Former CNN anchor Don Lemon arrested over church protest in Minnesota

LOS ANGELES: Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles on Friday for his alleged role in a protest at a church in St Paul, Minnesota, according to his lawyer and a U.S. Justice Department official.

The 55-year-old journalist livestreamed the demonstration earlier this month, which interrupted a church service in protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in the area.

Lemon faces charges of conspiring to deprive others of their civil rights and violating the FACE Act, a 1994 federal law that prohibits obstruction of access to houses of worship or abortion clinics, officials said. FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agents carried out the arrest.

His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called the arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.” Lemon defended his presence at the protest, saying he attended as a journalist and was unaware that activists would disrupt the church service. Video footage shows him in a heated discussion with a parishioner regarding immigration enforcement.

Trump administration officials condemned the protest, accusing participants of intimidating worshippers. Federal agents also arrested three other individuals in connection with the same demonstration, charging them under the FACE Act. Earlier this month, a US judge had declined to approve Lemon’s arrest, citing insufficient evidence.

Lemon spent 17 years at CNN, becoming one of the network’s most high-profile anchors. He was fired in 2023 following controversial on-air remarks about women and then-Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, which were widely criticized as sexist. Lemon later issued an apology.