Don Lemon was spared the wrath of the Justice Department after a federal magistrate judge struck down its initial attempt to prosecute him.
The journalist was targeted by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ after covering an anti-ICE protest in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday that disrupted a church service. According to NBC News, a federal magistrate judge rejected a criminal complaint against Lemon because he was reporting on the incident, not participating in it.
The Twin Cities, and cities across the U.S. at large, have erupted with anti-ICE demonstrations in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Minneapolis mother Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, 43, on January 7.
Lemon was present and recording as dozens of protesters entered Cities Church, which hosts a pastor who also worked as a local official with the federal agency.
Lemon insisted he was there as a reporter, saying in a video he posted to YouTube that he was “just here photographing.”
“Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church, and members of the organization,” he said. “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”
Lemon did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The DOJ said it would “pursue charges” related to the protest, with Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon specifically targeting Lemon.
“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Dhillon told conservative influencer Benny Johnson on The Benny Show on Monday.
“He went into the facility, and then he began—quote, unquote—‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy,” she added. “It isn’t.”
A judge disagreed. A source told AP on Thursday that a federal magistrate judge refused to sign off on the DOJ’s request to charge Lemon for his presence at the protest, which enraged Bondi, CNN reported.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
Beyond Lemon, the DOJ made a show of the arrests of people allegedly involved in the protests at the church. Ahead of Vice President JD Vance’s arrival in Minneapolis on Thursday, Bondi announced on X that FBI agents had made two arrests in relation to Sunday’s protest. That number went up to three, and includes Nekima Levy Armstrong, William Kelly, and Chauntyll Allen.
Kristi Noem shared a photo of one of the protesters who was arrested, Armstrong, who she says was charged with conspiracy against rights.
The White House X account posted a similar photo of Armstrong a half an hour later, though she appears to be crying, rather than the straight face she had in the earlier photo shared by Noem.
Internet users called out the account for suspected digital alteration of the image. When reached for comment, the White House referred the Daily Beast to an X post from White House Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr.
“YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue,” Dorr wrote. “The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
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