Journalist and former CNN host Don Lemon has been arrested in the United States after authorities linked him to a protest that disrupted a church service in Minnesota earlier this month.
Lemon was taken into custody in Los Angeles by federal agents from the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, according to a Justice Department official and Lemon’s lawyer.
The arrest follows a January 18 demonstration inside Cities Church in St Paul where protesters interrupted worship to condemn federal immigration enforcement.
Video of the incident shows chanting during the service and heated exchanges with churchgoers. Lemon livestreamed from inside the church and repeatedly said he was there to report and not to participate.
A Justice Department official told that Lemon is accused of conspiring to deprive others of their civil rights and of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which also covers interference with access to places of worship.
The case has also turned on questions about whether Lemon was acting as a journalist.
A magistrate judge declined to issue arrest warrants for Lemon and a video producer who accompanied him, saying prosecutors had not established probable cause.
The chief federal judge in Minnesota later criticised the government’s attempt to overturn that decision through emergency filings, writing there was no evidence the pair engaged in criminal conduct and advising prosecutors to seek a grand jury indictment if they wanted to proceed.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed on social media that Lemon and three others, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort and Jamael Lydell Lundy were arrested in connection with what she described as a coordinated attack on the church.
Lowell called Lemon’s arrest an attack on the First Amendment protections for speech and the press. Civil rights advocates and media figures also criticised the move, arguing it risks chilling coverage of protests and government enforcement actions.
