Don Lemon Arrested After Covering St. Paul Church Protest (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Former CNN anchor and a former colleague of mine and friend Don Lemon has been taken into custody by federal agents according to his attorney. It comes after Lemon covered the protests earlier this month. Dozens of anti-ice protesters rushing inside of a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Now Don has said that he was just there as a journalist photographing the incident as a journalist asking questions as a journalist after the protesters went in and has been very clear he was not part of the protest group. In a statement, Don Lemon's attorney says, quote, this unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court. Now I just want to quickly let you know that I'm not going to be able to let you know. Don Lemon spoke with Alison Camerota, another former colleague and friend from CNN who now works for Scripps News about the church incident. Let's go to what she told us just moments ago.

[00:01:11] Speaker 2: So he said that he was covering a protest. This is the St. Paul church. The protesters had reason to believe that the pastor there was an ICE agent. And so Don, the way Don described it to me is that he was doing. What we do. He was covering a protest. He wasn't conspiring with them. He didn't. He knew that they were going to be protesting something. He wasn't in on their plans, he says, beforehand, which is one of the things that the DOJ has suggested. And then he stayed outside, he says. The protesters went inside the church. And when he realized that the protest was unfolding inside the church, he then went inside. And so, you know, obviously our legal experts can describe. Whether that's trespassing on private property, but either way, that's a misdemeanor. And, you know, the idea that Don Lemon, as a journalist, has now been arrested is just in an entirely different category.

[00:02:12] Speaker 1: Now, I have some more breaking news. We have just learned that another independent journalist who is very popular here and very well known here in Minneapolis and in Minnesota, Georgia Fort, has also been arrested. We have now seen video of her inside of her home telling us that there are FBI agents outside of her door demanding that she come out. She said that they said they had a warrant, that they had gone to a grand jury. So this is brand new breaking news. She is describing what is happening, saying that the federal agents say that they had a warrant, that there was a grand jury involved, and that she must come out to be arrested. She said that she spoke to her attorney. Her attorney advised her to go with them. And that is a misdemeanor. And that's a misdemeanor. And that's a misdemeanor. That's exactly what she did and that she was taken to the Whipple building. So now there are two journalists who have been arrested by the FBI, by federal agents, after the incident that happened at a church. Joining me now are CNN's Cara Scannell and our chief media analyst, Brian Stelter. So, Cara, what are we learning about the situation with Don Lemon?

[00:03:19] Speaker 3: Well, Sarah, we do know that Don Lemon was arrested last night in Los Angeles in the 11 o'clock hour local time. I'm told by a source that he was in a hotel lobby on his way to an event related to covering the Grammy Awards. And that is when he was arrested by the agents and taken into custody. It is expected he will appear in court in Los Angeles this morning and that the charges against him will be unsealed. Now, as we've been discussing, Lemon was part of a larger attempt by the Justice Department to bring charges against a number of people, some from the protester protesting group. Last week, and that the judge had rejected that complaint against some of the individuals, including Don Lemon, he had suggested if DOJ wanted to go forward, they might want to look toward going before a grand jury. So that would follow the process that played out where the judge did not believe that there was sufficient evidence. But if a grand jury did, then that would be the route that the Justice Department could take. It's possible that they have returned an indictment, though we have not yet seen the document. We have not seen any updates from the judge about what this this instrument is that Lemon was charged in and specifically what he was charged with. We do know, though, that some of the protesters who were there who were not journalists, but the protesters were charged with going into the church and disrupting this religious service, violating laws related to that. So it's possible that that will be the similar charge that Lemon will face. All this will become much more clear, though, once these documents are unsealed and we do that, expect that to happen this morning. I mean, as this new arrest tells us, Lemon was arrested last night in Los Angeles. This other journalist was arrested this morning. If there are other arrests related to this, because not everyone was charged in that initial complaint that the Justice Department was trying to charge, they could be playing out this morning. So it may be an instance where we do see additional arrests and then we do eventually see this charging document and understand what charges they are specifically facing. As you said, Lemon's lawyer, Abby Lowell, says that he will fight this vigorously and that, you know, it is not unprecedented for journalists to be charged, but it is also very unusual for journalists to be charged because of their First Amendment right to cover events and certain protections that journalists have to participate in capturing news. So there is definitely going to be a big fight here to come on behalf of Don Lemon and most likely this other journalist. As they fight back on these charges, which, you know, his lawyer is saying is unprecedented attack on the First Amendment. And as we have seen, the president and his attorney general have gone after people that Trump does see as his perceived enemies. Don Lemon is particularly one of those. Sarah?

[00:06:13] Speaker 1: Yeah. Kara Scannell, thank you for your reporting and getting us caught up to speed. We are expecting to see any time now this morning or perhaps into the afternoon the charges, because this has to go through court and it has to be made public. Brian Stelter, now that you are learning that there are two journalists who have been taken into custody, one of whom we know well, our colleague and friend Don Lemon, the other who is very well known here as an independent journalist, she also saying that she was taken into custody, Georgia Fort. I saw her just the other day. She was covering the Ilhan Omar incident. What does that tell you about what? The Trump administration is doing here. I mean, the First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason.

[00:07:03] Speaker 4: A disturbing escalation against reporting in America. And I would also put it in the framework of protests. You know, this is part of an ongoing pressure campaign against protests, especially the kind of provocative anti-Trump protest action that we have seen makes the administration so uncomfortable and frankly, makes some voters very uncomfortable. This is an action, this arrest. This arrest of Don Lemon, this arrest of this independent journalist who is live streaming and reporting in Minnesota. This is something that some MAGA loyalists have been demanding. They've been wanting to see it happen when Trump promised retribution. This is the kind of retribution that some of his voters, not all, but some of his voters wanted to see. And I think that is, for better or for worse, some of the context of what we're seeing this morning. And, you know, the First Amendment is meant to protect both the reporter's right to report, but also a congregation's right to worship. So legal experts might say this is somewhat complicated, although Lemon said all along he was there as a reporter, not as an activist. And he did a really important job showing people, all of us now who can watch the video, what happened inside that church. I want to back up to that Sunday morning. That intrusion into City's church was sincerely shocking to many, many millions of Americans, myself included. You know, people, you know, saw that video, they saw Lemon's video, and they were uncomfortable by what happened inside that church. The idea that worship service... The idea that worship service was disrupted by protesters, and now there's a very interesting debate about whether the protesters were right or they were wrong to go into the church. But that is a political debate, and that's a debate about what forms of protest are effective. The Trump administration is moving that political debate into the legal arena and wanting to take it into court and have a court fight. And we know there have been these attempts to arrest some of the other protesters last week who were there, and now we have these arrests of these reporters who documented the scene. I'm reminded of what one of Lemon's friends... Jennifer Welch said to her on a podcast. Lemon was talking to Welch, and Welch said to Lemon, quote, You are a prize for them, an independent, gay, black, happy, successful man, and this is an attempt to intimidate and beat you down. So that's how Lemon's friends see this situation, this attempt to charge him, and now this actual arrest of Lemon. He's in jail in L.A. now as an attempt to target another Trump foe. And let me also quote, Sarah, our colleague Larry Madowa, who's based in Nairobi, who covers Africa for CNN. He wrote on X, This arrest is a gift to authoritarian governments worldwide who can now justify arresting journalists they don't like because even America does it.

[00:09:37] Speaker 1: That is stark. It is reality. There is, as we have spoken about, the potential of a major chilling effect, although I certainly am not going to shut my mouth. I know that you won't either. There are many journalists that will continue to call a spade a spade. But there is a definite fear here, especially for those who are independent journalists who are smaller, who don't have an apparatus around them as they are out in the streets or if they go into buildings, whether or not they are protected and whether they have the means.

[00:10:13] Speaker 4: Sure. We have heard, by the way, from Pam Bondi moments ago. She says Lemon's arrested. She mentions Georgia Fort. She mentions two other individuals, she says, all arrested. In connection with what happened at the church. So the Attorney General now confirming these arrests. She says four people were taken into custody total.

[00:10:32] Speaker 1: And we know that one person who was arrested, a protester, was a former NAACP president locally here, Nakima Levy-Pounds. She was let out and she is disputing that they went into church without permission. She said they had permission. We will see how this goes forward. But it is a stunning development that now we know at least two journalists have been arrested by the DOJ. Because of their coverage of a protest, we will see what happens next.