Disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon was arrested Thursday night in a federal criminal case following his involvement in an anti-ICE protest that stormed a Minnesota church earlier this month, his attorney and Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed.
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement. Bondi on Friday confirmed Lemon was one of four people arrested “in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.”
The arrest stems from Lemon’s involvement in “Operation Pull Up,” a “clandestine” operation that Lemon kept secret before broadcasting the protest once it began. Lemon accompanied Minneapolis lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong—who was arrested earlier this month—on the operation that protested the ICE shooting of Renee Good. The protesters targeted Cities Church because an associate pastor was allegedly the acting director of Saint Paul’s ICE office, according to Armstrong.
“We show up somewhere that is a key location,” Armstrong said to Lemon in an interview prior to the event. “They don’t expect us to come there. And then we disrupt business as usual.” Lemon kissed Armstrong on the cheek at the beginning of the video.
He accompanied the protesters from a Dollar General parking lot to the church. Armstrong and the group disrupted the service and shouted, “ICE Out!” as well as other slogans.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023 over his mistreatment of female colleagues, repeatedly denied any affiliation with the protesters. “I had no affiliations with that organization,” Lemon said after the operation. “I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them there. Why don’t you talk to the actual person who is in charge of the organization and whose idea it was to have the protest at the church before you start blaming me for stuff for which you have no idea?”
Even though he claimed to be an impartial observer of the operation, Lemon withheld details of the operation from his live stream. “These are resistance protesters that are planning an operation that we’re going to follow them on,” he said. “I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing.” He did say, though, that the protesters’ intent was to “surprise people, catch them off guard, and hold them to account.” He also admitted to turning his camera off to avoid exposing the group’s plans.
At one point, Lemon, who said he saw churchgoers “crying” and praying during the chaos, asked Cities Church lead pastor Jonathan Parnell to comment. “This is unacceptable, this is shameful,” Parnell said. “To interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship.”
After the demonstration, Lemon thanked Armstrong for inviting him, and Armstrong acknowledged “all of the activists who showed up + independent journalists,” including Lemon in the list.
Following criticism of his involvement, Lemon smeared the church for being entitled and racist. “There is a certain degree of entitlement,” Lemon said in a podcast after the protest. “I think people who are in religious groups like that, it’s not the type of Christianity that I practice, but that entitlement comes from a supremacy, a white supremacy.” He also questioned how he “became the face” of the operation and concluded that he was being criticized because he’s “a gay black man in America.”
Federal prosecutors tried to charge Lemon for his involvement earlier this month, but an appeals court in Minneapolis rejected the Department of Justice’s emergency bid to arrest Lemon.
Lemon’s attorney said his actions were protected by the First Amendment. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”
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