ST. PAUL, Minn. — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was expected to plead not guilty on Friday to charges connected to his coverage of protests over federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
Lemon, now a freelance journalist, followed protesters who entered a St. Paul church on Jan. 18. He live streamed the demonstration against a pastor there who protesters said works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Lemon, 59,was arrested on Jan. 30, in a federal prosecution that's drawn criticism from news media and free speech advocates. A federal grand jury returned theindictmentagainst him and eight co-defendants connected to that church protest.
Attorney General Pam Bondicalled the church protesta "coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota."
Lemon was charged with conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating and interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
The National Association of Black Journalists said the arrest of Lemon and fellow freelancer Georgia Fort are part of "the government's escalating effort and actions to criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement."
"A government that responds to scrutiny by targeting the messenger is not protecting the public, it is attempting to intimidate it, and considering recent incidents regarding federal agents, it is attempting to distract it,"according to an NABJ statement.
Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration's top civil rights official in the Justice Department, said that there's no precedent for using statutes to protect worshippers against journalists covering an event.
"In all these years up until I was the assistant attorney general for civil rights, nobody ever used that houses of worship part to prosecute protesters or criminals blocking access to a house of worship, so we've started to do that,"Dhillon has said.
Advertisement
Border Patrol and ICE agents have carried out raids in and around Minneapolis, leading to mass protests around the region.Border "czar" Tom Homansaid Thursday that the immigration enfrocement operation there would end.
Federal authorities fatally shotMinneapolis residentsAlex Pretti, 37,andRenee Good, 37,during these clashes.
Good appeared to be drivingaway from federal agents on Jan. 7 when she was fatally shot, while Pretti, a nurse who worked with veterans,was helping a womanwho'd been shoved to the ground when he was killed on Jan. 24.
TheTrump administrationlabeled both U.S. citizens as"domestic terrorists"with no immediate evidence the shooting victims had sought to harm federal agents when they were shot at close range.
Before taking office, Trump had complained about what he described as the weaponization of federal authority against political enemies.
Trump's Department of Justice created a "Weaponization Working Group"meant to root out "abuses of the criminal justice process" by federal law enforcement.
The Trump administration has been scrambling to issue a report when the working group's leader Ed Martin,who took over inMay,was removed from his earlier this monthwith no public explanation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Selina Guevara reported from St. Paul, Minnesota, and David K. Li from Los Angeles.
