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

[J. J. in Phila]

Is it unusual that an unsigned indictment has been filed with the court? It is stamped that it was filed on 1/29/26, and yet both signature lines have not been signed.

View attachment 642723

Don Lemon indictment

www.documentcloud.org

I have seen date stamps on others as well. Sonza will probably be the lead prosecutor.

 

[MrsWatson]

Arrested journalist Don Lemon urges US to ‘keep fighting’ for right to free press

Ex-CNN anchor arrested after covering anti-ICE protest says it was ‘very frightening’ to experience official overreach

www.theguardian.com

 

[bearfossils]

Gotta love the Trump administration using the FACE act to imprison journalists when they previously beat their chest over pardoning anti-abortion activists which violated it in the past.

Strange how the white Christian defendants blocking and interrupting an abortion clinic and subsequently prosecuted by the FACE act “shouldn’t have been prosecuted” and is “a grotesque assault on the principles of this country”, which led Trump to pardon over half a dozen of them — but a black journalist reporting on a protest at a Christian church is being punished by the State with the FACE act as justification. Hmmm…

Trump pardons anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances

“IMO”/“MOO”.

 

[bearfossils]

In your opinion.

Obviously it’s my opinion, I’m the one who typed it out and shared it. I’m not the only one who feels this way, though:

The Freedom of the Press Foundation condemned Lemon and Fort’s arrests, calling them “clear warning shots aimed at other journalists.”

“The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them,” Seth Stern, the organization’s chief of advocacy, said on Jan. 30.

Stern called for individuals and news outlets to rally around Lemon and Fort in defense of the First Amendment’s right to the freedom of the press.

“Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is,” Stern said.

The National Association of Black Journalists said it was "outraged" and called for federal officials to explain what legal justification they had for the arrests. Fort serves as vice president of the organization's Minnesota chapter.

"Let us be perfectly clear: The First Amendment is not optional and journalism is NOT a crime," the organization said. "A government that responds to scrutiny by targeting the messenger is not protecting the public, it is attempting to intimidate it, and considering recent incidents regarding federal agents, it is attempting to distract it."

Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders’ United States branch, said the arrests marked “another attack on every American’s press freedom.”

“The Trump administration cannot send federal agents after reporters simply because they don’t like the stories being reported – especially after already failing multiple times to obtain a warrant from the courts for Lemon’s arrest,” Weimers said.

He called for Lemon and Fort to be released and said they had his organization’s “full support.”

National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. said the group was "deeply alarmed" by Lemon's arrest, adding that arrests of other independent journalists "would signal a troubling pattern of targeting journalists for newsgathering."

"Journalism is not a crime," Schoeff said. "Arresting or detaining journalists for covering protests, public events, or government actions represents a grave threat to press freedom and risks chilling reporting nationwide."

He said his organization would be monitoring the situation.

Errin Haines, founder and editor of the nonprofit news outlet The 19th, asked the public to demand justice for Lemon and Fort.

“I think you’re already seeing so much public support for the issue of press freedom," Haines said during the Jan. 30 episode of ‘The Don Lemon Show’. “That is because the concern we are seeing is just not about one journalist. It’s not just about Don. It’s not just about Georgia. It’s whether reporters can do their job without fear of arrest.”

When journalists are detained for documenting events of public concern, Haines said, “everyone’s right to know is at risk.”

“If this can happen to a high-profile journalist the risk is even greater for local reporters, for freelancers, for journalists of color,” Haines said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists held a news conference on the arrests, as well as broader issues related to the freedom of the press in Minnesota, on Friday, Jan. 30.

CEO Jodie Ginsburg said the state of press freedom was in many ways "much worse than what many of us had imagined" in November 2024. At the time, the group's board issued a statement "in defense of a robust press that can report the facts and hold power to account freely and safely" following Trump's election to a second term.

The virtual news conference included comments by John Abernathy, a local independent photographer who was detained while covering a protest over the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

Abernathy described being tackled and hit with pepper bullets during the Jan. 15 incident, adding that he told law enforcement he was a photographer but didn't have a visible marking identifying him as a member of the press.

"They're clearly targeting the press now," he said, adding that it makes him unsure whether having visible identification would be "helping you or hurting you" in such situations.

Lydia Polgreen, the committee's vice chair and a New York Times opinion columnist, said at the news conference there's been a "tremendous chilling effect" in particular on journalists who are working in the country but aren't U.S. citizens.

Knight First Amendment Institute Executive Director Jameel Jaffer called for either the Justice Department to drop the prosecutions or for the courts to dismiss them.

"We are especially concerned about these arrests because they take place against the background of a broader effort by the Trump administration to tighten the vise around press freedom,” he said.

“IMO”/“MOO”

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Gotta love the Trump administration using the FACE act to imprison journalists when they previously beat their chest over pardoning anti-abortion activists which violated it in the past.

Strange how the white Christian defendants blocking and interrupting an abortion clinic and subsequently prosecuted by the FACE act “shouldn’t have been prosecuted” and is “a grotesque assault on the principles of this country”, which led Trump to pardon over half a dozen of them — but a black journalist reporting on a protest at a Christian church is being punished by the State with the FACE act as justification. Hmmm…

Trump pardons anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances

“IMO”/“MOO”.

I find it interesting that much of the anti-abortion activists argument mirror those of the people invading the church: Anti-abortion activist who led a clinic blockade is sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison

 

[witchway]

I find it interesting that much of the anti-abortion activists argument mirror those of the people invading the church: Anti-abortion activist who led a clinic blockade is sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison

That was a very sick woman and they blockaded the clinic. Very different from the protest in the church. imo

 

[J. J. in Phila]

That was a very sick woman and they blockaded the clinic. Very different from the protest in the church. imo

I could say the same about the protestors. imo.

My point is that nobody should violate this law just because the don't like what it protects.

 

[witchway]

I could say the same about the protestors. imo.

My point is that nobody should violate this law just because the don't like what it protects.

The discussion here is on was DL a journalist or was he protesting.

Edited by me.

 

[Inthedetails]

Seeing the speck in someone else's eye is coming to mind.

 

[Ruminations]

I find it interesting that much of the anti-abortion activists argument mirror those of the people invading the church: Anti-abortion activist who led a clinic blockade is sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison

No mirror.

Not similar.

The article is about protesters. This thread is about journalists being arrested for covering protesters. Please get that straight, this thread is not about the protest.

MOO

(But, the protests were not similar. There were physical injuries in the clinic blockade. There were none at the church. There was a physical blockade at a clinic. There was none at the church.) moo, fwiw.

 

[bearfossils]

I find it interesting that much of the anti-abortion activists argument mirror those of the people invading the church: Anti-abortion activist who led a clinic blockade is sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison

Considering anti-abortion activists have been a part of one the most violent domestic terrorist groups in our country, it’s absolutely obscene to try and compare that to one nonviolent incident in a church that a journalist documented. To pardon a bunch of religious terrorists who should have and were accurately prosecuted by that act, then turn around and use it as an excuse to silence and imprison a journalist for doing what journalists do is the height of hypocrisy.

The entire government relishes in denying and ripping the rights of women away from them, and then uses the same act to justify punishing a journalist covering a protest at a church? How is that not more proof of a government gleefully violating the constitutional “separation of church and state” and giving privilege to certain groups of citizens?

 

[otto]

No mirror.

Not similar.

The article is about protesters. This thread is about journalists being arrested for covering protesters. Please get that straight, this thread is not about the protest.

MOO

(But, the protests were not similar. There were physical injuries in the clinic blockade. There were none at the church. There was a physical blockade at a clinic. There was none at the church.) moo, fwiw.

Incorrect.
There is one documented "physical injury" that resulted from the loud, disruptive people who entered the church during a scheduled church service.

FBI Affidavit in Suport of Arrest Warrant | PDF | U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement | American Government

This affidavit, submitted by Special Agent Timothy Gerber, outlines the investigation into a group of agitators who disrupted a religious service at Cities Church in St. Paul, MN on January 18, 2026. The group, led by Nekima Valdez Levy-Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, coordinated their...

www.scribd.com

 

[J. J. in Phila]

No mirror.

Not similar.

The article is about protesters. This thread is about journalists being arrested for covering protesters. Please get that straight, this thread is not about the protest.

MOO

(But, the protests were not similar. There were physical injuries in the clinic blockade. There were none at the church. There was a physical blockade at a clinic. There was none at the church.) moo, fwiw.

He was arrested for protesting.

The injury occurred when someone slipped and fell.

 

[PrairieWind]

The discussion here is on was DL a journalist or was he protesting.

Edited by me.

I think the discussion is whether DL broke the law. Being a journalist does not give him a pass on the law.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Considering anti-abortion activists have been a part of one the most violent domestic terrorist groups in our country, it’s absolutely obscene to try and compare that to one nonviolent incident in a church that a journalist documented. To pardon a bunch of religious terrorists who should have and were accurately prosecuted by that act, then turn around and use it as an excuse to silence and imprison a journalist for doing what journalists do is the height of hypocrisy.

The entire government relishes in denying and ripping the rights of women away from them, and then uses the same act to justify punishing a journalist covering a protest at a church? How is that not more proof of a government gleefully violating the constitutional “separation of church and state” and giving privilege to certain groups of citizens?

This group was not violent.

The problem is that some people like the law when it is used against one group, but not another.

 

[PrairieWind]

He was arrested for protesting.

The injury occurred when someone slipped and fell.

That is neither factually nor legally correct.

 

[bearfossils]

Incorrect.
There is one documented "physical injury" that resulted from the loud, disruptive people who entered the church during a scheduled church service.

View attachment 643003

FBI Affidavit in Suport of Arrest Warrant | PDF | U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement | American Government

This affidavit, submitted by Special Agent Timothy Gerber, outlines the investigation into a group of agitators who disrupted a religious service at Cities Church in St. Paul, MN on January 18, 2026. The group, led by Nekima Valdez Levy-Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, coordinated their...

www.scribd.com

The Trump administration gleefully pardoned nearly two dozen anti-abortionists who violently blocked abortion clinics and terrorized women trying to access healthcare and were prosecuted under the FACE act. They mocked it and said it violated American rights to protest. Why have they changed their mind with this case? Why is this case different from the anti-abortion “protestors” they were proud to pardon? Why should Don Lemon be punished as a journalist with the same act that they were so offended by before?

Because really, it seems like the government is excusing people who were prosecuted by an act and declaring it as violating the rights of the protestors (white Christians) while also declaring this act as an excuse to punish a black journalist for reporting on a white Christian church.

“IMO”/“MOO”