Don Lemon has detailed his arrest by federal authorities, saying the Trump administration was determined to “embarrass” him, by taking him into custody in a public setting instead of allowing him to surrender.
The former CNN anchor made those claims during a Monday, Feb. 2 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Dressed in a tan suit and black shirt, Lemon joined host Jimmy Kimmel for a lengthy conversation about the arrest.
“I’m not going to let them steal my joy, but this is serious,” Lemon said.
“The Don Lemon Show” podcast host was arrested in Los Angeles late Thursday, Jan. 29, for entering the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota during an anti-ICE protest on Jan. 18. He streamed live coverage of the protest on his YouTube channel.
The longtime journalist told Kimmel his attorney contacted federal authorities and said Lemon would surrender after members of the Trump administration been clamoring for his arrest on social media.
“Never heard back from them,” Lemon explained. “People who are accused of much worse things than I am accused of doing, they are allowed the courtesy [to surrender]. Donald Trump was allowed the courtesy to turn himself in.”
Instead, he said federal agents plotted a surprise arrest while he was in Los Angeles covering the Grammy Awards for his digital platforms.
Lemon said he had just covered two pre-Grammys events when he was swarmed by federal agents.
“I had returned to the hotel… I pressed the elevator button and all of a sudden, I feel myself being jostled, and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs,” he recalled.
He said the government sent a large contingent of agents to arrest him — suggesting it was all for show.
“It had to be, maybe a dozen people, which is a waste of resources because I had told them weeks before … that I could just go in,” he said. “They want to embarrass you. They want to intimidate you. They want to instill fear. And so that’s why they did it that way.”
After he was taken to a federal building in downtown L.A., Lemon alleged he wasn’t allowed to call anyone for the 12 hours he was in custody.
“I asked them, ‘Do I get to make my one phone call?’ They said, ‘No you don’t. You get to talk to your attorney whenever the court says that you can.’ So, that wasn’t until the next day,” he stated.
Still, Lemon said he was able to get the word out about his arrest by using his Apple watch to contact his husband and his attorney. Unfortunately, both calls went to voicemail. So he convinced an FBI agent to go to his hotel room to let his husband know he was in custody.
Independent journalist Georgia Fort was arrested last week in Minnesota for reporting on the same protest as Lemon.
According to CNN, both journalists were charged with conspiring against people exercising their freedom of religion and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994, known as the FACE Act (which protects reproductive health clinics and patients, and prohibits the use of force or threats to interfere with churchgoers).
Shortly after the protest, a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota blocked the Justice Department from charging Lemon in connection with the protest, as previously reported. His lawyer praised the judge’s decision at the time.
“The magistrate’s reported actions confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter,” attorney Abbe Lowell said. “It was no different than what he has done for 30 years, reporting, covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally protected activity as a journalist.”
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