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Former CNN host Don Lemon cast himself as a persecuted journalist in a Substack post on Saturday, citing the Bible in response to his arrest last month on federal charges stemming from an anti-ICE protest. minnesota church.
Lemon, who was released on bail on Friday, said he was working as a journalist at the time and prosecutors said he coordinated with activists who disrupted services at a city church.
“There is a passage in the Bible that says, ‘The truth will set you free,'” Lemon wrote, citing John 8:32. “But it doesn’t say it will protect you from the cage. It doesn’t say it will protect you from the consequences of looking too clearly. It doesn’t say it will make powerful people comfortable.”
Lemon said he learned this lesson “not from theology but from experience,” writing that “the government decided that my Work as a reporter Speech is not protected, but it is punishable. “
Don Lemon told Fox News Digital that he stands by his reporting. (Don Lemon/YouTube)
Throughout the post, Lemon likened his arrest to historic efforts to silence journalists and civil rights activists, writing that a free press only exists if it does not challenge those in power.
Lemon wrote that the U.S. “Like the idea of a free press,” but only if journalism doesn’t “disturb comfort” or “expose what the powers that be would rather hide,” and said the First Amendment exists to protect responsibility, not convenience.
Prosecutors charged Lemon with conspiring to deprive rights and Curbing FACE Act Violations for his involvement in an anti-ICE protest that disrupted church services in Minnesota.
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Don Lemon live-streamed video of an attack on St. Paul City Church by left-wing agitators who suspected its pastor of working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Lemons attracted attention earlier this month Entering livestreaming activists During Sunday services at St. Paul City Church, he said he was attending as a news reporter, and the indictment said he coordinated with protest organizers before they arrived.
Parishioners told investigators that agitators blocked stairwells and hallways, according to a Jan. 20 federal affidavit inside the churchpreventing parents from accessing their children in the childcare area downstairs and making it difficult for worshipers to leave the sanctuary.
One parishioner reported fearing the agitators might be armed after hearing shouts that sounded like the word “shoot.”
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Parishioners at city churches said agitators intimidated and shouted at them. (Stephen Mature/Getty Images)
Other churchgoers described agitators shouting at parishioners, including women and young children, causing some to cry.
A woman fell and was injured as worshipers fled through a side exit, the affidavit said.
The group entered the church in a coordinated manner, disrupted worship services and intimidated parishioners, forcing the interruption of worship services, according to the testimony.
Video viewed by investigators during the incident shows church pastor asks One man left the building, saying he needed to “take care of my church and my family.”
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The pastor appeared visibly distressed as activists continued to confront him, the affidavit states.
Despite the charges, Lemon linked his arrest to Treatment of Civil Rights Leaders Citing Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin, he said journalists were punished for challenging power.
