Don Lemon taunted Attorney General Pam Bondi after a judge dismissed prosecutors’ efforts to charge him in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest in Minnesota.
On Sunday, protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor.
Lemon, an independent broadcaster since his departure from CNN in 2023, was interviewing one of the participants during a livestream before they entered the church. He then followed the group inside as they chanted “ICE out” and accused a pastor of collaborating with the agency.
“This is not a victory lap for me, because it’s not over. They’re gonna try again,” Lemon told his Instagram followers Thursday after the judge’s ruling.
“Guess what, here I am. Keep trying, that’s not gonna stop me from being a journalist. You’re not gonna diminish my voice,” he added. “Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want.”
The Independent has contacted the DOJ for comment.
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that the judge’s action confirms the First Amendment protected Lemon’s work as a reporter.
Kimmel made headlines last year after his show was abruptly suspended. The show was pulled after the Trump Administration took umbrage with a joke about the president’s mourning of Charlie Kirk, but was later put back on the air following a huge surge of support for Kimmel.
Three people were arrested Thursday in connection with the controversial church protest, Bondi said on social media.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” the Attorney General wrote on X.
Levy Armstrong, a prominent local activist and lawyer who previously led Minneapolis’s NAACP chapter, defended the demonstration before her arrest.
“You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities,” she told the Associated Press. “When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renée Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice — it is intimidation.”
Anti-ICE protests have erupted in Minnesota after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Good by an ICE agent on January 7. President Donald Trump and others in his administration have defended the agent, identified as Jonathan Ross, saying his life was in danger and that Good “weaponized” her vehicle against him. Some Democratic lawmakers and others have described Good’s killing as “murder” and called for the agent to be prosecuted.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has echoed protesters’ criticisms of ICE tactics in the state, nonetheless called on activists to remain peaceful and his office told reporters that he “in no way supports interrupting a place of worship.”
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