By Alexis Taylor
AFRO Managing Editor
Veteran reporter Don Lemon and Minnesota-based journalist Georgia Fort have been arrested roughly two weeks after providing coverage of a protest in a Minnesota church.
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, released a statement on the arrest.
“Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards. Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” wrote Lowell. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.”
On Jan. 30, Georgia Fort made a Facebook livestream reporting that federal agents were outside of her door.
“They’re saying that they were able to go before a grand jury sometime–I guess–in the last 24 hours…they have a warrant for my arrest,” she said in the video. “I’m being advised to go with them.”
The arrests are tied to a Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church, located in St. Paul, Minn. During the demonstration, protestors stood up during the service and publicly questioned church leadership about Pastor David Easterwood, who is also acting director of the Saint Paul Field Office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Protestors were able to piece together Easterwood’s role in the agency using public documents, a C-SPAN press conference video where he identified himself and the church’s website.
Tensions have been high around the country since the shooting deaths of Keith Porter Jr., Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents. Good and Pretti were protesting the brutal immigration raids when they were killed in January 2026, while Porter was shot by an off-duty ICE agent on Dec. 31, 2025.
Lemon met up with protesters before the demonstration, followed them to the church but was not in the building when the protest began, as evidenced in his livestream from Jan. 18. A member of his team entered the church instead, capturing audio of a church leader speaking before the audience.
“Chasten us to get thy house in order,” a pastor is heard saying, shortly before the first protestor, Nekima Levy Armstrong, an activist, attorney and reverend, stands up and begins to speak.
Once the service was interrupted, Lemon entered to capture footage of the activists as they decried the pastor’s work with ICE and implored members of the congregation to stand up for the immigrant community by demanding federal agents leave Minnesota.
“I feel we did what needed to be done today,” said Armstrong in an interview with Lemon outside of the church. “I think that the people who worship here will have to decide which side are they on–the side of the Lord, truth, righteousness or justice, or the side that pretends to be on the Lord while harboring someone who is helping to perpetuate evil on our community. The guy who oversees ICE agents. How dare you claim to be a minister of Jesus!”
“You cannot be a pastor while also being the director of the field office for ICE in St. Paul,” she continued. “Absolutely not.”
During the livestream, still available on Lemon’s YouTube Channel, he can be heard clearly saying “I’m not part of the group. I’m a journalist.”
“We’re here just chronicling and reporting. We’re not part of the activists, but we’re here just reporting on them,” says Lemon, adding later that “this is what the First Amendment is about.”
“The Civil Rights Movement was about these very kinds of protests. And for some reason, in our modern era, people think that in order to have protests, you’ve got to be cordoned off to a certain area,” said Lemon, to his audience.
Days after peacefully disrupting the service, on Jan. 22, Armstrong was taken into federal custody.
“Homeland Security Investigators and FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong who played a key role in orchestrating the Church Riots in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is being charged with a federal crime under 18 USC 241,” said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem in a social media update. “Religious freedom is the bedrock of the United States – there is no first amendment right to obstruct someone from practicing their religion.”
Though Armstrong was taken into custody with her head held high, White House officials decided to publish an image generated by artificial intelligence, showing the activist dramatically crying upon her arrest.
After Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen and William Kelley were taken into custody.
“Title 18, U.S.C., Section 241 makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same),” said DHS officials, in a press release on the arrests.
Now, Lemon, Fort and others have been taken into custody.
“Early this morning, @FBI and @HSI_HQ partners arrested four individuals in connection to the January 18 coordinated targeting of Cities Church in Minnesota: Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy,” said FBI Director Kash Patel on X.
The arrests prompted a response from National Association of Black Journalists President Errin Haines.
“NABJ is outraged and deeply alarmed by the arrest of veteran journalist Don Lemon by federal agents in Los Angeles while he was working, and by the government’s escalating effort and actions to criminalize and threaten press freedom under the guise of law enforcement,” she said.
The Human Rights Campaign also weighed in on the arrests.
“The arrests are a breathtaking escalation of the Trump Administration’s all-out assault on the US Constitution, including conducting unconstitutional searches of people’s homes, attacking voting rights, weaponizing the FCC against free speech, and targeting the rights and health of LGBTQ+ people at every turn,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, in a statement.
Lemon’s arrest was a shock to some, as it comes after a Jan. 23 decision by a federal magistrate judge to not charge the former CNN host for his actions while covering the Jan. 18 protest. Lemon’s attorney believes the federal government should spend their time doing something more productive on behalf of the American people.
“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,” said Lowell. “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.”
