Big Trouble for Don Lemon Following Arrest

Just when you thought former CNN host Don Lemon might get away with leading a disturbing, highly inappropriate – and potentially illegal – invasion of a Minnesota church, terrorizing congregants, guess again.

Lemon was just arrested by federal authorities after a Minnesota grand jury indicted him on charges of conspiring to deprive civil rights and violating the FACE Act for his involvement in disrupting Sunday services at the Cities Church in St. Paul.

As reported by CNN:

Two independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, have been arrested in connection with a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Lemon and Fort were live-streaming as dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters rushed into Cities Church on January 18, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations.

Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday announced that four people had been arrested “in connection with the coordinated attack” at the church.

The other two individuals Bondi named were Trahern Jeen Crew and Jamael Lydell Lundy.

Court records related to the arrests were not immediately available. Lemon, a former CNN anchor who now hosts his own show on YouTube and other platforms, is expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday.

Lemon was in L.A. to cover the Grammy Awards…He was arrested by a team of agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the operation. His case is being led by HSI.

In many ways, it feels like Lemon got exactly what he was hoping for. Last night, around 11 p.m., federal agents arrested him very publicly at his Los Angeles hotel, where he was staying ahead of this weekend’s Grammy Awards. And immediately, this story opens a host of serious – and potentially uncomfortable – questions.

Let’s start with the facts as we currently understand them. According to reports, Don Lemon has been charged with conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights and violation of the FACE Act, a federal statute that protects both abortion clinics and houses of worship from force, intimidation, or physical obstruction.

This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. A federal magistrate judge initially declined to issue an arrest warrant. Prosecutors then took the unusual step of appealing to a district court judge, who declined to override the magistrate, but pointed them toward another option: a grand jury. That grand jury was impaneled, and it returned an indictment.

That matters. A grand jury found probable cause.

Now, let me be very clear about something up front: I’m no fan of Don Lemon. I don’t think he was particularly good at his job at CNN. I think he’s been irrelevant in the media for years. And I think what he did inside that church was wrong, inappropriate, and deeply disrespectful. But that doesn’t end the conversation. If anything, it starts it.

My biggest concern here isn’t whether Don Lemon deserves criticism. He does. My concern is whether we’re about to turn him into exactly what he wants to be: a martyr. It’s fitting that he was arrested in Hollywood, because if you wanted to script the most cinematic version of this moment, you couldn’t do much better as a dethroned television personality-turned-YouTuber than to be arrested as a “journalist” in a Los Angeles hotel, on Grammy weekend, while cameras are everywhere. That’s not lost on Don Lemon. And it shouldn’t be lost on us.

The real issue – the one that matters – is what happened inside that church. The video shows Lemon doing far more than standing in the back with a camera. He approaches the pastor during an active worship service. The pastor repeatedly says he needs to tend to his congregation. Lemon continues questioning him. At one point, the pastor directly asks Lemon to leave unless he’s there to worship. Lemon doesn’t leave. He stays inside the building for several more minutes, continues engaging congregants, and later characterizes traumatized children as evidence that the disruption was “the point.” That’s not passive reporting. That’s participation. And that distinction matters – legally.

The FACE Act doesn’t prohibit journalism. It prohibits interference. It prohibits intimidation. It prohibits physical obstruction of someone lawfully exercising their First Amendment right to worship. The protesters’ right to speak does not trump the congregation’s right to pray.

That said, there is another side to this that we cannot ignore – and pretending otherwise would be intellectually dishonest. When the government starts arresting journalists, even bad ones, even obnoxious ones, and even ones you disagree with, it should give all of us pause. Because the pendulum always swings back. And when it does, the people most likely to feel the weight are independent and, you’d better believe, conservative-leaning journalists.

So, the question isn’t whether you like Don Lemon or not. The question is, “Where is the line?”

In my view, Lemon didn’t just blur the line – he crossed it. He stopped reporting and started engaging. He refused to leave when asked. He aligned himself with protesters, echoed their messaging, and later went on a podcast describing the congregation as entitled and rooted in white supremacy – without knowing them, their beliefs, or their hearts. That’s not journalism. It’s activism, with a microphone.

Still, the legal outcome here is far from guaranteed. Even if convicted, Lemon is unlikely to serve jail time. Nonviolent FACE Act violations often result in fines or probation. And he has one of the best defense attorneys in the country.

Which brings us back to the central tension of this moment. Accountability matters. Religious freedom matters. And Freedom of the Press matters too. Those truths can exist at the same time.

What we should notdo is let Don Lemon become the story – which is clearly all he really wants to happen – because the real issue isn’t even about him. It’s the right of Americans to worship freely without intimidation, and the responsibility journalists have to observe without becoming the event themselves.

We’ll follow the facts as they develop. And we’ll keep asking the hard questions – even when the answers don’t fit neatly into partisan boxes.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of the high-profile arrest of Don Lemon and others who stormed the Minnesota church. We also updated you on our U.S. Supreme Court case against CNN for false statements and defamation against renowned attorney and scholar, Alan Dershowitz.