Don Lemon Arrested In Connection With Minnesota Church Protest

Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, confirmed in a statement to Forbes that the journalist was arrested in Los Angeles Thursday night, though what charges he faces was not immediately clear.

Local journalist Georgia Fort was also reportedly taken into custody by federal officers Friday morning and posted a Facebook live video detailing the arrest.

Protestors two weeks ago disrupted a service at Cities Church in St. Paul to confront a pastor alleged to be a local ICE agent and Lemon, who had advance notice of the protest, was present with a producer of his online news program as the events unfolded.

In the immediate aftermath of the protest, the Justice Department vowed to pursue charges related to the event and specifically called out Lemon, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon warning journalism is not a “shield” from a “criminal conspiracy.”

When the Department of Justice launched its emergency bid to arrest people involved in the incident, however, arrest warrants for several people, including Lemon and his producer, were shot down by several levels of the court.

Minnesota’s chief district judge Patrick Schiltz specifically said there was “no evidence that (Lemon or his producer) engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.”

The Department of Justice has not responded to inquiries about what crimes Lemon and Fort are accused of.

This is a developing story and will be updated.