The well-known journalist Don Lemon, arrested this Friday for covering protests in the surroundings and inside a church in Saint Paul, in the state of Minnesota, in which an official of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) acts as a religious pastor, has been released: “I have dedicated my entire career to covering the news. I am not going to stop now,” he assured.
This was claimed by the journalist after his release during a brief appearance in which he defended that “there is no moment more important than this precise moment for free and independent media that bring the truth to light and demand accountability from those in power.”
Thus, he has reiterated his intention to “never stop” covering events such as those that led to his arrest and has positioned himself on the side of the “countless journalists who do the same thing” as him.
“I am with all of them and they will not silence me,” Don Lemon has warned, recalling that “the First Amendment of the Constitution protects (the) work” he has been doing “for the last 30 years”, “covering the news.”
The attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, announced the arrest on the morning, which had been carried out “early” this Friday. In addition to Lemon, three other people were arrested, including fellow journalist Georgia Fort, all of them “in connection with the coordinated attack on the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.”
Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin later confirmed that Lemon had been charged with “federal civil rights crimes,” specifically conspiracy and interfering with another person’s First Amendment rights, according to NBC News.
The journalist was detained in Los Angeles, where he was to cover the Grammy Awards, according to his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, who has called the event an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and an “attempt to distract from the many crises facing” the Administration of President Donald Trump.
