Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was taken into federal custody late this week in connection with the disruption of a Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, an episode that has exposed the raw political rot infecting justice in America. Federal agents arrested Lemon in Los Angeles, along with three others, after prosecutors moved to charge several people tied to the Jan. 18 incident that rattled congregants and families in the pews.
Prosecutors say the case centers on alleged coordination to interfere with religious worship, and the government reportedly invoked statutes that include civil-rights conspiracy and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Those are serious federal allegations, and if true they merit prosecution; but the optics of hauling journalists into federal custody over a live-streamed confrontation smell of political theater.
The incident itself was ugly and avoidable: protesters entered the church service after learning a pastor reportedly had ties to ICE, and video shows a chaotic interruption that frightened worshippers and even impacted children in the building. Lemon and other media figures who filmed and streamed the protest insist they were reporting, not provoking, a point many independent journalists have echoed amid growing concerns about which side of the line the Justice Department chooses to stand on.
It bears noting that a federal magistrate judge earlier balked at approving several of the government’s proposed complaints, finding a lack of probable cause on key counts — an unusual rebuke that raised immediate questions about whether the DOJ rushed to criminalize protest coverage for political reasons. That judicial pushback should give pause to anyone who believes the justice system should be immune to political pressure.
Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly announced the arrests and made clear the department was taking the incident seriously, while critics charged that the move was selective enforcement and an assault on press freedoms. The contrast between the DOJ’s zeal in this case and its selective indifference in other instances fuels the suspicion among everyday Americans that law enforcement priorities have become a weapon in partisan battles.
Don Lemon’s lawyer has called the move an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment, arguing his client was performing standard journalistic work by documenting a newsworthy event and asking tough questions. Conservatives who value the Constitution should be alarmed at any government action that risks turning reporters into targets for simply doing their jobs, even as we condemn anyone who crosses the line from reporting into disruption.
This episode is yet another warning that the institutions tasked with protecting liberty are being stretched into tools of political vengeance. Patriots who cherish religious freedom, press freedom, and equal application of the law must demand clarity, impartiality, and accountability from prosecutors pursuing this case. The hard-working Americans who pray on Sunday and the journalists who cover the news both deserve better than partisan grandstanding dressed up as justice.
