Why Former CNN Anchor Don Lemon Was Arrested

On January 30, Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor, was arrested and charged by a federal grand jury for violating the FACE Act. This is a federal law prohibiting "the use of force or threat of force or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship." Lemon was released later the same day and has since been involved in many discussions concerning the First Amendment rights of journalists — but what happened to land him in jail in the first place?

January 2026 was a time of great turmoil in Minneapolis. On January 7, protester Renée Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent. 17 days later, a similar tragedy occurred when another protester, Alex Pretti, suffered the same fate. This led to protests against ICE all over the nation. In between the two killings, one group became so fired up that they took their voices to a church.

On January 18, activists walked into Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, interrupting a service to protest a pastor's alleged employment by ICE. Lemon wasn't part of the protest, but he was there filming and interviewing parishioners during a livestream of his YouTube show, "The Don Lemon Show." Early in the morning on January 30, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi took to X (formerly Twitter) to post, "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." 

After Don Lemon was released from jail following his arrest, he spoke to the media outside the courthouse. "I have spent my entire career covering the news," he told reporters (via USA TODAY). "I will not stop now. 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."

In a sign of our strange times, the White House mocked Lemon's arrest on X with the caption "When life gives you lemons..." On February 1, President Trump addressed Lemon's arrest — and it went as you might expect it to, with the Commander-in-Chief telling reporters (via The Hill), "He's a washup. Probably from his standpoint, the best thing that could have happened to him." Three days later, Lemon was in Los Angeles to speak to Jimmy Kimmel, who has brutally slammed Trump in the past. During an episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Lemon revealed that his attorney had reached out to prosecutors about freely turning himself in. Instead, a dozen agents showed up to arrest him at an L.A. hotel, where Lemon was preparing for the Grammys. He told Kimmel, "They want to embarrass you, they want to intimidate you, they want to instill fear."

It's not all dire for Lemon though. On a February 2 livestream, Lemon revealed that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had reached out to him. "You will become the face of the First Amendment," he recalled her saying. "You got to be strong. You got to do it right." The Department of Justice may have thought that they were going to silence Lemon, but it seems they may just have made his voice louder.