Don Lemon said about a dozen federal agents came to his Los Angeles hotel to arrest him last week, even though his lawyer had told authorities he would turn himself in to face federal civil rights charges over his coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service.
Lemon told ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel that sending in agents was a waste of resources because law enforcement would not have had to send agents to follow him if he had been allowed to surrender to authorities.
“I was walking to the room and I pressed the elevator button, and then all of a sudden, I feel like I’m being lifted up and people are trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs,” the freelance journalist said Monday on the show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
He asked the agents who they were and he said they identified themselves. Lemon asked to see a warrant and was told they did not have one. The agents then called an FBI agent to come in from outside to show Lemon the warrant on a cell phone.
The Justice Department and the FBI did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Kimmel introduced Lemon, his first guest of the night, by saying that he had “been arrested for doing journalism.”
Lemon’s attorney said Lemon plans to plead not guilty. He told reporters “I will not be silenced” after being released in response to a judge’s orders.
A grand jury in Minnesota indicted Lemon, another independent journalist, Georgia Fort, and others on charges of conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshipers during the Jan. 18 protest at Church of the Cities in St. Paul, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer is the pastor.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023 after a rocky run as morning host, said he had no affiliation with the group that disrupted the Sunday service by entering the church.
Lemon said he could not say much about the case but said he was not a protestant.
“I went there to be a journalist. I went there to chronicle and document and record what was happening. I was following that one group around, and that’s why I did it. I reported on them,” said Lemon.
Lemon said he asked the arresting officers if they would let him make a phone call. He said he was told no and that he could speak to his lawyer the next day. He tried to use Siri on his Apple Watch to call his husband and his lawyer but neither picked up.
A diamond bracelet he was wearing got caught in his handcuffs, which hurt him, and the agents told Lemon they would remove it. Lemon said he asked if the agent would mind picking Lemon’s husband up to his hotel room and they agreed to do so.
“And that’s how my husband found out. Otherwise, no one would know where I was,” said Lemon.
Lemon said he was held in a holding room at the federal court from midnight until 1 pm the next day.
Kimmel himself became a symbol of the fight against censorship last year, when ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” g[alrimarkilisaruwaral-qtiltal-attivistkonservattivCharlieKirkIċ-Chairmantal-KummissjoniFederalital-KomunikazzjonijietBrendanCarrkienippressalix-xandarabiexineħħililKimmelmill-arjaftitqabel
ABC neħħiet is-sospensjoni wara għajta pubblika, u Kimmel irritorna fl-ajru bi klassifikazzjonijiet ħafna aktar b’saħħithom milli kellu qabel. Fil-Kungress, senaturi Demokratiċi qajmu tħassib li l-azzjonijiet ta ‘Carr tratched fuq l-Ewwel Emenda.