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Journalists arrested as Trump team sets fire to First Amendment



Independent journalist Don Lemon, formerly of CNN, was arrested by federal
agents Thursday night for reporting on an anti-ICE protest at a church in
Minnesota, making him a target in President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to
shut down free speech.



Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell said that Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles,
where he was covering the upcoming Grammy Awards.

In a statement, Lowell said that Lemon’s arrest was an “unprecedented attack
on the First Amendment” and a “transparent attempt” by the Trump administration
to distract from the crises that the country is facing.

“Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” he added.

Lemon clearly identifies himself as a reporter in a video of the Jan. 18
protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, noting, “We’re not part of the activists,
but we’re here just reporting on them.”




 



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Similarly, Minnesota-based independent journalist Georgia Fort, who also
covered the protest, has reportedly been arrested.

“This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of
the media. We are supposed to have our constitutional right—freedom to film, to
be a member of the press,” Fort said in a live stream Friday morning.



“I don’t feel like I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press
because now federal agents are at my door, arresting me for filming the church
protest,” she added.

A federal magistrate judge already shut down a previous attempt by the
Department of Justice to press charges against Lemon.

“The government lumps all eight protestors together and says things that are
true of some but not all of them. Two of the five protestors were not
protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is
no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do
so,” Judge Patrick Schultz wrote in a letter.




 



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Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas slammed the arrest.

“Are you F-ing KIDDING ME?! [Lemon] has been arrested by the DOJ?! Exercising
your first amendment constitutionally “protected” right gets you locked up,
exercising your 2nd gets you killed, and actual murder… well in uniform, gets
you nothing! This IS NOT NORMAL nor OK!” she wrote on Bluesky.

And Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California called Lemon’s arrest “a
blatant assault on our First Amendment rights.”

Time and again, the Trump Administration pursues its own political enemies
over real justice,” he wrote on Bluesky.

Meanwhile, the official White House X account shared a photo of Lemon to
announce his arrest.

“When life gives you lemons …” the post reads, along with an emoji of chains.



The arrests of Lemon and Fort are part of a serial pattern of Trump attacking
free speech, which is protected by the Constitution.

The administration has gone after small businesses for dissenting, attempted
to purge late-night talk show hosts for mocking Trump, raided the home of a
reporter for reporting on the administration, and shook down media companies
for producing coverage skeptical of the administration.

Much of the mainstream media recently parroted the administration’s spin that
Trump was changing his authoritarian “tone” in Minnesota, but these arrests
prove that—as expected—that was never the case.



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