MN - Journalist Don Lemon arrested for church protest, Minneapolis, 18 Jan 2026

[witchway]

Like I said, that the grand jury does not answer, to, or is influenced by, Trump.

However this whole situation was politicized. From the beginning. This was by all accounts not normal. Judges refused to sign, attorneys refused to present indictments.

Rather than career staff, the document lists high-level political appointees like Pam Bondi (Attorney General), Harmeet Dhillon (Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights), and Daniel Rosen (U.S. Attorney for Minnesota). We can go on. But these facts are spread through out and easily verified. JMO

 

[J. J. in Phila]

However this whole situation was politicized. From the beginning. This was by all accounts not normal. Judges refused to sign, attorneys refused to present indictments.

Rather than career staff, the document lists high-level political appointees like Pam Bondi (Attorney General), Harmeet Dhillon (Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights), and Daniel Rosen (U.S. Attorney for Minnesota). We can go on. But these facts are spread through out and easily verified. JMO

Yes, on both sides, but it is very hard to get that into a grand jury.

 

[Ruminations]

Same way anyone in that church service or the law enforcement involved in this case could be lying too, right? I mean, if you don’t think she’s being honest, then why do you believe others involved are? Is there a certain quality involved that one would possess that makes you believe that one group or individual are being honest or not?

For example, Pam Bondi is already infamous for her lies about the Epstein files.

So, there's that.

The protesters have not been publicly caught in lies that I am aware of.

MOO

 

[Ruminations]

I do not follow. What dors time have to do with evidence presented to the GJ?

Nothing. Because prosecutors did not use the GJ for a lot of time to preserve witness testimony, as they could have for a different type of case.

The person posting that is apparently not aware of how quickly the GJ turned this around. And it still wasn't fast enough for the political prosecutors, because they tried going to TWO judges before the GJ could meet.

This is not a situation where there is any evidence that the GJ took a minute longer than necessary to approve the arrests.

There are cases where prosecution has to tread carefully. Victims who were children when they were harmed are very vulnerable. A grand jury is secret, so abusers might not find out who testified or what was said ever, unless it comes out in trial. And, if abusers convince victims to not to testify at trial, victims already did testify and prosecutors have their sworn statements. If the case never goes to trial, the victims at least didn't have to testify in public.

Sometimes, a grand jury is used for many, many hours to build a case. Sometimes, it's in and out to get the go ahead to prosecute it.

A long investigation is not how grand juries "work" all the time. It is how they "work" sometimes. There is not a scintilla of evidence that this case was handled with an investigative grand jury. This particular grand jury likely took even less time than the judges who rejected the case, because the judges probably asked more questions.

MOO

 

[Deleted member 117884]

By Georgia Fort, Feb 5, 2026 in New York Times. Georgia Fort is the other journalist arrested, along with Don Lemon, for reporting on the church protest. This is an essay by her.

Opinion | I Was Arrested for Doing My Job as a Reporter. Who’s Next?

I covered a Minnesota church protest. Press credentials didn’t protect me.

www.nytimes.com

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Nothing. Because prosecutors did not use the GJ for a lot of time to preserve witness testimony, as they could have for a different type of case.

The person posting that is apparently not aware of how quickly the GJ turned this around. And it still wasn't fast enough for the political prosecutors, because they tried going to TWO judges before the GJ could meet.

This is not a situation where there is any evidence that the GJ took a minute longer than necessary to approve the arrests.

There are cases where prosecution has to tread carefully. Victims who were children when they were harmed are very vulnerable. A grand jury is secret, so abusers might not find out who testified or what was said ever, unless it comes out in trial. And, if abusers convince victims to not to testify at trial, victims already did testify and prosecutors have their sworn statements. If the case never goes to trial, the victims at least didn't have to testify in public.

Sometimes, a grand jury is used for many, many hours to build a case. Sometimes, it's in and out to get the go ahead to prosecute it.

A long investigation is not how grand juries "work" all the time. It is how they "work" sometimes. There is not a scintilla of evidence that this case was handled with an investigative grand jury. This particular grand jury likely took even less time than the judges who rejected the case, because the judges probably asked more questions.

MOO

Oh I am quite aware of it. I am also how many appeals the DoJ has won on these issues.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/06/politics/appeals-court-trump-immigration-detention-policy

 

[otto]

I fail to see the relevance of that case with this one, unless your point is that the courts should consider DL a journalist?

BBM.

"WCW employs Madden to produce tape-recorded commentaries, which are replayed to callers on WCW's 900-number hotline. These commentaries promote upcoming WCW wrestling events and pay-per-view television programs, announce the results of wrestling matches and discuss wrestlers' personal lives and careers."

This is something a marketer or video production professional would do, not a journalist.

"No other court, however, has considered whether the privilege may be invoked by those like Madden who are neither "pamphleteers" nor "metropolitan publishers," and certainly not engaged in investigating, publishing, reporting or broadcasting in the traditional sense."

Completely different from Lemon.

"Based on the rationale of Baker, the court concluded that "the critical question in determining if a person falls within the class of persons protected by the journalist's privilege is whether the person, at the inception of the investigatory process, had the intent to disseminate to the public the information obtained through the investigation." von Bulow, 811 F.2d at 143. In contrast, a person who "gathers information for personal reasons, unrelated to dissemination of information to the public, will not be deterred from undertaking his search simply by rules which permit discovery of that information in a later civil proceeding."

And also:

"As we have indicated previously, we agree with von Bulow that the person claiming privilege must be engaged in the process of "investigative reporting" or "news gathering." Moreover, we agree with Shoen, which held that the critical question for deciding whether a person may invoke the journalist's privilege is "whether she is gathering news for dissemination to the public." Shoen, 5 F.3d at 1293. We hold that individuals are journalists when engaged in investigative reporting, gathering news, and have the intent at the beginning of the news-gathering process to disseminate this information to the public. Madden does not pass this test."

This sounds like Lemon.

MOO.

This is the point of the article. It sets out the three criteria that must be met before anyone can claim privilege due to role as journalist. In my opinion, where Don Lemon falls short, is point #1.

Specifically, the goal of the protest was to confront a member of the church who works as a federal officer. No one else in the church has any association with federal immigration policy.

The person who was the target of the protest was not at the church that morning - which is a serious oversight in the context of "investigative reporting".

"To summarize, we hold that individuals claiming the protections of the journalist's privilege must demonstrate the concurrence of three elements: that they:
1) are engaged in investigative reporting;
2) are gathering news; and
3) possess the intent at the inception of the newsgathering process to disseminate this news to the public."

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/151/125/497636/

Armstrong told Lemon that the pastor that they wanted to confront "might have run away."

https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2026/01/CASE-026-cr-00025-LMP-DLM.pdf

 

[Deleted member 117884]

In case anyone wants to continue denigrating Georgia Fort's credentials as a journalist, from the NYTimes essay above, she wrote:

I am a three-time Upper Midwest Emmy Award winner with 14 Regional Emmy nominations. I serve as the vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Minnesota chapter. My press credentials have been recognized by state and federal courts in Minnesota. Yet none of it prevented me from being arrested for doing my job.


To fact check:

Listings of Upper Midwest Emmy award winers and nominees (I checked - she is there):

https://midwestemmys.org/emmy-awards/nominees-recipients/

Georgia Fort's award-winning work was with BLCK Press: Home | BLCK Press


She is actively involved with National Association of Black Journalists

NABJ-MN

Advocating for representation and excellence in media.

nabjmn.org

Additional education and professional background for Georgia Fort, bmm

..she majored in business at the University of St. Thomas, where she hosted a weekly show for the college radio station. After graduating in 2010, she moved to Georgia and got a job cohosting a morning radio show, eventually transitioning into TV news and multimedia reporting. Filming, producing video, writing scripts, posting print stories for the web—she learned to do it all.

Returning to Minnesota in 2017, Fort worked as a news anchor in Duluth. She moved back to St. Paul in 2018 and was soon reporting as a freelancer for local media outlets and nonprofits, including Unicorn Riot, a decentralized, educational nonprofit media organization of journalists cofounded by Niko Georgiades.

Why Georgia Fort Became an Independent Journalist

Georgia Fort left the rarified trappings of traditional journalism to report on social justice and institutional inequities from a more authentic perspective: her own.

mspmag.com

Georgia Fort is a journalist and has the credentials, experience, work portfolio to prove it. imo

 

[J. J. in Phila]

In case anyone wants to continue denigrating Georgia Fort's credentials as a journalist, from the NYTimes essay above, she wrote:

I am a three-time Upper Midwest Emmy Award winner with 14 Regional Emmy nominations. I serve as the vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists’ Minnesota chapter. My press credentials have been recognized by state and federal courts in Minnesota. Yet none of it prevented me from being arrested for doing my job.


To fact check:

Listings of Upper Midwest Emmy award winers and nominees (I checked - she is there):

https://midwestemmys.org/emmy-awards/nominees-recipients/

Georgia Fort's award-winning work was with BLCK Press: Home | BLCK Press


She is actively involved with National Association of Black Journalists

NABJ-MN

Advocating for representation and excellence in media.

nabjmn.org

Additional education and professional background for Georgia Fort, bmm

..she majored in business at the University of St. Thomas, where she hosted a weekly show for the college radio station. After graduating in 2010, she moved to Georgia and got a job cohosting a morning radio show, eventually transitioning into TV news and multimedia reporting. Filming, producing video, writing scripts, posting print stories for the web—she learned to do it all.

Returning to Minnesota in 2017, Fort worked as a news anchor in Duluth. She moved back to St. Paul in 2018 and was soon reporting as a freelancer for local media outlets and nonprofits, including Unicorn Riot, a decentralized, educational nonprofit media organization of journalists cofounded by Niko Georgiades.

Why Georgia Fort Became an Independent Journalist

Georgia Fort left the rarified trappings of traditional journalism to report on social justice and institutional inequities from a more authentic perspective: her own.

mspmag.com

Georgia Fort is a journalist and has the credentials, experience, work portfolio to prove it. imo

Fort is only charged with conspiracy, so it becomes the **riding with the bank robber to the bank, going in with him, et c.** question.

 

[Deleted member 117884]

Warnock is an Senator from Georgia and a Baptist minister.

"Because you know, here's what preachers and journalists have in common," Warnock said. "Our work is to seek the truth and to speak the truth, which makes all of us better."

Raphael Warnock likens journalists to pastors as he decries Don Lemon's arrest

Sen. Raphael Warnock defends Don Lemon amid arrest controversy, arguing journalists shouldn't face arrest for covering protests and seeking truth.

www.aol.com

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

This is the point of the article. It sets out the three criteria that must be met before anyone can claim privilege due to role as journalist. In my opinion, where Don Lemon falls short, is point #1.

Specifically, the goal of the protest was to confront a member of the church who works as a federal officer.

SBMFF.

The case that was cited, sets out "three criteria that must be met before anyone can claim privilege due to role as journalist," as you said.

The goal of the protest is of no relevance. It's the goal of LEMON that's important in distinguishing whether or not he was acting as a journalist. Otherwise, no journalist would meet the criteria for covering news since the goal of the newsmakers wouldn't be to inform the public.

It's like saying "well, since the goal of the murderer wasn't to inform the public, then Reporter X wasn't acting as a journalist for covering the murder." That's not how it works.

MOO.

 

[Betty P]

It's false equivalence to compare a reporter helping criminals plan a bank robbery to reporters being alerted to attend a peaceful demonstration at a church.

One is easily perceived to be a criminal activity, the other isn't.

MOO

 

[Hexe]

That is no longer a subject for this thread, though it may be in court.

It very much is the subject of this thread.

MOO

 

[Hexe]

Specifically, the goal of the protest was to confront a member of the church who works as a federal officer.

What is the source for that claim?

ETA:

The person who was the target of the protest was not at the church that morning - which is a serious oversight in the context of "investigative reporting".

Preseence or not of that preson during the protest eas the problem of the protesters. Not of the journalist, documenting that protest.

MOO

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Warnock is an Senator from Georgia and a Baptist minister.

"Because you know, here's what preachers and journalists have in common," Warnock said. "Our work is to seek the truth and to speak the truth, which makes all of us better."

Raphael Warnock likens journalists to pastors as he decries Don Lemon's arrest

Sen. Raphael Warnock defends Don Lemon amid arrest controversy, arguing journalists shouldn't face arrest for covering protests and seeking truth.

www.aol.com

And this pastor, Paula White, has condemned Lemon: 'Shameful': Pastors, Christian leaders react to activists storming So. Baptist church in Minnesota

<modsnip: No links to support information stated as fact>

 

[otto]

What is the source for that claim?

ETA:
Preseence or not of that preson during the protest eas the problem of the protesters. Not of the journalist, documenting that protest.

MOO

Let's go back to the stated objective of the protest again:

"The protest was to draw attention to the fact that a church minister at Cities Church in Saint Paul is affiliated with ICE."​

Nekima Levy Armstrong: Why We Protested at Cities Church in Saint Paul, and What Our Arrests Mean

Instead, Armstrong and Allen were taken to the Sherburne County Jail using three sets of restraints “as if we were hardened criminals and murderers. We had ankle shackles on our ankles, we had belly chains around our waist, and we had handcuffs with bars in the middle. As someone who majored in Af

www.womenspress.com

If the minister in question was not at the church at the time of the protest, and the intent of the protest was to draw attention to that minister, why did protesters use such heavy handed methods to communicate their opinion? Were they unable to think of more effective and respectful options for communication? Why didn't protesters wait until the end of the religious service and respectfully speak to the congregation? Why didn't they hand out notices?

If the intent was to confront the minister, then the protest makes sense, especially given behaviour of protesters inside the church. The protesters shocked the congregation.

How is it a big story that protesters are going to peacefully and respectfully tell a congregation that a man who is not in the church is a federal officer? It's not.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed>

His status as a journalist is not up for discussion.

 

[otto]

Can we please agree to disagree on whether Don Lemon is a journalist?

He was a CNN anchor. He’s won major awards for his reporting. The fact that he now works independently does not erase decades of professional journalism. Most people would still consider him a journalist.
Georgia Fort is also an Emmy Award-winning journalist. She has more than a decade of professional broadcast experience, has worked as both a reporter and anchor, and was one of only two journalists inside the courtroom for the Derek Chauvin sentencing. She is the founder of her own independent newsroom and continues to produce investigative reporting.
So from this point on, in this thread, both Lemon and Fort are to be treated as journalists.

A&E 'Biography' to Spotlight Bobby Brown for New Event & Docuseries

The series, which premiere in May, will take a look at the life of the R&B singer and ex-husband of Whitney Houston.

www.tvinsider.com

https://www.georgiafort.com/about
PS I know the above links are not MSM, but I have researched and have found through various other sources that the info is correct. If you find out anything differently and these links misrepresent their careers, please post so on this thread.

Bringing the above forward ...

"So from this point on, in this thread, both Lemon and Fort are to be treated as journalists."

 

[Hexe]

Let's go back to the stated objective of the protest again:

"The protest was to draw attention to the fact that a church minister at Cities Church in Saint Paul is affiliated with ICE."​

Nekima Levy Armstrong: Why We Protested at Cities Church in Saint Paul, and What Our Arrests Mean

Instead, Armstrong and Allen were taken to the Sherburne County Jail using three sets of restraints “as if we were hardened criminals and murderers. We had ankle shackles on our ankles, we had belly chains around our waist, and we had handcuffs with bars in the middle. As someone who majored in Af

www.womenspress.com

If the minister in question was not at the church at the time of the protest, and the intent of the protest was to draw attention to that minister, why did protesters use such heavy handed methods to communicate their opinion? Were they unable to think of more effective and respectful options for communication? Why didn't protesters wait until the end of the religious service and respectfully speak to the congregation? Why didn't they hand out notices?

If the intent was to confront the minister, then the protest makes sense, especially given behaviour of protesters inside the church. The protesters shocked the congregation.

What does that have to do with Lemon and his role as a journalist?

How is it a big story that protesters are going to peacefully and respectfully tell a congregation that a man who is not in the church is a federal officer? It's not.

Don Lemon is not exactly selling scoops to news agencies. His job as a reporter does not base only on getting "big stories" In this particular case the protest was not a big story in itself. It was just a piece of bigger story about a city hit by hard times and reacting to them. That was his big story. I mean, man, I am sitting here, in Poland, thousands and thousands of miles away and I want to know what's going on in Minneapolis.

Also, it is not a dead season, with nothing particilar happening in the US. Journos have piles upon piles of hot topics at their reach. No need to spice up things with one shocking protest (which is by far not the most shocking thing that happened in Minneapolis this year).

MOO

 

[Hexe]

His status as a journalist is not up for discussion.

No, it is not. But the question if his behaviour at the church fulfilled the criteria of a person acting as a journalist IS A TOPIC OF THIS THREAD.

MOO