Don Lemon Released After Short Hearing In DTLA; DOJ Anti-ICE Indictment Unsealed: “Committed To Fighting This Case”

Don Lemon has been released from federal custody after a short hearing in downtown Los Angeles Friday. Free on a no cash bond and able to travel domestically and internationally despite a just unsealed two-count indictment, the ex-CNN anchor will be free in the next hour or so.

Lemon did not enter a plea, but his defense attorney Marilyn Bednarski, says the high-profile journalist is going to tell the court he is not guilty. “He’s committed to fighting this case,” Bednarski said today. The next court date for Lemon, who was charged in Minnesota, is February 9, the day after the Super Bowl.

With Lemon represented by former public defender Bednarski, the out-of-district affidavit appearance before District Judge Patricia Donahue was set for 1:30 pm PT, according to the court docket. However, as is so often the case in such high-profile situations, the hearing ran late and didn’t start until nearly 3 pm PT.

Along with four other defendants, the multi-Emmy winning Lemon is charged with “Conspiracy Against Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship” and, in a second count, intending to “Injure, Intimidate, and Interfere with Exercise of Right of Religious Freedom at a Place of Worship.”

The unsealed short-ish indictment alleges a “conspiracy. It claims Lemon helped put together the so-called “Operation Pullup{ with other “agitators.” There purpose, according to the US Attorney in Minnesota, was to attack the house of worship in a “coordinated takeover-style attack and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.”

“As a result of the defendants’ conduct, the pastor and congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship service,” the 14-page hyperbolic leaning indictment says. “Congregants fled the Church building out of fear for their safety, other congregants took steps to implement an emergency plan, and young children were left to wonder, as one child put, if their parents were going to die.”

The moving of the filing from yesterday into the public realm came just over an hour before Lemon was set to appear before a federal judge in the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

Having issued a statement of strong support earlier Friday for Lemon and fellow arrested journalist Georgia Fort, LA Mayor Karen Bass was at the packed session at from the very beginning. As thousands gathered in front of nearby City Hall and other areas downtown, Lemon’s husband Tim Malone was at Friday’s hearing too.

In fact, it was over 12 hours after Lemon was arrested by federal agents in LA at a Grammys event over an anti-ICE protest earlier this month in a Minneapolis church, that the government’s case against the ex-CNN anchor was finally made public. Now an independent journalist since exiting CNN back in 2023, Lemon was in Minneapolis covering the anti-ICE protests there and the fatal January 7 shooting of legal observer Renee Good by federal agents. On January 24, ICU Nurse Alex Pretti was killed by ICE gunfire after trying to come to the aid of a woman who had been pushed to the icy ground by masked federal officials.

Lemon live streamed the protest at Cities Church in St. Paul almost two weeks ago, with demonstrators interrupting the service who’s pastor is alleged to be an ICE official. At the time Lemon insisted he “had no affiliation” to the protest organization. “I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them. We were there chronicling protests,” he said

Along with Lemon and producer/journalist Fort, Nekima Levy-Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen, William Kelly, Jamael Lundy, Trahern Crews, and two redacted others were charged with the two counts in the indictment. Released from custody earlier Friday, after live streaming her arrest the night before, Fort summarized for the whole matter for a crowd outside the Minnesota court: “Do we have a Constitution? That is the pressing question.”

Friday saw the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), ex-VP Kamala Harris and Amnesty International come to the free speech and First Amendment defense of Lemon and the others indicted.

“Putin would be proud,” tweeted Trump troller and likely 2028 POTUS candidate California Gov. Gavin Newsom before dawn Friday as news of Lemon’s arrest spread.

Perhaps more poignantly, various DOJ and FBI officials have refused to pursue the administration’s agenda to go after journalists, with a number resigning their positions, Deadline can confirm.

This very cut and paste indictment filed just before today’s National Shutdown anti-ICE protests is the latest effort by the Department of Justice to go after longtime Trump critic Lemon. At least two previous attempts were rejected by judges, frustrating administration officials. If there was any doubt this is personal in MAGAland, the admission earlier today of Attorney General Pam Bondi that the arrest of Lemon and the others was “at my direction …in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.”