Don’t hate me but I totally forgot that Don Lemon doesn’t work for CNN anymore. I thought he was still a CNN reporter and anchor, that’s how little I pay attention to CNN’s programming at this point. Lemon was fired from CNN in 2023, and since then, he’s tried his hand at a Twitter talk show (canceled) and I guess he does social-media and YouTube independent-journalism now. Well, Lemon has been in Minneapolis for a few weeks, covering the ICE and Border Patrol occupation of the city, and the federal authorities’ reign of terror, murder and abuse. Lemon and another journalist named Georgia Fort attended a protest within a Minneapolis church, Cities Church. The pastor of the church is David Easterwood, who is ALSO an ICE field director. There have been protests and demonstrations within the church, and Lemon and Fort attended and covered one of those protests. Soon after, they were arrested on bogus charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Lemon and Fort were released within 24 hours.
Federal agents arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor is also an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lemon, a former CNN anchor and NBC correspondent, was arrested Thursday night as he was covering the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, his attorney said in a statement. The arrest comes after a magistrate judge rejected a previous request by prosecutors to charge him.
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, wrote in a statement.
Fort, an Emmy-award winning Twin Cities journalist, filmed a short Facebook live video around 6:30 a.m. Friday morning announcing that agents were at her door and her lawyer advised her to go with them. The agents said they were able to go before a grand jury and get a warrant for her arrest, Fort said.
“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media” Fort said. “I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press.”
Fort’s arrest warrant listed charges of conspiracy against the right of religious freedom and interfering with the exercise of religious freedom at a place of worship. Fort appeared before a federal judge on Friday afternoon and was released after prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to have her held in jail, arguing the offense was violent in nature.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that two others were also arrested at her direction in connection with the protest: Black Lives Matter activist Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy, who works as a lobbyist for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and is a Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for state Senate.
Demonstrators, led by civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong and St. Paul School Board Member Chauntyll Allen, interrupted the service at Cities Church on Jan. 18 with chants of “Justice for Renee Good,” who was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month. Pastor David Easterwood is an ICE field director in St. Paul, but did not appear to be present at the service during the protest. Fort and Lemon filmed the protest, during which demonstrators sought to point out the contradiction between working for ICE and preaching the Christian Gospel. “How dare you claim to be a pastor of God and you are involved in evil in our community,” Levy Armstrong said in the middle of the church.
Federal agents arrested Levy Armstrong, a former president of Minneapolis NAACP and a reverend herself, on Jan. 22 along with Allen and a third demonstrator. Levy Armstrong was charged under 18 USC 241, felony conspiracy to violate others’ civil rights, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who called it a “riot.”
The fact that the federal government went to LA to arrest Don Lemon for attending and covering a protest in a Minneapolis church is shocking. Apparently, Kristi Noem and federal authorities first tried to get a judge to sign off on all of these ridiculous charges but the judge was like “nope.” And Noem and her people just went ahead and arrested them anyway. Noem is such a C-U-Next-Tuesday, my god. She’s so busy lying her Botox off about the American citizens murdered by federal paramilitary Nazi dumbf–ks to actually charge any ICE agent with the horrendous crimes they’re committing, but suddenly she has all the time in the world to manufacture federal charges against Black activists and journalists.
This video was filmed in Georgia Fort’s home when masked agents with DEA markings were surrounding her home to arrest her. The point is to terrorize journalists (specifically Black journalists) for doing their jobs.
Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning
I was sent this video of agents at her door: pic.twitter.com/41VAPskkL8
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 30, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Don Lemon attends The PIECE by PIECE New York Premiere, held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, New York, USA, Wednesday October 9, 2024.,Image: 918924349, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com/Avalon
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- BEVERLY HILLS LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 20: American television journalist Don Lemon arrives at the 5th Annual Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards held at the Wilshire Garden Courtyard at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on June 20, 2025 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1013485995, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Don Lemon, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Don Lemon attends Apple TV+ series The Morning Show season 4 premiere, held at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Tuesday, September 9, 2025.,Image: 1035677860, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Jennifer Graylock-Graylock.com/Avalon
After the politically motivated m#@$#@s that occurred in Minnesota before the ICE invasion, the video of the monsters at Georgia Fort’s door is particularly chilling. It ISN’T a coincidence that all 4 people targeted/arrested were black. These arrests were illegal and performative to scare journalists and content creators from speaking out, but targeting black people also fires up the lowlife magat base (protecting kids was never the goal). We must protest this regime, topple it and institute real change in this country. This is happening in America in the year 2026.
And it’s all captured on film. Mygawd that creepy figure lurking at the door. There is so much evidence for when they lose their immunity, and they will. The midterms are not a drill. Vote like your life literally depends on it!! (That’s a general call to action, TN. I’m not lecturing you. I’m sure as a TN Dem, you know the power of a vote.)
Everyday I wake up more speechless than the last, at the idiocy and violence of this regime.
Just like trump’s first regime, every day is Dorothy Parker Day, ‘what fresh hell is this?’ It’s all so horrifying.
The White House Twitter/X account posted a picture of Lemon captioned “DON LEMON ARRESTED for involvement in the St. Paul Church riots” in large letters. The headline: “When life gives you lemons…” was accompanied by emojis of tiny chains. Yes: chains. These people are delightedly celebrating their own racist maliciousness.
I hope they sue the f-ck outta everybody. Can they do that?
It’s not funny, not at all, but honestly when I first read that the fascists had to gin up a grand jury to get an arrest warrant because TWO judges told them Hell No, all I could think was —
I didn’t know you could make a ham sandwich out of a Lemon!
I’m sorry. I’ll see myself out.
No, that’s good. Gotta lighten the mood somehow. These bullsh*t cases will fail once they get to an actual court, but these folks shouldn’t have to go through the stress & expense, nor should our tax dollars go toward this clear infringement on multiple constitutional rights.
Thank you, @BeanieBean. You’re kind. And absolutely right about the $$.
On top of the journalists and activists being Black, apparently the DOJ used the ku klux clan law to arrest them. These people are despicable.
I hate queen tangerine – but Lemon crossed a line. Protesters and journalists (and in this case he crossed it there too as he was aware and part of what they were doing) belong outside an active service. Those people ALSO had constitutional rights- to worship in peace.
Nope. We are not going to ignore a journalist’s rights to freedom of the press. Not one bit. It was clear from the outset that Don Lemon was there as a reporter and not a participant.
Besides at most these protestors should get a trespass citation. Not jail.
Spreading this ignorant information helps fascism spread.
Nope. Places of worship are public spaces, this was news, demonstrations are allowed anywhere. As for the constitution, it says CONGRESS cannot prohibit the exercise of religion–not that citizens cannot protest an ICE-pastor, AND it addresses the right to free assembly, the right to free speech, right to a free press (all contained in Amendment 1).
Very little coverage was given to 100 – yes, 100 – pastors etc arrested during a ‘pray in’ at Minneapolis airport. They were not allowed to ‘worship in peace’.
Nope.
If ICE now is allowed to torment people inside churches and hospitals, journalists get to be there, too.
Yes, Don has a successful YouTube channel and has been very critical of this administration. Being Black and a member of the LGBTQ+ community definitely made him a target. The 4 Black people arrested didn’t organize the protest. 2 were journalists – Lemon and Fort. They simply reported on it, as journalists do. Using the KKK (ku klux klan) law to arrest Black people is definitely a choice. Hopefully this, along with the executions of Renee Good, Keith Porter, and Alex Pretti have been a true eye opener for all of the journalists and networks who insisted that Trump would be great for ratings (so they sane washed and whitewashed his criminality and deviancy). Now they know – all of our first amendment rights and our very lives are being attacked.
But this isn’t solely about journalism. Felon47 wants Black people out protesting, so he can unleash his untrained murderous r@cist thugs on and use for target practice. Hes being doing all kinds of crap to get us out there. Mainstream media made no mention of the murder of Keith Porter, a Black man, which occurred around the same time as that of Renee Good. He knows that White America isn’t going to hold monthslong nationwide protests over the murder of minorities. There are hundreds of poc missing in ICE custody and many have died in ICE custody. Yet its seldom reported. But the horrific murders of Renee and Alex, with indisputable video evidence that Noems’ and 47s other lackeys’ lies and defamation couldn’t subvert, caused Minnesotans to not just mobilize and protest, but also after seeing how effective Black Americans economic boycott against Target and other businesses was (and still is), they went on a general strike for a day. With other states wanting to also strike. And that terrified him. So Bonvino was ousted and Homan was sent to Minnesota. Meanwhile, another nationwide No Kings protest is being organized.
AG Pam Bondi personally gave the orders to arrest journalists. And when a group of Minnesotans are protesting that Christian pastors shouldn’t be ICE field directors, they found black people to arrest.
Trump can’t gloat very far on Truth Social because it’s not that widely read and it’s his personal investment. So The White House twitter account had to brag with chain emojis.
I watched the live stream of Don going into the church in real time. The protestors were already in the church when he showed up. He made it clear multiple times that he was there as a journalist. Mother Jones has an article about this church and its christian nationalist ties. People should know about these churches because they’re far from the teachings of Christ.
Thank you for calling out Mother Jones! I subscribe. They charge about $20/year, using low prices to promote circulation that gets them additional funding. I strongly encourage anyone reading this to look up Mother Jones and subscribe. It is solid, no holds barred, ethical, independent journalism. They’re a wonderful publication to support. (I read it and put it in my little library, hoping it encourages more circulation to support the magazine.)
They did this to distract from the Epstein dump because they knew journalists would cover these arrests.
Targeting Black journalists was the treat they gave to their racist selves.