Former CNN host Don Lemon detailed his arrest experience in Los Angeles, California, during a Monday appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
Federal agents arrested Lemon on Thursday in connection with a Jan. 18 incident in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he livestreamed himself inside a church alongside anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters who disrupted a worship service. Lemon told host Jimmy Kimmel he was in Los Angeles to report on the Grammys and that he was returning to his hotel when agents confronted him.
“I got back to the hotel. I walked in with — I had my swag bag from the thing — and I was walking up to the room and I pressed the elevator button,” Lemon said. “And all of a sudden I feel myself being jostled and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs. And I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And they said, ‘We came to arrest you.’ And I said, ‘Who are you?’ And then finally they like identified themselves. And I said, ‘If you are who you are, then where’s the warrant?’”
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Lemon claimed authorities did not initially present a warrant, but said someone he identified as an FBI agent showed him “a warrant on a cell phone.” He said his glasses fell to the floor during the encounter and that he could not read the warrant until agents picked them up.
Even after seeing the warrant, Lemon said he remained confused.
“And then they — it was a bunch of guys — and they took me outside. FBI guys were out there,” he said. “I mean, it had to be maybe a dozen people, which is a waste, Jimmy, of resources, because I told them weeks before, maybe once or twice, that we would — you know, I think my attorney tried to contact them once, maybe twice, that I could just go in and it would have to be the folks who were just working there that day and they wouldn’t have to have all these people following me around.”
When Kimmel responded that the arrest was “more than just a waste of resources,” Lemon agreed and argued that the goal of it was to “embarrass” and “intimidate” him.
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Lemon told Kimmel he was taken to a federal courthouse holding room, had his fingerprints taken and a mugshot recorded. He said he was held for around 12 hours and did not undergo a strip search.
The former CNN host, along with several other defendants, was charged on Friday with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering by force with someone’s First Amendment rights, which are breaches of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) and Ku Klux Klan Acts, according to the indictment against them.
The indictment alleges Lemon conspired with others “to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate multiple persons … in the free exercise and enjoyment of the rights and privileges secured to them” under U.S. law.
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