The long and winding road of Don Lemon’s arrest came to an end in Los Angeles overnight. It started at Cities Church in the Twin Cities and wended through three different court venues. The end of the road came at the Grammy Awards, which Lemon apparently had been covering for his YouTube channel.
What a long, strange trip it’s been, indeed:
The former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested late Thursday night on charges that he violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., his lawyer said, in a case rejected last week by a magistrate judge.
Mr. Lemon has said he was simply reporting as a journalist when he entered the Cities Church on Jan. 18 to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown in the area.
The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Trump administration sought to charge eight people over the episode, including Mr. Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.
The Department of Justice must have gotten an arrest warrant. The question is how. Prosecutors ended up infuriating the chief judge in Minneapolis and annoying the Eighth Circuit with a demand for mandamus forcing a judicial warrant early in the week. No word has come from the court that the application had been reconsidered. Presumably, the DoJ got an indictment from a grand jury, the only practical option open to them at that point. If so, it certainly didn’t take long to get, and underscores the point that they should have probably tried that first.
Lemon has hired Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell to represent him, and Lowell is already all-in on the First Amendment defense:
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this case,” Lowell said, calling the arrest an “attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration.”
Lowell called Lemon’s arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and said the journalist “will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
Lowell is a very accomplished attorney, and if I were in this kind of trouble, I’d be lucky to have him (and very, very broke in the end). However, this defense is a loser for several reasons, the first of which is that Lemon wasn’t the only party to this incident that had First Amendment rights at stake. The First Amendment protects the right to freedom of religious expression, the core of which is the right to worship in one’s own church in peace. Even people claiming to be journalists can’t interrupt worship services and demand impromptu “interviews” with the minister or celebrant, especially inside the church on private property. Lemon filmed himself preparing with the instigators outside before invading the church, and his “interview” consisted of demanding answers to the instigators’ claims and demands.
Next up, the criminal statutes involved do not have “journalist” exceptions. Neither the FACE Act nor the Ku Klux Klan act allow for disruption of church services for the purpose of “journalism.” Nate the Lawyer covered both of these statutes in the video below shortly after the crime occurred, mainly focusing on the Klan Act. Nate’s conclusion is that Lowell has his work cut out for him.
As for Lemon’s thirty years in journalism, that’s irrelevant to the crime at hand. If a journalist is dumb enough to commit a crime on video, that doesn’t automatically transform itself into a news report. Lemon filmed himself actively conspiring to invade a church for a protest in violation of both the FACE and Klan Acts, and then participated in the act by buttonholing the pastor and harassing him while his co-conspirators terrorized the rest of the congregation.
We’ll know more later today about the warrant when Lemon appears in federal court. Maybe Lemon should put the Don Henley song “Dirty Laundry” on loop while he arranges bail.
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