an immense chilling effect.

As horrible as Trump is when it comes to attacking press freedom ([link removed]) , the Lemon case is the latest escalation in a long history of government attacks on the press who cover protests. Here are just a few incidents we’ve documented:
* Two reporters from the progressive Asheville Blade of North Carolina were convicted of trespassing while covering the clearing of a homeless encampment (FAIR.org, 6/8/23 ([link removed]) ).
* Eight journalists were charged with felony rioting for being in the proximity of unruly protesters at the 2017 presidential inauguration, in what were known as the J20 protests (FAIR.org, 9/26/17 ([link removed]) ). (One was former FAIR writer Aaron Cantú ([link removed]) , who later later settled a lawsuit against the District of Columbia for his arrest and mistreatment—The Nation, 5/4/23 ([link removed]) .) Federal Judge Lynn Leibovitz held that another defendant, independent journalist Alexei Wood, could be tried for conspiracy and destruction of property because by covering the demonstration, his audience was "being kept abreast and informed of the events" (FAIR.org, 12/16/17 ([link removed]) ).
* Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was arrested and later acquitted on misdemeanor charges related to her coverage of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising (FAIR.org, 3/16/21 ([link removed]) ).
* Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman faced rioting charges for her coverage of anti-pipeline protests in North Dakota. The charges were later dismissed (Guardian, 10/17/16 ([link removed]) ).
* Former FAIR intern John Knefel was one of at least 26 journalists arrested for covering Occupy protests around the country (FAIR.org, 1/1/12 ([link removed]) ).

The Lemon and Fort arrests are a ratcheting up of an established trend by US officials, both local and national, to view reporters as accomplices to anti-government protesters, and to use the fear of arrest to scare the rest of the media.

As the National Association of Black Journalists (1/30/26 ([link removed]) ) put it, this moment is “about whether the First Amendment has meaning when reporting is inconvenient to those in power.” The situation “mirrors a broader pattern in which government actors appear quick to criminalize those documenting injustice, while accountability for official misconduct remains elusive.”


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