this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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449
Don Lemon Taken Into Custody (www.cnn.com)
submitted 3 days ago by AniZaeger@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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[–] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 222 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Lemon was with dozens of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters as they rushed into Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month, interrupting a church service and leading to tense confrontations.

“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,” his attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement early Friday. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”

“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,” Lowell added. “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.”

~~This is bad.~~

EDIT - I should have said: This is really, really, really bad.

[–] AniZaeger@lemmy.world 123 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, bad is a severe understatement. At this rate, it's only a matter of time before the regime starts raiding newsrooms.

[–] homes@piefed.world 97 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

They already raided that apartment of that Washington Post reporter

[–] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 days ago

You're so right. I edited my comment.

[–] homes@piefed.world 40 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

This very bad

[–] AniZaeger@lemmy.world 48 points 3 days ago (2 children)

And he's just the first. They apparently just arrested independence journalist Georgia Fort in Minneapolis and took her to the Whipple Building.

[–] uberdroog@lemmy.world 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, but the Dems are very good boys for helping pass a budget. So we are winning...right?...right?

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[–] homes@piefed.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

the Whippie Bldg is the federal building in Mpls, right? I used to live in Minneapolis a long time ago, so I don't quite remember

[–] AniZaeger@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago

Yep. Same place they've been taking all the other abductees.

[–] BlindPenguin@lemmy.world 174 points 3 days ago (1 children)

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 133 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Attorney General Pam Bondi denounced the protest [...] saying [...] that the scene was “horrific.”

Horrific? A protest? People shouting to get attention and be heard is horrific?

Tell me you've led the most privileged of lives without telling me. What a completely unrelatable train wreck. You've got conservatives who've seen combine accidents and IEDs and child soldiers — the true horrors of the world. Let's see what their response is.

Crickets.

I see.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It was only "horrific" because it happened in a church. The Administration is trying to make it into a hate crime against Christians. But, the protest took place because the pastor is supposedly an ICE director:

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/19/protesters-interrupt-service-at-cities-church-in-st-paul-claiming-pastor-works-for-ice

Fascists shouldn't get to hide behind a pulpit.

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[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 22 points 3 days ago (15 children)

Welcome to fascism! Enjoy your stay!

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[–] SkavarSharraddas@gehirneimer.de 22 points 3 days ago

Horrific? A protest? People shouting to get attention and be heard is horrific?

It threatens their narrative. What could be more horrific?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah the scene was horrific. Meanwhile, executing innocent people? A-OK

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 68 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I had been reading elsewhere that the Justice Department had already gone to two Federal judges to press charges against him, only to be denied. I am interested to see whether they bothered a third time, or simply took him into custody without the paperwork, because they could.

Who's gonna stop them?

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago

They did some wildly unprecedented legal maneuvers to try to get these warrants.

  1. Went to magistrate duty judge, who approved 3/8 warrants.
  2. Went to that judge's manager, Chief Judge Schlitz. He didn't outright deny the warrants, he just wanted to take a few days to think about it.
  3. That wasn't good enough. They went to the judge-manager's manager, the 8th circuit court of appeals. In a sealed emergency petition for writ of mandamus.
  4. Judge Schlitz was required to defend himself in this mandamus action with two hours of notice and he wasn't even allowed to read the papers.

Since the mandamus action failed, it seems likely that the government has gotten a grand jury indictment. Which process bypasses judges nearly entirely.

Note that it's pretty normal to get indictments first in the federal courts (before the current times), because if the feds arrest someone on a complaint, they have a 30 day deadline to get that indictment. If they don't arrest first, there's no deadline and they can retry as many times as they want.

So normally the feds only use complaints when they need to get someone off the street urgently. These feds use complaints because they only care about splashing the perp walk on social media. They don't care what happens to the case after that.

[–] AniZaeger@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (6 children)

They may have gotten an indictment through a grand jury.

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

You think? Their track record with Grand Juries is not the best. They tried to indict the sandwich guy 2 times through a grand jury and failed, had to downgrade the charges to misdemeanors since don't require a grand jury and then the jury in the misdemeanor trial acquitted the guy.

My guess is they used an administrative warrant, those have no real oversight and they've been using them a lot.

An administrative warrant is a warrant obtained from a judge by an administrative body to search for violations of administrative rules and regulations. While similar to a criminal warrant, an administrative warrant requires a lower standard of probable cause to be granted. Administrative warrants are governed by 49 USC §32707.

[–] uberdroog@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Or we just ignore laws...

[–] AniZaeger@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Wouldn't be the first time for this administration.

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[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Who’s gonna stop them?

They've had more than those two failures in the judicial system, they've been hammered by their own judges over and over again recently, just stuff that never gets publicity.

They probably know that they're going to face massive legal repercussions for this action, and will never get it to any kind of trial, but they're just trying to send a message.

They're bad at it though, they don't know how to fascism properly, so they're going to have to release Lemon and then claim to have some kind of power after being shot down by more legal institutions.

When other dictatorships do these actions, they usually have the legal system locked-down already. Don't let the corruption of the Supreme Court make you think that the entire country's judicial branch is cooked, the USA is HUGE and has a LOT of power in states.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago (3 children)

So when are blue states going to stand up for the constitution in a real way?

[–] d33pblu3g3n3@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Pretty obvious by now Democrats will go quietly into the good night.

[–] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

Spoiler: They won't.

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[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 38 points 3 days ago

Kinda makes it seem like journalists spending ten years making Trump seem like a viable candidate didn't protect them very much, huh?

[–] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 40 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If ONLY Journalists had bent MORE at the Knee to Trump MAYBE he would THINK about NOT Arresting them at Some Point!

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Without the context I felt super out of the loop, but no, it's the church protests that's being treated as some crazy hate crime that it isn't. I just didn't expect Don Fucking Lemon to be involved, lol.

[–] Noblesavage@lemmy.world 39 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Don Lemon was there as an independent reporter interviewing the protestors and church people as the protest was going on. I just watched Legal Eagle's video about the protest yesterday.

Basically, it boils down to the federal government pushing to get a perp walk (photos of the alleged criminal in handcuffs being walked by "authorities") to plaster photos of them all over social media to make the accused look bad. As Legal Eagle says, it's the federal government making content and doing it for the memes.

Once they're arrested, federal lawyers TRY to get them in front of a judge to get them (protestors and Don't Lemon now) convicted of something, but in this case a whole bunch of judges have said, "What you're doing doesn't make sense and hasn't been done before, but if you want to try this case in front a grand jury - go ahead." The judge knows they won't because they'll lose so the case eventually gets dropped - but hey, they got some good photos of people they don't like!

[–] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago

They're still having their freedom violated regardless of the outcome. It's some bullshit to arrest some journalists just to prove a fucking point and burn through some more money while the economy just collapses around us.

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[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 days ago

The scary thing is the US hasn’t even hit peak fash yet.

[–] SillyGooseQuacked@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

There's a concept in law enforcement whereby arresting one person dissuades others from doing similar things.

I wonder if the Trump admin doesn't want reporters in Minneapolis. /s

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[–] HalfAFrisbee@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (6 children)

If you haven't bought a gun yet, do it now.

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[–] CompostMaterial@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Anybody want to postulate an over/under on when the gas chambers start?

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (4 children)

How many kidnapped have been released?

How many have been deported?

How many disappeared?

I'm willing to bet it has.

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

remember when they wasted $608 million dollars building alligator alcatraz, just to have it flood continuously, and almost 2000 inmates go missing?

Yeah, they murdered a lot of those inmates.

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