A former U.S. Attorney is warning that the action taken against former CNN anchor Don Lemon could have a chilling effect on journalists and the First Amendment more broadly.
The Associated Press reported that Lemon was taken into custody in Los Angeles, where the journalist was covering the Grammy Awards. The arrest was tied to Lemon's coverage and streaming of protests in Minneapolis January 18 in which protestors interrupted church services.
Lemon has maintained that he was unaffiliated with the protests and was exercising his first amendment rights as a journalist.
"Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done," Lemon's attorney, Abbe Lowell said in a statement to the AP. "The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable."
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took credit for Lemon's arrest in a post on X. "At my direction, early this morning, federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota," she wrote.
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Alene characterized the arrests as an attempt to intimidate journalists and undermine the protections of the First Amendment.
"This isn't about convicting Don Lemon. It's unlikely that will happen. It's about intimidating journalists & making them censure themselves out of fear of consequences. It's about eroding the free press because the administration can't afford the criticism," she wrote on X.
According to NPR, Lemon a judge refused to approve of Lemon's arrest because of lack of evidence.
In his statement, Lowell said that Lemon would fight the charges and said they were an assault on the First Amendment.
However, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the arrests were about protecting the right of people to practice their religion without disruption. "A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service," she wrote on X.
