Fresh out of federal custody, former CNN anchor Don Lemon vowed Friday not to back off his work as a journalist despite an indictment against him and others over an anti-ICE protest he covered this month at a Minnesota church. Lemon cited his profession’s protections under the First Amendment — the same one federal prosecutors contend he and his co-defendants violated by infringing on the churchgoers’ freedom of religion. “There is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable,” Lemon said in his first public remarks since his arrest late Thursday. “The First Amendment of the Constitution protects that work for me and for countless of other journalists who do what I do. I stand with all of them, and I will not be silenced,” he added, speaking outside a federal courthouse in Los Angeles, where he had just been ordered released pending trial. Lemon, fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort and two people active in Democratic circles in Minnesota were arrested as part of a broader indictment over the Jan. 18 demonstration against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Lemon livestreamed while reporting on the event at Cities Church in St. Paul. Demonstrators say they were there to protest ICE tactics and a pastor of the church, David Easterwood, who also leads the local field office for ICE. Easterwood was recently listed as a defendant in a case brought by protesters who…
Want more insights? Join Grow With Caliber - our career elevating newsletter and get our take on the future of work delivered weekly.
