Featured Image Credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube
Topics: Film and TV, Grammys, Immigration, Jimmy Kimmel, Los Angeles, US News, Celebrity
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Film and TV, Grammys, Immigration, Jimmy Kimmel, Los Angeles, US News, Celebrity
Journalist Don Lemon described the moment he was arrested after covering an anti-ICE protest at a Minneapolis church.
On January 18, the former CNN reporter entered the Cities Church in St Paul with a group of protesters as part of his YouTube current affairs program, The Don Lemon Show.
There, he interviewed pastor Jonathan Parnell as anti-ICE demonstrators stormed the building to protest against David Easterwood, a church leader they allegedly identified as the Acting Field Office Director for ICE in St Paul.
The video drew some criticism, from President Donald Trump - who slammed Lemon a 'lightweight' and a 'loser' - and Trump ally Nicki Minaj, who called for Lemon to be locked up.
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Days later, he and fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort were arrested on federal civil rights charges of conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshippers, KSTP-TV reports.
The pair denied participating in the protest at the church.
Lemon was apprehended in a Los Angeles hotel as he touched down to report on the Grammys. A judge allowed him release without bail on Friday (January 30).
In his first interview since the incident, Lemon sat down with Jimmy Kimmel on his ABC talk show.
The 59-year-old claimed that he wasn't allowed to surrender voluntarily, despite having hired an attorney and being willing to do so.
Instead, Lemon said he was apprehended by 'at least a dozen' federal agents as he was waiting for the hotel elevator.
"All of a sudden I feel myself being jostled and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs," he told Kimmel.
After asking the officers to identify themselves, Lemon asked to see his arrest warrant.
He continued: "They had to wait for the someone from outside, an FBI guy, to come in to show me a warrant on a cell phone and by that time I was like trying to figure out what was going on, to get my bearings.
"My glasses had fallen on the floor. I'm like, I can't read that. So, they had to pick my glasses up and I read it and still - what does that mean?"
Lemon described the incident as a 'waste of resources', adding: "I think my attorney tried to contact them once, maybe twice - that I could just go in and it would have to be just the folks who were just working there that day. They wouldn’t have to have all these people following me around."
He added: "They want to embarrass you, they want to intimidate you, they want to instill fear."
On Monday (February 2), US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced two more arrests following the St Paul church protest, bringing the number of people arrested to nine. A grand jury indicted all nine people on the same charges of conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshippers.
It comes just over a week after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal agents while protesting increased ICE activity in Minneapolis.
Earlier in January, mom Renee Nicole Good was shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan Ross while behind the wheel of her car.
Since returning to office last January, Trump had vowed to deliver stricter crackdowns on immigration.
By mid-January, the administration confirmed some 100,000 visas had been revoked on so-called criminal grounds since he reoccupied the White House.
As of late January, eight people - including Alex and Renee - have died during dealings with ICE, reports the Guardian.
UNILAD has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.