Don Lemon responds to Trump DOJ threat, stands by reporting at Minnesota church

Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is standing by his reporting because the Justice Division has issued a risk in opposition to him for becoming a member of anti-ICE protesters at a St. Paul church.

“It is notable that I used to be forged because the face of a protest I used to be protecting as a journalist — particularly since I wasn’t the one reporter there. That framing is telling,” Lemon advised Fox Information Digital in a press release. “What’s much more telling is the barrage of violent threats, together with homophobic and racist feedback, directed at me on-line by MAGA supporters and amplified by sections of the right-wing press.”

“If a lot time and vitality is spent producing outrage, it might be a lot better used investigating the tragic dying of Renee Nicole Good – the very difficulty that introduced individuals to the streets within the first place,” Lemon continued. “I stand by my reporting.”

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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon stays defiant amongst his critics after going viral on Sunday for his protection of an anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul church. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Photographs)

Lemon went viral on Sunday for his reporting on the chaos that unfolded at Cities Church, telling viewers that “the liberty to protest” is what the First Modification is about.

Nonetheless, Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Division’s assistant lawyer normal for civil rights, prompt that Lemon’s participation was unlawful.

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“A home of worship will not be a public discussion board on your protest!” Dhillon advised Lemon on

“You are conscious,” she added.

In an interview Joined by conservative YouTube host Benny Johnson, Dhillon stated Lemon had a presumption of innocence, however that Lemon’s position as a journalist was not essentially a “defend” for him as a possible social gathering to a criminal offense.

“Don Lemon himself has come out and stated he knew precisely what was going to occur inside that facility. He entered the ability after which began ‘doing journalism,’ as if that was some form of defend to be a part of a legal conspiracy,” Dhillon stated Monday.

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Prime DOJ official Harmeet Dhillon prompt that Don Lemon’s participation within the storming of a St. Paul church may have been in opposition to the legislation. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs)

“That’s not the case, and that’s the reason we’re stating the info, and it is a very severe matter,” she continued. “Come subsequent Sunday, nobody in the USA ought to suppose they’ll get away with this. Everybody within the protest group must know that the best pressure of the federal authorities will come down to forestall this and lock individuals up for a protracted, very long time.”

Lemon launched his personal impartial YouTube channel after resigning from CNN in 2023.

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Don Lemon advised Fox Information Digital that he stands behind his reporting at Cities Church. (Don Citroen/YouTube)

Forward of Dhillon’s look on “The Benny Johnson Present,” Lemon responded to her social media submit, suggesting that the DOJ “investigating attainable violations of the federal FACE Act by these individuals desecrating a home of worship and interfering with Christian worshipers.”

“So I’ve no ties to that group. I did not even know they had been going to this church till we adopted them there. We had been there documenting protests. As soon as the protest began on the church, we did an act of journalism, reporting on it and speaking to the individuals concerned, together with a pastor, members of the church and members of the group. That is it. It is referred to as journalism. First Modification, all that stuff, for all of you who imagine within the First Modification, Absolutists, please,” Lemon stated in a video on Instagram.

“So why do not you discuss to the precise individual accountable for the group and whose thought it was to arrange protests on the church earlier than you begin blaming me for issues you don’t have any thought about? Thanks on your consideration to this difficulty,” he continued.

The FACE Act makes it’s a federal crime, carrying attainable stiff fines and jail sentences, to make use of or threaten to make use of pressure to “injure, intimidate, or impede” an individual in search of reproductive well being care providers, or an individual lawfully trying to train the First Modification proper to spiritual freedom in a spot of non secular worship. It additionally prohibits intentional property injury to an establishment offering reproductive well being care providers or to a spot of non secular worship.

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Anders Hagstrom of Fox Information Digital contributed to this report.