The former CNN journalist was called ‘One of the most well-known figures in the world’ by his defense attorney before he was released on personal recognizances
Former CNN host Don Lemon said he was arrested in “the middle of the night,” woken in by federal agents who stormed his Beverly Hills hotel room where he was staying to cover this week’s Grammy Awards show.
Lemon, 59, came into court wearing a cream-colored suit and blew a kiss to his husband Tim Malone, who was seated behind LA Mayor Karen Bass and her team before taking a seat next to his defense attorney Marilyn E. Bednarski. Bass had expressed outrage at Lemon’s arrest on social media Friday morning writing: “Don Lemon, an internationally known and renowned journalist and friend, was arrested last night by federal agents and is now in custody in Los Angeles – simply for doing his job and following a protest into a church in Minneapolis while reporting the story.”
Lemon spent the night in a lockup, charged in a federal indictment out of Minnesota, connected to a Jan. 18 protest at a church that forced parishioners to leave in tears. An indictment describes activists planning the disruption at a place of worship that came after protestors learned one of its pastors, David Easterwood, also works as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency official in St. Paul.
Upon his release, he held hands with his husband and faced a scrum of journalists – as the sound of protestors who were part of a national anti-ICE walkout bellowed in the backdrop – and vowed that he “would not be silenced.”
“I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now,” Lemon said. “In fact, there is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”
Lemon prosecutors say, “knowingly joined a mob to terrorize” members of Cities Church in St. Paul. L.A.’s top federal prosecutor was in court as Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Robbins argued that preventing parishioners from worshipping was “a very serious felony.” Robbins argued for a $100,000 bond, which Magistrate Judge Patricia Donahue denied, and requested that Lemon surrender his passport.
His attorney called that request unnecessary, calling Lemon “one of the most well-known figures in the world,” a man who was not a flight risk.
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Lemon was charged after a grand jury heard evidence in the case. The Justice Department had drafted a criminal complaint to charge a total of eight people, including Lemon, but the federal magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people — civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen and William Kelly, who had taunted Attorney General Pam Bondi on social media.
Michele McPhee
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