Gay journalist Don Lemon arrested after attending anti-ICE protest in Minnesota

Gay journalist Don Lemon has been arrested in connection with attending and reporting on a protest in Minnesota.

Lemon (59) was arrested late Thursday (29 January) night on charges that he violated federal law. The journalist, who previously worked for CNN, said he was reporting when he entered the Cities Church, a Christian church in St Paul, Minnesota, on 18 January. 

He said he attended to observe a protest against the immigration crackdown in the area, which has seen Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, killed by federal immigration agents. 

However, protestors interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out”. 

The chant resulted in the Trump administration charging eight people, including Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship. 

A magistrates judge approved the charges against three people, rejecting the evidence against Lemon and the others as insufficient. 

The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue additional warrants, a request that was denied. 

Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has vowed to fight the charges. 

He said in a statement, as per The New York Times: “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”

Lemon is set to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday morning. It’s thought that he will challenge the prosecution’s case by arguing that he was covering the event as a journalist, not protesting. 

Lemon is an independent journalist who has his own YouTube show. 

In an interview with Scripps News Lemon opened up about his public feud with rapper, and Trump’s “number one fan”, Nicki Minaj. 

On 19 January, “Super Bass” rapper Minaj referred to the former CNN news anchor as “DON ‘C*** SUCKIN’ LEMON” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after the journalist reported  on the protest against ICE at Cities Church. 

Minaj added that she wanted “thug” Lemon “in jail” as she believed “he would never do that to any other religion”. She shared the post alongside an image of Chucky the doll wearing a wig.

At the time, Lemon responded by saying Minaj was out of her “depth”. He doubled down on those comments and told Scripps News: “So I said, why do African Americans support her, why do gay people support her, members of the LGBTQ community support her? You shouldn’t because she’s a homophobe and she’s a racist. She’s racist, I believe, against Black Americans.”

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