Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Journalist Don Lemon Arrested
The Department of Justice has arrested independent journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon in a clear attempt to bring the American media to heel. Mr. Lemon is one of the nation's finest journalists who was in St. Paul, Minnesota, covering the ICE occupation. He interviewed churchgoers and some protesters entered the church and chanted "ICE Out." The pastor of the church is an ICE agent, in whom Jesus is no doubt very disappointed. Mr. Lemon was clearly working as a reporter as it is all on video, and he was not an agent provocateur. The fall out from this is more likely to hurt the administration than help it. If it goes to trial, the government may have to hand over all documents related to the occupation.
Along with Mr. Lemon, the DoJ arrested Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota. They are also journalists covering the occupation.
The case is sketchy from the get-go. The New York Times observed
Afterward, the Trump administration sought to charge eight people over the episode, including Mr. Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.
But the magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people, rejecting the evidence against Mr. Lemon and the others as insufficient. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.
The government then went to a different grand jury to secure the indictment. Officers took the journalist into custody as he was covering the Grammy Awards in LA.
The question now is when does the government drop the charges. The video record is extensive, and the oddities of the grand jury system are the only reasons for the indictment in the first place. Mr. Lemon might just have the resources and gravitas to bloody the nose of the DoJ quite badly.
As the American system requires that the defense have access to all the information and evidence to be presented at trial, in a process called "discovery," Mr. Lemon and his legal team should be able to demand records of the operations in Minnesota. That includes communications among ICE and Border Patrol personnel. That information becomes public in the process. One would be surprised if the White House were willing to let those sorts of messages come out. Diplomacy and tact are rare under Mr. Trump when discussing matters in public; in private, one hesitates to imagine the ugliness that exists. It will not play well in the country if it does come out.
So, the administration is hoping they can pressure Mr. Lemon into a plea deal. If that is the plan, they have picked the wrong target, and he has a lawyer who will eat them alive. One does not spend 17 years in journalism, rising to the top of the industry, as a black, gay man without having some serious innner strength. He is not going to blink.
This is the latest attempt to draw attention away from the disaster that is the Minneapolis occpuation and the Trump-Epstein files. It will fail like all the others. Try as he might, Mr. Trump is unable to bury the truth no matter how hard he tries. At worst for the nation, he will lose the mid-terms, and the House will start investigating. The administration thinks it can ride that out. When administration officials are held in inherent contempt and are fined or jailed in the Capitol, the White House will have a different set of problems in addition to these.
The decline under the Trump administration continues to accelerate.
© Copyright 2026 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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