UPDATED with more details: Don Lemon was released from federal custody Friday after a short hearing in downtown Los Angeles after being arrested for his presence covering an anti-ICE protest earlier this month in a Minneapolis-area church. Granted a no-cash bond and the ability to able to travel domestically and internationally despite a just unsealed two-count indictment, the ex-CNN anchor is a free man once again.
Outside the courtroom soon after the hearing, Lemon thanked everyone for their support, and said: “I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now.” To cheers, he continued: “In fact, there is no more important time than right now this very moment for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.”
“Last night, the DOJ sent a team of federal agents to arrest me in the middle of the night for something that I have been doing for the last 30 years, and that is covering the news,” Lemon added, reading a statement before the cameras and microphones. “The First Amendment of the Constitution protects me and countless other journalists who do what I do. I stand with all of them, and I will not be silent. I look forward to my day in court.”
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Lemon did not enter a plea, but his defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski says the high-profile journalist is going to tell the court he is not guilty. “He’s committed to fighting this case,” Bednarski said today. The next court date for Lemon, who was charged in Minnesota, is February 9, the day after the Super Bowl. All future court appearances will take place in Minneapolis.
With Lemon represented by former public defender Bednarski, the out-of-district affidavit appearance before District Judge Patricia Donahue was set for 1:30 p.m. PT, according to the court docket. However, as is so often the case in such high-profile situations, the hearing didn’t start until nearly 3 p.m. PT. Donahue rejected the government’s request for a $100,000 bond in short order.
Along with four other defendants, the multi-Emmy-winning Lemon is charged with conspiracy against right of religious freedom at place of Worship and, in a second count, intending to injure, intimidate, and interfere with exercise of right of religious freedom at a place of worship.
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The unsealed short-ish indictment alleges a “conspiracy.” It claims Lemon helped put together the so-called “Operation Pullup” with other “agitators.” Their purpose, according to the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, was to attack the house of worship in a “coordinated takeover-style attack and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.”
“As a result of the defendants’ conduct, the pastor and congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship service,” the hyperbolic-leaning 14-page indictment reads. “Congregants fled the Church building out of fear for their safety, other congregants took steps to implement an emergency plan, and young children were left to wonder, as one child put, if their parents were going to die.”
The moving of the filing from Thursday into the public realm came just more an hour before Lemon was set to appear before a federal judge in the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.
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Having issued a statement of strong support earlier Friday for Lemon and fellow arrested journalist Georgia Fort, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was at the packed hearing from the beginning. Lemon’s husband Tim Malone was at the hearing too, as was the defendant’s agent UTA‘s Jay Sures, as thousands gathered in front of nearby City Hall and other areas downtown.
In fact, it was more than 12 hours after Lemon was arrested by federal agents in L.A. at a Grammys event that the government’s case against the ex-CNN anchor was finally made public. Now an independent journalist since exiting CNN back in 2023, Lemon was in Minneapolis covering the anti-ICE protests there and the fatal January 7 shooting of Renee Good by federal agents. On January 24, ICU nurse Alex Pretti was killed by ICE gunfire after trying to come to the aid of a woman who had been pushed to the icy ground by masked federal officials.
Lemon livestreamed the protest at Cities Church in St. Paul almost two weeks ago, with demonstrators interrupting the service at the church whose pastor is alleged to be an ICE official. At the time Lemon insisted he “had no affiliation” with the protest organization. “I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them. We were there chronicling protests,” he said.
Along with Lemon and produce-journalist Fort, Nekima Levy-Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen, William Kelly, Jamael Lundy, Trahern Crews and two others whose names were redacted were charged with the two counts in the indictment. Released from custody earlier Friday after livestreaming her arrest the night before, Fort summarized for the whole matter for a crowd outside a Minnesota court. “Do we have a Constitution? That is the pressing question,” she said.
Friday saw the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), ex-VP Kamala Harris and Amnesty International come to the defense of Lemon and the others indicted.
ICE is occupying communities and shooting Americans.
Now, former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested for covering what ICE is doing.
Arresting journalists is what happens in tin-pot dictatorships.
We must fight back against authoritarianism.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 30, 2026
The First Amendment is a foundational promise to every American: Each of us has the freedom to speak, to report, and to hold those in power accountable without fear of retribution or retaliation.
Today, Donald Trump and his administration are once again trampling on our rights…
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 30, 2026
US authorities must immediately release journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort. Journalism is not a crime. Reporting on protests is not a crime. Arresting journalists for their reporting is a clear example of an authoritarian practice.
— Amnesty International USA (@amnestyusa) January 30, 2026
“Putin would be proud,” tweeted Trump troller and likely 2028 POTUS candidate California Gov. Gavin Newsom before dawn Friday as news of Lemon’s arrest spread.
Perhaps more poignantly, various DOJ and FBI officials have refused to pursue the administration’s agenda to go after journalists, with a number resigning their positions, Deadline can confirm.
The very cut-and-paste indictment filed just before today’s national shutdown anti-ICE protests is the latest effort by the Department of Justice to go after longtime Trump critic Lemon. At least two previous attempts to do so were rejected by judges, frustrating administration officials. If there was any doubt this is personal in MAGAland, the admission earlier today of Attorney General Pam Bondi that the arrest of Lemon and the others was “at my direction .. .in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.”
After all that, Lemon on Friday ended his remarks outside the DTLA courthouse with a hearty “I thank you all.”