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The Don Lemon indictment, briefly explained
Trump’s Justice Department is arresting journalists.
Cameron Peters is a staff editor at Vox.
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is indicting two journalists for their coverage of a Minneapolis protest.
What happened? Don Lemon, a longtime CNN host who was fired from the network in 2023, and Georgia Fort, an independent journalist in St. Paul, Minnesota, were charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering with religious freedom on Friday, along with multiple protesters.
The charges stem from their coverage of a Minneapolis-area protest earlier this month; activists interrupted a church service in St. Paul over a pastor at the church who works for ICE, while Lemon and Fort documented the protest.
The indictment, unsealed Friday, which charges nine total people on the same two counts, alleges Lemon, Fort, and the other defendants “entered the Church in a coordinated takeover-style attack and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.”
What’s the context? The Trump administration tried and failed to charge Lemon at least twice prior to Friday’s indictment by a grand jury. Shortly after the protest, a federal magistrate judge refused to sign an arrest warrant for Lemon; when the Trump administration appealed that decision, it was also rejected by a federal district court judge and by a federal appeals court panel.
Three activists were also charged last week in connection with the protests; in one instance, the White House digitally manipulated a photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong to make it appear she was crying when she was arrested.
Why does this matter? The indictment of journalists is disturbing on its face, as are the lengths the Trump administration went to to secure the indictment. Equally alarming is the administration’s apparent giddiness: The White House touted Lemon’s arrest in an X post Friday morning, writing “When life gives you lemons... ⛓️” over a black-and-white photo of Lemon. It also referred to the “St. Paul Church Riots” — plural, despite the fact that it was a single protest.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
This story made me smile at the end of a long week: People raised more than $8,000 for a school crossing guard in Chicago, Joe Sass, after he went viral for helping a student across a street flooded with icy slush.
“I like being a helper,” Sass told the Washington Post (it’s a gift link). “And I think if people could think of me as that, then I think that’s like one of the most beautiful things in the world. I’m just a friend out here helping my neighbors.”
Have a restful weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!
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