Don Lemon’s arrest comes as the justice department pursues charges against protesters who disrupted a service a Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota earlier this month.
The protesters believed that the church’s pastor was a field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents have swarmed Minneapolis’s twin cities area in recent weeks in an aggressive immigration arrest campaign that has resulted in the deaths of two US citizens.
However, the government’s prosecutions have faced roadblocks in the form of federal judges who have refused to approve charges against allegedly involved in disruption the service – including Lemon, at least prior to today.
Here’s more about that:
Federal agents arrest former CNN anchor Don Lemon
Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor, was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, his lawyer said on Friday, days after a magistrate judge refused to approve charges against him for documenting a protest at a church in Minnesota.
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards. Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
He continued:
Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case. This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.
Here’s more about the justice department’s previous effort against him:
Updated
Writing on his Truth Social platform about the appointment of Kevin Warsh as chair of Federal Reserve, Donald Trump said:
I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down. Congratulations Kevin!
Warsh won out over Trump loyalist Kevin Hassett. The president posted on Truth Social that:
Their [sic] was great speculation that highly respected Kevin Hassett was going to be named Chairman of the Fed, and a great Chairman he would have been but, quite honestly, he is doing such an outstanding job working with me and my team at the White House, that I just didn’t want to let him go. Kevin is indescribably good so, as the expression goes, ‘if you can’t do better, don’t try to fix it!’ Thank you Kevin for doing such a great job!
Updated
Trump to Iran: end nuclear ambitions and stop killing protesters or face US military
Donald Trump has warned Iran it must end its nuclear programme and stop killing protesters if the large US armada of warships deployed in the Middle East are not to be used.
Trump was speaking at the premiere of the documentary Melania as the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, landed in Turkey to discuss whether there was a basis for a deal with the US.
The US president said protesters were being killed in their thousands, but that he had stopped Iran from carrying out executions.
Trump’s own administration has come under renewed scrutiny after US immigration officers killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Keith Porter in Los Angeles, and Silverio Villegas González in Illinois. ICE observers have reportedly faced violence, teargas and arrests.
Iran is prepared for the resumption of talks with the United States, but they should be fair and not include Iran’s defence capabilities, Iran’s chief diplomat said on Friday.
“If negotiations are fair and equitable, Iran is ready to participate in such talks,” foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in a press conference with his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul.
Araqchi said no talks between Tehran and Washington were currently arranged.
Trump nominates Kevin Warsh as US Federal Reserve chair
Donald Trump has nominated the former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as its next chair amid an extraordinary attempt by the president to tighten his grip on the US central bank and flout its longstanding independence.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he planned to announce his choice for chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, hinting that “a lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago”. He then announced early Friday, as teased, and it was indeed Warsh.
If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh will replace Jerome Powell, who Trump first appointed in 2018, but later infuriated the US president by defying his repeated calls for lower interest rates.
In December, Trump said of Warsh: “He thinks you have to lower interest rates.”
Read more:
Opening Summary
Activists have called for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating “no work, no school, no shopping” in a protest against the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdowns.
Organisers say Friday’s “blackout” – or general strike, as some are calling it – is part of a growing non-violent movement to combat ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny after a series of fatal shootings involving federal agents.
“We are calling for this strike because we believe what we have been doing in Minnesota should go national,” said Kidus Yeshidagna, president of the Ethiopian Students Union at the University of Minnesota and one of the students organising the strike.
“We need more people and lawmakers across the country to wake up.”
In other updates:
The Democrats and the White House reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s office confirmed to the Guardian on Thursday. The deal will advance a package of spending bills, while separating a Department of Homeland Security spending bill from the package. The agreement will include funding for DHS for two weeks at current levels, while Democrats continue negotiating further guardrails on immigration agents in light of the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis.
Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service for $10bn (about £7.9bn) over an unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns during his first term, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday evening. Thursday’s lawsuit puts Trump in the unusual position of suing government agencies that are part of the executive branch, which he leads. Trump famously broke precedent by not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then attaining, the presidency.
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan held a news conference in Minneapolis today, where he said ‘no agency is perfect’ but crucially did not mention the fatal shootings of US citizens by immigration agents there this month. During Thursday’s press conference, Tom Homan noted that the administration has “recognised that certain improvements could and should be made” in the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, but didn’t specify what those looked like or when they would be implemented. The border czar also refused to comment on the newly published video footage of Alex Pretti earlier this month, which appears to show officers grabbing Pretti and bringing him to the ground during intense protests that have gripped Minneapolis. “We’ll let the investigation play out and let it go where it goes,” Homan added.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday laying the groundwork to slap tariffs on goods from countries that provide oil to Cuba, the White House said. The order, which ratchets up Trump’s pressure to topple the Communist government, declares a national emergency and establishes a process for the US secretaries of state and commerce to assess tariffs against countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to the island nation. The White House has yet to specify tariff rates for violating its new policy of blocking Cuba from buying oil.
