Federal agents arrest journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for filming protest at St. Paul church

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 White House posted an image of Lemon to X on Wednesday with chain emojis, writing, “When life gives you lemons…” After Levy Armstrong was arrested, the White House shared a doctored photo of her, making her face contorted and covered in tears in a move legal experts say could be deemed prejudicial and therefore a violation of her rights.

Cities Church, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, supported the charges and is “prayerfully considering” its own legal action.

In an interview with Fox News, Cities Church’s Lead Pastor Jonathan Parnell said his message for the governor, attorney general, mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the “agitators” is to “turn from your sin, trust in Jesus Christ and be saved. He is our only hope.”

(Attorney General Keith Ellison is Muslim and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is Jewish.)

Messages to Cities Church were not immediately returned.

The Reformer joined a consortium of news outlets including the Star Tribune , the Spokesman-Recorder and MPR News in condemning the arrests in a statement.

“The First Amendment recognizes the press as holding a distinct and protected role in our democracy. In America, we do not arrest journalists for doing their jobs. The Minnesota journalism community stands united in defense of press freedom and the essential role reporting plays in holding power to account, now more than ever,” the statement reads.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Read this article on their website here.