Former CNN host Don Lemon has been arrested after he entered a Minnesota church and filmed anti-immigration enforcement protesters as they disrupted a service.
Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents on Thursday night while in Los Angeles covering the Grammy Awards, according to a statement from his lawyer Abbe Lowell.
Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court, the attorney said.
Lemon went into the Cities Church in St Paul on 19 January with a group of protesters who claimed one of the pastors was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.
Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done, Lowell stated on Lemon's Instagram account. This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand.
In his own defense, Lemon said in a recent video: Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it.
Initially, President Donald Trump's administration sought to charge eight people involved in the Minnesota church protest, but a magistrate judge approved charges for only three, excluding Lemon.
The government attempted to challenge this decision but was refused by an appeals court.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi previously criticized the protests during a visit to Minneapolis, describing the scene as horrific.
Harmeet Dhillon from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice indicated on Friday, We're going to pursue this to the ends of the Earth. The protests stemmed from ongoing unrest in Minnesota regarding federal immigration operations that have led to violence.
Jim Acosta, Lemon's former CNN colleague, responded on social media stating, This is outrageous and cannot stand. The First Amendment is under attack in America!
