Journalist Don Lemon pleads not guilty to civil rights charges in Minnesota church protest

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Former CNN host turned independent journalist Don Lemon pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges Friday, following a protest at a Minnesota church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is a pastor. Four others also pleaded not guilty in the case.

Lemon has said he was at the Cities Church in St. Paul to chronicle the Jan. 18 protest but was not a participant. The veteran journalist’s attorney said Friday he will fight defend Lemon’s free speech rights.

“For more than 30 years, I’ve been a journalist, and the power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work,” Lemon said outside the courthouse after his arraignment. “The First Amendment, the freedom of the press, are the bedrock of our democracy.”

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the courthouse, chanting “Pam Bondi has got to go” and “Protect the press.”

Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong was among the other defendants who pleaded not guilty. The prominent local activist was the subject of a doctored photo posted on official White House social media that falsely showed her crying during her arrest. The picture is part of a deluge of AI-altered imagery that has circulated since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Lemon’s attorney Abbe David Lowell asked during the hearing for his client’s phone to be returned after it was taken from him during his arrest in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said the phone is in Department of Homeland Security custody, and that the search warrant for it is under seal. The phone cannot be returned until the search process is completed, the prosecutor said.

Two more defendants accused in the protest at a Southern Baptist church in St. Paul are scheduled for arraignment next week, including another independent journalist, Georgia Fort. Nine people have been charged in the case.

All nine are charged under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits interference or intimidation of “any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” Penalties can range up to a year in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.

Protesters interrupted a service at the Baptist church last month, chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

The church protest drew sharp complaints from conservative religious and political leaders. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned in a social media post: “President Trump will not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of Christians in their sacred places of worship.” Even clergy who oppose the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics expressed discomfort.

Another of Lemon’s attorneys who was in court Friday is Joe Thompson, one of several former prosecutors who have left the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office in recent weeks citing frustration with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown in the state and the Justice Department’s response to the killing of Good and Pretti.

Thompson had led the sprawling investigation of major public program fraud cases for the prosecutors office until he resigned last month. The Trump administration has cited the fraud cases, in which most defendants have come from the state’s large Somali community, as justification for its immigration crackdown.