LOS ANGELES, CA - The arrest of Don Lemon continues to reverberate nationally as President Trump weighed in this weekend, calling it ‘the best thing that could have happened to him,’ escalating a political and press freedom debate surrounding federal charges tied to a disrupted church service in Minnesota.
Failed CNN host Don Lemon finds himself in legal hot water after he was arrested and charged with violating the FACE Act during a publicity stunt at a St. Paul church on Jan. 18, the BBC reported.
Lemon was arrested late last month and formally indicted days later, but the case returned to the national spotlight this weekend after President Trump publicly commented on the charges while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One.
After being arraigned, Lemon was released from custody and claimed outside the courthouse that he was arrested for “covering the news.” “I will not be silenced!” the intersectional former CNN personality exclaimed.
Lemon has since maintained that his presence inside the church was purely journalistic, a claim that federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials have flatly rejected in court filings.
“Last night the DOJ sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night for something that I have been doing for the last 30 years, and that is covering the news,” Lemon said. “I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now.
“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, a longtime sufferer of Trump Derangement Syndrome, said.
On Jan. 18, Lemon, along with anti-ICE zealots, stormed a church service at Cities Church in St. Paul and confronted a pastor they claimed was a local ICE agent, Forbes reported. Lemon claimed he was there merely as a reporter, but he had advance notice of the planned church disruption and, in fact, was seen providing coffee and donuts to the anti-ICE radicals before leaving for the church.
Federal investigators allege Lemon’s actions went beyond observation, citing evidence that he had advance knowledge of the planned disruption and materially supported activists prior to entering the church.
Lemon hilariously claimed that he was “Not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them.” According to reports, the unhinged activists ranted and raved inside the church, confronted worshipers, and prevented parents from retrieving their young children from Sunday School.
The Baptist Press outlined what occurred inside the church, according to Homeland Security Special Agent Timothy Gerber’s affidavit:
“Statements made by agitators at the church indicated that they targeted the church based on their belief that one of the church’s pastors is a federal immigration officer.”
[...]
“...30 to 40 people, ‘disrupted the religious service and intimidated, harassed, oppressed, and terrorized the parishioners, including young children, and caused the service to be cut short and forced parishioners to flee the church out of a side door, which resulted in one female victim falling and suffering an injury.
‘Some of the protesters also physically obstructed some parishioners as they attempted to leave the church and the adjacent parking areas,’” Gerber wrote.
CBN reported that the affidavit also said activists in the group told children their parents were “Nazis” and were “going to burn in hell.”
It also described multiple examples of children in the church with looks of terror and anxiety on their faces. One crazed activist, William Scott Kelly, reportedly continued yelling, “This ain’t God’s house. This is the house of the devil.”
KARE 11 reported that activists blocked the stairs so parents couldn’t reach their children, and one parent said that “his children are traumatized.” Another “expressed fear that the agitators may have guns under their jackets.”
On August 28, 2025, an unhinged gunman entered the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis and opened fire, killing two children and wounding 18 others. That had to have been on the minds of worshipers at Cities Church when they were accosted by the group of crazed lunatics.
Despite Lemon’s claim he was there merely as an observer, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon dismissed that claim, warning that journalism is not a “shield” from a “criminal conspiracy,” and Lemon was in fact guilty of violating the FACE Act.
That law prohibits “the use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone obtaining or providing reproductive health services, or to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” The FACE Act was regularly used during the Biden administration to punish elderly people praying at abortion clinics, some of whom were sentenced to years in prison.
As expected, Democrats and the radical left had virtual heart attacks over Lemon’s arrest.
House Minority Leader Hakeem (Dime Store Obama) Jeffries called Lemon’s arrest a “disgraceful affront” to the Constitution and a “corrupt weaponization of the criminal justice system,” hilarious coming from the party that used lawfare to target then-former president Donald Trump. Jeffries said there was “zero basis” to arrest Lemon.
Meanwhile, flunkie Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who oversaw portions of her city burning to the ground while she was out of the country last year, called the arrest “shocking” and “alarming,” claiming the failed journalist was “just doing his job.” CNN, which kicked Lemon to the curb a couple of years back, said his arrest “raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom” and is a violation of the First Amendment, cleverly omitting the fact that the raid on Cities Church by Lemon and his far-left compatriots was a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) supported Lemon’s arrest, The Hill reported,
“I’m gonna say he violated the FACE Act,” Greene told “Real Time” host Bill Maher. “He went into a church, disrupted their worship, and then, later in an interview, compared them to white supremacists
“That’s not journalism, that’s activism,” Greene concluded.
The Trump administration also weighed in on Lemon’s arrest.
“Don Lemon violated the law,” an unnamed White House source said. “We have to make him an example not to go into our churches,” NewsNation reported.
Lemon was charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with religious freedoms by obstructing someone’s First Amendment rights by force.
Lemon pleaded not guilty to the charges and is expected to return to court later this month as the case proceeds.
Lemon, who had slithered into irrelevance, will now likely be hailed as a martyr for the anti-ICE left.
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