{"id":15506,"date":"2026-01-30T17:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=15506"},"modified":"2026-01-30T17:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:48:40","slug":"st-paul-don-lemon-arrested-in-church-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/st-paul-don-lemon-arrested-in-church-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Paul: Don Lemon Arrested in Church Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Paul, Minnesota<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Federal agents arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 30, officials said.<\/p>\n

Authorities say the arrest is tied to a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18. Lemon livestreamed parts of the incident. He said he was there to report.<\/p>\n

What authorities allege<\/h2>\n

A Justice Department official said Lemon faces a civil rights conspiracy charge. The official also cited a federal charge under the FACE Act.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say the protest disrupted a worship service. They also say it interfered with people trying to worship.<\/p>\n

Officials said agents with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations arrested Lemon.<\/p>\n

Read the law on conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. \u00a7 241)<\/a>. Read the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. \u00a7 248)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Don
Don Lemon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lemon says he was doing journalism<\/h2>\n

Lawyer Abbe Lowell called the arrest an ‘attack on the First Amendment’. He said Lemon was reporting.<\/p>\n

Lemon said he had a tip that activists would show up. He said he did not know they would interrupt worship.<\/p>\n

Footage from inside the church shows arguments about immigration enforcement. Lemon is seen speaking with parishioners.<\/p>\n

Earlier court setbacks for prosecutors<\/h2>\n

After the Jan. 18 protest, federal agents arrested several activists, reports said. Another journalist, Georgia Fort, was also arrested, reports said.<\/p>\n

Before Friday, a magistrate judge declined to issue arrest warrants for Lemon and a producer, reports said.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department then sought emergency review, reports said. The Eighth Circuit rejected that push, reports said.<\/p>\n

Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz also criticized the emergency filings in court letters, reports said.<\/p>\n

Schiltz said prosecutors should seek a grand jury indictment to move forward, the records show.<\/p>\n

Learn about the federal courts in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Political reaction and background<\/h2>\n

Trump administration officials condemned the protest. They accused protesters of intimidating worshippers.<\/p>\n

Lemon worked at CNN<\/a> for 17 years. CNN fired him in 2023.<\/p>\n

He has continued political reporting on his own platforms. He has often criticized immigration policy.<\/p>\n

What happens next<\/h2>\n

Lemon is expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles. The case may later proceed in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department did not immediately answer media questions on Friday, reports said.<\/p>\n

For general information, visit the U.S. Department of Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Paul, Minnesota (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 Federal agents arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 30, officials said. Authorities say the arrest is tied to a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18. Lemon livestreamed parts of the incident. He said he was there to report. What authorities… Continue reading St. Paul: Don Lemon Arrested in Church Protest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[11799,11800,1837,5768,11797,11796,772,10130,11795,588,11802,11736,11798,2811,11801,7580,912,11737,11738,1686,11803,8004,1452,1516],"class_list":["post-15506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-18-u-s-c-241","tag-18-u-s-c-248","tag-arrested","tag-church","tag-church-protest","tag-cities-church","tag-crime","tag-doj","tag-don-lemon-arrest","tag-don","tag-eighth-circuit","tag-excnn","tag-face-act","tag-fbi","tag-homeland-security-investigations","tag-immigration-enforcement","tag-inforum","tag-journalist","tag-lemon","tag-paul","tag-press-freedom","tag-protest","tag-st","tag-st-paul-minnesota","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15609,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15506\/revisions\/15609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}